by GRETA EEDLE
THE BLAVATSKY LECTURE OF 1945 IN this lecture it has become customary to deal with the progress made since the founding of the Theosophical Society in the many and varied subjects treated by H. P. Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine, and I shall therefore attempt to speak this afternoon of certain aspects of the private life of humanity — a subject with which H. P. Blavatsky was as much concerned as with any other.
Profound changes have occurred during the last seventy years in the social structure of many countries, especially in the west. Terrible upheavals have broken down barriers and destroyed outworn customs, but far from the annihilation of human values predicted by the materialists, we find today the resurgence of a new spiritual life, and a changing consciousness going ever further towards the aims embodied in the Objects of the Theosophical Society.
Since the founding of the Society hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people have been helped by its teachings to break down not only many of the barriers that then separated men from each other, but also many prejudices within themselves, so that as time has gone on, certain hard mental and emotional crusts have worn away, and the light of buddhi in its dual aspect of illuminating wisdom and all-enveloping love has penetrated ever further into the hearts of men, inspiring worldwide reforms in nearly all the spheres of human endeavour.
The vision of the unity of mankind has reversed many an age-old opinion, and battles are being waged today, not by individual pioneers, such as H. P, Blavatsky, against the world, but by large associations of philanthropists against the general mass of unthinking people, with increasing success. We are still handicapped by the very measure of our own achievements. It has been and is the purpose of the fourth and fifth root races to develop the mind, and this has given rise to an uneven development in humanity, not so extreme as seventy years ago, but still very noticeable. In public life it is apparent by great reforms on the one hand, and war on the other. In private life it shows in a shift of values in the family which leaves the human trinity of father-mother-children in new, unaccustomed and sometimes unhappy positions. Evolutionary changes do not shake the foundations of society, but they do destroy the superstructure, and the new building is often slow in emerging.
Since the last century there has been a steady shift of emphasis in values from the time when the father was master in most details of family life, the mother deferred to his wishes on all occasions, and the children obeyed as far as their temperaments would allow. Then the father was the sole breadwinner and graciously gave of his substance to his dependents. With the emancipation of women that has changed profoundly. Not only does the mother usually control the expenditure of the family income, but often both parents are breadwinners. The economic power-monopoly of the father has gone, and with it a great deal of the obedience he demanded in the past. But he has not yet learnt, and there are no facilities by which he can learn how to adapt himself to the new situation. The more intelligent young men of today realise this. They see young women being offered training in mothercraft and domestic science, and wonder why something similar, though obviously not the same, is not offered to them too. They know from experience, sometimes bitter experience, that the methods of their own fathers were wrong, but they have no means of knowing what to put in the place of the standard of yesterday, and so they feel frustrated. The child judges his father on his merits, and not on the basis of benefits received or duties owed, and as a result compares him unfavourably with his mother and teacher. There is a great need for an addition to the training of boys. Girls are trained both for the home and for the world. Boys are most onesidedly trained for the world only, yet on their happy and free adjustment to home life and on their capacity to learn from their own children their happiness depends just as much as it does on the right choice of their work in life.
This great adjustment which men need to make has also a much deeper significance. It is one of the many steps required for the transition from fifth to sixth sub-race consciousness, for the intuition, the fine thread which connects us with the buddhic level, cannot begin to function until the nobler emotions are far more developed in men than they are today, and there is an easy response to the buddhic love which is mirrored in the higher emotions.
The best known examples of the practical functioning of the intuition are those which illuminate mainly the mind, for our race has specialized in its development and has given birth to great geniuses. When the mind already holds many relevant facts in its consciousness, and there is a high sense of devotion to duty or to a profession, then comes the flash that clarifies all and a manifestation of genius takes place. This approach to the buddhic level through the intuition is, however, not possible for the mass of humanity, for the higher mind itself still needs considerable development. The simpler way is to take full advantage of the contacts made in private life and by breaking down the barriers erected by mental criticism, so that by opening oneself to buddhic love our emotions become serene and full of sympathy. For children particularly there is nothing so important as that they shall see shining out among their elders the power of love to which they may always go, to shelter from the storms of their own lower emotions. When they find that serenity in others who can help them, it is far easier for them to dissociate themselves from their selfish little personalities and identify themselves with the big personages they may become if they are helped to make the effort.
The influence that the power of love radiating within the first object of the Theosophical Society has had upon the world has been partly to inspire the abolition of existing cruelties and inequalities. That has broadened the view and expanded the emotions of a very large number of people, but it does not seem to have expanded the emotions sufficiently for the intuition to have developed very extensively. For that expansion it seems necessary to come back to the private life of humanity, to the relationship between persons, where steadfast love purifies the emotions and breaks down the mental barriers sufficiently for the ray of intuition to penetrate. One has only to study the teachings given in the early years of the Society's existence to see what were and are the views of the Founders.
In reply to the question whether a man should marry or not, H. P. Blavatsky said: —
" If you refer to one who intends to live in the world, one who, even though a good, earnest theosophist, and an ardent worker for our cause, still has ties and wishes which bind him to the world, who, in short, does not feel that he has done for ever with what men call life, and that he desires one thing and one thing only—to know the truth, and to be able to help others — then for such a one I say there is no reason why he should not marry. . . ." [Key to Theosophy, p. 262.]The Master K.H. wrote to A. P. Sinnett:—
" It is true that the married man cannot be an adept, yet without striving to become a Saja Yogi he can acquire certain powers and do as much good to mankind and often more, by remaining within the precincts of this world of his." [Mahatma Letters, p. 17.]The nature of the powers are not disclosed.
Then there is the letter of the Master Serapis to Col. Olcott:—
" Know, O brother mine, that where a truly, spiritual love seeks to consolidate itself doubly by a pure permanent union of the two, in its earthly sense, it commits no sin, no crime in the eyes of the great Ain-Soph, for it is but the divine repetition of the Male and Female Principles — the microcosmal reflection of the first condition of Creation. On such a union angels may well smile." [Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, II, 51]but the most significant and far-reaching in its implications is the hint of the Mahachohan in his letter of 1881:—
" It is time that Theosophy should enter the arena. The sons of theosophists are more likely to become in their turn theosophists than anything else."[Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, I,5]It seems as clear as anything can well be that one of the ways by which the Masters plan that Theosophy should permeate the world is by the passing of the wisdom from parents to their children and their children's children. True that it may not always be possible to pass on the Theosophy of the head in this way, but it should always be possible to pass on the Theosophy of the heart.
In the meantime the forerunners of the sixth sub-race are being born, sometimes to theosophists, when bodies are offered to them, but mainly elsewhere, often to families where they are little understood and in whom they have little confidence. Ever since H, P, Blavatsky presaged the coming of the sixth root race there has been much serious study and investigation by theosophical students of the new type of humanity that will eventually supersede the present type. It is understood that it will in time attain to full consciousness on the buddhic plane, a deep level of understanding which at present can only be occasionally contacted through the intuition. But all remains theory until we find this mysterious power of love and wisdom at work either in ourselves or in those closely connected with us.
The pioneers of the sixth sub-race who are already among us may not be physically of a very different type from other young people. Probably they are themselves only the forefathers of the type that will eventually evolve, but an awakened intuition is born with them, which threatens to be overgrown by the powerful thought forms of the existing races if the strong hands of parents, teachers and friends are not there to guard them against this disaster. H. P. Blavatsky, the three Presidents of the Theosophical Society and many enlightened educationists such as Pestalozzi, Froebel and Montessori, have laid down broad outlines to encourage the development of the intuition in every child, and these are already followed to a surprising degree. The mental atmosphere is permeated with many thought forms created by the outstanding thinkers in the Theosophical Society and reinforced by the general membership, so that our motto "There is no religion higher than truth" is understood from within by many a child, and fortunately also by many a teacher who encourages the individual child to seek and probe for himself. One notices not one child, but many children, who not only indulge in a passionate search for truth, but who also have a happy facility for arriving at it. Madame Montessori has stated one of the most important facts of all time for educating children, namely, that we must learn from them. At the same time there are many conditions which we need to alter for the intuitional children so that their paths, which are the hard paths of pioneers, may be made smoother, and we need to make many adjustments in our own daily lives before we may follow their world of thought. They are nearer to the buddhic plane through their intuitive contact than any other type of human being today below the stage of the initiate. They bring with them not only the comprehension that life is one, but an abounding power of love for all those younger than themselves, for animals, plants and anything helpless. Their generosity is such that they need adult protection and they sweep aside all irrelevancies arriving with ease at the kernel of truth within. However, there is a considerable gap to be bridged between the advanced soul with a developed buddhic consciousness, and the intuitive child. The former perceives the truth and keeps silent, but the latter perceives it and states it with devastating clarity, tearing down the veils of illusion with which adults surround themselves. Not the least difficulty experienced by the intuitive child is his inability to make full use of his own inner knowledge and to give expression to his great overflowing love. The flash that comes from the buddhic plane and illumines the higher mind and emotions takes a long time for an adult mental or astral body to assimilate, though that may be partly due to a certain lack of flexibility. When the flash comes to the child, it has a disturbing effect, for the astral body is not yet under proper control, and the mental body, though flexible, is too undeveloped for a full assimilation to be possible. Unless such a child can find guidance in the ways of the present world, and protection against the uncomprehending formalist, who detests his truth, he may find himself bewildered, not only in childhood, but also later on, and unable to give his full contribution.
It is one of the privileges of parents to guide children without shock from one stage of self-expression and understanding to the next, guarding the child from allowing its intuition to be overgrown by lower mind values, which inhibit his power of love. For instance, if when a child begins to doubt the validity of Santa Claus he is told in language suitable for his age that the man he sees is the representative of the great St. Nicholas, the personification of love in action,, he will be helped on his intuitional way, and see not an untruth which may destroy his trust in his elders, but the greater truth that lies within all appearances.
As the objects of the lower mind hold his attention more and more, the explanatory word which relates the parts to the whole is more easily spoken by the parent who knows intimately the mental processes of the child than by the teacher who is ignorant of this background. But here again, unless parents are willing to discover beneath the clumsy expressions of a half-trained mind and a very incomplete vocabulary the profound questions that arise in his consciousness, the child will lose confidence and go elsewhere for a solution, or worse still, he will believe that there is no solution and turn to materialism for an explanation. In these subtleties the responsibility of the parent is infinitely greater than that of the teacher.
It follows then that the fundamental spiritual conditions in which alone the intuitive soul can fulfil his dharma need to be provided by the private mode of living of many individuals functioning as families, united primarily on the inner planes by strong egoic links, and working outwards through the mental, emotional and physical bodies. We have not been left in ignorance by the founders of the Society of the more distant goal of humanity with regard to its family life, but it is not at all easy, even from the hints given us, to find the next step. There is the letter from the Master K.H. which lay for many years forgotten as a footnote under unfamiliar initials, [Footnote signed " E.O." In The Paradoxes of the highest science, by Eliphas Levy, published in 1884 ] quoted in part in The Secret Doctrine,[Op. cit. Ill, 413. ] and recently given wide publicity by Mr. Jinarajadasa. In it we find these remarkable sentences:—
"Woman's mission is to become the mother of future occultists — of those who will be born without sin. On the elevation of woman the world's redemption and salvation hinge. And not till woman bursts the bonds of her sexual slavery, to which she has ever been subjected, will the world obtain an inkling of what she really is and of her proper place in the economy of nature. Old India, the India of the Rishis, made the first sounding with her plummet line in this ocean of Truth, but the post-Mahabaratean India, with all her profundity of learning, has neglected and forgotten it.Then there is a most interesting statement by H. P. Blavatsky with footnote, both of which carry us a stage further.
The light that will come to it and to the world at large, when the latter shall discover and really appreciate the truths that underlie this vast problem of sex, will be like ' the light that never shone on sea or land,' and has come to man through the Theosophical Society. That light will lead on and Up to the true spiritual intuition. Then the world will have a race of Buddhas and Christs, for the world will have discovered that individuals have it in their own power to procreate Buddha-like children or — demons. When that knowledge comes, all dogmatic religions, and with these the demons, will die out."
"The curse of karma (was) called down upon , (humanity) . . . for abusing the creative power, for desecrating the divine gift, and wasting the life-essence for no purpose except bestial personal gratification. . . . During the evolution of the Fourth Race, there came enmity between its seed and the 'Serpent's' seed, the seed or product of karma and Divine Wisdom. For the seed of woman, or lust, bruised the head of the seed of the fruit of wisdom and knowledge, by turning the holy mystery of procreation into animal gratification; hence the law of karma 'bruised the heel' of the Atlantean Race, by gradually changing physiologically, morally, physically and mentally, the whole nature of the Fourth Race of mankind, until, from being the healthy king of animal creation in the Third Race, mail became in the Fifth, our Race, a helpless, scrofulous being, and has now become the wealthiest 'heir on the Globe to constitutional and hereditary diseases, the most consciously and intelligently bestial of all animals.We are fortunately no longer quite the helpless, scrofulous beings that H. P. Blavatsky described in her day, for a better observance of the rules of hygiene, more sensible dietetic habits and a higher standard of living, have improved the general health of the nation. Otherwise we should never have had the physical stamina to perform the feats of arms, and the equally great, if not greater, feats of work, that have been our share in winning this war. But we have certainly not conquered disease, and are not in the least likely to do so until we apply spiritual principles to the health of all the bodies.
How wise and grand, how far-seeing and morally beneficent are the laws of Manu on connubial life, when compared with the licence tacitly allowed to man in civilized countries. That those laws have been neglected for the last two millenniums does not prevent us from admiring their forethought. The Brahman was a Grihasta, a family man, till a certain period of his life, when, after begetting a son, he broke with married life and became a chaste yogi. His very connubial life was regulated by his Brahman astrologer in accordance with his nature. Therefore, in such countries as the Punjab, for instance, where the lethal influence of Mussulman, and later on of European, licentiousness, has hardly touched the orthodox Aryan castes, one still finds the finest men — so far as stature and physical strength go — on the whole Globe; whereas the mighty men of old have found themselves replaced in the Deccan, and especially in Bengal, by men whose generation becomes with every century — and almost with every year — dwarfed and weakened". [The Secret Doctrine, III, 409],
As with all great truths, these principles are simplicity itself. The creative power, when rightly used as a sacred act, one incident in helping to produce the best possible set of bodies for the immortal soul that is to use them, is a sacrifice pleasing to the gods. When wasted it creates a weakness throughout all the lower bodies which then become open to every kind of disease, mental, emotional and physical, and it is in this wasted condition that humanity finds itself.
The realization and application of these principles would seem to have been one of the soundings made by old India, but for another, we need to remind ourselves of the position of women in the Vedic days. In order to understand it one has to glance at the background of the Hindu religion. " The Female Principle went forth throughout the universe as the abiding force of the creator in the world", says the Rig Veda. The Female Principle is the vehicle by which alone spirit can manifest and therefore the shakti or female power of the god was adored as equal to the god himself. In ancient India women partook in every aspect of the mental and spiritual life, and played an equal part in religious sacrifices and royal ceremonials. Moreover, and this is perhaps the most important of all, they were entrusted with the spiritual education of the young.
If we compare the position of Hindu women then with that of western women today, we can only say that from a spiritual point of view the former stood incomparably higher that the latter. Today we have a state in which women are either approaching or have achieved political, social and economic equality with men, but in the spiritual life they are neither trained nor have they, save in rare cases, anything to give. The profound change which will release the great power of women for the spiritual elevation of the world has barely begun, and then only in a dim way.
It can scarcely be a coincidence that women have played and still play such a prominent part in the Theosophical Society. It is part of their dharma to be the pioneers in this mighty change which is to come over the world's consciousness, and to lead the world fearlessly through the power of their love to the light that we know to be within.
Before the real elevation of womanhood can take place, however, there is still hard fighting to be done. The spiritual progress of women and of humanity will be inevitably retarded until the evil of prostitution is utterly destroyed, for it is a bastion of the dark forces standing in active opposition to the Forces of Light that are clearing the ground for a better world. Fortunately, we know very much more about the problems involved than was known seventy years ago. The League of Nations has published from time to time extremely valuable books on the subject, [See in particular: Prostitutes, Their Early Lives, and Methods of Rehabilitation of Adult Prostitutes. ] showing that the evil is no longer primarily due to economic poverty, but rather to the subnormal intelligence or physical disability of the individual. But even if we handle the individuals with sympathy and give them the treatment they require, we also have to deal with the vested interests in various parts of the world, which we know exist in force, and are now only waiting for normal communications to be re-established to begin their nefarious trade again with renewed vigour. Where the white slave traffic is tolerated, the conditions under which the women live are comparable to the horrors of the concentration camp, and it seems to me one of the responsibilities of victory that no national sovereignty shall be allowed to shield such criminal activities.
But the physical abolition of an evil is not enough unless the power of love and brotherhood is invoked to counteract the mental state which makes the physical fact possible. It is not only necessary to raze concentration camps to the ground. There must also be such education as will ensure that the mentality that created them can never recur. The League papers point out again and again, that there is only one effective remedy against white slavery — that the demand shall cease. That means that habits, of mind have to be reversed that have been in existence since Atlantean times. Nevertheless, the position is not hopeless, for there is today a widespread realization that that which harms one harms all, and this needs only to be emphasized sufficiently and extended to its logical conclusion to effect a change of mind. For it is a change of mind that is needed, if the change of heart brought about by the war in the direction of greater brotherhood is to be utilised to the full. As H. P. Blavatsky has told us: —
"Thought arises before desire. The thought acts on the brain, the brain on the organ, and then desire awakes. It is not the outer stimulus that arouses the organ. Thought therefore must be slain ere desire can be extinguished". [The Secret Doctrine, V, 546. ]Now it is not the slaying of thought that is necessary or possible in the man of the world, but the direction of thought into the channels of reverence, chivalry and devotion, and above all the conscious knowledge of the harm he does to another. Few men are wicked, but most are ignorant, and today they are more open to enlightenment than they have ever been, for they have had experiences which would not have been possible except for the war. These are the intimate discoveries they have made about their own psychological make-up under bombardment, whether in battle or in air raids, proving conclusively to the individual that he and his body are not one. For he found that whilst the limbs trembled and the mind and emotions expected death at any instant, the real man performed deeds of unprecedented heroism or achieved such a vibrant and vital serenity that everybody in his surroundings felt uplifted by his presence. Countless men and women know this to be true, and they also know that when the man does identify himself with his lower bodies in those circumstances, panic sweeps over him, and he loses his manhood.
This is a great lesson to be applied to other occasions when the body seeks to rule the man, guided by the insidious thought forms that still cling to us from our Atlantean days. There is no reason why we should not conquer these in our turn precisely as we conquered the cowardice inherent in the outer bodies of each of is in the darkest moments of this war. The lessons we have learnt, however, need to be stated dearly, otherwise they will be forgotten, and the cyclic period in which the mass of the people will understand them, will pass.
There is a further glimmer of light dearly visible in the hard uphill way towards the elevation of woman, of which the Master speaks. It is the re-emergence in our time of the heroine. Women all over Europe have fought and died for liberty. A very high proportion of them maintained absolute silence under Gestapo torture, with an inner spiritual faith that was incorruptible by lower mental temptations or the pains of the physical body. Our own national karma protected us from the torture chamber, but it gave us other opportunities for bravery, and although few women have been decorated or publicly recognised, many are known in their own circles for their valorous conduct under fire.
But when we have noted all these advances, there is one sphere in which western women have scarcely any direct influence at all, that of religion and the spiritual instruction of the young. True that nuns, deaconesses and others give religious instruction, but they are rarely admitted to the councils of any church, and few women exercise any direct influence in matters of high policy. The Jewish, Islamic and Christian religions not only relegate the feminine half of humanity to the congregation that is never admitted to the sanctum sanctorum, but the feminine aspect of the Deity is also cither ignored or relegated to an inferior position. It is not the least likely that these religions will be willing to change their theologies and ceremonials to correspond to the buddhic consciousness that is pressing ever more closely upon us. If they were we might see priestesses and churches dedicated not only to the feminine aspect of the manifested Deity, but to the very Feminine Principle Itself, the Great Unmanifested within all manifestation which still slumbers and endures when manifestation is not. But this does not seem to be in the Great Plan, and no change is probable in time to aid the new sixth sub-race in the unfoldment of its faculties. Also the hint given by the Master that when a certain knowledge comes — a knowledge connected with the elevation of woman — all dogmatic religions, and with these, the demons, will die out, makes it obvious that we have to search in another direction for a solution.
Here the intuitive child can help, for he is very interested in religion. In fact, he charges like a warrior at problems that have baffled sages for millennia, and from the age of five onwards, he demands to know in language he can understand why God permits such things as ignorance and evil. He queries the hidden laws of the universe and he will not be put off with half-truths.
He seeks the wisdom he knows to exist first of all in the home, but is quite willing to go elsewhere if he is not encouraged. He responds most easily to the method described as "throughth". The intuitive young person perceives instantly the relationship between atma, the will in man, its power to control the physical vehicle, its symbolic relationship to all fatherhood, and its direct relationship to the Divine Will in the Universe. Similarly he sees the relation between buddhi, the wisdom-love, its expression through the emotions, its symbolic relationship to motherhood, and its direct relationship to the Divine Matter of the Universe which makes creation possible. The relation between manas, the constant restless activity, producing many thoughts, its symbolic relationship to child life in all the kingdoms, and its direct relationship to the Divine Mind that ideates the manifold forms, is even more clearly apparent.
The searching questions that arise in his mind are at first put to the mother, but at present few mothers are fitted for spiritual instruction, so that in this most important of all the relations between the human trinity, the child may find no point of contact and drift away.
In the long history of the fourth and fifth root races the Power of Will and the Power of Mind have been emphasised and developed to a remarkable extent, whilst the Power of Love has been neglected and often refused admittance to human counsels. Hence the condition in which we find ourselves today. But if we would expand the Power of Love until it holds equal sway in men's minds with the other Powers, then we need to draw it out, tend it and feed it until from an uneven flicker of the emotions it flames to a consuming fire that will burn away the dross of the world. The Theosophical Society has it within its power to fan these flames, so that in time each home may become a centre of the spiritual light.
One of the crimes of materialism is that it has impressed on the mind of the mass of humanity that matter is dead, inert, and that in the west even to mention a. feminine aspect of the Divine Life is to be guilty of phallicism. This means that the very basis of creation has been denied and forgotten and that we have to restore the foundations which have been submerged in the ever-shifting sands of materialism.
The ancient peoples had a truer appreciation of the mystery of creation. In Hinduism, the Divine Matter, the Mother of the World, or the Mother of all men, is Parvati, the consort of Shiva, or Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, or again Sarasvati, the consort of Brahma. In the Chinese tradition She is Kwan-Yin, in the Japanese, Kwannon, in ancient Egypt She was Isis, in the Roman Church She is the Blessed Virgin Mary whose overwhelming compassion extends to the blackest of sinners. But no matter under what name or symbol, or by what superstitions this mighty Power of sacrificing and redeeming Love is hidden She can be sensed and experienced by all those who will open their hearts to Her.
If the mothers of the world can be persuaded to understand that the expansion of consciousness which comes to every one of them through giving birth to children with a loving heart, can be used to contact an infinitely greater Power of Love than any human relationship can ever provide, then will it be possible, not only for mothers, but for all who are willing to try to expand their consciousness in a similar way, to transmute their vacillating emotions into a spiritual power that will make of every home a centre through which the Mother of all men may shed her beneficent light. Never more than today has the world needed a race of spiritual mothers who will raise the stricken and heal the downcast by the very fact of their presence, quite apart from any other aid they may be able to give.
When this deeper state of consciousness is more widely experienced and understood by the women of the race, then will they grow in spiritual stature until they attain the purity envisaged by the Master. It becomes increasingly clear that then dogmatic religions will become superfluous, for no dogma can persist where every home is a centre of religious experience.
The responsibility for bringing about, this change cannot rest on the shoulders of the mother alone. The father needs to be encouraged to make his own valuable contribution of stimulating right thought and the will to perform right action. When the home becomes once more a spiritual centre as it was in the Vedic days, a new power — the unity arising from the balance between will, love and thought — will flow from it to every member of the family, to which each may always come for replenishment, and outwards in ever widening circles to every movement working for righteousness. The Power of Love working through the higher mind and the nobler emotions with an increasingly deeper penetration to the buddhic level, will radiate outwards through all the kingdoms of nature, but it will also reach inwards to deeper levels of experience and understanding of the powers of God that make for unity. It will penetrate to the truth through all appearances and symbols to the very heart of being, the mystic Root of Matter, God the Mother. There are many references in The Secret Doctrine to Mulaprakriti, the Soul of the One Infinite Spirit, the basis of the vehicle of every phenomenon, whether physical, psychic or mental, the noumenon, self-existing, without any origin. As we seek to approach Her, the Virgin Mother, the Immaculate Root, and humbly try to realise in all manifestation the mystery of her sacrifice, then do we perceive, even though remotely, the stupendous nature of the Power of Love that needs to be invoked if humanity is to go forward on its pathway of evolution. The task is not light, but it is our responsibility to infuse this wisdom of the heart into the network of brotherhood that already links us throughout the world so that the light that never was on sea or land may be made manifest through the Theosophical Society.