What is an archpriest from the point of view of esotericism. Anni non-esoteric Christianity, or lesser mysteries. What is your attitude to esoteric

Orthodoxy against esotericism. Why did I choose Orthodoxy? Report of a former practitioner. (Egor_)

Chapter 1

In this chapter, I would like to explain why I decided to write this e-book. After moving to another city, at the age of 13, I started having problems at school, as a result of this, a sharp aggravation of the search for the meaning of life. I began to have severe depressions, the love of my loved ones did not help me. At that time, one case was remembered - one guy unfairly offended me at school. I came home, knelt before the icon of Jesus Christ and said, "Lord, if you exist, do justice." The next day, this guy slipped on the ice rink and broke his eye. For a while I believed in God, but at the age of 14 I bought Blavatsky's book The Secret Doctrine. Of course, I did not understand anything from what was written, but my Orthodox worldview began to fade into the background. If earlier I prayed every day before going to bed, sometimes I read the Bible, then I became sharply neutral to all this. I began to buy esoteric magazines, read about UFOs, mediums, Egyptian Gods, clairvoyance. My behavior changed dramatically - I began to avoid people, any close communication, my studies deteriorated sharply. In all troubles, I blamed only classmates, parents and our society. At the age of 16 my interest in the Occult increased dramatically. I began to "hang out" on the site of the Order of the Guardians of Death, I was very interested in the topic of the Astral. I studied all the available literature on this subject. I meditated on the third eye every day. After two months of meditation, I fell asleep. Convulsive vibrations began in my chest, I flew out of the body! All around shimmered, I really flew. I looked like the center of the forehead. There was a noise all around, like a pack of dogs barking. I flew to the mirror, but I did not see myself. Suddenly I was sucked back into my body, I woke up. I had a severe headache, there was a great breakdown in strength. I told my mother, she said it was dangerous.

My mother is a former practitioner herself. With the help of a contactee, she went to the Astral plane, flew in space. She penetrated some secret laboratories, saw Stalin, the height of a 10-story building, who tried to crush her. After she was taught to see the Aura, she began to heal people. In one of her healing sessions, she was looking at a man with cancer. She went into a trance, plunged into the consciousness of the guy. She saw a huge green snake, over 10 meters in size, the snake was very ugly and had big fangs. This snake "energetically" bit my mother. Coming out of the trance, my mother soon fell ill with a severe sore throat. The doctors were powerless. She was dying in the hospital when three old men in black hoods appeared to her. One said, "You can't do this. If you continue, you will give your soul to God." My mother made a vow that she would never do this and asked to save her life, since I was already small then. The elder said to her, "Here's a potion for you. Drink it." He held out a strange potion. Mom drank and the forces began to slowly return to her. She broke with all mediums and psychics. I liked her story, but after Castaneda's books about the "warriors of the Magicians" and Blavatsky about the practitioners of the occult, I thought that my mother was simply weak. She could not overcome the guardians of that World and therefore stopped halfway to knowledge. This is the view I have held for many years.

After my successful Astral exit, I realized one thing - "It's true. Blavatsky did not lie! The astral world really exists, so her teaching is true." After leaving, I became proud. I arrogantly looked at people and thought to myself how stupid they are, because I have knowledge, and they do not. I tried with all my might to go to the Astral again, but apart from dizziness, nothing happened. Then there was the Army, after returning from it, I finally got angry with the state, because I received 300 rubles for slave service, even a cleaner was paid more than I was paid for a year of service. In addition, there was huge discrimination, the arbitrariness of officers. Mass atheism reigned in the army. In God, no one believed, I did not see a single believer in the entire service. I needed something to keep myself occupied, since I couldn’t get out into the Astral. There were only "lucid" dreams from Castaneda's books. I began to look for people in my city, who also dealt with Astral. Found one girl, dialogue with her did not work. Then I found a guy, a necromancer. He was really sick in the head, was talking complete nonsense about the end of the world in 2012, about how he dug up graves and had intercourse with corpses, what an Astrologer he was and how he escaped from some laboratory where werewolf doctors were. In general, crazy. I could not find other Astral practitioners, so I had to do runology. Rune divination. I made them out of dough and the first rune told me that I had a gift for the occult. I was flattered)) I decided to check how the runes tell the truth.

At that time, I was studying at a driving school, exams for rights were approaching. I made layouts for three people, myself, and my two friends, Artem and Vadim. According to the runes, it turned out that Artem would pass the exam completely, Vadim would fail at the beginning, and I would stumble at the end. I told this interpretation to Artem, he smiled. On the day of the exam, Vadim flies out first of the whole class at the theory stage! They knock me down at the end, in the city, and Artyom passes everything safely. Everything is as the runes predicted! I thought "Wow, what accuracy. Hitler was not a fool, drawing signs on the weapons of German soldiers." My passion for runes lasted three years. During this time, I guessed for money, guessed friends. Not everything came true, but for the most part there were no mistakes. At some point, I got tired of the runes, I decided that I had outgrown these attributes of Magic, because I began to read Blavatsky and Leadbeater in full. By chance, the book "Bhagavad-Gita", about Krishna, fell into my hands. She greatly fascinated me and I decided to find believers in Krishna in my city. How wonderful everything is - we are vegetarians, and spiritually developed, and the very best.

I found one of the Krishna sects. A certain Sergey, who had been a follower of the sect for three years, introduced me to it. Outwardly, he was very squeezed, "in himself", but we were alike. He invited me to come to the temple. A one-room apartment was called a temple. all the followers were dressed in white clothes, in the center of the room stood a statue of Krishna, portraits of their saints. We sat cross-legged on the floor, there were about 10 of us. The host was a woman who called herself Anna. She began to read the Bhagavad Gita, after each verse she gave her interpretation of what she had read. After the lecture, Anna distributed prasadam to everyone. I refused to eat, by this time everything became disgusting in my soul. I talked a little with Sergei. He began to talk about the Gods of the Bhagavad Gita, about the fact that he had been alone for three years and had not had a girlfriend, began to explain the basic concepts of the teaching, said that he was engaged in Vedic Astrology and fortune telling by the stars. He wondered, oddly enough, for money. The very visit to the "temple" left negative emotions in me, to be honest, the followers seemed to me to be slaves of something more, akin to the Army, and I am a freedom-loving person, I do not like any boundaries, dogmas and standard attire. Perhaps that is why, out of hundreds of different philosophies of esotericism and occultism, Blavatsky's Theosophy hooked me the most.

The philosophy of Blavatsky is the synthesis of religions. Her task was to unite all religions and explain their meaning. In the literature of Theosophy, the name of Christ is mentioned very often. He is compared with the Buddha (allegedly this is his brother), called Mantreya. It says that the apostles of Christ were also occultists and in general Occultism is the true doctrine, the development of man. The whole emphasis of philosophy is divided into component parts, the main focus revolves around evolution - first the human soul (atma) was a mineral, then a plant, an animal, and finally a person. And then there will be a God-man. Now there is a fifth race on Earth, while the seventh will have the virtues of Buddha, Pythagoras, Plato, everyone will freely enter the Astral and Mental Worlds, and the third eye of everyone will see the past and the future. Everything is said very beautifully, especially Leadbeater exaggerates. Everything boils down to the fact that "you have to be patient," and everything will be fine, namely, a person will go through his evolution after the first initiation. Leadbeater himself describes the process of opening clairvoyance "I worked to the limit of all my strength. Mahatma was always there, he controlled me. It took me forty days to discover clairvoyance. It was a titanic work, but under the supervision of a teacher, everything worked out." It should be added that Leadbeater was a former priest who became disillusioned with the faith and joined Blavatsky. Later he also became a Buddhist. It's funny to read his memoirs "I didn't want to renounce Christianity. I told the Lama if it was possible that I could be a Christian and a Buddhist at the same time without renouncing Christ. The Lama nodded that no one would touch my faith."

Chapter 2

She attracted me for several reasons. First, a more logical description of the Universe. Well, how could God create the Earth in 7 days? And then who created the Cosmos? Why is one born into the family of a billionaire, while the other earns a living by hard work all his life? Why are animals evolutionally lower than humans, were humans animals before? Theosophy provides answers to absolutely all questions. This is not in the Bible and the writings of Orthodoxy. One Theosophist told me so: “I didn’t find anything in the Bible. One deception, but in Theosophy everything is there, any answer. where did the pyramids come from, how did the Atlanteans live, who was Jesus. So the main reason is the vast knowledge of Blavatsky and the fundamental philosophy in which you can dig for decades and draw something new.

Secondly, the very strong arguments of the Theosophists. For example, it is written that Christ and Krishna are one and the same. Although they proclaimed religions in different forms, they have one core. Love, understanding, humility. Leadbeater also writes something like this: “Christians are hypocrites! They talk about the love of God, while they themselves are mired in blood and sins. Hundreds of thousands of people were killed in the name of their God, all historical temples and scriptures were destroyed. How many people were killed in the name of God? refutes this peacefulness." I got acquainted with the historical facts and really found that a lot of wars and people fell in the name of Christ, to take the atrocities of the same fierce Christian Richard the Lionheart. For some reason, the words of the Bible "Thou shalt not kill" do not fit with the actions of the Christian states themselves, often acting as an aggressor.

Thirdly, the Bible seemed to me "ossified", which has been very much altered since the time of its original form, and even the main component, the belief in reincarnation, is rejected in it. Her precepts are unchanged for centuries, while humanity is constantly discovering something new, not standing still. In addition, 7000 years from the creation of the World have long been refuted by scientists, the same dinosaur bones are millions of years old. The time of the life of Jesus is also a big question, there are heated debates. There are many inconsistencies that are very striking to a thinking person in the 21st century.

In addition, Blavatsky tried to "combine" all religions into a kind of ball of meatballs, meat here, rice here, spices there. It is very easy to eat such food, especially if a person is not familiar with the scriptures, or with other religious denominations. But despite the seeming legitimacy of Theosophy's teachings, it is full of the same inconsistencies and blunders!

For example, Blavatsky writes about Christ that “The meaning of the cross, as a Christian symbol, is supposed to refer to the era when Jesus Christ was crucified. And yet, in the "Christian" iconography of the catacombs, during the first six or seven centuries, the figure of a man on a cross is nowhere to be found. There are all kinds of forms of the cross, with the exception of this one - which is considered the starting point of a new religion. This was not the initial form, but the completed form of the Crucifixion Cross. For about six centuries after the Christian era, the foundation of the Christian religion on a crucified Redeemer is completely absent from Christian art! The earliest form of a human figure on a cross is a crucifix offered by Pope Gregory the Great, Queen Theodolinda of Lombard, now in the Church of St. John in Monza, while in the catacombs of Rome not a single Crucifix was found dating back to an earlier period than the image, located at San Giulio and belonging to the seventh or eighth century...
There is neither Christ nor the Crucified; The Cross is Christ, just as Stauros (Cross) was the image and name of Horus, the Christ of the Gnostics. The cross, not the Crucified One itself, is the original symbol of the Christian church. The cross, and not the Crucified himself, is the main subject of depiction in her art and veneration in her religion. The germ of all growth and development can be traced back to the cross. And this cross is pre-Christian, it's pagan, and the cross of infidels, and has about half a dozen different forms. The cult began with the cross, and Julian was right when he said that he supported the "war against X", which he obviously considered to be adopted by a-gnostics and mythologists in order to give it an intolerable meaning. For centuries, the cross has been a symbol of Christ and has been addressed as if it were a living being. "He was deified at first and humanized at the end."

Blavatsky later says "Thus the restraint of Buddha and Jesus - whether the latter lived in the historical period attributed to him or not - who alike refrained from revealing the Mysteries of Life and Death - led in one case to a complete denial in southern Buddhism, and in another, to three quarreling denominations of the Christian church and 300 sects in Protestant England alone." After Charles Leadbeater adds, "Of course, the Christian Bible should not be taken literally, for many of its statements are symbolic, and others simply do not correspond to reality. For example While clairvoyantly investigating the life of the founder of Christianity, we have been unable to find any trace of the supposed 12 apostles.It appears that they never existed, but were introduced into the story for some reason, perhaps to represent the 12 signs of the zodiac. the body was used by Christ, was not an illegitimate son, as could be understood from the Gospels and his father was not a carpenter. In fact, he belonged to the highest Jewish aristocracy and came from their own royal family. However, there could be an admixture of Aryan blood in him, which was enough for the Jews, who had a sense of exclusivity, to declare that he was not a legitimate descendant from the seed of David, and this statement could then easily be taken as evidence of an abnormal birth, as in the gospel stories. .
The truth is that the four Gospels were not written with the intent to be taken as historically accurate in any sense. They are all based on a shorter document written in Hebrew by the monk Matthäus, who lived in a desert monastery in southern Palestine. He seems to have had the idea of ​​putting some of the great facts about initiation into narrative form, connecting them with some moments in the life of the real Jesus, who was born in 105 B.C.E., and also with the events of some obscure fanatic preacher , convicted and executed in Jerusalem around 30 AD.
He sent this document to his great friend, who was the abbot of a huge monastery in Alexandria, and suggested that he or one of his assistants rewrite it and put it in Greek. This abbot apparently used several young monks in this work, allowing each one to independently complete this task and tell the story in his own way. Thus, several documents were created, differing in their merits - each author included in his text more or less from the original manuscript of Matthäus, but also added those legends that he knew or that dictated to him by his taste and imagination. Four of them have come down to us and bear the names of the monks who wrote them - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The magnificent statement with which the Gospel of John opens does not belong to him, but is a quotation, for we find it long before the time of Christ in a manuscript, which was even then of great antiquity. In it, it occurs together with a quotation from the Stanzas of Dzyan, which have also been translated into Greek."

Blavatsky also writes, "Often in theosophical literature there are contradictory statements about the principle of Christ in man. Some call it the sixth principle (buddhi), and others - the seventh (atman). If Christian theosophists want to use these expressions, then let them do it philosophically correctly , following the analogy with the symbols of the ancient Wisdom Religion, We say that Christ is not only one of the three supreme principles, but all three considered as a Trinity.This Trinity represents the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son, which corresponds to the spirit abstract, differentiated and incarnated. Philosophically, Krishna and Christ are the same principle in its threefold aspect of manifestation.In the Bhagavad-gita we find that Krishna calls himself both atman and abstract spirit and kshetrajna, the Supreme or reincarnating Self, and the Universal Self. transferred from the universe to man correspond to atma, buddhi and manas. Anugita is full of the same doctrines." Compares Jesus with Krishna and shouts that it is not necessary for a Theosophist to pray, much less to go to the temple!

Chapter 3. What are the differences between Theosophy and Orthodoxy?

Although the authors of Theosophy at every turn trumpet that Christianity and Theosophy are one and the same, in fact we have absolutely two different religious movements, differing in their essence by 200 percent! I, as a student of Theosophy for a long time, know this personally. Let's take a look at the points of all the differences for a more understandable look at this problem.

1 Blavatsky on prayer. Volume 3, Part 1. The greatest crime that has ever been committed against humanity occurred on the day when the first priest invented the first prayer, with a selfish goal in mind. God, who can be appeased by unjust prayers to "bless the weapon" of the one who prays and send defeat and death to thousands of his enemies - his brothers; A deity about which one can think that it will not remain deaf to hymns and praises, mixed with pleas for sending down a "fair wind" for itself and, quite naturally, disastrous for other sailors sailing from the opposite side - it was precisely such an idea of ​​​​God that brought up selfishness in a person and deprived him of self-confidence. Prayer is an ennobling act when it represents strong feelings, an ardent desire, bursting from the very heart for the good of other people, and when it is completely free from any selfish personal goal; yearning for the other world is natural and holy in a person, but on the condition of sharing this bliss with others. One can understand and appreciate the words of the "heathen" Socrates, who in his deep, though not taught wisdom, declared that: "We must pray for blessings for all, since the gods know best what is good for us."

But official supplication—for a public calamity, or for the benefit of one individual, notwithstanding the loss to thousands—is the most shameful of crimes, not to mention that it is misplaced conceit and superstition. This is a direct heritage acquired by robbery from the Jehovists, the Jews of the Desert and the Golden Calf.

Thus, prayer, unless it is mentally uttered and addressed to its "Father" in the silence and silence of its room, must more often have disastrous than beneficent results, since the masses are not at all aware of the powerful consequences that they thus produce. In order to create good consequences, the prayer must be said by a person "who knows how to be heard in silence" when it is no longer a prayer, but becomes a command. Why is Jesus shown forbidding his followers from going to public synagogues? Probably not everyone who prayed was a hypocrite and a liar or a Pharisee who loved to be seen praying! He had a reason for it, presumably; the same reason that makes the experienced occultist warn his disciples against visiting crowded places, then as now, against visiting churches, séance rooms, etc., unless they are in harmony with the crowd.

Asking. Do you believe in prayer and do you pray?

Theosophist. No. Instead of talking, we act.

Asking. You don't offer prayers even to the Absolute Principle?

Theosophist. Why should we do this? Being very busy people, we can hardly afford to waste time in verbal prayers to pure abstraction. The unknowable admits only connections between its parts, but does not exist for any finite relations. The visible universe in its existence and phenomena depends on its interacting forms and their laws, and not on prayers and prayers.

Asking. Do you believe in the power of prayer at all?

Theosophist. We do not believe in a prayer that is memorized, verbose and repeated purely outwardly, if by prayer you mean an external request addressed to an unknown God, solemnly enthroned by the Jews and popularized by the Pharisees.

Asking. Is there any other kind of prayer?

Theosophist. Undoubtedly; we call it volitional prayer, and it is more of an internal command than a petition.

Asking. To whom then do you pray so?

Theosophist. Our "Heavenly Father" - in its esoteric understanding.

Asking. Is it something different from what is invested in this concept in theology?

Theosophist. Absolutely. The occultist or theosophist turns to his Father, who is in secret (read and try to understand verse 6 of chapter VI of the Gospel of Matthew), and not extra-cosmic and therefore finite God; and this "Father" is in the man himself.

Now what does the Bible say about prayer, the prophets and Jesus Christ himself.

"A good deed is prayer with fasting and almsgiving and justice. Better a little with justice than a lot with unrighteousness; it is better to do alms than to collect gold" (Tov.12: 8) "And whatever you ask in prayer with faith, you will receive ” (Mat. 21:22). The one who "asks in faith, not a little doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven up and tossed by the wind. Let such a person not think to receive anything from the Lord" (James 1:6-7). "Therefore I say to you : whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you receive it, and it will be for you” (Mark 11:24). "And the prayer of faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him" (James 5:15).

"Pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17). "Delight yourself in hope; in tribulation be patient, in prayer constant” (Rom. 12:12). "Therefore, watch at all times and pray" (Luke 21:36). "But I cry to You, Lord, and early in the morning my prayer precedes You" (Ps.87:14). "Hear, O Lord, my words... for I pray to Thee" (Ps.5:2-3). Daniel "kneeled down three times a day, and prayed to his God, and praised Him" ​​(Dan.6:10 ). "Do not worry about anything, but always in prayer and petition with thanksgiving, make your desires known to God" (Philippians 4:6). "Always rejoice. Pray without ceasing. In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). "I am praying to Thee, O Lord... according to Thy great goodness, hear me in the truth of Thy salvation" (Ps. 68:14). "You hear the prayer; all flesh resorts to you” (Ps. 64:3). "And when you stand in prayer, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Heavenly Father may also forgive you your sins" (Mark 11:25). "Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who offend you and persecuting you” (Mat. 5:44).

The conclusion is that GOD himself, Jesus Christ himself and the holy fathers call on people to pray for themselves, for loved ones, even for enemies. Blavatsky directly contradicts the precepts of the Bible, calling not to pray and not to go to church! Blavatsky could hint that during the wars, Christians prayed against enemies, which means they were engaged in black magic, but here she clearly calls not to pray at all and seek God in oneself. Let's move on to the next difference.

2 Blavatsky on reincarnation. REINCARNATION The doctrine of reincarnation, which Jesus and the apostles believed, as did all the people of those days, but which is now denied by Christians. All Egyptian converts to Christianity, the Church Fathers and others, believed in this doctrine, as the writings of some of them show. In still existing symbols, the human-headed bird flying towards the mummy, body, or "soul" uniting with its sahou (the haloed body of the Ego and also the Kamaloka sheath) confirms this belief. The "Song of the Resurrection" which Isis sings to bring her dead husband back to life can be translated as the "Song of Reincarnation", since Osiris is collective Humanity. "Oh! Osiris (here follows the name of the Osirified mummy or the deceased), rise again in the holy land (matter), the supreme mummy in the coffin, in your bodily substances," such was the mourning prayer of the priest over the deceased. Among the Egyptians, "Resurrection" never meant the resurrection of a mutilated mummy, but the Soul that revived it, the resurrection of the Ego in a new body. That the Soul or Ego periodically takes on flesh was a universal belief; also nothing can be more in harmony with justice and karmic law.

Reincarnation (reincarnation, or rebirth). Once a universal doctrine that taught that the "I" is born on this Earth countless times. Currently denied by Christians who seem to have misunderstood the teaching of their own gospels. Nevertheless, the Bible taught the periodic entry into the flesh of the higher human soul (buddhi-manas) over long cycles, just like all other ancient writings, and “resurrection” means only a new birth of the “I” in a different form. Key to Theosophy.

Karma is in the closest, or rather, inseparable connection with the Law of Reincarnation of the same spiritual Individuality in a long, almost endless series of Personalities. The latter are like different types presented by the same actor, with each of which this actor identifies himself and is identified by the public for several hours. The inner or true Man, personifying these characters, knows all the time that he is Hamlet, only for a short period of several acts, which, nevertheless, on the plane of human illusion represent the whole life of Hamlet. He also knows that the previous evening he was King Lear, which, in turn, was the transformation of Othello into an even more distant evening. And though the outward, visible character is supposed to be unaware of this fact, and in the present life this ignorance is unfortunately only too real, yet the permanent Individuality is fully aware of this and, only by virtue of the atrophy of the "Spiritual Eye" in the physical body, this knowledge cannot be imprinted on the consciousness of a deceptive Person.

Now what does the church say about reincarnation.

Many holy fathers mentioned the idea of ​​the transmigration of souls and always condemned it as a delusion incompatible with the Christian faith. One can recall here, in particular, St. John Chrysostom, who wrote: “As for the soul, the pagan philosophers have abandoned the most shameful teaching about it; they said that human souls become flies, mosquitoes, trees; they claimed that God himself is a soul, and invented many other absurdities ... There is nothing surprising in Plato, except for this one ... In the opinions of this philosopher, if you strip them of embellishment in expression, you will see a lot of abomination, especially when he philosophizes about the soul, without measure and extolling it and humiliating it ... Sometimes he says that the soul is involved in the divine being; and sometimes, having exalted her so immoderately and so impiously, he offends her with another extreme, introducing her into pigs and donkeys, and into other animals, even worse.

Finally, the doctrine of reincarnation was condemned by the Orthodox Church at the Council of Constantinople in 1076. The third paragraph of his ruling read:

“Those who accept the reincarnation of human souls ... and therefore deny the resurrection, judgment and the final reward for life are anathema.”

According to St. Nicholas of Serbia, “this theory, precisely because of its simplicity and seeming ethics, was so rooted in Indian philosophy that even the Buddha did not try to challenge it. Gautama Buddha did not add anything to [this] old Indian belief ... except for one method of liberating the soul from life in general and passing into unlife, into joylessness, into nirvana.

This [Buddhist] method is a method of exhausting austerity, which the world has not recorded or noted anywhere. To get rid of this living body - is there anything easier? One mosquito is able to kill the body. But to get rid of a living soul is the most difficult task that mankind once set for itself with the help of India. The Buddha believed that he had solved this problem. We don't believe in it. We do not believe that this problem needs to be solved, since its formulation is not substantiated. There is no transmigration of souls from body to body and, accordingly, there is no set task.”

The conclusion is again a direct contradiction. I think if Jesus really spoke about reincarnation, then the Apostles would certainly have captured this in the Bible. I think that even GOD himself would give guidance on reincarnation, but it simply DOES NOT! Blavatsky again blatantly lies, drawing her doctrine into the mouth of Christ. But Christ did not believe in reincarnation, just as GOD himself did not say anything about this to the prophets.

3 Blavatsky on vegetarianism. "Theosophist. One of the eminent German scientists demonstrated that any kind of animal tissue, no matter how you process it during the cooking process, retains the properties of those animals to which it belonged, and these properties can be established. In addition, everyone can determine by taste what kind of meat he eats. We go a little further and confirm that the meat of animals, assimilated by man as food, physiologically transmits to the latter certain characteristics of the animal to which it belonged. Moreover, occult science teaches this and clearly demonstrates this to its students, showing also, that the meat of large animals has the greatest "roughening" or "animal" effect on a person, and that it manifests itself to a lesser extent when eating poultry, even less so - fish and other cold-blooded animals, and least of all - when a person eats exclusively vegetables.

Asking. Then it would be better for him not to eat at all?

Theosophist. If a person could live without food - of course. But it is so that in order to live he needs to eat; and therefore we recommend to serious students the use of such food as would least burden and burden their body and brain, and hinder and retard as little as possible the development of their intuition, their inner powers and faculties.” - End of quote.

The funny thing is that followers of Theosophy, such as Alice Bailey, ate meat and wrote in their books that this did not prevent them from practicing the Occult. Even in the movement itself, there is a lot of incomprehensibility and the authors interpret everything differently, although the majority support vegetarianism. For example, Leadbeater writes. “In speaking of the relationship between vegetarianism and the occult, it would be well for us to begin by defining our terms. We all know what is meant by vegetarianism, and although there are several varieties of it, it will not be necessary to discuss them now. A vegetarian is one who abstains from carnivory.Some of them allow such animal products that are obtained without the deprivation of animal life, such as milk, butter, and cheese.There are others who restrict themselves to certain varieties of plant foods—fruits and nuts, for example; food that can be eaten raw, others will not accept food that grows underground such as potatoes, turnips, carrots, etc. We should not mess with these differences, but simply define a vegetarian as one who who abstain from any food obtained by killing animals - including, of course, birds and fish.

How do we define the occult? This word comes from the Latin occultus - hidden; so it is the study of the hidden laws of nature. Since all the great laws of nature actually operate in the invisible world to a much greater extent than in the visible, occultism involves the adoption of a much broader view of nature than is usually accepted. The occultist, then, is a man who studies all the laws of nature that he can reach or hear about, and as a result of his study he identifies himself with these laws and devotes his life to the service of evolution.

How does the occult relate to vegetarianism? He treats it with great approval, and there are many reasons for this. These causes may be divided into two classes, those that are common and physical in nature, and those that are occult or hidden. There are many arguments for vegetarianism here on the physical plane, obvious to anyone who takes the trouble to investigate the subject; and they will be even more powerful for the student of occultism than for the average person. In addition to these, and quite outside of them, the student of occultism is aware of other causes which come from the study of those hidden laws which are still so little understood by the majority of mankind. We must, however, divide our consideration of these causes into two parts, taking first the ordinary and the physical. "

He continues, "Until now we have been talking about what we have called the physical or selfish considerations that could cause a person to stop eating this dead flesh and turn him to a cleaner diet, if only for his own benefit. Now let's let us think for a moment about the moral and unselfish considerations of our duty to others.First, and this seems to be the most appalling, the heinous sin of needlessly killing these animals.Those who live in Chicago are well aware of how this incessant slaughter goes on in their area, how of the world by its products.Using impeccable evidence, I have clearly shown that there is no need for this, and if there is no need for this, it is already a crime.

The destruction of life is always a crime. There may be times when this is the lesser of two evils, but there can be no shadow of an excuse here, since it is unnecessary and occurs only due to the selfish and unscrupulous greed of those who profit from the agony of the animal kingdom to please the perverted tastes of those who are corrupt enough to desire this disgusting disease. Remember, before God, not only those who do dirty work are guilty of this horror, but also those who, eating this dead flesh, encourage them, making their crime profitable. Each person who participates in the consumption of this impure food bears their share of indescribable guilt for the suffering by which it was obtained. The law everywhere recognizes the principle "qui facit per alium facit per se" - that is, what is done with the help of another is equated with what is done personally.

People often say: "But all these horrors will not change at all if I stop eating meat alone." This is false and disingenuous. First, the difference will be a pound or two every day, which over time will amount to the weight of a whole animal. Secondly, it is not a question of quantity, but of complicity in a crime, and if you use the fruits of a crime, you help make it profitable, and thus share the blame. No honest person would deny this. But when people's lower desires are touched, they are usually insincere in their views and refuse to see the obvious facts. And as for the fact that this terrible murder, which is not necessary - is really a terrible crime, there can be no difference of opinion.

Another point to be remembered is that the transport of these poor animals by land and sea to the place of slaughter is terribly cruel, and is itself committed with cruelty. Those who try to justify these heinous crimes will tell you that attempts are being made to kill as quickly and painlessly as possible; but one need only read the reports to be convinced that in many cases these intentions are not fulfilled and there is great suffering."

What does the Bible say about eating meat?

God "let all the beasts of the earth fear and tremble at you, and all the birds of the air, everything that moves on the earth, and all the fish of the sea: they are given into your hands;
everything that moves that lives will be food for you; like green grass I give you everything; (Gen. 9:2,3)

And God blessed them, and God said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

And here it is said that God Himself fed meat to the great prophet Elijah through a raven, although, of course, if meat were not to be eaten according to the law of God, the Creator Himself would not have given meat to Elijah:

“And the ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the stream” (1 Kings 17:6).

John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah (“and he shall go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah,” see Luke 1:17), so it is not strange that John ate locusts.

“John himself had a garment of camel's hair…and his food was locust (locust) and wild honey” (Matt. 3:4).

Jesus twice fed people with fish (see the Gospel of Matthew 14 and 15), miraculously creating it for several thousand people! He could create anything, but he created the fish.

Also after His resurrection, Jesus gave the disciples to eat fish for food:

“Jesus says to them: bring the fish that you have now caught. Simon Peter went and dragged a net full of big fish to the ground… Jesus said to them: Come, have dinner. Jesus comes and takes the bread and gives them, also the fish” (John 21:10-13).

The conclusion is that veganism is not prescribed by the Bible and Christ himself did not patronize veganism! My personal experience - I was a vegetarian for 9 months, after which my neck began to hurt a lot. After a few servings of meat, the pain was gone. So the health myth is a sham, although I can't judge everyone. But if this were true, then people would be cured of all diseases if they ate only fruits and vegetables, but this does not happen. Krishna, like all demons who take the form of the Lord, mislead people and one of the main tricks is vegetarianism.

4-Myth about chosenness of Mahatmas.

MAHATMA (Skt.) Lit., "great soul." Adept of the highest degree. Exalted beings who, having attained complete mastery over their lower principles, thus live unhindered by the "man of the flesh" and possess the knowledge and power appropriate to the stage they have reached in their spiritual evolution. In the Pali language they are called Rahats and Arhats.

There are four degrees of Initiation, mentioned in the exoteric writings, and respectively known in Sanskrit as Srotapanna, Sakridagamin, Anagamin, and Arhat; The four Paths to Nirvana in this Fourth Round of ours bear the same names. The Arhat, although he can see the Past, Present and Future, is not yet the highest Initiate; for the Adept himself, the initiated candidate, becomes the Chelo (disciple) of the Highest Initiate. Three more higher degrees must be achieved by an Arhat if he wants to reach the top of the ladder of Arhatship. There are those who have achieved this even in this Fifth Race of ours, but the abilities necessary to reach these higher degrees will be fully developed in the average aspiring ascetic only at the end of this Root Race, and especially in the Sixth and Seventh. Thus, the initiated and the profane will always exist until the end of this small Manvantara, the present Cycle of Life. The Arhats of the “Fiery Mist”, the Seventh Degree, are separated by only one degree from the “Root-Basic” of their Hierarchy, the highest on Earth and in our Earthly Chain. This Base Root has a Name that can be translated into English with only a few compound words - "Eternal-Living-Human-Banyan." This "Wonderful Being" descended from the "Higher Realm", so they say, in the early days of the Third Age before the separation of the sexes in the Third Race.

This Third Race is sometimes called collectively the "Sons of Passive Yoga," for it was generated unconsciously by the Second Race, which, being mentally inactive, was regarded as permanently in a kind of abstract contemplation, which is required by the conditions of the Yogic state. In the first or early period of the existence of this Third Race, while it was still in a state of purity, the "Sons of Wisdom", who, as will be seen, incarnated in this Root-Race, begat by means of Krishakti an offspring called the "Sons of Hell" or "Fiery Mist" , "Sons of Will and Yoga", etc. They were a conscious creature, for a part of this Race was already animated by the divine spark of the spiritual, higher mind. This offspring was not a Race. In the beginning, it was a Miraculous Being called the "Initiator", and after him a group of semi-divine, semi-human Beings. "Separated" in an archaic genesis for specific purposes, they are the ones in which the higher Dhyanis - the "Munis and Rishis of previous Manvantaras" - are said to have incarnated to create a nursery for future human Adepts on this Earth and throughout the present Cycle. These "Sons of Will and Yoga", born, so to speak, in an immaculate way, remained, as explained, completely separated from the rest of humanity. The "being" just mentioned, which must remain unnamed, is the Tree from which all the great, historically known Sages and Hierophants, like Rishi Kapila, Hermes, Enoch, Orpheus, etc., branched off in subsequent centuries. As an objective man, he is a mysterious (for the layman - forever invisible), but always present Personality, about which all the legends of the East speak, especially among occultists and students of the Secret Science. This Being changes form, remaining forever the same. He is the spiritual Authority of all initiated Adepts throughout the world. He is called "Nameless" who has so many names and yet whose names and very essence are not known. He is the "Initiator" called the "GREAT SACRIFICE". For, being at the threshold of Light, He looks at it from within the Circle of Darkness, which He will not cross; and until the last Day of this Cycle of Life, He will not leave His post. Why does the Lone Guardian remain in his own chosen post? Why is He sitting at the Fountain of Eternal Wisdom, from which He no longer drinks, for He has nothing to know that he does not already know - neither on this Earth, nor in her Heavens? – Because lonely, weary travelers, returning home, are never sure, even until the last minute, that they will not lose their path in this boundless desert of Illusion and Matter, called Earthly Life. Because He longs to show every prisoner who managed to free himself from the bonds of flesh and illusion the way to that area of ​​freedom and Light from which He Himself is a voluntary exile. Because, in short, He sacrificed Himself for the Salvation of Mankind, although only a select few can take advantage of this GREAT SACRIFICE.

Under the direct silent guidance of this MAHAGURU, from the time of the first awakening of human consciousness, all other less divine Teachers and Instructors of Mankind became the leaders of early Mankind. Through these "Sons of God" infant Humanity received its first conceptions of all the arts and sciences, as well as of spiritual knowledge. It was They who laid the foundation stone of those ancient civilizations that so rightly arouse the astonishment of our modern generation of scientists and researchers.
Asking. But what does the word "mahatma" actually mean?

Theosophist. Just a "great soul" - great in its moral height and its intellectual development. If the title of "great" is given to a drunken warrior like Alexander the Great, then why shouldn't we call "great" those whose victories over the mysteries of nature are far more magnificent than any Alexander ever won on the battlefield? In addition, the word is Indian and very ancient.

Asking. Why do you call them "Masters"?

Theosophist. Because they teach us, and also because from them we have received all the truths of Theosophy, no matter how inadequately some of us express them, and others understand them. These initiates, as we call them, are men of great knowledge and still greater holiness. They are not ascetics in the usual sense of the word, although they certainly remain aloof from the bustle and strife of your Western world.

Asking. But isn't such self-isolation selfish?

Theosophist. What is the ego here? Is not the fate of the Theosophical Society proof enough that the world is neither ready to recognize them nor to derive any benefit from their teaching? How much use would it be if, for example, Professor Clark Maxwell taught kids the multiplication table? Besides, mahatmas retire only from the West. In their own country, they roam freely everywhere, like all other people.

Asking. Do you attribute any supernatural powers to them?

Theosophist. As I told you, we don't believe in anything supernatural. If Edison had lived two hundred years ago and then invented his phonograph, then he would most likely have been burned along with his invention, attributing everything to the machinations of the devil. The powers that mahatmas use are simply the result of the development of those possibilities that are hidden in every person, and the existence of which even official science is beginning to recognize.

Leadbeater on Mahatmas.

The existence of improved people is one of the most important among the many facts that Theosophy confronts us with. It follows logically from her other great teachings - about karma and evolution through reincarnation. If we look around, we will see people at various stages of evolution - many are much lower than us in development, while others are noticeably ahead of us in one way or another. If this is so, then there may be people who have gone much further ahead. Indeed, if people are constantly getting better and better over a long series of successive lives, striving for a certain goal, then there must certainly be those who have already reached this goal. Some of us, in the process of this evolution, have already succeeded in developing some of those higher feelings inherent in each person, which in the future will become the property of all; by means of these senses we are able to see the ladder of evolution extending far both above and below us, and we can also see that there are people on each rung of this ladder.

There is a considerable amount of direct evidence of the existence of perfect people, but I think that the first step of each of us should be to make sure that there must be such people - only from this will it follow that those with whom we come into contact, belong to this class.

The history of all peoples is full of the deeds of brilliant people in all areas of human activity, people who are far ahead of their contemporaries in development, who have risen high above the masses in their special lines of work and abilities. And indeed, in those days (and this probably happened more often than we know about it), their ideals were completely beyond the understanding of people, and therefore not only their work was lost to mankind, but their names themselves were not preserved. It has been said that the history of every nation can be written in the biographies of a few individuals, and that always such individuals have risen above the rest, laying the foundation for great strides in art, music, literature, science, philosophy, philanthropy, politics and religion. Sometimes they exalted themselves in love for God and their brethren as great saints and philanthropists; sometimes they were raised by the understanding of man and nature as great philosophers, sages and scientists; sometimes they acted as great liberators and reformers in their work for mankind. Looking at these people and realizing how high they stand above humanity, how far they have gone in human evolution, would it not be logical to say that we see no limits to human achievements and that they should have existed before, and now people are even more developed , people great both in their spirituality and in knowledge or artistic ability - just like those adepts or supermen, meeting with whom it was an invaluable privilege for some of us?

This constellation of human geniuses, enriching and decorating the pages of history, is at the same time the glory and hope of all mankind, for we know that these Great Ones are pioneers for the rest, that they shine like beacons, like true light-bearers, to show the way, according to which we must follow if we are to reach that glory which will soon be revealed. We have long accepted the doctrine of the evolution of the forms in which the Divine Life dwells; now we have before us the complementary and greater idea of ​​the evolution of Life itself, indicating that the purpose of this marvelous development of all lower and higher forms is the need of ever-growing life to express itself. Forms are born and die, forms grow, fall into decay and are destroyed, but the Spirit grows eternally, animating these forms and developing by the experience acquired in them and through them. Then, when the form has already served and the Spirit has outgrown it, it is discarded so that a new and better one can take its place.

Under various circumstances, I saw other members of the Brotherhood. The first meeting with one of them was in a hotel in Cairo; I was traveling to India with H. P. Blavatsky and some others, and we stopped there for a while. We used to gather in H. P. Blavatsky's room to work, and I sat on the floor, cutting and selecting the newspaper articles she needed. She was sitting next to me at the table, and my left hand was touching her dress. The door to the room was visible and certainly did not open; suddenly, without any preparation, almost between me and Blavatsky there appeared a man standing without touching us. This startled me, and in some perplexity I jumped up, which amused Madame Blavatsky, who said: "If you are so little versed that you are afraid of such trifles, then you will not go far in occult work." I was introduced to a visitor who was then not an adept, but an arhat, one step down; from then on he became the Master known as Djwhal Khul.

A few months later, Master Morya appeared to us, looking exactly like in the physical body. He passed through the room in which I was in order to talk with H. P. Blavatsky, who at that time was in her bedroom. For the first time I saw it clearly and distinctly, because at that time my latent abilities were not yet so developed that I could remember what I saw in the subtle body. Under similar conditions, I saw Master Koot Hoomi on the roof of our headquarters in Adyar. He stepped over the balustrade as if he had just materialized out of thin air on the other side of it. I have also seen Master Djwhal Khul many times on the same roof and in the same way.

This evidence, I think, will be considered less certain, since the adepts appeared like ghosts, but since I have since learned to freely use my higher vehicles and visit the Great Ones in this way, I can confirm that those who appeared to us and materialized in the early days of the Society's existence are the same people whom I have often seen at their homes since then. It has been suggested that I and others who have had the same experiences may have been dreaming, since these visitations took place while the physical body was asleep; I can only answer what this amazingly long dream means, lasting for more than forty years and which is seen by a lot of people at the same time.

Those who wish to collect evidence of this (and their desire is quite reasonable) should turn to the early literature of the Society. If they meet with our President,* they can hear from her how many Great Ones she has seen on various occasions; and among our members there are many who will not hesitate to testify that they have seen the Master. It could be that they saw his face during meditation, and then received some evidence that he is a real being. Much evidence is to be found in Colonel Olcott's Old Diary Leaves, and there is an interesting treatise entitled "Do Brothers Exist?" written by A. O. Hume, a man who held a high position in the civil service in India and worked with our late Vice-President President A.P. Sinnett. It was published in Hints on Esoteric Theosophy.** Mr. Hume, a skeptical Anglo-Indian with a juridical mindset, questioned the existence of the Brethren (as the Masters were then called, because they belonged to a great Brotherhood, and because are the Elder Brothers of mankind), and already then decided that he had stunning evidence of their existence, but since the publication of this book, they have collected much more.

The Bible about "Mahatmas"

Throughout its narrative, the Bible teaches to worship the One Living God - the Creator of heaven and Earth. The second commandment of the Decalogue unequivocally and clearly prohibits believers from idolatry - the divine veneration of idols, idols and images. This is how it is stated in the Holy Scriptures and, accordingly, was carved on stone tablets:

“Do not make for yourself an idol or any image of what is in heaven above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth; do not worship them and do not serve them, for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, punishing the children for the guilt of the fathers to the third and fourth generations that hate Me, and showing mercy to thousands of generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments ”(Ex. 20: 4-6>).

Jesus repeated this thought: “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him alone” (Matt. 4:10, Luke 4:8), quoting the Old Testament (see Deut. 6:13, Deut. 10:20, 1 Chron. 7:3).

However, the second commandment gives a ban not just on idolatry, as on the worship of idols symbolizing other gods, but on the veneration of everything living and inanimate, which is not God Himself. Look, the worship of other gods has already been forbidden by the Creator with the first commandment of the Decalogue: “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3). This means that the second commandment, without repeating the first, proclaims not only about other gods. Look, she is talking specifically about something else: idols and images. So, the second commandment is not only about idols, which are foreign gods. By the second commandment, God proclaims that the attention directed to Him should all belong to Him alone, and not to anyone or anything. Here and in other places of Scripture, speaking of His relationship with man, the Creator calls Himself a jealous man (see Ex. 20:5, Ex. 34:14, Deut. 4:24, Deut. His chosen people is his wife: “The Creator is your husband” (Is. 54:5, see also Jer. 3:1, Hos. 1:2, Eph. 5:25, Rev. 12:1,6, Rev. 19:7). From the texts of the Bible it is clearly seen what (whom) the jealous God is jealous of. What kind of husband would like it if his wife would give part of her love to someone or something? Each spouse will be angry, even if adultery does not reach intimacy, but is limited to kisses, courtesies or caresses. I think few people will argue with the fact that turning to God through an icon, relics or a saint, a believer transfers part of his love to this "intermediary". The relationship between the two spouses enters the third, fourth, fifth ... superfluous. All “holy mediators” are not faceless “guides” for people to the heavenly Spouse, but acquire the features inherent in living personalities: each of the relics is perceived as part of the earthly body of the intercessor now living in heaven; famous icons have their own names, people choose between two icons at home and five in the temple - one is always nicer than the others, and it is she who is more pleasant to pray, and if some icon does not help, the believer goes to another; if the saint does not protect, the petitioner turns to the next, and so on. But God is One. Believers, kissing icons and relics, objects inside of which there is no God, know that God is Living, but continue adultery. This is what causes the jealousy of the Creator.

As we have seen in previous chapters, only God answers prayers. Prayer in secret (see Matt. 6:6) illustrates the intimacy of the relationship between the Creator and each person. Only the Creator is the other side of the relationship. Therefore, the categorical nature of God in the matter of any of the varieties of idolatry is understandable. The Lord Zealous Man through the Bible more than once sternly warns of the coming punishment for unfaithfulness:

“For all the adulterous acts of the apostate daughter of Israel, I let her go and gave her a bill of divorce… Judah… by sheer fornication… defiled the earth, and committed adultery with stone and wood” (Jer. 3:8,9, see also Jer. 3 ( the whole chapter), Ezekiel 16 (the whole chapter), Ezekiel 23 (the whole chapter), Hosea 2 (the whole chapter).

Conclusion-In Theosophy, sects, people worship certain Mahatmas, Mantreya and incomprehensible Gods, who are considered a "manifestation of the Logos", that is, God. You even need to meditate on these teachers, and there are more than one of them - Kut Hoomi, Dzhual Khul, a whole cohort of "chosen ones". If you look at history, most of these Mahatma letters have been exposed. Also, in sects all over America, the names of Mantreya, Khula were used with might and main, hundreds of books were written, where dedicated adepts appeared to different people. Such societies were dominated by drugs, drunkenness and murder. Many of the founders of these sects were put behind bars, they all ended badly. Therefore, faith and worship of these mahatmas is idolatry condemned by God.

5-Astral world through the eyes of Theosophy

Yes, in addition to those Beings who, like Yaksha, Gandharva, Kinnara, etc., being considered as individuals, inhabit the Astral Plane, there are real Devas, it is to these categories that Aditya, Vairaja, Kumaras, Asuras and all those high celestial Beings belong. , whom the Occult Teaching calls Manasvin, the Wisest, the foremost among all, and who would make all people self-conscious spiritually intelligent Beings, which they would become if they were not “cursed” and condemned to fall into generation and be born as mortals for their neglect of duty. The Secret Doctrine, Volume 2.

It should be noted that although the astral and physical planes of Matter ran parallel to each other, even during the most distant geological periods, nevertheless they were not in the same phases of manifestation in which they are now. The earth reached its present degree of density only 18,000,000 years ago. Since then, the physical and astral planes have become much denser.

The invisible sphere surrounding our globe, as well as any other, corresponding as the second Principle of the Cosmos (the third is Life, of which it is the vehicle) to the Linga Sharira, or the Astral Double in man. Subtle essence, visible only to the clairvoyant eye, and the lowest (with the exception of the earth) of the Seven Akashic or Cosmic Principles.

Leadbeater on Astral.

The first thing to be explained in describing this astral plane is its absolute reality. By using this word, I am not speaking from that metaphysical point of view, from which everything but the One Unmanifested is considered unreal, because impermanently - I use this word in its simple, everyday sense, and I mean that all objects and inhabitants of the astral plane are exactly as real as our own bodies, furniture, houses, and monuments - as real as Charing Cross, to use the emphatic remark of one of the first theosophical works. Like objects of the physical plane, they cannot exist forever, but nevertheless, as long as they persist, from our point of view they are real - these are realities that we cannot neglect, and which we cannot ignore simply because the majority of humanity does not yet is aware of their existence, or is only dimly aware.

I know how difficult it is for the average mind to grasp the reality of what cannot be seen with physical eyes. It is difficult for us to realize how partial our vision is, and to understand that we live all the time in a vast world, of which we see only a tiny part. And yet science says with certainty that this is so, because it describes to us whole worlds of tiny lives, the existence of which we are completely ignorant if we rely only on our senses. And knowing about these creatures is not at all unimportant because they are small - after all, our ability to maintain health, and in many cases life itself, depends on knowing the behavior and living conditions of some of these microbes.

But our senses are limited in another direction as well. We cannot see the air around us itself, and the senses give us no evidence of its existence, except when it is in motion and we can feel it with the sense of touch. However, it is a force that can topple our largest ships and destroy our strongest buildings. So it is clear that there are powerful forces around us that still elude our poor and partial senses, and therefore we should beware of falling into that fatally universal delusion that everything that is visible is everything that can be seen.

We seem to be locked in a tower, and our feelings are small windows open in some directions. In many others, we are completely isolated, but clairvoyance or astral vision opens for us one or two additional windows, increasing our view and stretching before us a new, wider world, which is nevertheless part of the old, although we did not talk about it before. knew.

One cannot get a clear idea of ​​the teachings of the Wisdom Religion without some intellectual understanding of the fact that there are very specific planes in our solar system, each with its own matter of varying degrees of density. Some of these planes can be visited and observed by men who have trained themselves for this work, just as other countries can be visited and seen, and by comparing the observations of those constantly working on these planes, evidence of their existence and nature can be obtained at least as satisfactory, as most of us have about the existence of Greenland or Svalbard. Moreover, just as a person who has the means to do so may decide to personally go to these places, so any person who takes the trouble to prepare himself by leading a life that is necessary for this, in time will be able to go to these higher planes and see them myself.

The names commonly given to these planes, listed in descending order of materiality, from denser to subtler, are physical, astral, mental, buddhic, and nirvanic. There are two more above this, but they are so much above our present ability to think and perceive that we do not consider them now. It should be understood that the matter of each of these planes differs from the matter of the inferior plane in the same way as vapor differs from solid matter, only to a still greater degree. In fact, the states of matter that we call solid, liquid and gaseous are simply the three lower subdivisions of matter belonging to this one physical plane.

The astral realm that I am trying to describe here is the second of these great planes of Nature - above (or within) the physical world we are all familiar with. Often it is called the realm of illusions - not because it is in any way more illusory than the physical world, but because of the extreme unreliability of the impressions that an untrained observer takes out of it.

Bible about Astral

“He who conducts his son or daughter through the fire, a soothsayer, a fortuneteller, a soothsayer, a sorcerer, ...” (Deut. 18:10) should not be with you.

“And of those who practiced sorcery, quite a few, having collected their books, burned them in front of everyone, and added up their prices, and they turned out to be fifty thousand [drachmas].” (Acts 19:19).

"Do not leave the fortune tellers alive." (Ex. 22:18).

“I will tear sorceries out of your hand, and there will be no one among you who divines by the clouds.” (Micah 5:12).

“And when Jehoram saw Jehu, he said, Is Jehu in peace? And he said: What peace is there in the fornication of Jezebel your mother, and in her many sorceries? (2 Kings 9:22).

So, in the Old and New Testaments, we see that the Bible condemns witchcraft and tells us not to leave witches alive.

3 Kings 18:2. The false prophet will mix truth and falsehood, use paganism and Christianity, and reject the Sabbath. The false prophet will convince you that you can sin and be saved.

Their life - shows us their essence; Jer. 23:14.
Their fruits are evil; Matt. 7:20.

Their prophecies will not be fulfilled; Deut. 18:20-22.

They don't confess Jesus Christ; 1 In. 4:1-3.

A false prophet hinders the preaching of the gospel; Gal. 1:6-9.

His sermon is sweet to the ear of the hearer; 2 Tim. 4:3-4.

Astral projection, a concept so popular today, is a mysterious spiritual cosmos that surrounds a person. Many spiritual seekers try to get there, today this can be learned in one of the many seminars, or by reading the numerous literature on this topic. It is with this area that occultists and esotericists of all stripes interact, it is there that spirits exist that are coaxed by shamans, forces with which psychics interact, from there cosmic revelations of various entities sound at sessions of spiritualism and channeling, enlightened masters go there after death, it is in this area people who use psychedelics travel. This area of ​​the spiritual world has been perfectly studied and described in the esoteric teachings of the faith of the saints, let's try to understand the essence of this reality, armed with the knowledge commanded to us by the Creator of all things.

The word "astral" is often associated with New Age ideas. The concept of the astral plane originated in the late 19th and early 20th century and was popularized by Theosophy, especially developed by Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater, and later by Alice Bailey. In this cosmology, the astral is the first metaphysical plane after the physical, but "dense" than the mental plane.

Orthodox saints teach that above the earth there is a region of spirits under heaven, a place where the devil rules, Holy Scripture directly speaks of this. The highest of the rational beings created by God, the guardian of our planet, the rebellious cherub Lucifer, abused his free will and fell away from the All-Good God. He dragged countless angels under him into sin. He rebelled against the Creator, dreaming of becoming equal to God, but was cast down from Heaven. Having departed from God, he, at the same time, departed from the true light and goodness and fell into the region of darkness and the abyss of evil. Since then, the seat of the devil has become the area of ​​spiritual reality closest to man, that abyss that separates our world from the world of holy angels and the abodes of paradise. St. Ignatius Bryanchaninov writes: “The devil, the enemy of our kind, having fallen from heaven, wanders in the space of this lower air, where, ruling over other demons, as if they had become disobedient and proud like him, with their assistance he deceives people with ghosts and tries to prevent those who who seek grief."

Conclusion - the Astral world is charm, suggestion of the World of Spirits. If Blavatsky speaks directly and calls to study this World, which others do, for example, Grechushkin, Raduga, Green, Monroe, then the church says unambiguously - this is the world of the Devil, the world of illusions. If you don’t believe me, watch Grechushkin’s video about the Astral, how he met Seraphim of Sarov and Christian saints there. In fact, these were not saints, but demons who had taken the form of saints. "Go and preach about the Astral" - so Grechushkin was told. Listen to his delusions, and even compare with the records of other practitioners. EVERYONE WILL HAVE A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE! If in our World two people see the lake in the same way, then in the world of the fallen one and the same will look different. Leadbeater writes in books what a beautiful place this Astral is, how healthy and safe it is. For some reason he doesn't mention the dangers of being possessed by demons! He does not mention the attack of these creatures. Just like modern scammers, for whom the main thing is to get money from people, from seminars and books. There is no mention of madness and the charm of demons. If a person really had to master the Astral World, then all this would happen without a struggle. But it's the other way around. Leadbeater found a way out - he claims that all these demons inhabiting the Astral are just thought forms of people! That is, they are not conscious entities. But compare the books of Roberto Monroe about the Astral and the books of Leadbeater - the difference will be huge, although both called themselves experienced practitioners! Compare the book of Mikhail Raduga or Richard Peach - the difference will again be huge! All this speaks only of the illusion of the Astral World, of the World of Lucifer, the World of the Fallen. I personally had the experience of going to the Astral, there is nothing beautiful there! Around the howl of dogs, everything is scary, you're like on a foreign planet. We again see a great contradiction between Theosophy and Christianity!

6 Blavatsky on Lucifer

"Demon est Deus inversus," the Devil is now called "Darkness" by the church, while in the Bible and the Book of Job he is called the "Son of God," the bright star of the early Morning, Lucifer. There is a whole philosophy of dogmatic art to explain the reason why the first Archangel, born from the abyss of Chaos, was called Lux ​​(Lucifer), the brilliant "Son of the Morning" or Dawn of Manvantara. He was transformed by the church into Lucifer or Satan, because he is higher and older than Jehovah, and had to be sacrificed to the New Dogma.

Venus or Lucifer - Shukra and Ushanas - the planet itself is the Carrier of the Light of our Earth, both in a philosophical and mystical sense. In early times, this was well known to Christians, for one of the first popes of Rome, like Pontiff, bore the name - Lucifer.

Paul's careful allusions were all esoteric, and it took centuries of scholastic casuistry to give them a false color in their present interpretations. The verb and Lucifer are one in their dual aspect; and the "Prince of Air" (princeps aeris huius) is not the "God of that period," but an ever-existing principle. When it was said that the latter revolves forever around the world (qui circumambulat terram), the great Apostle simply meant the never-ending cycles of human incarnations in which evil will always prevail until humanity is redeemed by the true divine Illumination, which one gives the right knowledge of things.

Bible on Lucifer

Lucifer was the most majestic and beautiful angel before his rebellion against God's rule, and only the Beloved Son of God was held in greater esteem than him. His face, like that of other angels, reflected humility and happiness. His high and wide forehead testified to a powerful intellect. He was perfect in everything. His manners and movements expressed inner nobility and grandeur, his face shone with some special light, illuminating everything around. This light was brighter and more beautiful than that which emanated from the faces of other angels who were with him in heaven. And yet Christ, the Beloved Son of God, was incomparably greater than all the host of heavenly angels. He was one with God the Father long before the angels were created. Lucifer became jealous of the Son of God and gradually arrogated to himself the power that belonged only to Christ.

The Great Creator gathered all the celestials in order to show special honor to His Son in their presence. He raised the Son to His throne, and hosts of heavenly angels surrounded them. Then the Father declared that from now on, according to His will, Christ is equal to Him; and now the presence of His Son signifies the presence of God. The word of the Son was henceforth to be obeyed as well as the word of the Father Himself. He gave His Son the authority to rule over all the heavenly host. The Mighty Creator emphasized that His Son, in close union with Him, will participate in the forthcoming creation of the Earth and all that inhabit it. God declared that Christ will always carry out His will and intentions and will not do anything independently, from Himself, it is in Him that the will of the Father will be fulfilled.

Lucifer experienced jealousy and envy. However, when all the angels bowed to Christ, recognizing His superiority, His sovereignty and the legitimate right to rule the universe, Lucifer bowed down to Him together with everyone, but his heart was filled with hatred and envy. Then a special council took place in heaven, where God the Father initiated Christ into His plans, but Lucifer did not know anything about them. He did not understand, nor was he allowed to know God's intentions. Christ was recognized by all heavenly angels as the Lord of heaven, since he possessed the same power and authority as God Himself. Lucifer believed that among all the heavenly angels, he is God's favorite. The fact that he was entrusted with a high position did not arouse in him a feeling of gratitude towards his Creator. He wanted to become equal to God Himself. He reveled in his greatness, believing that the angels should honor him. He was entrusted with a particularly honorable task. He lived near the Almighty Creator and, like no one else, could contemplate the rays of unfading glory surrounding the Eternal God. He was pleased to think about the pleasure, joy and zeal with which the angels fulfill all his commands. Do not his clothes shine with glory and splendor? Why, then, is Christ more honored than he?

Dissatisfied and consumed with envy of Jesus Christ, Lucifer leaves the place of the direct presence of the Father. Then he gathers all the heavenly angels and, carefully disguising his true intentions, sets out to them the essence of his displeasure, the real cause of which is none other than himself. Presenting himself offended, he tells everyone that God neglected him, unjustly exalting Jesus. Further, he reveals to them the imaginary consequences of this - henceforth the sweet heavenly freedom that the angels enjoyed has come to an end, since now another Lord has been placed over them, to whom they must henceforth slavishly obey. At the same time, Lucifer announces to the angels that from now on he will not allow anyone to trample on their rights, that he will never bow to Christ again, that he will achieve those honors that were supposedly originally intended for him by right, and that now he will be the leader and ruler of all who wants to follow him and obey him.

The angels began to actively discuss the situation. It was obvious to many that Lucifer and his supporters were trying to change the principles of God's government in the universe. The reason for their discontent and unhappiness was that they could not penetrate deep into His incomprehensible wisdom and understand why He exalted His Son and endowed Him with unlimited power and authority. They rebelled against the authority of the Son.

Faithful to God, the angels made great efforts to reason with Lucifer, who had raised a rebellion against the Creator of the Universe. They did not see anything illegal in the fact that God endowed Christ with divine authority, and they convinced Lucifer and his supporters that God was right. They brought forth the strongest arguments, seeking to prove to Lucifer that his dignity and the honor due to him were not diminished at all after the Father exalted His Son. Intelligibly and clearly they explained to Lucifer that Christ is the Son of God and existed with His Father long before they, the angels, were created, and that He was always at the right hand of the Father, and no one had ever disputed His authority in the Universe, where Christ was not a despotic ruler, but a meek and loving Master, whose commands are by no means imperious orders, but affectionate requests, the fulfillment of which brings joy to all the inhabitants of heaven. Again and again, faithful angels convinced the rebellious Lucifer that God had honored Christ in a special way in their presence, without in the least diminishing or belittling his honor and dignity, which he had previously been endowed with. With tears in their eyes, they ardently urged this cherub to abandon his evil intentions and again submit to the will of the Heavenly Father; because before that everything in the universe was in peace and perfect harmony, and disobedience to the Creator would inevitably lead to the most disastrous consequences.

However, Lucifer refused to even listen. He turned away from those who disagreed with him, contemptuously calling them slaves. Faithful to God, the angels watched in horror as Lucifer succeeded in successfully carrying out his rebellious plan. He promised his followers that he would introduce new and more just forms of government, guaranteeing complete freedom to all. And many angels, believing him, recognized him as their leader and master. Seeing that his rebellion against Divine rule was gaining strength, Lucifer consoled himself with the hope that soon all the angels would go over to his side, and then he would become equal to God Himself, and the entire heavenly host would unquestioningly fulfill his powerful commands. Faithful angels tried to convince him, they warned him of the disastrous consequences for the entire universe, which this stubborn disobedience to God could lead to; they assured him that He who created the heavenly angels could, by His power, deprive them of all authority and by Divine power put an end to this audacious and terrible rebellion. Just think about it! A created being opposes its Creator and does not want to obey the Law of God, which is as holy as God Himself! The angels faithful to God persistently advised Lucifer's followers not to listen to his false arguments, and they offered him and those who were under his influence to return to God and admit that they were mistaken, calling into question God's right to supreme power.

Many of Lucifer's supporters were already inclined to heed the urgent advice of faithful angels, repent of their displeasure, and earn again the trust of the Father and His Beloved Son. However, the great rebel declared that he had learned the Law of God and that even if he again began to obey God slavishly, he would still lose all his former honors, and he would never again occupy such a high position. Lucifer told his supporters that all of them had gone too far with him, so he would face any consequences boldly, but he would never slavishly bow before the Son of God. He declared that God would never forgive him or them, and that now it was up to them to assert their own freedom and by force to achieve that position and power that had not been voluntarily granted to them by God.

Faithful angels immediately went to the Son of God to inform Him of what was happening. But it turned out that at that time the Father was already discussing the situation with Him, looking for the best way to resolve the conflict, so that for the sake of the well-being of all faithful angels to God, once and for all put an end to Satan's presumptuous claims to power. Almighty God, of course, could throw this impudent deceiver from heaven in an instant, but this was not part of His plans. He graciously decided to give the rebellious Lucifer an equal opportunity to compare his strength and power with the strength of the Son of God and his faithful angels. In this struggle, everyone had to make their choice in front of all the celestials. It was highly unsafe to allow any of the angels who had joined Satan to remain in heaven. They were to learn a lesson from the consequences of consciously resisting the unchanging Law of God. If God had resorted to His power to punish this audacious rebel, it would not have been revealed which other angels supported Lucifer in his rebellion. Therefore, God acted differently, for He wanted to show His justice and judgment to all the host of heaven.

Thus, it was this "light-bearing angel", Lucifer, who was awarded God's glory, who stood before the throne of the Creator, having violated His Law, became Satan, the "adversary." - Patriarchs and Prophets, pp. orig. 40.
War in the sky

Rebellion against God's rule was the greatest crime. The whole sky seemed to be in motion. The angels lined up in divisions, each of which was headed by the highest rank cherubs. Not wanting to submit to the power of the Son of God, the Lord of heaven, striving for self-exaltation, for the sake of his vanity and ambition, Satan began a war against the Law of God.

All the heavenly host was commanded to appear and present themselves before the Father, that each might have his say. Then Satan began to shamelessly speak to all the inhabitants of heaven about his dissatisfaction with the fact that God did not exalt him, but Jesus Christ. Self-satisfied and proud, he demanded to be honored as an equal with God and initiated into God's innermost purposes. However, God told Satan that He would reveal His innermost intentions only to His Beloved Son. At the same time, God demanded that all the inhabitants of heaven, including Satan, completely and unconditionally obey Christ, after which Satan began to behave in such a way that his further stay in heaven became impossible. When Lucifer realized this, he pointed with jubilation to his supporters, who made up almost half of all angels, and exclaimed: “They are also with me! Maybe You want to drive them out of heaven and deal with them like with me?” Then Satan publicly announced that he was ready to resist the power of Christ to the end and defend his place in heaven, opposing His might and strength with his strength.

God's faithful angels wept when they heard Satan's bold words and boastful claims. God was forced to announce to everyone that Satan and his accomplices could no longer remain in heaven. Their happy and prosperous life was due only to complete obedience to the Law, which regulated the relationship of all rational beings. But the Law did not provide for the salvation of those who dared to break it. Satan became more and more bold, continuing his rebellion, and in every way expressed his contempt for the Law of the Creator. From now on, Satan simply could not come to terms with the existence of this Law. He argued that angels do not need any law at all and that they have the right to freely follow their desires, which supposedly always result in good deeds. Satan claimed that the Law of God limited their freedom, and therefore the main goal of the rebellion he raised was the abolition of this Law. In his opinion, the angels deserved a better fate. However, God, who established the Law and exalted it on a par with Himself, reasoned differently. The happiness of all the celestials depended on their complete obedience to this Law. Each angel had his own definite business, and until Satan rose up in rebellion, perfect order and perfect harmony reigned in heaven in all their actions.

So the war began in heaven. The Son of God, the Prince of Heaven and His faithful angels entered the fight against the rebellious Lucifer and his supporters. In this open struggle, the Son of God won with his faithful angels, and Satan and his accomplices were expelled from heaven. Then all the heavenly host gave praise and bowed down to the just God. There was not the slightest trace of rebellion in the sky. Once again, order, peace and harmony have come. The heavenly angels mourned over the fate of those who had previously shared serene joy and happiness with them and who were now so lacking in heaven.

The Father consulted with the Son regarding the immediate implementation of His intention to create man to inhabit the earth. At the same time, it was decided that before endowing him with immortality, it was necessary to test his loyalty. If a person passes the test determined by God, then he will subsequently become equal to the angels. He will enjoy the grace of God and freely communicate with the angels, and they with him. God did not want to deprive man of free will and choice.

Conclusion - Theosophy extols Lucifer as the savior, the Serpent of wisdom. Under this foundation is summed up the "evidence base". I think everyone knows that the Roerichs were followers of Blavatsky. But if you read the Roerichs, the difference in teaching will be obvious. The Roerichs supported Lenin and considered him a Mahatma.) Everyone still knows about the cult of Lenin, the destruction of churches, the murders of priests, the introduction of mass atheism and materialism. Strangely, the fighters for spirituality were happy with godlessness in the country. It seems to me that this conveys the whole essence of Blavatsky and the Roerichs, who were traitors to the Motherland, traitors to Orthodoxy from the very beginning. To study their works means not to respect your ancestors, your Motherland and God, Jesus Christ.

Chapter 4

I believe that the one who goes against God will receive imaginary demonic powers, but ... he will suffer all his life, and after death he will fall and go to hell, awaiting the Last Judgment. The whole essence of Occultism denies Hell. Leadbeater writes that there is no Hell, this is an invention of Christian fanatics, Monroe writes that we came to be born from space on Earth. Vanga also communicated with fallen spirits, like Blavatsky. Elena Petrovna was possessed by demons to such an extent that "Mahatmas" occupied her body from time to time and spoke through her. Her whole body was sick, she was in terrible pain. Reminds me of Wang, doesn't it? And what a life they had .. eternal travels, betrayal of the Motherland, hypocrisy, deceit. Blavatsky's letter to the gendarmes..

"Your Excellency!
I am the wife of Blavatsky, a real councilor of state, married 16 years old and by mutual agreement, a few weeks after the wedding, I separated from him. Since then, I have been living abroad almost all the time. During these 20 years, I became well acquainted with the whole of Western Europe, zealously followed current politics, not from any purpose, but from an innate passion, I always had the habit of following events better and foreseeing them, entering into the smallest details of a case, for which she tried to get acquainted with all the outstanding personalities of politicians from different powers, both the government and the left extreme side. A whole series of events, intrigues, upheavals took place before my eyes... Many times I had the opportunity to be useful information to my Russia, but in the old days, due to the stupidity of my youth, I kept silent out of fear. Later, family misfortunes distracted me a little from this task. I am the natural niece of General Fadeev, a military writer known to Your Excellency. Being engaged in spiritualism, she was known in many places as a strong medium. Hundreds of people certainly believed and will believe in spirits. But I, who am writing this letter with the aim of offering my services to Your Excellency and my country, am obliged to tell you the whole truth without concealment. And therefore I repent that three-quarters of the time the spirits spoke and answered with my own words and considerations—for the success of my plans. Rarely, very rarely have I been able to use this trap to learn from people the most secretive and serious of their hopes, plans and secrets. Enticed little by little, they came to the point that, thinking to learn from the spirits the future and the secrets of others, they gave me their own. But I acted cautiously and rarely used my knowledge for my own benefit. I spent the whole of last winter in Egypt, in Cairo, and knew everything that was happening with the Khedive, his plans, the course of intrigues, etc. through our late Vice-Consul Lavizon. This latter was so carried away by the spirits that, in spite of all his cunning, he constantly blurted out. Thus I learned of the secret acquisition of a huge number of weapons, which, however, were abandoned by the Turkish government; I learned about all the intrigues of Nubar Pasha and his negotiations with the German Consul General. I learned all the threads of the exploitation by our agents and consuls of the millionth inheritance of Rafael Abet and much more. I opened the Spiritual Society, the whole country was in turmoil. At 400, 500 people a day, the whole society, pashas and others, rushed to me. Lavison constantly visited me, sent for me daily, secretly, I saw a khedive with him, who imagined that I did not recognize him under a different outfit, inquiring about the secret plans of Russia. He did not learn any plans, but let me know a lot. Several times I wished to enter into relations with M. de Lex, our consul general, I wanted to propose to him a plan according to which much, much more would be known in Petersburg. All the consuls visited me, but whether because I was friendly with Mr. Pashkovsky and his wife, or comrade de Leke, was at enmity with them, or for some other reason, but all my attempts were in vain. Leke forbade the entire consulate from belonging to the Spiritual Society and even insisted that it was nonsense and quackery, which was not political on his part. In short, the Society, deprived of government support, collapsed after three months. Then Father Gregoire, the papal missionary in Cairo, who visited me every day, began to insist that I enter into relations with the papal government. On behalf of Cardinal Barnabo, he suggested that I receive from 20 to 30 thousand francs annually and act through the spirits and my own considerations in the form of Catholic propaganda, etc. (...) Father Gregoire brought me a letter from the cardinal, in which he, again offering me all the benefits in the future, says: “11 est temps que l"ange des tene-bres devienne ange de lumiere"* and promises me an incomparable place in Catholic Rome, persuades me to turn my back on heretical Russia. The result was that, having taken 5,000 francs from the papal missionary for the time lost with him, I promised a lot in the future, turned my back not on heretical Russia, but left for them. I then let the consulate know about it, but they only laughed at me and said that I was doing stupid things, that I did not agree to accept such advantageous offers, that patriotism and religion are a matter of taste - stupidity, etc. Now I decided to turn to Your Excellency in full confidence that I can be more than useful for my homeland, which I love more than anything in the world, for our sovereign, whom we all idolize in the family. I speak French, English, Italian, as well as Russian, I understand German and Hungarian fluently, and a little Turkish. By birth, if not by position, I belong to the best noble families of Russia and can therefore rotate both in the highest circle and in the lower strata of society. My whole life has been spent in these jumps from top to bottom. I played all the roles, I am able to represent myself as any person; the portrait is not flattering, but I am obliged to Your Excellency to show the whole truth and present myself as people, circumstances and the eternal struggle of my whole life have made me, which has refined the cunning in me, like a red-skinned Indian. Rarely did I fail to achieve the desired result, no matter what preconceived goal. I passed all the temptations, played, I repeat, roles in all strata of society. Through spirits and other means, I can learn anything, find out the truth from the most secretive person. Until now, all this has been wasted, and the most enormous results in governmental and political terms, which, applied to the practical benefit of the state, would bring considerable benefits, were limited to a microscopic benefit to me alone. My goal is not self-interest, but rather protection and help, more moral than material. Although I have little means of subsistence and live by translations and commercial correspondence, I have so far consistently rejected all proposals that could put me even indirectly against the interests of Russia. In 1867 Beist's agent offered me various benefits for being Russian and the niece of General Fadeev, whom he hated. It was in Pesta, I rejected and got into the worst trouble. That same year, in Bucharest, General Tür, in the service of Italy, but a Hungarian, also persuaded me, just before the reconciliation of Austria with Hungary, to serve them. I refused. Last year in Constantinople, Mustafa Pasha, the brother of the Khedive of Egypt, offered me a large sum of money through his secretary Wilkinson, and even once himself, having met me through his French governess, so that I would only return to Egypt and deliver all the information to him. about the tricks and designs of his brother, the Viceroy. Not knowing well how Russia looks at this matter, being afraid to go and tell General Ignatiev about it, I rejected this assignment from myself, although I could perfectly fulfill it. In 1853, in Baden-Baden, having lost at roulette, I agreed to the request of a gentleman unknown to me, a Russian who was following me. He offered me 2,000 francs if by any means I could manage to get two German letters (the contents of which remained unknown to me), hidden very cunningly by the Pole Count Kvilegrsim, who is in the service of the Prussian king. He was military. I was without money, every Russian had my sympathy, I could not return to Russia at that time and was terribly upset by this. I agreed, and three days later, with the greatest difficulty and danger, I obtained these letters. Then this gentleman told me that it would be better for me to return to Russia and that I had enough talent to be useful to my homeland. And that if someday I decide to change my way of life and take up a serious business, then I should only apply to the III department and leave my address and name there. Unfortunately, I did not take advantage of this offer.
All this together gives me the right to think that I am capable of being useful to Russia. I am alone in the world, although I have many relatives. Nobody knows that I am writing this letter.
I am completely independent and I feel that it is not mere boasting or illusion if I say that I am not afraid of the most difficult and dangerous assignments. Life does not present me anything joyful or good. In my character love to struggle, to intrigues, perhaps. I am stubborn and will go through fire and water to achieve my goal. I myself have brought little benefit, let me bring some benefit even to the government of my homeland. I am a woman without prejudices, and if I see the benefit of some business, then I look only at its bright side. Perhaps, having learned about this letter, my relatives would have cursed me in blind pride. But they won't know, and I don't care. They never did anything for me. I must serve them as a medium at home as well as their society. Forgive me, Your Excellency, if I dragged unnecessary domestic squabbles into a business letter. But this letter is my confession. I am not afraid of the secret exploration of my life. No matter what I did wrong, in whatever circumstances of life I was, I was always faithful to Russia, true to its interests. For 16 years, I did one act against the law. I left without a passport abroad from Poti in a man's dress. But I fled from the old hated husband, imposed on me by Princess Vorontsova, and not from Russia. But in 1860 I was forgiven, and Baron Bruno, the London envoy, gave me a passport. I had many stories abroad for the honor of my homeland, during the Crimean War I repeatedly had quarrels, I don’t know how they didn’t kill me, how they didn’t put me in prison. I repeat, I love Russia and am ready to devote the rest of my life to its interests. Having revealed the whole truth to Your Excellency, I humbly ask you to take all this into account and, if necessary, test me. I live for the time being in Odessa, with my aunt, General's wife Witte, on Police Street, Haas house, No. 36. My name is Helena Petrovna Blavatskaya. If in the course of a month I do not receive any information, then I will leave for France, as I am looking for a position as a correspondent in some trading office. Accept the assurances, Your Excellency, of boundless respect and complete devotion to Helena Blavatsky, always ready at your service" Odessa, December 26, 1872

The letter shows that Elena Petrovna was terribly ill and spiritually crippled. When adepts talk about their chosenness, one can recall Leadbeater's accusations of molesting young students (reminds Sai Baba, isn't it, with his universal love), another author of Theosophy, Sinnet, was passionately fond of gambling, and Blavatsky was a chain smoker, a deceiver , and her whole personality was suppressed by demons. Some may object that she saw a teacher from childhood and was mentally developed. Well, she should have studied the Bible, denied that teacher, and served Christ. Then she would have lived a good life, and so she took the side of Lucifer, wrote the "core" of Satanic literature - the Secret Doctrine, and now, I believe, she is tormented in Hell along with Vanga and other "demigods". Here is what Leadbeater recalls of her.

"During the trip, strength gradually returned to Blavatsky, and a small conversation began, but it was noticeably colored by the events of the previous night, since our leader honored us with the most gloomy predictions about our future fate:

“Ah! You Europeans,” she said, “think that you will enter the path of the occult and triumphantly pass through all difficulties, but you know little of what awaits you, and have not yet counted the ruins on this path, as I have. The Indians know what to expect, and have already gone through tests and trials that you would not have dreamed of in your wildest dreams, but you poor weak creatures, what can you do?

She continued these Kassandra prophecies with such monotony that it was beginning to irritate, but the audience was too respectful to try to change the subject. We sat in the corners of the compartment, Blavatsky in the direction of travel, and Mr. Oakley sat across from her with the forlorn expression of an early Christian martyr, while a weeping Mrs. Oakley, with an ever-increasing expression of horror on her face, sat opposite me. I myself felt as if I had put an umbrella under a strong shower, but I thought that in the end quite a few other people took this path and reached its goal, and it seemed to me that even if I did not manage to achieve it in this life, at least as far as I can lay a good foundation for work in the next incarnation. Che sara, sara! (What will be, will be - Italian.).

In those prehistoric times, trains were usually lit by smoky oil lamps, and there was a large round hole in the center of the ceiling of each compartment where porters inserted these lamps as they ran across the roofs of the cars. However, it was a daytime train and the blue sky was visible through the hole. Mr. Oakley and I happened to be reclining in our corners, so that both of us saw a repetition of the phenomenon I had previously described in England. We saw a ball of whitish fog form in this hole, and a moment later it condensed into a folded sheet of paper that fell to the floor of our compartment. I rushed to it, picked it up, and immediately handed it to Blavatsky. She immediately unfolded it and read it, and I saw her face turn red.

"Ugh," she said, "that's what I get for trying to warn you of the trouble ahead," and threw the paper at me.

"Can I read?" - I asked, and she answered: "What do you think, why did I give it to you?" I read it and found that it was a note signed by Master Koot Hoomi, which gently but clearly stated that it was probably in vain that she, having with her serious and enthusiastic candidates, paints for them gloomy pictures of the path, which, however difficult he was, after all, to lead them to unspeakable joy. The message ended with a few kind words addressed to each of us by name. Unfortunately, I cannot accurately convey the words of this letter, although I am sure that I correctly conveyed its general tone. A short phrase, addressed to me personally, was this: "Tell Leadbeater that I am satisfied with his devotion and zeal."

"Our founder herself was lying in this bedroom on the bed in a state of extreme weakness. She had just fallen into a dream, so that the woman caring for her decided that she could well find a few minutes of respite, and came out to sit with us. She tearfully described to us an exceptional weakness Blavatsky, when she suddenly broke off and said: "Who could it be?" - for we all heard firm and quick steps approaching us along the then open roof behind the bedroom. The steps approached from there from above, quickly passed in front of the window to which we were converted, and Master Morya entered the room, but the woman did not see him, because when he entered, the tense expression left her face, and she leaned back on her pillow as if already asleep. with a bright smile and a beneficent wave of his hand he quickly walked past us and turned into Blavatsky's bedroom.

We heard her exclamation, then a few words uttered by his voice, and her answer, and after a few minutes he again went out with the same quick step, again answering our greetings with a smile and departed in the same way as he had come. Only after he had left the room did the lady rise from her corner with an exclamation, "Oh, who was that?"

But before we could discuss the matter, our attention was diverted by the cry of Madame Blavatsky calling for a nurse. His tone was surprisingly loud and firm.

"Where's my dress? I want to get dressed!" The nurse looked at us in desperation (since the doctor prescribed the patient absolute rest), but Blavatsky was one of those "who are obeyed", and to a very large extent, and of course, she was immediately dressed and came out much more like her former self. Her teacher asked her if she wanted to leave - and she was very close to it and experienced terrible suffering - or decide to maintain the physical body for a few more years to write her great book "The Secret Doctrine". She chose to stay. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that since that time she's hardly had an hour free from pain, but she fought it superbly. She wrote this book, and now it remains a monument that will stand for centuries. I think Blavatsky will never be forgotten as long as this and her other books remain to speak of her and in her name. "

Conclusion - All these adherents, they suffered greatly under the influence of dark forces. The Internet is full of video revelations of former psychics, what tests they went through. At first there was relief from illnesses, but after their life turned into a real Hell. I can also judge about myself - I rejected society, considered myself superior to others, obviously looked for flaws in others, as a result of this I could not live in harmony with myself, could not find satisfaction. Everything was wrong, and all the time. The people around are sinners and do not understand the essence of the Occult, the church are scribes hypocrites, girls are corrupt animals, our country is backward. So I drove myself for a very long time. To this were added all the new books read on theosophy and magic, but, unfortunately, they did not bring clarity, but only made everything more confusing and incomprehensible. The theories of one contradicted the theories of the other. For example, Leadbeater wrote the book "Essays on Prehistoric Civilizations", where he invents some civilizations, allegedly with the gift of clairvoyance. But all other authors interpret everything differently, again with the help of this very gift! It turns out that everyone sees different things, the demons give everyone different visions and interpretations of the false doctrine. After all, under the memories of past lives, few people remembered themselves as a peasant or a chimney sweep. Leadbeater himself recalled himself as a disciple of Pythagoras, other esotericists recalled themselves as Jesus, his disciple, or Napoleon, or some significant person. There is no other way, the dark forces immediately play on the pride of a person! There are about a hundred Napoleons and Alexanders of Macedon alone. Therefore, to believe Blavatsky in her doctrine of the creation of the World, the history of the Pyramids, means to commit intellectual suicide. How it was, only God knows! When I developed clairvoyance, I became, as it were, "thin". I began to feel the negativity around, in the crowd of people I vomited. It felt like skin was being torn off my face. I then meditated on Mantreya, considering him to be the Christ. My condition worsened so much that after another attack I said to myself "That's it, I've had enough of the Occult. This is a false teaching, I'm torn to pieces. Forgive me, God, for sacrilege." If I experienced such discomfort, then one can imagine what Blavatsky or Vanga experienced then, what torments they endured! Although it was said that Blavatsky's body allegedly could not withstand the light of the teachers and therefore was destroyed, all this is a lie! They endured torment because they served the powers of darkness.

Chapter 5. 10 commandments of Christ

The first sounds: "I am your Lord, may you have no other Gods but me." This means that God is the source of all blessings and the director of all human actions. And therefore, a person should direct his whole life to the knowledge of God and glorify his name with his pious deeds. This commandment states that God is one in the whole wide world and it is unacceptable to have other gods.

The second commandment says: “Do not make an idol for yourself…” God forbids a person to create imaginary or material idols for himself and bow before them. Earthly happiness, wealth, physical pleasure and fanatical admiration for their leaders and leaders have become idols for modern man.

The third says, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain." A person is forbidden to use the name of the Lord irreverently in worldly fuss, in jokes or empty talk. The sins are blasphemy, blasphemy, perjury, breaking vows given to the Lord, etc.

The fourth tells us to remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. You have to work for six days, and dedicate the seventh to your God. This means that a person works six days a week, and on the seventh day (Saturday), he must study the word of God, pray in the temple, and therefore devote the day to the Lord. These days you need to take care of the salvation of your soul, conduct pious conversations, enlighten the mind with religious knowledge, visit the sick and prisoners, help the poor, etc.

The fifth one says: “Honor your father and mother…” God commands to always take care, respect and love your parents, not offend them in word or deed. The great sin is disrespect for father and mother. In the Old Testament, this sin was punished by death.

The sixth reads: "Thou shalt not kill." This commandment forbids taking life from others and from oneself. Life is a great gift of God, and only it sets the limits of earthly life for a person. Therefore, suicide is the most serious sin. In suicide, in addition to the murder itself, there are also sins of lack of faith, despair, grumbling against the Lord and rebellion against his providence. Anyone who harbors a feeling of hatred for others, wishes the death of their neighbors, starts quarrels and fights, he sins against this commandment.

In the seventh it is written: "Do not commit adultery." It states that a person needs to be chaste if he is not married, and if he is married, be faithful to his husband or wife. In order not to sin, you do not need to arrange shameless songs and dances, look at seductive photos and films, listen to spicy jokes, etc.

The eighth says: "Do not steal." God forbids us to appropriate the property of another. You cannot engage in theft, robbery, parasitism, bribery, covetousness, as well as evade debts, underweight the buyer, conceal what is found, deceive, withhold the salary of an employee, etc.

The ninth indicates: "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor." The Lord forbids a person to give false evidence against another in court, to make denunciations, to slander, to gossip and to slander. This is the work of the devil, because the word "devil" means "slanderer."

In the tenth commandment, the Lord teaches: “Do not covet your neighbor’s wife and do not covet your neighbor’s house, neither his field, nor his servant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox ...” Here people are pointed out that they must learn to refrain from envy and not have bad desires.

Chapter 6. About Agni Yoga

The doctrine of "Agni Yoga" asserts that the world and the Absolute are one, and God as a Personality does not exist at all. “As far as God is concerned, we cannot regard Him as eternal or infinite or self-existent. There is no place for Him in the presence of Matter, the irrefutable properties and qualities of which are fully known to us, in other words, we believe only in Matter, in Matter as visible Nature, and Matter in its invisibility as the invisible, omnipresent Proteus ”(Letter to E. Roerich dated 12.09. 34). “Neither our philosophy nor we ourselves believe in God, least of all in the one whose pronoun requires a capital letter. We deny God as philosophers and as Buddhists” (Mahatma Letters, 57). Helena Roerich agrees with this: “The Mahatma denies and speaks against the blasphemous human conception of the Personal God. The Mahatma denies the God of church dogma” (Letters dated 09/08/34 and 09/12/34). She fully shares the conviction of the Mahatmas: "We believe only in Matter" (ibid.). In fact, here the Roerichs are preaching atheism, not "religious synthesis." Thus, Agni Yoga asserts that the Absolute has neither Personality nor will. They do not know God as Creator, Judge, Redeemer. The faceless and indifferent, blind "law of karma" takes the place of the living, loving God. Now it becomes clear why Roerich considered Lenin, the destroyer of churches, the Mahatma.

Christians confess that, since God is not bound by the laws of the world He created, He can creatively renew human life - if a person desires this renewal. God can forsake sins and withdraw the human soul from the effects of sin. The Agni Yoga of the Roerichs claims that no one can help a person in repentant renewal of his life, that the consequences of past actions, called "the action of karma", are inevitable. “The hour has come to point out that the Greatest God is the God of the immutable Law, the God of Just retribution, but not arbitrariness in Mercy” (Letter to E. Roerich dated 05/28/37). “No one, not even the Highest Spirit, can forgive the committed sins, for this would be contrary to the law of karma” (Letter to E. Roerich dated 09.07.35). “The recompense for deeds is produced not by the all-wise Lord, but by a blind and at the same time reasonable law. A religiously minded Christian can pray to his God even from morning to evening, can repent of his sins at least every day, can break his forehead, laying down prostrations, but he will not change his fate one iota, because the fate of a person is formed by his deeds, for which the law of Karma will bring the corresponding results, and these results will in no way depend on prayers, bows, or repentance. So, it is useless to repent, and not before anyone. "Agni Yoga" imposes a ban on repentance.

Finally, it is impossible not to notice the frankly satanic notes of Roerich's occultism. Christ says that He fights with "the prince of this world": "...now the prince of this world is cast out..." (John 12:31). “The Prince of Peace” is a translation of the Greek word “kosmokratores”, that is, “the lord of the cosmos.” But this is exactly what the spiritual lord “mahatmas” calls himself. in the tail" (Letters of the Mahatmas, 153), "the demon is vengeful, unjust, cruel and stupid .., the heavenly tyrant, on whom Christians so generously squander their servile adoration" (Letters of the Mahatmas, 57). "The Christian world still worships God in The Devil and the Devil in God” (Mahatma Letters, 72).

From here we see that Roerich was a very proud person, like his wife. I believe the demons used them as vehicles to sow lies and discord. If you look "from above" at that time, then the teachings of the Roerichs began to actively fight against the teachings of Blavatsky. This is not surprising, because the entire teaching of the fallen spirits is a lie from beginning to end.

Chapter 7

Anyone knows that the diversity of sects is the work of dark forces. Each such movement attracts more and more new people, each gives a different interpretation of the universe. In most sects, the goal of the leaders is the same - power and money. They are unscrupulous people, cruel and displeasing to God. Here are examples of these "spiritual abscesses" in the history of mankind.

Vladimir Megre - invented the mythical Anastasia, published a series of books, "Ringing Cedars of Russia". Like any deceiver, he developed his own business of acquiring land. I myself personally encountered when a cart man in a shopping center gave me his book to read, calling it a "revelation." He invented his own system of worldview, like any schemer, dragged aliens and the charismatic figure of a woman here.

Vanga is a vivid example of a false prophetess. She spoke with the help of occult powers, most of the predictions never came true. She was very sympathetic to Roerich and Blavatsky, distorted the true teaching of the church.

Grigory Grabovoi is a dangerous sectarian who promised to resurrect the dead sons of the mothers of Beslan. Mothers themselves are guilty of the sin that they departed from the church and God and trusted this demon. Like all sectarians, he created his own false doctrine.

George Gurdjieff - the "early" forerunner of Blavatsky. Departed from the church and created his own doctrine of demons.

Osho, Srila Prabhupada, psychics, Kryon, Transsurfing, Astral Pilgrim, Castaneda, DEIR, Kabbalah, Brotherhood of Light, Nikolay Levashov, Eugene Green, Mantek Chia, Monroe, Webster, Reiki, Sai Baba, Sri Chinmoy, Malakhov, Rainbow, Vedists , Astrologers, Palmists...thousands of other sects. Those who are interested can read my virtual book "Christianity or NEW AGE. What to choose?". Some of these scammers are exposed in more detail there.

Chapter 8

In the Bible, the Church Slavonic word deceive means “to deceive”, “to deceive” (Gen. 3:13). To be deceived is to fall into error, to be deceived, to turn off the straight path (Deut. 4:19). The Savior warns us against various types of prelest: beware lest anyone deceive you (Mark 13:5). The Holy Apostle Paul admonishes the Corinthians: I am afraid that, just as the serpent deceived Eve with his cunning, so your minds will not be damaged, [turning away] from simplicity in Christ (2 Corinthians 11:3). In patristic asceticism, charm is one of the most important concepts. The words fall into delusion define the inner state of a person who has been deceived (deceived) by demons. This is done covertly through the suggestion of a false thought under the guise of goodness and truth. This condition is very dangerous. Usually a person gets rid of it through sorrows. The antidote is humility. Most people live chronically in sin without repentance, so their state can be called the state of delusion. “In order for you to see and understand this more clearly, I will present to you five moral states of people and describe the intrigues, detours and seductions of the enemy corresponding to them. These states are the following: some are in bondage to sin, and have no thought of deliverance from it; others, although they think about this liberation and desire it, do nothing to achieve it; there are also those who, after liberation from the bonds of sin and the acquisition of virtues, fall back into sin with great moral corruption. Of these latter, some in self-deception think that, in spite of this, they are still advancing towards perfection, others in carelessness leave the path of virtue; others turn the very virtue they have into an occasion and cause of evil for themselves. The enemy acts on each of these, according to his mood (St. Nikodim the Holy Mountaineer. Invisible battle. Chapter 29).

Charm (from the Slavic “flattery” - deceit) - 1) demonic charm, a state of clouding one or more forces of the human soul, resulting from the influence of evil spirits on a person; 2) the state of self-deception, self-delusion; charm caused by someone or something.

In the human soul, several important natural features are distinguished, traditionally called the forces or spheres of the soul: rational, strong-willed, sensual, irritable.

Thinking and prudence, consciousness and self-awareness, a moral assessment of what is happening are connected with the rational sphere; with volitional - the ability of a person to consciously strive and act in the direction of the chosen goals. The sensual strength of the soul is manifested in the ability to experience a wide range of feelings related to joy or displeasure. The irritable sphere is responsible for the intensity of striving for the set goals, the formation or restraint of emotional outbursts, affects.

If a person led a sinless, charitable life, all his spiritual forces would function in accordance with nature: harmoniously, harmoniously, harmoniously. Actually, this would be the wholeness of the human person. But alas!

As you know, the devil, being a murderer from the beginning (John 8:44), "walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Pet. 5:8). Most often, he and the demons subject to him harm a person through separate temptations and attacks. Since the Lord crushed hell and bound Satan, he has lost the opportunity to enslave man in the same way as in the days of the Old Testament.

However, he did not lose the opportunity to captivate a person, inclining him to his side with all sorts of tricks. In the case of a person’s negligence about salvation, neglecting God’s help, the devil is able to captivate him, perverting his inner attitude towards Good and evil. To this end, demons act on the main forces of the human soul. Thus, they limit in it charitable movements and excite ungodly ones.

It is noteworthy that the victim of a demonic attack may not notice that he is under the influence of the devil, it may even seem to her that all her aspirations come from herself.

“Listen,” Saint Simeon the New Theologian warns us, “the devil, according to his custom, always approaches the soul in some strange and inconveniently recognizable way, so that, being always close to it and not moving away from it, to perturb and re-drill all its aspirations. , movements and thoughts, that is, both mental, and desirable, and irritable power of the soul, and direct them to what he pleases. In this way, he lures us all into his nets and takes us into slavery to himself and into his will - but we don’t know it; and, worst of all, the devil, using this tactic incessantly and making us passionate and obscene, convinces us to think and say that this ailment of ours (confusion and boredom inside), by which we are introduced into passions and keep us in them, is a property of nature ours, and not the work of demonic machinations ”(Slovo. 14, p. 2) (see: Intrigues of demons).

Chapter 9

Repentance is the beginning of the Christian new life, or the Christian new being, being in Christ.

Thus began the gospel with the words of St. John the Baptist: "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." And the preaching of Christ after Baptism was: "Repent and believe in the Gospel."

But in our time the question is raised: why is repentance necessary? From a social point of view, it is inappropriate to talk about repentance. There is, of course, some kind of repentance, especially in the countries of Eastern totalitarianism: when someone deviates from the line of the party, then they demand "repentance" from him, or when the leaders of the party themselves deviate from their original plan - only this is called not repentance, but some kind of "reform" or "perestroika" ... There is no real repentance here. Which of you has seen Abuladze's film "Repentance"? There, it is precisely about false repentance, and only at the end of the film is it clear what true repentance is. The film exposes false repentance as a kind of change in the "ideal" or "style" of power, which remains the same in essence. Indeed, such "repentance" has nothing to do with true repentance.

In Scripture there are (in the Greek text) two different expressions for repentance. One expression is metanoia and the other is metamelia. Sometimes this second expression is translated not by the word "repentance" but by the word "repentance." I thought, for example, to go to Frankfurt and "repented," that is, I changed my mind: I won't go. This is what is called "metamelia" in the Scriptures, it's just a change of intention. It has no spiritual meaning. There is also, in the social or psychological sense, something like "repentance," that is, change. In the field of psychology there is a "restructuring" of one's character, one's neurosis... In depth psychology, Adler, or Freud, and even Jung, have no concept of repentance.

Repentance is a religious concept. You have to repent before someone. It does not mean simply changing the style of life or one's inner feeling or one's experience, as is meant, say, in Eastern religions and cultures. These religions say that a person must get his own experience, must know himself, fulfill himself, so that the light, his consciousness, awakens. But such a change does not require God. And Christian repentance is certainly before someone.

And here's an example for you. One of our Serbs - now he is 60 years old - was a communist in his youth and, like all of them, did a lot of evil to the people. But then he turned to faith, to God, to the Church, and when he was offered to take communion, he said: "No, I did a lot of evil." - "Well, go and confess." “No,” he says, “I’ll go confess to a priest, but I have sinned before the people, I need to confess openly before the people.”

This is the expression of the full consciousness of what repentance is. Here you see the church's perception, ancient Christian and truly biblical, that a person is never alone in the world. He stands, first of all, before God, but also before people. Therefore, in the Bible, a person's sin before God always has to do with his neighbor, which means that it has a social, social dimension and consequences. And this is felt both in our people and among the great Russian writers. The Orthodox people have a feeling that some kind of thief or tyrant, or one who does evil to his neighbor, is the same as an atheist. Let him believe in God, but this is useless, in fact he will simply blaspheme God, since his life is at odds with faith.

Hence - a holistic understanding of repentance, as a proper standing before God and before people. Repentance cannot be measured only by social or psychological scales, but there is always a God-revealed, biblical, Christian concept.

Chapter 10

In Altai, for example, the story of a university student who, in the company of his classmates, began to enthusiastically study the texts of esoteric books that are freely sold in bookstores is well known. Using the recommendations of the Babylonian "Secret Meditations of the Ziggurat", the Hebrew Kabbalah and the ancient Egyptian "Book of the Dead", the friends came up with a secret alphabet and secret symbols. The game lasted more than a year, and its outcome was sad. Our hero's friends are very lucky. They, apparently, had a stronger nervous system, which helped them to “slip through” mental dependence, and the young man “played around”. He entered the role and now almost all the time says that he is the spiritual heir of the chief priest Snekhta, who taught Pharaoh Cheops the sciences of comprehending subtle matters 4000 years ago, and therefore for him the past, present and future are an open book. Doctors diagnosed the young man with a psychiatric disease ...

In people who are emotional and worldly immature, the mechanism of suggestion easily works. Propaganda work is built on this in all sects without exception.

On this topic, I talked with a young Barnaul resident who was engaged in spiritual practices in one of the totalitarian sects of the regional center and with great difficulty managed to escape from its harsh embrace. He, a philologist by education, several years ago experienced a severe mental crisis associated with unrequited love and the loss of his job. He tried to drink, but his vodka "didn't work", and the black stone that lay on his heart became heavier and heavier. And then the young man turned his eyes to the course of psycho-emotional relaxation that promised spiritual peace with the enticing exotic name "Light of Barotong", in which he heard the rustle of green palms, the rumble of transparent waterfalls and saw the snow-white peaks of the Himalayan mountains.

Chapter 11

All teachings of the "New Era", including Kryons, Castanedas, Blavatsky, Roerichs, Osho - lead to spiritual degradation, insanity, pride, isolation from society, suffering, the whole system is built on the enslavement and pumping out of energy resources from a person. After all, in order to become enlightened, you have to study tons of obscure literature, meditate, pump chakras ... and so on and so forth. It can take many years. Using the examples in the book, I showed the most advanced system of the Devil and obscurantism - Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine, which gathered all the wisdom of the evil one. The Church does not recognize that Christ was the Buddha! That Christ is the brother of Mantreya! He does not recognize the belief in reincarnation, does not recognize the worship of Mahatmas, does not recognize vegetarianism, does not recognize the idea of ​​evolution and cosmic Worlds... Engaging in this esotericism is pride, an attempt to exalt oneself, which Lucifer did, and with him a whole cohort of fallen angels! Walking on psychics, grandmothers, clairvoyants is a grave sin! There are a lot of reviews on the Internet, like clairvoyants, like Tursuna Zakirova, who on the TV screen "believes in God", in fact turns out to be a scammer and boorish, taking 20 thousand rubles for 15 minutes for an appointment! All these are the children of the Devil, no need to go to them! Temporary relief will grow into a disease, the fallen ones cannot give health and prosperity! Can not! Personally, in the near future I will burn all the esoteric books in the house, burn the runes, go to church and repent. Don't play with fire, save your soul!

Yes, I know it's hard. When lawlessness is all around, when the soul wants to know everything still during Earthly life, when there are thousands of different Worldviews around, when life strikes blow after blow, when you watch the oligarchs and their millions, and you yourself work for a penny and you don’t know what to do from hopelessness! I know this, but all these injustices will balance out in the afterlife! The saints said that if a believer knew what was prepared for him after death, he would endure all hardships, even if he were buried in the ground and gnawed by earth worms all his life. Man does not know God's providence, but we must try not to fall into delusion, not try to be earthly Gods, with the gifts of healing, clairvoyance and knowledge. We are made in the image and likeness of God, but compared to him we are only children. If he wanted to arrange everything like that, then we must be strong and show our best side. I showed that the Astral is the fallen Worlds, all practitioners see it differently and disagree among themselves on this matter. All sects interpret their versions of the creation of the World, all have their own systems. The same Eugene Green, an obvious charlatan, advises "To accumulate energy, throw a ball into the astral body." People are utter nonsense.

There was a popular "world's strongest psychic" in America, as the press called him. In the 70s, Todwick. He turned pages and pencils with the power of thought, founded a sect. Later, he was exposed that he did tricks with air currents, but people considered him almost the Messiah. The same charlatan is Sai Baba. Yes, there are thousands of such fools, there is no need to follow them, everything is a deception! In Christianity there is a miracle - the Holy Fire, which is not lit by God without the presence of an Orthodox priest. There will be other miracles, but in due time and from God, not from Lucifer.

This is a live correspondence between two representatives of the Christian and occult worldview within the framework of the Masonic dialogue. I represent the participants with the letters A and R.

R. Since we are talking about the freedom of Christian thought, I will quote the words of Grigory Skovoroda: "Every constraint of a seeking thought ... (is) ... a falling away from church truth." Here it should be said about the Gnostic Christian tradition, to which I include myself.

A. So you are Orthodox? It would seem then that Gnosticism is not appropriate?

R. I used this word, but in a different sense than the historical one. This is not at all about the Gnostics of the beginning of our era. It's about something else. About the internal orthodox tradition that moved and developed among theologians and ascetics. I can't describe it more precisely, because this special topic has not yet been formulated. I think this topic is still waiting for its scientific work. Now I will say that this tradition comes from ancient theological schools, primarily from Alexandria with its Origen.

A. How strange, to be honest, it’s not clear what you mean 🙂

R. This is not strange, here are the usual stereotypes. When I say that I am Orthodox, a person immediately thinks about a certain format of behavior, thought. With a serious entry into Orthodoxy, all these formats fly off like autumn leaves. Therefore, when I write about something, it most likely means not what it usually means.

A. Not quite ordinary. There are certain dogmas in Orthodoxy, no doubt there are, otherwise how? Well, maybe you really have a more serious entry into Orthodoxy, which I do not argue about, since I myself am not such, and I consider it from the outside, but still there are certain limits that cannot be canceled. Again, I am now more about the outer framework, then you can understand by applying it to yourself (probably), which I cannot do. But if you are Orthodox and are interested in esoteric topics, in this case I reserve the right to doubt the sincerity of your Orthodox traditions smile I am not saying this to reproach you, no. From my point of view, a person himself makes a choice of what to be interested in and do, I do not see any restrictions. But this is my esoteric point of view, I don't think that true Orthodox think the same way. From the experience of communication - they do not think so, there are restrictions.

R. Of course, there are limits. This is called orthodoxy (right-thinking), but they are so broad that it is almost impossible to exhaust the possibilities. In this regard, my interest in the internal philosophy of the occult does not contradict anything. I do not accept this philosophy, I study it, systematize it. At least just in order to speak with the people of this environment in a language they understand, but not for banal proselytism. There are deeper things.

Moreover, one should not think that Orthodox esotericism looks at the occult as pure Satanism. As for damage to the mind and soul - yes, but more in a psychological sense than in a mystical one, because most of the occultists are only poseurs and talkers who do not have real initiations.

Also, the study of the "depths of hell" is the first task of an enlightened inquisitor ...

A. What does wide mean? We need examples. For me personally, the scope of Orthodoxy is not so wide, and in terms of restrictions - for example, fasting, if everything is observed, then there is very little free time for ordinary life. And in terms of spiritual development, there can be no Kabbalah, no ezo views, no deviations in the direction of EZO. I had enough contact with my Orthodox friend, an English teacher. At best, my questions were simply not answered, as if she was afraid to express her opinion. (probably scary, otherwise they will remember later :))) For example, even an elementary question, are there other worlds? The answer is that she herself does not know and is silent, but the Orthodox point of view that this cannot be, then she believes that NO :)

Moreover, one should not think that Orthodox esotericism looks at the occult as pure Satanism. Orthodox esotericism in any case. But the Orthodox masses, who never delve into the essence of the matter, give such a rough assessment. And if you look at people - Orthodox with the views of EZO, then they are very interesting, but this is not quite Orthodoxy anymore smile Because most of the occultists are just poseurs and talkers who do not have real initiations. Even so, they have no more psychological problems than other people. Where did you get more?

R. What does wide mean? About the same as mine. In general, this is purely a matter of education. An exquisitely and refinedly educated Orthodox has a very wide range of vision. Read at least our Russian Orthodox thinkers. Well, at least Zenkovsky, Ilyin, Florensky, Lossky, Losev, etc.

A. I have had enough contact with Orthodox acquaintances and they are not like that.

R. Well, this is a common case of "churching", which is not Orthodoxy as such, but only a subcultural variation on the theme. For me personally, the scope of Orthodoxy is not so wide, and in terms of restrictions - for example, fasting, if everything is observed, then there is very little free time for ordinary life.

• It only looks like it from the outside.
• In Orthodoxy, there really is work and effort, which is how it differs sharply from pop occultism. No gift is possible without serious work.
• Orthodox spiritual and physical asceticism is inextricably linked with orthodoxy.

A. And if you look at people - Orthodox with the views of EZO

R. Of course, if we are talking about pagan esotericism. But Orthodoxy has its own esotericism and Gnosticism. On other spiritual foundations.

A. Yes, you have wide ones, but only the Orthodox Church hardly supports this. I'm sure it doesn't, they are taught that. And those who want to know more, in any case, go beyond the Orthodox Church. Why, at least try to ask Orthodox priests how they would react to the fact that you studied Kabbalah in one way or another, and all sorts of eso there smile However, it’s better not to ask.

R. In Orthodoxy there really is work and effort, in which it sharply differs from pop occultism.

A. Labor and effort are everywhere, if it’s serious, even if you take me as an example, maybe I’m a pop esoteric, most likely so, maybe I won’t achieve anything more than getting information from books smile but one reading is so much that you can read it, Especially since most of the books are in English. And if you add some actions, then all this requires a lot of effort and time, which is not enough.

R. Of course, if we are talking about pagan esotericism.

To be honest, I'm not sure, but maybe something like that. I have a friend who, for example, helps people by reading prayers. (Checked by me personally - it works) If you compare it with me or with someone else, then there will be absolutely nothing from reading prayers. Yes, and she's at church every week. Orthodox, but what a connection she has - it's more than ordinary people.

R. Well, my breadth is not from my personal goodness, but from a deep entry into the Orthodox tradition of thought and asceticism. Everything from this. And when I quoted Grigory Skovoroda, I specifically pointed out that he expressed the spirit of the Orthodox tradition in the field of the search for the mind and heart with amazing accuracy.

As a result, we have a situation where the genuine Orthodox tradition turns out to be an outcast at the everyday parish level. Therefore, one has to speak of "Orthodox Gnosticism."

A. And how can one get acquainted with the inner tradition of Orthodoxy?

R. I am afraid that one can penetrate beyond the bounds of external impressions only by being an adherent of tradition, there is no other way. It is initiation that makes it possible to see not guesswork “as through a dull glass”, but directly. This applies to a greater extent to Christianity, which only begins for a person after genuine entry - baptism - spiritual awakening. I think this scheme is very clear to you, because. occult practices are similar. First, communion with metaphysical power - then genuine knowledge. In Orthodoxy, this is called "experienced knowledge." It is initiation that makes it possible to see without guesswork.

A. I used to think about it, I thought about it for quite a long time - more than a year, but apart from delirium from Christians and torment, I received nothing. There will be no initiation with me, even if I do it - it will be a big deception. It would be possible to deceive the priest in the church (they don’t give a damn who is baptized there), people around, but you can’t deceive yourself. Unfortunately, I do not fit into the role of a Christian woman. Perhaps you can guess why, or maybe not. Probably I could answer this question, but in fact I myself do not fully know why I am like this, or rather not like that. Although somewhere in the topic about the date of birth and movement along the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, Heh gave an answer according to my date, that is, according to the number - in this life I have to get rid of excessive pride, that's probably right.

R. Well, my breadth is not from my personal goodness, but from a deep entry into the Orthodox tradition of thought and asceticism. Everything from this.

A. No, not only. What concerns the Orthodox tradition is your understanding of things, and the breadth of mind depends on different areas, not only on religion. Well, naturally. But religion determines a lot. Here are many Russian people, without even really thinking about it, simply because of their innateness in genetics, they culturally gravitate towards Orthodox culture. And in this too. Views on life and life experience are very important things that affect a person’s worldview, emphasizing individuality.

R. The point is not at all that “but I am so special”, but that baptism (initiation) is possible only in the case of sincere faith in Christ and recognition of him as the only Lord, without any ensophs and lords of the astral. Monotheism is not you khukhr-mukhr. It can even be said that the kingdom of Christ and what occultism speaks of are absolutely incompatible things. You can't serve two masters and all that. The Spirit of Christ is completely different. Therefore, in order to come into this “initiation”, one must really yearn for it. Baptism (initiation) is possible only in the case of sincere faith in Christ.

A. Of course, if I sincerely believed in Christianity, I would undoubtedly become a Christian. But I cannot sincerely believe, because I see that the Christian system does not work. There are more than enough examples in our life. Where can you find true Christians? Are there any such people nowadays?

It can even be said that the kingdom of Christ and what occultism speaks of are absolutely incompatible things. Depending on what to apply, as I said - everything needs examples, without specific examples - the words will remain just words that are understandable only to you. Here are many Russian people, without even really thinking about it, simply because of their innateness in genetics, they culturally gravitate towards Orthodox culture.

R. Culture and faith are not the same thing.

A. I agree that my culture is Orthodox in many respects, because I have been living in Moscow all my life. But these are only the "generally accepted customs" of our country, the environment in which I find myself has left its mark.

R. It's not just an imprint. You need to reflect deeper. Culture and language do not just leave an imprint on us, but are also an integral part of our existence. What can I say, it's very personal. God reveals himself only to a person who is ready, morally, spiritually. And most importantly - only to a person with a great inner hunger for truth. Moreover, not a single spiritual gift is obtained without effort and labor. In this, Christianity differs sharply from occult practices, where you can often hear that it is enough to make a few passes and you can easily pull a fish out of a pond.

But the bottom line is that grace is a gift that comes when you don't plan. Christianity is complex and dialectical.

A. without specific examples - the words will remain just words that are understandable only to you.

R. The Christian life knows many such examples. Well, take at least the most rude - exorcism. It is clearly seen there that those spirits with which occultists often flirt are demons that hate man and God. Moreover, not a single spiritual gift is obtained without effort and labor. This sharply distinguishes Christianity from occult practices.

A. Your idea of ​​people with esoteric views is very straightforward, so you only think what you think smile.gif

Demons are just the name of certain entities, i.e. beings without a material body. I don’t think that someone is able to understand the types of entities and where they come from and why, this is a rather difficult task, until today I have not seen a clear description of the distinction between entities. In general, occultists are looking for a connection with the forces of nature: fire, water, air, earth. There are certainly certain people who have a connection with the entities, but usually this happens even without the knowledge and desire of people. If you want, I can give an example so you understand what I mean.

R. Undoubtedly, the discernment of spirits is not a task available to a person who is not gifted, first of all, with spiritual sobriety. At ap. Paul points to a special gift: discernment of spirits.

It is spiritual sobriety for a Christian that is the key to a pure view. For an occultist, this task is not lifting, because. occultism is all swimming in the intoxication of petty passions.

A. Well, in any case, Christians are ordinary people for me, outwardly I don’t differ much, if I don’t touch on certain topics, but usually I don’t talk about myself. But for example, if you take the Muslims, they are abnormal for me. Abnormal men (if at all some of them can be called men) with a sexually distorted psyche, cruel, narrow-minded, who cannot be trusted, because their entire society and communication is built on lies. Well, of course I'm not like that, and our whole society is different. Here's an example of Dubai, a rich city, but the people are the same as I described above. You can’t trust anyone - it’s just dangerous, men, like gorillas, rush at women. A city with rewound women and developed pederasty among men, but rich, well, what a wonderful people Muslims are! smile.gif)

R. A very figurative description. It is clear that Christians for you are not much different from other Europeans: humanists, atheists, occultists. The reason is civilizational unity based on Christian values.

A. But everything is relative, I am quite satisfied with a Christian society, if people do not reach fanaticism, do not impose their opinion, do not sweep everyone under one. Everything is wonderful as long as the church is separated from the state, there is no coercion, no imposition of views. Yes, by the way, our civilized society was formed not only from Christian values, but something from the times of Soviet power, then from the times of perestroika and the construction of capitalism, a lot of things appeared in terms of freedoms, getting rid of censorship, from which new legal relations grew out of state basis, there was legislation with the protection of human rights, which is very important - equality has arisen, and this is all in our state. on a basis, and not on a Christian basis, equality has never been in Christianity and perhaps would not have been in our society even now, if the church had not been separated. And so, everything is wonderful, one thing scares ... that same ugly stupid religion that multiplies itself at a rapid pace - Islam.

R. Fanaticism is really bad. I just watched the film "Agora" about the woman philosopher Hypatia, who lived in the second half of the 4th - early 5th centuries. It was shown there, as if tendentiously, that Christian activists, led by Cyril of Alexandria, killed this very Hypatia. So. I felt really ashamed of those Christians, because I understand, based on a study of church history at the time, that the movie is mostly believable, and that's pretty much what it was. And I also understand that a significant part of today's orthodox Orthodox flock is not much different from those thug fanatics depicted in the film. Only the current ones do not have the opportunity and there are not so many of them, otherwise they would have dragged people like me to the auto-da-fé.

It is for this reason that I am for a secular state with a normal legal and civil consciousness. Fortunately, this idea itself - the freedom of the individual in the matter of religion, originated and clearly took shape in the writings of Christian apologists of the 2nd century.

Annie Besant

Esoteric Christianity, or Lesser Mysteries

Continuing the consideration of the mysteries of knowledge, we will remain faithful to the worthy and honored rule of tradition, beginning with the origin of the universe, establishing those main features of physical research that must be preliminarily, and eliminating everything that can serve as an obstacle in our path; so that the ear would be prepared to receive the tradition of the gnosis, and the soil would be cleared of weeds, becoming fit for planting a vineyard; for collision precedes collision, and mysteries precede mysteries.

St. Clement of Alexandria

May this pattern be sufficient for those who have ears. For it is not required to reveal the mystery, but only to point out what is sufficient.

St. Clement of Alexandria

Who has ears to hear, let him hear!

St. Matthew

Foreword

The purpose of this book is to offer readers a series of thoughts on the deep truths at the core of Christianity, truths that are either too superficially accepted or even denied altogether. The generous desire to share with everyone the most precious, to spread priceless truths widely, not to deprive anyone of the light of true knowledge, resulted in an indiscriminate zeal that simplified Christianity to the point that its teachings took on a form that both revolted the heart and was not accepted by the mind. The command to “preach the gospel to all creatures,” which can hardly be recognized as a genuine commandment, was interpreted as a prohibition to transmit gnosis to a few, and it also supplanted another, less common saying of the same great Teacher: “Do not give holy things to dogs and do not cast your pearls in front of the pigs.

This unreasonable sentimentality, refusing to recognize the obvious intellectual and moral inequality of people and, due to this, striving to reduce to the level of understanding of the least developed people the teachings that are accessible only to a highly developed mind, thus sacrificing the higher for the benefit of the lower to mutual harm - such sentimentality was alien to courageous sanity of early Christians.

St. Clement of Alexandria says quite definitely: “And even now, as it is said, it is not necessary to cast pearls before swine, let them not trample underfoot and, turning, they will not tear you to pieces. For it is difficult to present pure and transparent words concerning the true Light to swine and unprepared listeners.

If gnosis, this true knowledge, having been reborn, again constituted a part of the Christian teachings, such a revival would be possible only under the condition of the previous restrictions, only when the very idea of ​​leveling religious teaching to the level of the least developed would be resolutely and forever abandoned. Only by raising the level of religious truths can one open the way to the restoration of sacred knowledge and to the teaching of the lesser mysteries, which must precede the teaching of the great mysteries. The latter will never appear in print; they can only be given to the student "face to face" by the Master. But the lesser mysteries, that is, the partial revelation of deep truths, can be restored even today, and the proposed work aims to give a brief outline of them and show nature of the secret teaching that should be mastered. Where only hints are given, by concentrated meditation on the truths touched on, it is possible to make barely noticeable outlines clearly visible and, continuing meditation, to delve more and more into the understanding of these truths. For meditation brings to rest the lower mind, eternally occupied with external objects, and when it calms down, then only it is possible to perceive spiritual enlightenment. Knowledge of spiritual truths can be acquired only from within, and not from without, not from an external teacher, but only from the divine Spirit, who has built his Temple within us. These truths are "learned spiritually" by that indwelling divine Spirit, by that "mind of Christ" of which the apostle speaks, and this inner light is shed upon our lower mind.

This is the path of Divine Wisdom, true Theosophy. Theosophy is not, as some think, a weak version of Hinduism or Buddhism or Taoism or any particular religion; it is esoteric Christianity, just as there is esoteric Buddhism, and it belongs equally to every religion, but exclusively to none. It is the source of the indications that are given in this book to help those who seek the Light - that "true light" that enlightens every person who comes "into the world", even though the majority have not yet opened their eyes to see it. . Theosophy does not bring Light, it only says: "Open your eyes and look - here is the Light!". For so we heard. Theosophy calls only to those who are eager to receive more than what external teachings can give them. For those who are completely satisfied with external teachings, it is not intended, for why forcefully offer bread to the not hungry?

For those who are hungry, let it be bread and not a stone.

Chapter I. The Hidden Side of Religion

Many, perhaps the majority, reading the title of this book, will react negatively to it, and will dispute the existence of any doctrine that deserves the name "Secret Christianity." There is a widespread belief that in connection with Christianity there is nothing at all that can be called occult teaching, and that the "mysteries", both small and great, were a purely pagan institution. The very title of "The Mysteries of Jesus", which was so dear to the Christians of the first centuries, would have evoked nothing but astonishment among contemporary Christians; if, however, one speaks of the "mysteries" as a definite institution of the ancient church, one can most likely evoke a smile of distrust. Moreover, it is a matter of pride for Christians that there are no secrets in their religion, that everything Christianity has to say, it tells everyone, that everything it teaches is meant for everyone without exception. It is assumed that its truths are so simple that the most ordinary person, even if he is a fool, cannot err in them, and the "simplicity" of the gospel has become a walking phrase.

In view of this, it is especially important to prove that Christianity in its early period did not lag behind the other great religions, which all possessed secret teachings, to prove that it also possessed its mysteries and guarded them like a priceless treasure, secrets that were revealed only to a select few who participated in the mysteries.

But before embarking on such proofs, one should consider the question of the hidden side of religion in general, and be aware that why such a side must exist in order to give strength and stability to religion; if we clarify this issue, all subsequent references to the Fathers of the Church, proving the existence of a hidden side in Christianity, will seem natural and will no longer cause bewilderment. As a historical fact, the existence of esotericism in ancient Christianity can be proved, but it can also be confirmed by inner necessity.

The first question to be answered is: what is the purpose of religions? Religions are given to the world by their Founders, incomparably wiser than the peoples for whom they are appointed, and their purpose is to accelerate human evolution. To successfully achieve this goal, religious truths must reach into the consciousness of all individuals and influence this consciousness. But we know perfectly well that not all people are at the same level of development; we know that evolution can be pictured as a gradual ascent, at each point of which there are different people. The most developed stand much higher than the less developed, both in the sense of mind and in the sense of character; and the ability to understand and act correctly changes with each ascending step. Therefore, it is completely useless to give everyone the same religious teaching: that which will help an intellectually developed person will remain completely incomprehensible to a primitive person, and that which is capable of raising a saint to ecstasy will leave the criminal completely indifferent. On the other hand, if a doctrine is capable of exerting a beneficial influence on an unintelligent person, it will seem childish to a philosopher, and what brings salvation to a criminal will turn out to be completely useless to a saint. Meanwhile, all people need religion, everyone needs an ideal to strive for, and not one of the stages of development should be sacrificed for the sake of another. Religion must be as gradual as evolution, otherwise it will not achieve its goal.

Then the question arises: how can religions accelerate human evolution? Religions seek to develop the moral and intellectual sides of people and help to reveal their spiritual nature. Considering man as a complex being, they seek to help all aspects of his being - they give teachings that correspond to all the various needs of man. Therefore, religious teachings must give an answer to every mind and heart to which they are addressed. If religion is not accessible to the consciousness of a person, if it does not take possession of him, if it does not purify and inspire emotions with it, then it has not reached its goal for him.

Everything in the world has a dark side and a light side. People, wishing to know good and evil, received what they asked for. There is love, and there is fornication; there is jealousy in the comprehension of Divine truths, and there is carnal jealousy and envy of one's neighbor. We can eat food, or we can overeat. We can have fun, or we can arrange drunken feasts with all sorts of indecencies. Someone raises a song of praise to God, and someone calls the devil; and, unfortunately, often do not understand what they are doing.

The case, in particular, concerns the so-called "Christmas" divination. Instead of glorifying the Newborn Christ, some people resort to the help of dark forces in order to “know the future.” Today we would like to dwell not only on divination specifically, but also touch on the whole topic of esotericism in general. Everything in the world has a dark side and a light side.

About, what is the essence of esotericism and what is wrong with it, says Nadezhda Dyachenko.

After the publication of an article on how to distinguish esotericism from psychology, I was asked a logical question: “What is wrong with esotericism?” Esotericism, as "secret knowledge", claims to have a system of views on human nature and on the structure of the world, more complete than science and philosophy. Esoteric classifies itself as a “spiritual” area, being related to religion, and at the same time claims to be “scientific”.

Modern esotericism promises people answers to "eternal questions" and a guide to the development of the soul and personality, while solving all problems. But let's see what the essence of esotericism is, what esoteric teachings really offer us?

By esoteric, I mean the worldview basis of the teachings united in the New Age movement that arose in the 20th century. You can read about the history and philosophy of the New Age on Wikipedia. I will speak only about the essence of esotericism, highlighting its most general ideas, and you yourself will see the harm that numerous esoteric teachings do to the psyche and souls of their adherents. Those who were waiting for articles on personal development from me, do not go away - this information will also be useful to you. Esoteric ideas are "in the air" these days, and they must be recognized in order not to become infected.

Foundations of Esoteric Teachings

Lies about science and religion

With all the pretentious seriousness, esoteric teachings are distinguished by an extremely irresponsible attitude to what they say. When they need it, they justify their ideas with "science", mentioning non-existent scientific discoveries. People who are not related to science, which is the majority, trustingly take this at face value. In cases where the opinion of science is well known, esotericists arrogantly humiliate science, which "knows nothing."

The same is true of esoteric teachings with religion. To give weight to their ideas, they like to quote or simply refer to authoritative religious texts, more often the Bible and the Vedas. At the same time, they either interpret quotes in an extremely distorted way, sometimes to the direct opposite of the original meaning, or simply impudently compose quotes (this applies more often to the Vedas, which no one will read). Naturally, when it comes to the obvious contradiction of their teachings with religious ideas, they declare religions to be "lagging behind" and hiding true knowledge from believers.

Despite the apparent loyalty of esotericism to science and religion, this relationship is not mutual. Science does not recognize the "discoveries" of esotericism on the boring basis of their lack of evidence. World religions also treat it sharply negatively, much worse than they treat each other. Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddha unanimously consider magic (on which esotericism is based) to be extremely mentally harmful, considering it the fruit of human communication with evil spirits. And it's possible they're right...

Real sources of esotericism

There are only two real sources of esoteric knowledge. This is, firstly, the tradition of magic and the occult, rooted in the depths of centuries, which has always existed in culture in parallel with philosophy and religion. In the West, these are such teachings as Pythagoreanism, Gnosticism, Hermeticism, alchemy, astrology, Kabbalah, spiritualism, as well as primitive folk practical magic, represented by witches, fortune-tellers, superstitions, rituals, etc., which Christianity could not supplant for 2000 years.

The second source of esoteric knowledge is the rich imagination of the authors or what they themselves consider to be the direct "revelation" of certain "spiritual entities", "universal intelligence" or "celestial teachers". If we remember that any religion also warns that spirits are different, and a person is often subject to seduction and illusions, then a very big question arises: who is the author of these revelations? Moreover, this question is not removed, even if we reason not in a religious context, but in a psychological one: what part of the content of the unconscious person produces visions and revelations and is it worth believing them? Maybe it's just the banal delirium of a madman?

So, we see that esotericism relies, in addition to the mystical experience of the authors, on only one venerable spiritual tradition. But this second one is credible, isn't it? Maybe the ancient and modern magicians and occultists actually know what our young science has not yet grown up to and what religion criminally hides from us, striving for the undivided possession of our souls? Esotericists say exactly that. Well, let's see what valuable truths they reveal to us, and what these truths can give us.

Esoteric immorality: good and evil do not exist or they are one

The dichotomy of good and evil has troubled humanity throughout its history. This duality is an inevitable consequence of free will, which distinguishes us from animals. But this is also our “curse”, for the evil that a person sometimes does is simply monstrous. What is evil, where does it come from and how to avoid it? Answers can be given in different ways, and now is not the place to delve too deeply into them. Ultimately, it all comes down to the fact that a person must accept his freedom and learn how to manage it. He is responsible for his moral choice to society and, most importantly, to himself.

Choosing towards goodness and educating yourself so that each time you make this choice correctly and habitually - this is the path of human development, on which he can reach the heights of the spirit, and society will be fine. And you still have to fight evil one way or another, because evil is destruction, suffering, degradation. Yes, it is difficult and requires constant effort. Sometimes it is even difficult to distinguish good from evil, and even more difficult to make a choice in the direction of good from evil, which takes on seductive forms. By and large, the path of morality is a life-long feat. And philosophy, and religion, and in many ways science, tries to help a person in this feat.

However, a person is lazy, and he does not really smile at living in a struggle, and evil sometimes looks so attractive ... And therefore, a second answer was found to the question of good and evil: why not take the side of evil? Then there is no need for feats and there are a lot of bonuses! But it’s somehow scary to admit it directly to yourself ... Therefore, we’d better create a philosophical doctrine that there is no difference between good and evil, everything is one. Any esotericist will tell you that good and evil are the essence of “manifestations of one nature” and the principle of the unity of opposites underlies the universe. And what backward moralists call evil can even be useful...

Since this theory is in no way compatible with human nature itself, doomed to free will, human nature can also be abandoned, declaring that there is no fundamentally human nature - we are all the same part of Nature in general, like a roadside stone or a cockroach, and therefore let's go back to the origins, clinging to the breast of mother nature. We will be like animals and plants. So what, that this is a rejection of development and dehumanization? - But no straining and feats! And so that pride does not suffer, one can call nature the "body of God", and oneself - a part of this god and amuse oneself with the consciousness of one's divinity.

However, it is not very successful for esotericists to completely abandon ethics. Therefore, having declared good and evil to be “relative” and thereby stifling their conscience, they come up with their own ethics, in which the strangest things can become virtues and sins - to the extent of the “corruption” of the Teacher. The foundations of esoteric ethics will be discussed later.

Esoteric pride: is it easy to be God?

It's boring to achieve your goals in the usual way: earn money, get an education, build your life, build relationships ... If only you could somehow wave a magic wand - and get everything on a blue plate! This childhood dream haunted man since antiquity, and he was looking for ways to implement it. And found. Or rather, he invented it. He came up with a lot of things - a whole worldview system, otherwise called magical thinking. It seems to a person with such a view of the world that he is omnipotent, that by the power of one thought, and even more so magical rituals, he can influence reality, doing what ordinary mortals cannot do.

At first glance, it seems that such a view is a hyper-responsibility of a person for everything. However, everything is not so simple. Our almighty magician actually stubbornly does not take responsibility. He waits for control and always looks back at the "forces" leading him. At each step, he copes with the laws of the universe / horoscope / dowsing frame or listens to the inner voice (in advanced cases, the voice sounds like outside), which thinks it is the voice of God. He never focuses on his own considerations - for every movement he has a rationale for something bigger and wiser than himself, whose will he reads by signs. Considering himself "god - the creator of his world", he turns out to be a man who does not have his own will, constantly looking for instructions "from above".

Esoteric Consciousness: Denial of Reason

A person has one more purely human quality - consciousness or reason. And, if the mind is critical, then it can become an obstacle to the implementation of all of the above. Therefore, it is also better to get rid of the mind. Absolutely all esoteric teachings speak of the need to expand consciousness, change consciousness and turn off consciousness. Others even directly say that the mind is a “devil” that prevents a person from being with God, that is, from merging in harmony with the universe. The main enemy, of course, is the critical mind. Criticism is very bad, it spoils karma, it is especially bad to be critical of the words of an esoteric guru.

Since it is not easy to fight with consciousness, various practices are offered for this - meditation, special breathing, intake of substances, trainings, where a group effect is made through psychotechnics. And who said that it would be easy to get rid of the hateful shackles of the mind? And so that you are not afraid of madness, esotericism says that by turning off the mind, we cling to the source of the "divine mind." It is amazing that a person who found it hard to achieve free will and too lazy to take care of his life is ready to make daily efforts to perform these practices and pay money for training in order to evade responsibility and indulge himself with the illusion of his divinity!

Esoteric Ethics: Sensations and Pleasures

If the mind prevents you from being a god and communicating with the divine mind, then how can you hear the voice of God within yourself? The esoteric answer is simple: God speaks through emotions and sensations. Esotericism teaches you to be very attentive to your feelings, to trust them unconditionally, and without reasoning to follow where they lead. For greater importance, the divinity of intuition is instilled in adepts. In esoteric ethics, absolute evil and good are replaced by negative and positive, from the point of view of subjective sensations. Negativity is evil, from everything that causes discomfort, one must run away without looking back, focusing on what causes pleasant and comfortable feelings.

Thus, pleasure becomes the criterion of truth, and a person simply starts chasing after pleasure and becomes absolutely defenseless against his passions. Since it is taboo not to trust yourself (well, you are God!), then if something causes negative feelings, it is declared the embodiment of evil. Typical esoteric speeches: “I feel that I don’t need it”, “I feel that this is mine.” Yes, yes, not only a book or a dish, but also a life partner or a profession, an esoterically “advanced” person chooses, according to feelings, sorry, divine instructions, sometimes modestly referred to as “subconsciousness”.

Deity of esotericism - energy

The concept of energy is central to any esoteric teaching. For them, the entire universe is energy, energy rules the world, this is the god worshiped by esotericism. The concept of energy is very convenient for rationalizing the basic esoteric ideas - energy is impersonal, willless, all-moral, it just is and flows where there is a place. Accordingly, if you see only energy flows everywhere and in everything, then you can not bother yourself with such nonsense as personality, will, freedom, good and evil ... And if you get the hang of it, then energy can be used by connecting to the “flow”.

To rationalize the importance of sensations, the concept of energy also fits perfectly. This concept easily and simply explains everything in the world, and a person loves simple explanations so much! Typical examples: the myth of energy vampires - I feel bad next to someone, which means that he is a peddler of negativity and eats my energy; relationships in a couple are based on the interaction of male and female energies; I'm in a bad mood - it means I don't have enough energy. So what, that there is no room left for human relations and will? But everything is clear!

Esoteric Relationships: Nothing Personal

You probably guess what a person can be in a relationship for whom any of his actions is an act of God, and good and evil do not exist? That's right - he is capable of any meanness, especially if his feelings of a higher power give a sign. But that's half the trouble. Since he is always preoccupied with finding harmony with the universe, that is, with his condition and his divinity, he does not see anyone around at all. That is, he sees, but not living people, but at best - karmic tasks, more often - just objects for energy exchange.

He can interact “energetically” by feeding on energy from his neighbor or, conversely, feeding him. But personal human relationships are not for the faceless part of nature, which he considers himself to be. Can you imagine a friend who communicates with you not because she is interested in you, but for the sake of accumulating female power? And if you are sad and you want moral support, then the esoteric will recoil from you like a leper - because you radiate negativity and encroach on his precious energy. If he tolerates you out of politeness, then he will run to the bathroom to “wash off the negative”.

Naturally, the ability to love in such a person is completely absent, although esotericists talk a lot about love. But what they mean by love is not a personal relationship. In esotericism, love is still the same energy, it is a state of harmony with the universe, causing pleasant sensations, in which the adept is immersed, and which he spreads around him, as it seems to him. He pours out streams of love to the entire Universe, and it does not matter to him at all what gets in his way - a pile of rubbish or his neighbor. As they say, "nothing personal"!

- Depersonalized, losing his human "I".

- Loses the ability to love and build human relationships.

- From a spiritual point of view, his soul is deeply damaged from communication with the spirits of evil, up to and including possession.

- From the point of view of health, he gets neuropsychic disorders of varying severity, sometimes physical illnesses.

I sincerely hope that you will not have a question, what is wrong with all this? But the question is logical: why are esoteric ideas so popular, and why do esoteric knowledge and practices “help” and “work” people, in their words? Maybe there is still something good and useful? More on that next time.

Continuing the consideration of the mysteries of knowledge, we will remain faithful to the worthy and honored rule of tradition, beginning with the origin of the universe, establishing those main features of physical research that must be preliminarily, and eliminating everything that can serve as an obstacle in our path; so that the ear would be prepared to receive the tradition of the gnosis, and the soil would be cleared of weeds, becoming fit for planting a vineyard; for collision precedes collision, and mysteries precede mysteries.

St. Clement of Alexandria

May this pattern be sufficient for those who have ears. For it is not required to reveal the mystery, but only to point out what is sufficient.

St. Clement of Alexandria

Who has ears to hear, let him hear!

St. Matthew

Foreword

The purpose of this book is to offer readers a series of thoughts on the deep truths at the core of Christianity, truths that are either too superficially accepted or even denied altogether. The generous desire to share with everyone the most precious, to spread priceless truths widely, not to deprive anyone of the light of true knowledge, resulted in an indiscriminate zeal that simplified Christianity to the point that its teachings took on a form that both revolted the heart and was not accepted by the mind. The command to “preach the gospel to all creatures,” which can hardly be recognized as a genuine commandment, was interpreted as a prohibition to transmit gnosis to a few, and it also supplanted another, less common saying of the same great Teacher: “Do not give holy things to dogs and do not cast your pearls in front of the pigs.

This unreasonable sentimentality, refusing to recognize the obvious intellectual and moral inequality of people and, due to this, striving to reduce to the level of understanding of the least developed people the teachings that are accessible only to a highly developed mind, thus sacrificing the higher for the benefit of the lower to mutual harm - such sentimentality was alien to courageous sanity of early Christians.

St. Clement of Alexandria says quite definitely: “And even now, as it is said, it is not necessary to cast pearls before swine, let them not trample underfoot and, turning, they will not tear you to pieces. For it is difficult to present pure and transparent words concerning the true Light to swine and unprepared listeners.

If gnosis, this true knowledge, having been reborn, again constituted a part of the Christian teachings, such a revival would be possible only under the condition of the previous restrictions, only when the very idea of ​​leveling religious teaching to the level of the least developed would be resolutely and forever abandoned. Only by raising the level of religious truths can one open the way to the restoration of sacred knowledge and to the teaching of the lesser mysteries, which must precede the teaching of the great mysteries. The latter will never appear in print; they can only be given to the student "face to face" by the Master. But the lesser mysteries, that is, the partial revelation of deep truths, can be restored even today, and the proposed work aims to give a brief outline of them and show nature of the secret teaching that should be mastered. Where only hints are given, by concentrated meditation on the truths touched on, it is possible to make barely noticeable outlines clearly visible and, continuing meditation, to delve more and more into the understanding of these truths. For meditation brings to rest the lower mind, eternally occupied with external objects, and when it calms down, then only it is possible to perceive spiritual enlightenment. Knowledge of spiritual truths can be acquired only from within, and not from without, not from an external teacher, but only from the divine Spirit, who has built his Temple within us. These truths are "learned spiritually" by that indwelling divine Spirit, by that "mind of Christ" of which the apostle speaks, and this inner light is shed upon our lower mind.

This is the path of Divine Wisdom, true Theosophy. Theosophy is not, as some think, a weak version of Hinduism or Buddhism or Taoism or any particular religion; it is esoteric Christianity, just as there is esoteric Buddhism, and it belongs equally to every religion, but exclusively to none. It is the source of the indications that are given in this book to help those who seek the Light - that "true light" that enlightens every person who comes "into the world", even though the majority have not yet opened their eyes to see it. . Theosophy does not bring Light, it only says: "Open your eyes and look - here is the Light!". For so we heard. Theosophy calls only to those who are eager to receive more than what external teachings can give them. For those who are completely satisfied with external teachings, it is not intended, for why forcefully offer bread to the not hungry?

For those who are hungry, let it be bread and not a stone.

Chapter I. The Hidden Side of Religion

Many, perhaps the majority, reading the title of this book, will react negatively to it, and will dispute the existence of any doctrine that deserves the name "Secret Christianity." There is a widespread belief that in connection with Christianity there is nothing at all that can be called occult teaching, and that the "mysteries", both small and great, were a purely pagan institution. The very title of "The Mysteries of Jesus", which was so dear to the Christians of the first centuries, would have evoked nothing but astonishment among contemporary Christians; if, however, one speaks of the "mysteries" as a definite institution of the ancient church, one can most likely evoke a smile of distrust. Moreover, it is a matter of pride for Christians that there are no secrets in their religion, that everything Christianity has to say, it tells everyone, that everything it teaches is meant for everyone without exception. It is assumed that its truths are so simple that the most ordinary person, even if he is a fool, cannot err in them, and the "simplicity" of the gospel has become a walking phrase.

In view of this, it is especially important to prove that Christianity in its early period did not lag behind the other great religions, which all possessed secret teachings, to prove that it also possessed its mysteries and guarded them like a priceless treasure, secrets that were revealed only to a select few who participated in the mysteries.

But before embarking on such proofs, one should consider the question of the hidden side of religion in general, and be aware that why such a side must exist in order to give strength and stability to religion; if we clarify this issue, all subsequent references to the Fathers of the Church, proving the existence of a hidden side in Christianity, will seem natural and will no longer cause bewilderment. As a historical fact, the existence of esotericism in ancient Christianity can be proved, but it can also be confirmed by inner necessity.

The first question to be answered is: what is the purpose of religions? Religions are given to the world by their Founders, incomparably wiser than the peoples for whom they are appointed, and their purpose is to accelerate human evolution. To successfully achieve this goal, religious truths must reach into the consciousness of all individuals and influence this consciousness. But we know perfectly well that not all people are at the same level of development; we know that evolution can be pictured as a gradual ascent, at each point of which there are different people. The most developed stand much higher than the less developed, both in the sense of mind and in the sense of character; and the ability to understand and act correctly changes with each ascending step. Therefore, it is completely useless to give everyone the same religious teaching: that which will help an intellectually developed person will remain completely incomprehensible to a primitive person, and that which is capable of raising a saint to ecstasy will leave the criminal completely indifferent. On the other hand, if a doctrine is capable of exerting a beneficial influence on an unintelligent person, it will seem childish to a philosopher, and what brings salvation to a criminal will turn out to be completely useless to a saint. Meanwhile, all people need religion, everyone needs an ideal to strive for, and not one of the stages of development should be sacrificed for the sake of another. Religion must be as gradual as evolution, otherwise it will not achieve its goal.

Then the question arises: how can religions accelerate human evolution? Religions seek to develop the moral and intellectual sides of people and help to reveal their spiritual nature. Considering man as a complex being, they seek to help all aspects of his being - they give teachings that correspond to all the various needs of man. Therefore, religious teachings must give an answer to every mind and heart to which they are addressed. If religion is not accessible to the consciousness of a person, if it does not take possession of him, if it does not purify and inspire emotions with it, then it has not reached its goal for him.

But religion is not limited to influencing thoughts and emotions; it seeks, as already mentioned, to influence the spiritual development of people. It responds to that inner impulse that is inherent in all mankind and which constantly pushes it forward. For deep within every heart—often weighed down by transient hardships, or filled with persistent worries and anxieties—there is a constant search for God.

“I have been looking for you since the early dawn, my soul yearns for you, my flesh languishes for you in the waterless land…” This is how mankind yearns for God. This search sometimes seems to stop, the thirst sometimes disappears. There are periods in civilization and in consciousness when this cry of the human spirit, seeking its divine source - like water, in the words of Giordano Bruno, seeks its own level - when this yearning of the human spirit for a kindred beginning, this aspiration of a particle to the whole seems to have died out for a while; and, nevertheless, this aspiration is revived again, and again the same cry of the spirit seeking God is heard.

Temporarily stifled, apparently destroyed, this thirst arises again and again with irresistible persistence, it revives again, no matter how many times it is stifled; this proves that the thirst for God is an innate property of human nature, an ineradicable component of it. It happens that people say: “You see, she is dead!”, but their triumph is short-lived and they are convinced that she has arisen again with undiminished vitality. All who build without taking it into account find their carefully erected buildings destroyed as if by an earthquake. All who are convinced that their age has outgrown this thirst, see how the wildest superstitions arise when there is no satisfaction for it.

And this thirst for God is so inherent in us that a person cannot do without an answer to his questions: he wants an answer at all costs, even if it is a false answer. If he cannot find religious truth, he will prefer delusion to complete absence of religion. He will rather accept the most imperfect ideal than reconcile himself to the fact that there is no ideal at all.

Religion goes towards this thirst and, taking possession of that part of human nature, which is inherent in this thirst, educates it, strengthens, purifies and directs it to its true completion - to the union of the human spirit with the divine, so that God "could be everything and in everything."

The next question that arises from the path of our investigation is: where to look for the source of religions? There are two answers to this question in our day, one by comparative mythology, the other by the comparative study of religions. Both argue their answers on a common basis of accepted facts. Research has proven undeniably that all world religions are similar in their main teachings and that they all had Founders who showed superhuman powers and the greatest moral height; that they are similar in their ethical precepts, in the means of reaching contact with the invisible worlds, and in the symbols by which they expressed their guiding beliefs. This similarity, which in many cases reaches the point of identity, proves - according to the conclusions of both schools of thought - the common origin of religions.

But as to the nature of this common origin, the two schools differ. Representatives of comparative mythology argue that this common origin is a common ignorance, and that the most elevated religious doctrines are nothing more than a refined expression of the crude ideas of savages, expressing their concepts of themselves and the world around them. Animism, fetishism, worship of nature, worship of the sun - these are the ingredients of that primeval silt from which grew the magnificent lily of religion. Krishna, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Jesus - all these, in their opinion, although highly developed, but still descending in a straight line, are the descendants of the whirling medicine men of wild tribes. God is, as it were, a composite photograph of innumerable gods, personifying the forces of nature. And so on, everything like that. The whole essence of this school is summarized in one phrase: religions are branches of one common trunk: human ignorance.

Comparative theologians, for their part, assert that all religions have their origin in the teachings of those God-men who, appearing from time to time, offer to various peoples such parts of the basic religious truths as this people is able to perceive; which proclaim the same morality, offer the use of the same means, use unambiguous symbols. The religions of the savages - animism and the rest - are nothing more than degenerations, the results of decadence, crippled echoes of true religious beliefs. Sun worship and pure forms of nature worship were in their time noble religions, highly allegorical and full of deep truth and meaning. The Great Teachers, according to the Hindus, Buddhists and some representatives of the "comparative study of religions", such as the Theosophists, form a Great Brotherhood, whose members have risen high above ordinary humanity, serve him as his spiritual Guardians and from time to time appear among people to give them new spiritual impulse. This point of view can be expressed in a few words: “religions are branches of one common trunk: Divine Wisdom».

This Divine Wisdom was called in different centuries gnosis, Wisdom, Theosophy, and some representatives of the religious consciousness, who in different centuries sought to emphasize their belief in the unity of religions, preferred the eclectic name of theosophist to any other, narrower designation.

The relative value of the arguments put forward by the two named schools can be judged by how convincing the evidence put forward by each of them. The degenerate form of a noble idea may look quite like a refined expression of a crude idea, and the only way to decide whether we are dealing with degeneration or evolution is to investigate its intermediate phases and its remote source. The evidence put forward by those who support the origin of religion from the source of Wisdom is of this kind: they assert that the Founders of religions, judging by the records of their teachings, stood incomparably higher than the level of contemporary humanity; that St. The Scriptures contain moral rules, lofty ideals, poetic inspirations, profound philosophies, which are incomparably higher in beauty and inspiration than all the later Scriptures of the same religions; in other words, that the new is not higher than the old, but, on the contrary, the old is higher than the new. Further, they maintain that it is impossible to point to a single case of improvement of the original religious source, while many opposite cases can be cited - the degeneration of the most exalted teachings; and besides, if one carefully examines the religions of savages, one can find traces of lofty ideas in them, which clearly exceed the creative abilities of the savages themselves.

This last thought was developed by the scholar Andrew Lang, who, judging by his book The Making of Religion, belongs more to the Comparative Study of Religions than to the supporters of Comparative Mythology. He points to the existence of a common tradition, which, he argues, could not have arisen among the savages themselves, whose ordinary beliefs are so crude and whose thought is on such a low level. He points out that beneath their crude beliefs lie lofty traditions concerning the nature of the divine Being and His relationship to humans. The deities they deify have for the most part the properties of the most real devils, but behind them, above all this imperfection, one feels an obscure, but full of light, overshadowing Presence, rarely or not at all named, mentioned with reverence as the source of everything, as the power of love and goodness, too tender to arouse horror and too good to demand appeasement. Such ideas obviously could not have arisen among savages, and they remain eloquent witnesses of the revelation given by one of the great Masters—of which there is a dim tradition almost universally—who was the Son of Wisdom and communicated some of his teachings in ages long past.

The reason, as well as the justification for the views shared by the representatives of comparative mythology, is quite clear. They found crude forms of religious belief everywhere when their investigations touched upon savage tribes. These forms have always accompanied the general lack of civilization. In asserting that civilized people are descended from savages, is it not natural to look at their religions as a product developed from religions of a lower type? This conclusion is completely natural. Only a further and deeper study of this question can prove that the savages of our time do not represent the type of our ancestors, that they are only the degenerate offspring of the great cultural stem of the distant past, and that man during his infancy was not left to himself, but was we guide the Elder Brothers of the human race, who guided his first steps both in religion and in civilization. This point of view is confirmed by all the facts given in Lang's book, and it inevitably raises the question: "Who were these elders, about whom there are traditions everywhere?"

Here we come at once to the difficulty with which every Founder of a religion had to reckon; we know that the law of human evolution causes the inevitable fact of the simultaneous existence of people at different stages of development, as a result of which the Founder of religion had to inevitably deal with both highly developed people and primitive people; in one locality He met a complex, highly developed civilization, and in another, a very simple, primitive system. But even within any given civilization there are the most varied types of people, both ignorant and cultured, both thoughtful and very superficial, and highly spiritual and extremely coarse; and yet the influence of religion must reach to each of them, and help must be given to each at the stage where he stands. If evolution exists, such difficulties are inevitable, and the divine Teacher must reckon with them, otherwise His work cannot be successful. If a person really develops, as everything around him develops, these various stages of consciousness should be inherent in humanity everywhere and always, and they should be taken into consideration by all world religions.

Thus, we have come face to face with the basic position: there cannot be one and the same religious teaching even for one nationality, and even more so for a whole civilization or for the whole world. If there were only one teaching, most of the people to whom it is addressed would remain outside its influence. If it were accessible to the most limited people with elementary morals, with dark ideas, and could successfully act on their evolution, then it would be completely unsuitable for those representatives of the same nation who are distinguished by subtle moral concepts, a developed mind and a clear pronounced spirituality. But if this religion was given only for these latter, if its philosophy were to serve as a light only for them developed consciousness and only for them refined moral ideas and for them it gave an exalted ideal to the spirituality ahead of it, such a religion could not touch the thought of undeveloped people and could not act on their hearts; it would remain for them a set of meaningless phrases, incapable of rousing their dormant forces and giving a motive for behavior that raises their morality to the highest level.

Considering thus the end of religion, its means, its origin, and the various needs of the people to whom it is addressed; recognizing the evolution of the spiritual, mental and moral abilities of a person and the need of each in such an impact that would correspond to his stage of development, we come to the absolute necessity of difference and gradualness in religious teachings so that the latter can meet the spiritual needs of all people and help each person individually .

There is another reason why an esoteric or hidden teaching is necessary when it comes to a certain class of truths. This category includes the saying that "knowledge is power." The open promulgation of such a philosophy, which appeals exclusively to a highly developed intellect, cannot harm anyone. It can be distributed safely, for it will not attract an ignorant person to itself, and he will not distort it. But there are teachings that concern the structure of nature, which explain hidden laws and throw light on secret processes, the knowledge of which gives power over natural energies and makes the owner of such knowledge able to direct these energies to certain goals, just as a chemist works with the products of chemical compounds.

Such knowledge can be very useful for highly developed people and can increase the power of their service to the world, but if such knowledge were made public to everyone, it would lead to abuses, such as the knowledge of subtle poisons in the Middle Ages was directed to evil by the Borgias and others. It could fall into the hands of people with strong minds but undisciplined desires, people driven by selfish instincts, seeking only their own benefit and not interested in the common good. They would be attracted by the hope of developing in themselves forces that would put them above the common level and would give ordinary humanity into their power. Such people would aspire to the acquisition of knowledge, which is really capable of raising to superhuman heights, and it would make them even more selfish, would increase their self-assertion, their pride would receive new nourishment, the feeling of isolation would be strengthened to the extreme, and they would inevitably be drawn along an inclined plane that leads to the "Left Path" that serves separation, not unity. And not only would they themselves suffer in the depths of their nature, but they would become a threat to a society already suffering enough from people whose intellectual development outstripped that of conscience. This is where the need arises to protect known teachings from morally unprepared people, and this need is obligatory for every Teacher who is able to give such knowledge. Therefore, it is quite natural for him to want to give such knowledge only to those who have in mind, first of all, the common good, who are ready to work for the general evolution, and just as natural is his desire to protect this knowledge from people striving for their own exaltation to the detriment of everyone else.

All of the above is not just a theory. The occult records give many indications of facts, which are alluded to in the book of Genesis in chapter VI and in the following. This knowledge was spread in ancient times on the sunken continent of Atlantis, where it was given without strict correlation with the moral highness, purity and disinterestedness of those who received this knowledge. They were given approximately in the same way as ordinary science is taught in our time. Accessibility to all, which is so imperatively demanded in our time, led in Atlantis to the fact that some people became giants in knowledge, but just as giants in evil; and this lasted until the earth groaned under the yoke of the oppressors, until the cry for help of trampled humanity swept through all the worlds. Then followed the destruction of Atlantis, the sinking of this vast continent to the bottom of the ocean; allusions to this event are given in the Bible in the story of Noah's Ark, and in the Hindu scriptures of the far East in the History of Vaivasvata Manu.

Since this experience, which proved how great the danger is when impure people are admitted to knowledge that is power, the great Masters have established the strictest conditions in the sense of purity, selflessness and self-control for all who seek occult training. They absolutely refuse to communicate such knowledge to students who do not agree to submit to a strict discipline designed to destroy the selfish isolation of their feelings and interests. They have in mind the moral strength of the student even more than his intellectual development, for such training in itself develops the intellect and it also puts a great strain on the moral nature of a person. It is not surprising that the keepers of wisdom preferred to endure the reproaches of ignorant people rather than risk causing a new catastrophe for the whole world.

All this concerns a theory that points to the necessity of the hidden side in all religions. But when we move from theory to facts, the question naturally arises: did such a hidden side exist in the past, and was it really part of the world's religions? The answer to this question can only be in the affirmative. Every great religion had such a secret teaching, which was a repository of mystical knowledge, as well as practical mysticism or occult knowledge. The mystical interpretation of popular teachings was popular and it explained the latter as allegories, giving meaning to seemingly unreasonable statements and stories. Behind this theoretical mysticism there were also practical indications, a secret spiritual teaching, communicated only under certain conditions, to which everyone who wished to partake of such knowledge had to obey. St. Clement of Alexandria mentions this division of the mysteries: “After the purification,” he says, “there follow the lesser mysteries, in which some basic rules and preliminary preparations are given for what should follow, and then the great mysteries, after which there is nothing unknown in the whole universe and it remains only to contemplate and understand the nature of things.

This proposition cannot be refuted as far as it concerns the ancient religions. The Mysteries of Egypt were the pride of this ancient country, and the most noble sons of Greece, like Plato, went to Sais and Thebes to receive initiation from the Egyptian Masters of Wisdom. The Mithraic mysteries of the Persians, the Orphic and Bacchic mysteries and the later Eleusinian semi-mysteries of the Greeks, the mysteries of Samothrace, Scythia and Chaldea sound familiar to us, at least by name. Even with the extremely low level of the Eleusinian mysteries, their importance was placed very highly by the most prominent people of Greece, such as Pindar, Sophocles, Isocrates, Plutarch and Plato. In particular, they were considered useful in relation to posthumously existence, since the Initiate learned from them that which provided him with otherworldly bliss.

Sopater also asserted that the Initiation established the affinity of the soul with the divine Nature, and in the published hymn to Demeter, disguised allusions are made to the holy child of Jach, to his death and resurrection, as they were presented in the mysteries.

Iamblichus, the great theurgist of the third and fourth century A.D., gives much information concerning the mysteries. Theurgy was magical, "the last part of the priestly science," and it was used in the great mysteries to bring about the appearance of higher Beings. The theory on which these mysteries were based can be stated in short words: there is a One that precedes all existence. Immovable, Remaining in the loneliness of Its own unity. From Him arises the supreme Deity, the Self-begotten, the Good, the Source of all things, the Root of all things, the God of gods, the First Cause, revealing Itself as Light. From it comes the Comprehensible World, or the ideal universe. world mind, nous, and incorporeal gods belong here. From the World Mind comes the World Soul, to which belong "the divine intelligent forms, which are inherent in the visible bodies of the gods." Then follow various Hierarchies of superhuman beings: archangels, archons (rulers) or cosmocrats, angels, demons, etc. Man is a being of a lower order, but he is connected with the mentioned Hierarchies by his nature and is able to cognize them; this knowledge was acquired by him in the mysteries, and it led to union with God. The mysteries expounded these teachings, “the origin and return of all things from the One and to the One and the complete dominion of the One” and in addition, various Spiritual Beings were invoked, who sometimes appeared to teach, sometimes in order to elevate and purify with their mere presence. . “The gods,” says Iamblichus, “being benevolent and merciful, communicate their light to theurgists in immeasurable abundance, calling their souls to themselves, creating for them a connection with themselves and accustoming them, while they are still in the body, to separate from their bodies and unite with its eternal spiritual principle. For “the soul has a double life, one connected with the body, and the other separated from everything bodily,” which is why it is necessary to learn to separate it from the body so that it can unite with the gods through its rational and divine part and know the true foundations of knowledge and truth spiritual world. “The presence of the gods gives health to our body, righteousness to our soul, purity to our mind, and, in a word, raises everything in us to its true nature. It represents what is incorporeal as corporeal to the eyes of the soul, through the medium of bodily vision. When the gods appear, the soul receives "liberation from the passions, transcendent perfection and overpowering energy, and it participates in divine love and immense joy."