Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00577)

In the Masters Revealed Paul writes:
IN JANUARY 1886, OLCOTT PROPOSED to HPB that she assist in 
establishing a collaboration between the Brahmin Theosophist T. Subba 
Row and some Masters of the Egyptian brotherhood. This never came to 
fruition, but Olcott's letter is fascinating:

Subba Row is getting keen on a collation of Indian and Egyptian
esoteric philosophy and symbolism .... He keeps coming here and 
always asks for books which deal with Egyptian Mythology etc. Now do 
this:through Borj, or Twitit B: or III: or someone, arrange to
organize at Cairo a couple like Subba Row and Oakley, who would keep 
in regular correspondence with these two, and exchange ideas, 
questions and answers .... Maspero is anxious to make just such a 
correspondence, but he is too thundering busy, If there were an
Oakley there to go at him, hunt up the books he would indicate, and 
write the letters, enormously good results would follow all around, 
for Maspero would put it all in his books and Reports, and we would 
put it into the Th.and books. Would Gregoire d'Elias be any good? I 
think not. Would Isurenus B. help you?

This passage gives three now names to investigate in the search for
the Masters. It is interesting in itself that Olcott refers to
Hilarion, Tuitit Bey, and Isurenus Bey (who signed Olcott's first
letter from the Masters as Polydorus Isurenus) in such matter of fact 
terms, But far more useful to researchers are the names of Borj- A
Borg appears in one of the most important of all Mahatma 
communications, the one K.H. made materialize in Olcott's hand when 
he appeared in his tent outside Lahore in November 1883. It accuses 
Olcott of being overly suspicious, "sometimes cruelly soof Upasika, 
of Borg, of Djual.K.,even of Damodar and D. Nath, whom you love as 
sons."

In the diary she kept in New York, HPB referred to someone whose 
name is transcribed as "Boag" from whom she had received mail. The 
entry for 6 December reads, "A letter from Richard and Boag informing 
of the arrival from Russia of a parcel."' Again, questions of
handwriting confuse the issue, giving thTee spellings of what would 
seem to be the same name. But of the variant spellings it becomes 
apparent that Borg is correct when we examine Nikki Keddie's
biography of Jamal ad-Din al-Afghani. She writes that "Afghani and a 
group of his followers first joined an Italian lodge in Alexandria,
but wereinfluenced by English Vice-Consul Ralph Borg to join an 
English lodge, whose numbers reached 300, including many leaders of 
the nationalist movement of 1878-1882. 
(K.Paul Johnson "The Masters Revealed" p.71/72.)

In fact at first, the Freemasons displayed no interest in Egypt;
rather, they sought, even in their symbolism, to attach themselves to
biblical traditions, especially the temple of Solomon, and Hiram, who 
had it built. Nevertheless, in 1728, the seal of the Perfetta Unione 
lodge in Naples already displayed a pyramid and sphinx.

Masonic usages and symbols were now reinterpreted. There were also 
influences from alchemy, for the stone that the mason symbolically 
worked was also viewed as the Philosopher's Stone. The Freemasons 
also adopted cabala and the teachings of the Rosicrucians, taking
over the supposed history of the latter.

They constructed a chain of traditions that led back, via temple 
masters, cabalists, gnostics, and Pythagoreans, to Solomon, whom they 
revered as the ruler of the spirit world, and finally, via Moses, to
Adam. 

 
The Egyptian component was not elaborated until the latter part of
the eighteenth century, at a time when the origins of all religion
were often being sought in Egypt. A lasting influence was also 
exerted by the description of an "Egyptian" initiation in the novel 
by Jean Terrasson, a Hellenist at the College de France who also
translated Diodorus. His novel was published anonymously in 1731,
after which it was widely reprinted and translated. As a young man of
sixteen, the hero of the novel is initiated into the Isis mysteries 
inside the Great Pyramid of Giza; midway, he passes through all four 
elements, which are elaborately staged inside the pyramid. This trial 
by the elements renders Sethos worthy of participating in 
the "mysteries" of the great goddess Isis. 

Antoine-Joseph Pernety founded a "Rite hermetique" in Avignon in
1766; two years later, he was summoned to Potsdam to be the librarian 
of Frederick the Great.The year 1775 saw the appearance in G6ttingen 
of Georg Christoph Meiners' "Versuch Uber die Religionsgeschichte der 
Altesten Voelker besonders der Egyptier" (Attempt at a history of the 
religions of the most ancient peoples, in particular the Egyptians),
which articulated the growing criticism of Hermetism and paid fresh 
honor to Casaubon.

 
Hermetism withstood this blow, as it had Casaubon's late dating
of the Hermetic texts. Magic, belief in the supernatural, and alchemy 
continued to flourish, even after Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier
laid the foundations of modern chemistry with his TraW 616mentaire de 
Chimie (Elementary treatise on chemistry, 1789). In 1783, the Leipzig
physicist Christlieb Benedict Funk had published a work on
"Natuerliche Magie" (natural magic) that "could be taught by 
professors," and in 18o8, Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling, whose 
Heimweh will concern usbelow, would write a "Theory of Pneumatology".

 
Even independently of Cagliostro, Egypt had by now solidly anchored 
itself in Freemasonry. In 1784, the geologist and mineralogist Ignaz
von Born inaugurated the new Journal fuer Freimaurer with a 
fundamental essay, "Ueber die Mysterien der Aegyptier" (On the 
mysteries of the Egyptians). The year before, in his book Horus, C.
E. Wunsch had proclaimed that the secret society of the Egyptian
priests had initiated Moses into its arcana. 

Also indicative is the title of a work by Johann Gottfried Bremer,
which was issued by Karl Philipp Moritz in 1793: Die Symbolische 
Weisheit der Aegypter aus den verborgensten Denkmdlern des 
Altertums, ein Theil der Aegyptischen Maurerey, der zu Rom nicht 
verbrannt worden (The symbolic lore of Egypt from the most hidden 
monuments of antiquity, a part of the Egyptian Masonry that was not 
burned in Rome). In it, the ceremonies of the "Egyptian" mysteries 
unfold in seven stages. 

In Egypt itself, many lodges appeared at this time, which in part
aimed at directly taking up the tradition of the ancient Egyptian 
mysteries. And to which "Borg" mentioned by Olcott in India (see 
above) belonged.
=
Bri.
 
 
Bri.
--- In theos-talk@y..., "bri_mue" <bri_mue@y...> wrote:
> The idea for Hermes Trismegistus stems from the Egyptian God Thoth 
> who is frequently written about in connection with the goddess
> Maat, embodiment of the order of the cosmos. 
> 
> Thot was originally personified by the ibis, and millions of
> carefully wrapped ibis mummies testify to the worship of this
animal 
> sacred to Thoth.
> 
> In spell 167 of the Book of the Dead, where Thoth is said to
"pacify"
> the eye, we have a reference to his bringing home the Distant 
Goddess.
> 
> A few tausend years later in the later Egyptian periods Thoth then
> was transformed into the universal Hermes Trismegistus, the "thrice
> great." 
> A first step was his designation as "twice great" , which he
already 
> bears on a stela, now in Lausanne (Switzerland), which is dated to
> year 20 of King Apries, that is, 570 B.C.E., and records a grant of 
> land by Pharaoh to Thoth, the "twice great," lord of Hermopolis (in 
> the delta). 
> 
> From the same reign comes the title "overseer of the prophets of
> Thoth, the twice great, lord of Hermopolis," born by Ankhhor, an 
> official of Nitocris, God's Wife of Amun in Thebes. The 
> epithet "twice great" appears written in Dernotic beginning with
the 
> reign of Darius 1, and from the third century B.C.E. on, it is 
> intensified by means of the adverb wer, "exceedingly," leading to
the 
> development of "thrice great" beginning with the late second
century 
> B.C.E. We even find a "five times great" in the First Story of
Setne 
> and other texts. From the Egyptian form "thrice great, exceedingly" 
> (the language had no grammatical form for the superlative)
> 
> The Tabula Smaragdina , also called "Kybalion," , is the work of an 
> Arab alchemist of the ninth century, its first western publication,
> in the form of a Latin text, was first published in 1541. And 
> certainly was not of any influence on Plato, but the other way 
> round , the 9e century "Kybalion," was influenced by neo-Platonism, 
> that also did not have much to with Plato directly but this
movement 
> at least borrowed his name.
> 
> The Sabaeans in Harran, who were without a sacred scripture under 
> Islam, in order to count as a "people of the Book," elevated the
> Corpus Hermeticum into such a holy book in the ninth century,
thereby 
> contributing to the continued existence of Hermetic texts among the 
> Arab writers. M. Ullmann has published an example of such a
tractate, 
> the Serpent Book of Hermes Trismegistus, a dialogue of Hermes with 
> Asclepius. In this text, we are informed, among other things, that
> his grandfather, the "Hermes of Hermes," built the temples of Egypt 
> and deposited timeless knowledge in them. Other Arab writers offer
> similar accounts; al-ldrisi (d. 1165) stresses that this was
Hermes' 
> way of keeping his knowledge alive after the Flood. In particular,
the
> temple of Akhn-dm was constructed by Hermes "several years before 
> the Flood" (Ibn Duqmaq, d. 1407), and on its walls, "all the 
> Egyptians'knowledge of alchemy, magic, talismans, medicine, 
> astronomy, and geometry were set down" 
> 
> And later we have a "the perfectly preserved corpse" of 
> "Christian Rosenkreutz" bears a close resemblance to the tale given 
> in the Tabula Smaragdina, in which the Emerald Tablet is said to
have 
> been found in the hands of Hermes as he lay in state in his tomb.
> Kaballa as a Christian Science and for ist integration with
> Hermeticism came from Pico Della Mirandola (l463-94). And continued 
> with Agrippa Von Nettesheim, John Dee, Reuchlin, Knorr von 
Rosenroth. 
> 
> Blavatsky placed the Corpus Hermetic in early Pharaoh times instead
> of during the Hellenistic period, place the Kabbala of the middle
ages
> in Rabbinistic time periods, and assumed that the Greek mysteries
had 
> similar contents as the cabbalist- neuplatonic ideas. Blavatsky
> therefore whas not so interested in Gnosticism as she was in 
> Hermetism, because for her, Gnosis derived from Hermetism, 
whereby 
> today we know it is the other way around.
>  
 
>  
=
> Bri.
> 
> 
> --- In theos-talk@y..., "bri_mue" <bri_mue@y...> wrote:
> > -Jerry: "Isis is a hodgepodge. The best part is the last chap
> > which deals with magic, and sadly this is the part that most
> > Theosophsts 
> > today ignore."
> > 
> > The last chapter is what was obviously at the same time intended
as
> a 
> > sort of advertisement/invitation (in typical Victorian age
veieled 
> > fashion) to the newly founded TS that according to Dr. James 
> > Santucci, Dr. Mathiesen, and Deveney (who wrote a Dr. thesis 
about 
> > Randolph), all three claim based on their extensive research that 
> > the TS started originally as a Theurgic organisation involved 
> > with "magic", astral projection and with that drug induced
> > states incorporated in a Masonic type degree system.
> > 
> > It should also be noted that Mesmeric, and also the Egyptian
lodges
> > of Cagliostro alias Balsamo, where not recognized as Masonic
lodges
> > by regular Freemasons, the above belonged to the hundreds of 
> imitating
> > so called "frince " Masonic Lodges that where mostly small and
> > somethimes included charlatans.
> > 
> > Following the Frince Masonic degrees Blavatsky and the early TS in
> > New York and India (Adyar) used:  
> > http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/aqc/fringe/appendix2.html
> > 
> > The above is obviously rather fake, see also the following letter
> > reg. the above.   
> > 
> > On 25 Jan, 1878 Kenneth Mackenzie wrote to Francis Irwin, co-
> member 
> > in the Order of Sikha: 
> > „I hear that madam Blavatsky is the head of the Order!" (R.A. 
> > Gilbert "Revelations of the Golden Dawn" '97 p. 5-6, and Ellic 
> > Howe "Frince Masonry in England" ) This is confirmed in a never
> > before published letter from Yarker to Blavatsky dated 2 Jan,
1879: 
> > http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a7502210/blavletter.html
> > 
> > This is a picture of the co-founder of the order:
> > 
> >  
> > http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a7502210/picture.html
> > 
> > 
> > Blavatsky wrote on Sept. 23, 1875: 
> > 
> > "We want to make an experimental comparison between 
spiritualism 
> > and the magic of the ancients by following literally the
> instructions
> > of the old Cabbalas, both Jewish and Egyptian." (Quoted in
> Deveney's 
> > booklet on Astral Travel and the TS)
> > 
> > Blavatsky stated in her interview March 1877 to the World 
> > Newspaper: "This separation, however, is the very last and
highest 
> > possible achievement of magic." (A Lamasery in New York. 
Practicing 
> > Magical Rites in a Prosaic Eight-Avenue House. Quoted in 
> Theosophical 
> > History 4/2, April 1992, p. 51-55.) 
> > 
> > Bri.: So astral travel had a lot to do with it from the beginning
so
> > I think that is why Dallas, Caldwell, who also claims astral
> > visions, so vehemently fight answerring the astral body issue and
> > reg. The Masters trying to find al kinds of excuses to side track
> the
> > issues regarding the impossibility of the astral projection
stories
> > if taken litteral.
> > Those who do have not studied the recent information on this
> subject.
> > 
> >  
 
>  
> >  
 
>  
> >  
 
> =
> > Bri.
> > Famous esotericist Rene Guenon in his book about the TS as the 
> > > invention of a pseudo-religion, alleges that HPB and 0lcott were
> > both 
> > > members of the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor (HBL), as was 
> George 
> > > Felt, an early TS associate. Steve Stubbs has argued a similar 
> > > position.
> > > 
> > > K.Paul Johnson in has by now famous book "The Master 
Revealed, 
> > > writes on p.32 :
> > > C. J. jinarajadasa admits that in 1875 HPB used a seal "symbolic
> of
> > > the Brotherhood of Luxor" on her notepaper, but denies that
this 
> > > Brotherhood was the same as the HBL.
> > > In May 1875, HPB had attempted to form a "Miracle Club" in 
> response
> > > to orders received from Tuitit Bey "to begin telling the public
> the
> > > truth about the phenomena and their mediums.
> > > 
> > > During the following summer, 0lcott received a series of letters
> > from 
> > > Serapis, concerning the prospects of partnership with E. Gerry
> > Brown, 
> > > the brief marriage of HPB to Michael Betanelly, and his own
status
> > as 
> > > a disciple of the Brotherhood of Luxor. The only doctrinal
> > references 
> > > in these letters arekabbalistic in tone. This tends to support 
> > > Guenon's hypothesis that Felt's interest in the Kabbalah and 
> > > Egyptology was an influence during that summer. By the end of 
> 1875, 
> > > however, Felt had disappeared from the scene after failing to
> > produce 
> > > elementals as he had promised. 
> > > 
> > > The possible connection of Paolos Metamon to this series of 
> > > developments is suggested in a footnote, in which Guenon reports
> > that 
> > > according to unverified rumors, "Metamon was the father of 
> another 
> > > personage who was for some time at the head of the outer circle
> of 
> > > the HBL and who, since then, has founded a new organization of 
a 
> > > rather different character, "It would seem, in light of this 
> > > unconfirmed anecdote, that a change within the HBL took place 
> which 
> > > made it impossible for HPB and 01cott to continue as members. If
> it 
> > > had initially been led in its outer circle by the man
tentatively 
> > > identified as Metamon's son, then taken over by another element,
> > this 
> > > could have led to the expulsion noted bv Guenon. What is 
> undeniable 
> > > on the basis of Rawson's account and HPB's own admission, is 
that 
> > > Paolos Metamon was her first occult teacher in Egypt, who 
> continued 
> > > to be in contact with her into the 1870s. This makes him the
most 
> > > likely original for the Master Serapis, and his so-called son a 
> > > possible Tuitit Bey.(End quote)
> > > 
> > > One year ago when I was researching, and attempted to write, 
> about 
> > > the Dalip Singh revolt/TS connection that was first brought up
in
> > > Paul's TMR, I could not circumvent attempting to research 
> > > the "secret" Lodge activities of Blavatsky and Dayananda in
> > > India (see : 
> > > http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a7502210/dsconspiracy.html )
> > > 
> > > It is in this context that I also started to look into the
> > "beliefs" 
> > > of these early Theosophists and those around them had, and 
where 
> > > these beliefs in turn derived from, which led me to the current 
> > > study. The "invented-India" discovery I mentioned some months 
ago 
> > > And if I stay that long on these lists, I might place a series
of 
> > > postings going more in detail regarding this "invented India" 
> > > subject, and after that the "invented Tibet" a series of 
> > > upcoming postings that I am currently laying the foundation for
> but 
> > > still needs a bit more work.
> > > 
> > > The last two decades of the eighteenth century as a period of
> major 
> > > religious innovation. Science and faith were syncretized by the 
> > > mesmerism of for example the Marquis de Puysegur and his 
> > followers. A 
> > > non-Christian form of religiosity had become an increasingly 
> > > available option in Europe by the end of the same decade. Since
> > then, 
> > > dozens of successful prophets have explained that their message
> is 
> > > logical and accords with the latest findings of science; that
> their 
> > > doctrines are not their own innovations but the fruits of
ancient 
> > > tradition; and that they can be experienced in the life of
every 
> > > person.
> > > 
> > > I mentioned the"Crata Repoa", mentioned in my previous posting 
on 
> > the 
> > > subject, of which I studied a copy in the one year ago re-
> > > opened "Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica" in Amsterdam, 
> > > (http://www.ritmanlibrary.nl/) where anybody can look it up.
> > > The "Crata Repoa" (misspelled "Napoa") in Isis of Blavatsky, was
> the
> > > constitution of the "Afrikanische Bauherren". The book describes
> > the 
> > > seven Grades of Egyptian Initiation in the system of Koeppen as
I 
> > > explained earlier.
> > > 
> > > The Order influenced the esoteric and Egyptian rites of France,
> > rites
> > > which would finally develop into the "Ancient and Primitive Rite
> of 
> > > Memphis-Misraim". And lodges where also founded in Egypt, 
which 
> in 
> > a 
> > > way is ironic. Blavatsky imported standard motifs of Western 
> > > esotericism into India and speedily arrayed them in local forms,
> > thus 
> > > fashioning an Indicised esotericism.
> > > 
> > > As the founders of Theosophy imported the purely English, 
pseudo-
> > > Indian Sat B'hai with as its upper degrees the Royal Order of
> > > Sikha into India the TS imported the "psuedo Egypt" that I have
> been
> > > referring to into India.
> > > I also showed how the invented Egypt sickered trough to books
> like 
> > > Evant-Wentz "Tibetan Book of the Death", and that Blavatsky
> > > while she was in India probably had connections to people
related
> to
> > > "Memphis- Misraim" Egyptian Masonry: 
> > > 
> > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/5041
> > > 
> > > But not only within Egyptian Masonry as such , but also within
the
> > > Yarker circle in particular, to which first Sotheran and then
also
> > > Blavatsky belonged 
> > > (http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a7502210/blavletter.html)
> > > there was a mistaken impression and an "inextricable reverie"
> that 
> > > existed in relation to the "De Theosophia Aegyptiorum" of
Michael 
> > > Maier supposedly having to do with the early Rosicrucians. 
> > > 
> > > But instead Maier's "Rosicrucian" Leipzig manuscript is an 18th
> > > century myth arising within the Gold- und Rosenkreutz 
Freemasonic 
> > > order, first "exposed" by "Magister Pianco", then associated
via 
> > > Yarker with the tale of Agrippa's secret society. 
> > > De Theosophia Aegyptiorum is in fact a rough draft for Maier's
> > Arcana 
> > > Arcanissima (1614), and therefore dates to Maier's
> pre-Rosicrucian 
> > > period, there is no other manuscript of Maier's to be found at
> the 
> > > University of Leipzig
> > > 
> > > 
> > >  
 
>  
> > Bri.