Dogmatic theology has no foundation in any part of the United States Declaration of Independence. All reference to religion and Christianity, or God’s commands, are left out. If any Adepts have influenced Washington, or brought about the great American Revolution, it was the Brothers of the Rosie Cross and not the Indian or Tibetan Initiates. The inferences drawn from W.Q. Judge’s article “The Adepts in America in 1776” are too far-fetched by our imaginative correspondent. We can, however, confidently affirm that the French Revolution was greatly influenced by the Count de St. Germain.

Tattvas and Bhutas are the Principles and Aspects of Cosmos and Man. Lokas and Talas are Divine and Worldly planes of being. Colours and sounds are all spiritual numerals. Colour is Spirit (Atman), Sound is Voice (Buddhi), Proportion of Numbers is Word (Higher Manas). Woe to the selfish man who seeks to develop occult powers only to attain earthly benefits, or revenge, or to satisfy his ambition. And warnings to those who are anxious to develop powers by sitting for yoga. Tattvas are the substratum of the Forces in Nature and Man. Sound is no attribute at all, but the primal correlation of Akasha. Akasha is both the highest Tattva and the synthesis of all Tattvas. Esoteric and Tantric Tattvas, and their correspondences with states of matter, body parts, and colours, explained. In the realm of hidden Forces of Nature, an audible sound is but a subjective colour; and a perceptible colour, but an inaudible sound. The Seven Rays of Logos keep vibrating not only in the Tattvic centres of action but in every atom of the body. The lower you go in the Talas the more intellectual you become and the less spiritual. You may be a morally good man but not spiritual. Every human passion, every thought and quality, is indicated in one’s aura by corresponding colours and shades of colour; certain of these are sensed and felt, rather than perceived. The introspective Adept can see the golden aura of a man in his normal condition, pulsating in both the Pineal and the Pituitary Glands, a pulsation like that of the heart, never ceasing throughout life. Watch out! Tantric works tend to Black Magic and are most dangerous to take for guides in self-training.

Anaxagoras believed that since the spiritual prototypes of all things are differentiations of Father Æther, the One Element, all things are essentially the same. The learned astronomer explained openly that which was taught by Pythagoras secretly, regarding the movements of the planets, the eclipses of the sun and moon, etc. He also taught the theory of Chaos, on the principle that “nothing comes from nothing.” Like all great philosophers, Anaxagoras expounded the doctrine of parallel evolution, of spirit and matter. And like Pythagoras, Plato, and Socrates, he too was persecuted by his compatriots, for free speech was not tolerated in the birthplace of “democracy.” The rabble revelled in exacting far harsher punishment on their Spiritual Teachers, than Karma metes out to those who break the vow of silence.

Jesus and Apollonius were healers and were both addressed as Kings. Apollonius was a Nirmanakaya. He was accused of confining his teachings to the rich. But like Jesus and Buddha, Apollonius was the uncompromising enemy of all show of piety, all display of religious ceremonies, bigotry and hypocrisy. Clergy demand blind faith by forbidding inquiry as the one unpardonable sin. Their Bible is not the Word of God, but the words of fallible men and imperfect teachers. Every revealer of truth has to become “man of sorrow” and martyr. Jesus Chrestos, a virtuous man in his trial of life, was reborn Christos, a Nirmanakaya. But the former suffered much less than Gautama. On Buddha’s rebirths and migrations, and the Apollonius connection. The Romish Church claimed Gautama Buddha as one of their converts and elevated him to sainthood! But neither Gautama nor Jesus tolerated priestcraft. God’s “little children” were Great Initiates, saving mankind from the insanities of materialism and pessimism. The legendary parts of the lives of Buddha and Jesus are identical. The riddle of the “marriage” at Cana unriddled and the trials of the Sun-Initiate unravelled. Was Shankaracharya Gautama Buddha?

Tsong-kha-pa, the founder of the Gelug-pa Order of Tibetan Buddhism, was an incarnation of Amita-Buddha Himself. He was not, as is alleged by Parsi scholars, an incarnation of one of the celestial Dhyanis, or the five heavenly Buddhas, said to have been created by Shakyamuni after he had risen to Nirvana. He was an incarnation of Amita-Buddha Himself. Tsong-kha-pa gave the signs, whereby the presence of one of the twenty-five Bodhisattvas, or of the Celestial Buddhas in a human body, might be recognized. He also strictly forbade necromancy. This led to a split amongst the Lamas, and the malcontents allied themselves with the aboriginal Böns against the reformed Lamaism. It is curious to note the great importance given by European Orientalists to the Dalai Lamas of Lhasa, and their utter ignorance as to the Tda-shu (Teshu) Lamas, while it is the latter who began the hierarchical series of Buddha-incarnations, for they are the de facto “popes” in Tibet. The works of the Orientalists are full of the direct landmarks of Arhats, possessed of thaumaturgic powers — but these are spoken of with unconcealed scorn. If, after the beginning of persecution against Buddhism, the Arhats were no more heard of in India, it was because, their vows prohibiting retaliation, they had to leave the country and seek solitude and security in China, Tibet, Japan, and elsewhere. It was a historical rehearsal of the dramas that were enacted centuries later in Christendom. Whosoever among those Initiates of the Supreme Degree revealed to a profane a single one of the Truths, even the smallest of the secrets entrusted to him, had to die; and he who received the confidence, was also put to death. Yet this secrecy and this profound mystery are indeed disheartening, since the Initiates of India and Tibet alone could thoroughly dissipate the thick mists hanging over the history of Occultism, and force its claims to be recognized. Among the commandments of Tsong-kha-pa there is one that enjoins the Arhats to make an attempt to enlighten the world, including the “white barbarians,” every century, at a certain period of the cycle. Up to the present day none of these attempts has been very successful. Failure has followed failure.

Count de Saint-Germain was certainly the greatest Oriental Adept Europe has seen in last centuries of the last millennium. He never laid claim to spiritual powers, but proved to have a right to such claim. He was a pupil of Indian and Egyptian hierophants, and proficient in the secret wisdom and arts of the East. Saint-Germain is, until this very time, a living mystery. And the Rosicrucian Thomas Vaughan, another one. Together with Mesmer, he belonged to the Lodge of the Philalethes. Like all great men, the Count was slandered and lied about. Saint-Germain was a “fifth rounder,” a rare case of abnormally precocious individual evolution. He was sent by Louis XV to England, in 1760, to negotiate peace between the two countries. Before and during the French Revolution, the Count puzzled and almost terrified every capital of Europe, and some crowned Heads. Saint-Germain predicted in every detail the social and political upheaval in France that lasted from 1789 until 1799. In fact, it was he who brought about the just outbreak among the paupers, and put an end to the selfish tyranny of the French kings. The Count’s temperamental affinity to the celestial science forced the Himalayan Adepts to come into personal relations with him. When True Magic has finally died out in Europe, Saint-Germain and Cagliostro, sought refuge from the frozen-hearted scepticism in their native land of the East.

The compound term Theophania (from theos, “God,” and phainesthai, “to appear”) does not simply mean the appearance of God in man but the actual presence of a God in man, a divine incarnation.

Let sleeping dogs lie: for under the strains of chelaship, character cracks appear. Vice puts on its most alluring face, and the tempting passions try to lure the unprepared to the depths of psychic debasement. Zanoni was suffering from some former error which he had to work out unaided. But unlike Bulwer-Lytton’s Mejnour, the real Adepts are not exactly desiccated pansies between the leaves of a volume of solemn poetry. Until final emancipation reabsorbs their Ego, They are conscious of the purest sympathies called out by the aesthetic effects of high art, and their tenderest cords respond to the call of the holier and nobler human attachments. Lord Lytton was clearly wrong when he so gloriously depicted his Zanoni as yielding up pure wisdom for the brighter prize of sexual love. Though man cannot escape his ruling destiny, he has the choice of two paths. His destiny has been written in the stars by himself. Therefore, no heavenly body can influence the human destiny. Being self-made, man weaves his own destiny and reaps what he has sown. The real Dweller on the Threshold is no monster, it is the despair and despondency of the neophyte. The candidate to initiation is tempted and tormented by his own unmastered passions. Any latent proclivities are drawn out by reformed Brothers of the Shadow, working for the Brothers of Light. More! Undissipated passions from the previous incarnation can dwell on the lower mental plane of the next one. Man’s true star is a Dhyani-Buddha, his Augoeides. Augoeides is the Master within, luciform and pure. Those of pure heart can rely upon their Master’s guidance and protection.