Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-03
ANNIE BESANT
IS TO LECTURE
NOTED THEoS0PHIST IS TO
EXPLAIN HER PHILOSOPHY
BLAvATsKY's SUCCESSOR WILL
GIVE TWO ADDRESSES
Los Angeles Will Be Given oppor-
tunity to Hear Woman Who
Believes in Guidance of
Mahatmas


ing will speak at the Majestic theater
on THE Coming Race and the Coming
Christ" and Saturday evening on
"Signs of the Closing Age"
Though Mrs. Besant has more than
a dozen lectures in her repertoire, the
above are said to be the two which
have occasioned much sensational dis
cussion throughout the cities of Great
Britain and this country. Whether one
is in accord with Theosophic teaching
or not, her philosophlc treatment of
these questions, her high aims and in
tense spirituality are said to endow
these mystic subjects with fascinat-
ing interest.
And, strangely enough, says a friend
of the lecturer. as great avatar, great
teacher, is being looked for in many
countries and among many peoples
and the coming of the great one" is
fmbedded in the religious beliefs OF
nations that have passed away, extinct
civilizations of which little or nothing
is known.
1.-The tradition has not died out even
yet among the Mexicans," says the
speaker. I'm Persia this belief has
been one of the factors in giving pow
ers to the Bahais of whom there are
a number of converts in this country.
The coming of a Mahdi has caused
more than one upheaval among the
wild tribes of the Soudan.
Spiritual Belief Prevails
Among peoples farther advanced a
more spiritual belief prevails. Though
the western peoples have been taught
that no man knoweth the day when
the Son of man will come, yet the
book of Daniel and Revelation indi-
cate the time to those sSillful enough
TO decipher the inner meaning. But
prophetical Interpretation has not oeen
pronouncedly successful, for some very
decided failures along this line have
had to be noted in the years past.
I'm India the Interpretation of these
forecasts regarding the coming of an
avatar are not carried on along ESQ
teric lines, and it is by esoteric method
very largely that the meaning of cyclic
law is deciphere6 and the hidden mean
ing known.
"And theosophy itself is alleged to be
by no means a new religion. Indeed, it
is claimed by Mrs Besant as by Nine.
H. P. Blavatsky, that strange but in
teresting Russian woman who brought
to the west some of the secrets of the
silent east, that theosophy is a science.
a philosophy and the root of all re-
ligions though in itself scarcely to be
termed a religion; that it is old as the
everlasting hills older in fact, for
theo-sor-'a, or divine wisdom, began
to manifest when the universe emerged
from the night
ITO those who fail to grasp the meta
physical or the spiritual concepts, the
osophists are not infrequently charged
with black magic, with believing in
spiritualism etc. Inferentially, it is
claimed, black magic being conceded,
there must be white magic, for the
duality rules throughout the universe.
And theosophists plead guilty to an ar
dent desire to being proficient in white
magic, to attain to that condition when,
with the body under perfect control,
and developed in every detail, the un-
folding consciousness is raised to other
planes and the veil is rent asunder that
separates this world of form from high
er and more sptritualized planes of
being
True, too, theosophical students do
cOncede a belief in spiritualism Of a
certain kind. They do not believe in
bringing those who have passed away
down again to this earth plane, but
rather by perfecting themselves to
raise this consciousness SO that inter
communication can take place normal
lv on the several higher planes of ex-
istence And for the phenomena of the
seance room theosOphy has little use
For several centuries such phenomena
has been classified in the east. AMI it
is claimed to have been established be-
yond peradventure that, save in GER
tain exceptional cases, the return is
not of the actual personages who give
high sounding names, or who pose as
close relatives of the sitters present.
Nothing Mysterious to Occult
while in all theosophical literature
the word occult figures prominently,
no mysterious Importance it is said
attaches n IF
refers to those laws of nature with
which man is unacquainted. with
others that he is just beginning to
sense and to know. about which the
students of the society are eagerly
inquiring. 1t was Huxley who said.
There may be beings in the universe
who are as much superior to man as
man is above the black beetle And
this is what theosophists are said to
contend for. claiming that to deny this
would be equivalent to saying that
evolution stops when man is reached.
While there is said to be no doctrine
I'm theosophy which is more surprising
than that of the existence of mahat-
mas, or masters. there is also none
which has been more misunderstood
Some of the earlier books tell of the
wonderful powers they possess, and, as
more people are attracted to the mar
velous than to ethics or philosophy, it
has come to pass that many who know
of the masters only by hearsay con-
found these sages with the jugglers
and fakirs OF India This is claimed
to be as irreverent and as erroneous
as to say that the master, Jesus, was
a fakir.
"Theosophists say in working certain
wonders in the early days of the So
ciety check was put upon the ma
terialistic tendencies that threatened
to overwhelm the world, and this was
done by displaying some of the re-
sources of the unseen world. Then.
too, it was claimed that inasmuch as
the teachings of the society came from
a practically unknown source ii was
advisable that they should be accom-
panied with some collateral. IT being
claimed that perfected men were au-
thority for theosophical doctrines, ii
would naturally be expected that such
men should prove their claim by dis
playing wonderful powers Theoso-
phists claim that the remarkable phe-
nomena performed give this collateral"
Mrs. Besant, who has personal
knowledge, it is said, of the existence
of several of these masters once de-
fined a mahatma before a New York
audience as lone who had become so
pure and unselfish that he had become
a divine and had earned the right to
enter into the highest and most ex-
allied spiritual states of consciousness.
never to be imprisoned In physical
body on earth again.
Instead of accepting this bliss, she
added, the mahatma renounced it. pre-
ferring to be reborn and continue to
work for the salvation of man."