The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1897-04-13

should be near him to be taught. One
of US can leave the body and in the
astral world we can hold communion
He does not lead in his teachings; the
work is done by directing the energies
in right channels so that it is really
acknowledgements. visit my teacher
in Thibet each year.
Mrs BeSant dresses most of the time
in white and wears soft Indian shawl
carelessly thrown over her shoulder in
the Oriental style. It is a custom for
convenience, not a form of her religion,
she AYERS. She wears the large signet
ring that was given Madame BIavatsky
by her Thibet teacher and left to her
when Madame Blavatslxy died It is a
large solid gold ring with q large set,
on which is carved a double triangle
and a Sanscrit word. 1t is not the sig
net of authority, but is a priceless me-
mentO of the great Blavatsky.
With Mrs. Besant is the Countess
Wachtmeister and Miss Anna Wilson
with a double ''u'D, of London. The
countess is the widow of the Russian
ambassador to London and is immense
ly wealthy. She is quite devoted to the
work. Her son is working as a theosO-
phist in San Francisco. Miss Wilson
is also a woman of means and is so de-
voted to the work that she travels with
Mrs. Besant and acts as her secretary
Mrs. Besant is not working in har-
mOny with the branch of which Mrs
Tingley and Claud Falls Wright are
the opponents. They represent the
Philosophical society of America, but
society unlimited). She is inclined to
frown upon the sensational and rather
SLOWLY actions of the other branch, es-
peciaIly the formal wedding of parties
teachings of the cult are occult, they
must be secret and the public work
should be but enough to interest those
who wish to take up the investigations
simply showing them the way and put
ting forth the attractive features of the
cult.
OF course, as Mrs. Besant is engaged
in missionary work, she is very willing
to talk. She will tell you all about
reincarnation. and she will even try to
explain to you what an aura is, and if
you can project your mind along the
convoIutions of her all-wise ideas with
the wisdom that must come from in
spiratiOn, the incOmprehensible will be-
come as clear as day, and you will
know as much about auraS as a Ma
hatma.
Here are some points upon the aura
proposition from the priestess herself
Invisible bodies form together the
aura. This is related to the invisible
bodies as the human body is related to
the earth.
THE astral matter is the particular
kind of matter which responds to all
vibration.
when vibrations are set up in the
human body thoughts result.
Abstract thinking strains the mind
to the utmost. You set it by immense
study of concrete objects.
'Au highest thoughts are those when
unities are recognized.
There is a faculty of the mind that
is the highest quality of intellect con-
nected with consciousness. That is what
Plato meant by world of ideas. When
divided by a trained mind, man is able
to repeat some of the energies of divine
intelligence.
Science declares that there is but
one root of energy"
In her lecture Mrs. Besant some times
uses a stereOpticon to illustrate the
formation of auras and the forms of
course of thoughts. The room is dark
ened and colored pictures are thrown
upon a screen. These are, as Mrs. Be
SAINT will explain, pictures made from
descriptions of auraS and thoughts Civ
en- by those gifted with the sight.
Mrs. Besant did not use the stereop-
ticOn last night, however.
Mrs. BeSant tells US that the souls of
the good and holy of this earth have to
be reincarnated but seven times, While
the soul which is slow in its departure
from the brute instinct must be born
again and again before it attains final
perfection. AS long as it remains the
elementary soul it has to go over it's
existence again and again, until it
reaches that sublimated perfection
which makes it divine.
The idea of seven heavens for the
human soul is by no means new one,
since SWedenbOrg was the first pro-
mulgator of that idea, and indeed much
of the SpirituaHStic belief of theOSOphy
can be traced back to SwedenbOrg,
though it all, perhaps, had its birth in
India; at least that is where the the
osophists go today for their enlighten-
ment. The idea of the creation or the
dissemination of that strange, intangi-
BILE quantity called the soul as expound-
ed by Mrs Besant, is that particles of
the soul essence fly off into this earth
and into tangible human bodies, just as
drops of water would fly from a revOlv-
ing solid and seek natural gravity, on
stones, on fertile spots, on flowers and
on ViperS Just as it happened.
This may sound very queer to some
minds who pooh-pooh everything save
the idea of a personal God, but to 9TH
ers it will doubtless seem the most logi-
cal solution of that strange question as
to why immortal souls are often put
into such vicious and unworthy bodies.
The spiritualistic part of theosOphy is,
of course, hard to grasp and much of it
may be absurd, but this idea of the
local dissemination seems far more
plausible than many of the doctrines of
conservatism.
Just how and when, however, a very
wicked and grasping soul is to be de-
livered from the bonds of earthly cru
city and ambition, it would be rather
hard to determine.