Mrs. Besant's "return of the Christ."

TO return to M. Lévy's book; it deals with "Mrs. Besant's Proceedings" under various headings. In the one entitled "Mrs. Besant's Return of the Christ" is to be found some of the most amazing balderdash—given out as serious teaching!—it has ever been my lot to encounter. For instance, a book called Man: Whence, How, and Whither, written by Mrs. Besant and Mr. Leadbeater in collaboration, is quoted from by M. Lévy at considerable length. He explains that "the substitution of a "false Christ" for the "Christ of the Gospels" is here supported by "a new order of evidence" (Italics mine). Specimens of this "evidence" follow, and I will here give some of it in order to show the almost unbelievably low level of intelligence to which this whole mischievous movement—miscalled Theosophical—has descended, and the sort of elements in human nature to which such an ill-conceived and fantastic production is designed to appeal. M. Lévy writes:—

In the course of their investigations these two occultists look up on the one side, the past incarnations of him whom Mrs. Besant calls the "Master Jesus," that is, of the "Jesus" born 105 B.C.; and on the other side, the past lives of the being whom she calls the "Lord Maitreya, the present Bodhisattva, the Supreme Teacher of the World"; whose ego at a given moment replaced that of "Jesus," this being the last incarnation of the Christ whose immediate return she is announcing.

Let us first quote from their account of the incarnations of the "Supreme Teacher" ... In the chapter headed "Early Times on the Moon Chain," p. 34, we read:—

"There is a hut in which dwell a Moon-Man, his wife and children; these we know in later times under the names of Mars and Mercury, the Mahaguru and Surya. A number of these monkey-creatures live round the hut, and give to their owners the devotion of faithful dogs; among them we notice the future Sirius, Herakles, Alcyone, and Mizar, to whom we may give their future names for the purpose of recognition, though they are still non-human."[4]

In the Fourth Root Race we again find the personage supposed to be "Maitreya" as the husband of the ego claimed by these authors as that of "Master K. H." Mrs. Besant is again incarnated in the family as daughter, the eldest sister of the "Master M."; "Maitreya," the future World-Teacher, being at this time the head of the tribe (p. 113)....

We have thus reached to somewhere about the year 15,000 B.C., and then—incredible as it seems—they give no further incarnations of him whom they nevertheless claim to have been the World-Teacher at the beginning of our era.

They give us his incarnations as husband, as father, as counsellor and priest, and are silent as to the only incarnation of fundamental and vital importance to the whole world.

Let us see if the incarnations of their "Jesus" will fill this gap in our knowledge, if they will throw light on this essential point, thus left in obscurity.

We meet this "Jesus" for the first time at the beginning of the Fifth Root Race, as daughter of Alcyone (Krishnamurti) and sister of "Maitreya" (p. 252.)

Then, on p. 328, as the wife of Julius Cæsar 18,878 B.C., he, or rather she, being at this time the widow of Vulcan (Known in his last incarnation as Sir Thomas More)....

He is later identified as daughter of Alcyone-Krishnamurti (his father) and Fabrizio Ruspoli (his mother),[5] parents at the same time of the future "World-Teacher, Maitreya," their young daughter. These incarnations took place 72,000 B.C., on the shores of the Lake of Gobi, we are told on p. 490.

In 15,910 B.C., we find "Jesus" as grandson of "Maitreya," and as father and grandfather of a large family composed, as in all cases investigated by these two authors, of present members of the Theosophical Society only, and including the faithful friends of Adyar to the exclusion of all others.[6]

" ... In 12,800 B.C. the "Jesus" of these investigations again forms part of a very extensive family composed as usual of the selfsame elements, and including amongst the names known in the theosophic world that of Mme. Marie Louise Kirby (an Italian theosophist recently at Adyar) who was his sister. "Jesus" was then the father of Mrs. S. Maud Sharpe (General Secretary of the English Section), of Julius Cæsar, and of T. Subba Rao; the Teshu Lama being at that time his daughter, etc., etc. (p. 499)....

Once more have our hopes been betrayed, for an absolute silence broods over the Incarnations of "Jesus" later than this date of 13,500, as it reigned over those of the "World-Teacher"....

We cannot, however, conceive that this information gathered from occult investigation will be felt to be indispensable by anyone. Now that we know that Mrs. Besant's "World-Teacher" is an ordinary man of the lunar chain (to whom Mrs. Besant was first domestic animal and then sister, and who, in the early period of our earth, was daughter of the young Krishnamurti (or of M. Ruspoli), who could be found still to imagine that there could be here any question, save a mad or impious joke"....

Incredible as it may appear to those who know anything of H. P. Blavatsky's teachings, their comprehensive grandeur and sublimity, especially as given in The Secret Doctrine, this extraordinary mixture of clumsy fairy-tale and extravagant and even malicious mumbo-jumbo is apparently swallowed whole by the blind and credulous followers of this grotesque "Neo-Theosophy." Not so much for them do I write as for those who, while interested in these subjects, have neither the inclination nor the leisure to examine, for instance, such published Records as these from which I quote, for themselves. Such would naturally accept on their face value Mrs. Besant's own account of herself and of her Society, unaware that she is no longer anything but a "blind leader of the blind," incapable of distinguishing light from darkness, truth from falsehood. We have direct testimony to the truth of this statement in Mr. T. H. Martyn's now famous letter to Mrs. Besant. [7] In it he tells her:—"You have been relying upon C. W. L. as sole intermediary between the Hierarchy [the Trans-Himâlayan Brotherhood, the Masters of Wisdom. Italics mine.—A. L. C.] and yourself for many years.... C. W. L.'s word is final and his seership infallible to you." The quality of this supposed "seership" bears a very close resemblance to a stupid and vulgar hoax. This is clearly shown by Mr. Martyn, who says:—"In 1919 I went to America. Young Van Hook was in New York. He talked freely of C. W. L.'s immorality and about faking the 'lives' of people" (Italics mine.) Mr. Martyn then puts together various pieces of evidence against this man, and tells Mrs. Besant that he finds "staring me in the face the conclusions that Leadbeater is a sex pervert, his mania taking a particular form which I have—though only lately—discovered, is a form well known and quite common in the annals of sex criminology." (Italics mine.) This sex criminal, then, is the creature whom Mrs. Besant has accepted "for many years" as "sole intermediary between" herself and—the Masters of Wisdom!! One almost hesitates to draw the obvious inference; for this is the man whom she has for years held up to and imposed upon their followers as a model of all the virtues—"a saint"—a person "on the threshold of divinity." (See also footnote post, p. 56.)

Why has it always been necessary for Mrs. Besant to have an "intermediary"? Before Mr. Leadbeater it was her Brahmin guide, and before him it was Mr. Judge. To each in turn she gave implicit belief in the matter of "messages" and directions from the Masters, while outwardly claiming "direct" communication. The fact is that, as I have come to believe, the plain psychology of the thing is—sheer femininity. With all her intellectual talents, her once clear brain, Mrs. Besant is (in her personality) just simple woman, relying upon male guidance and authority as instinctively as any of her humbler sisters. And what student of human nature will fail to recognise in her that purely feminine trait of blind and fanatical "obedience" which loves to receive and obey "orders" even though the result should be "a world in ruins"? The existence of this fundamental and essential quality in female human nature is the real reason why even the most broad-minded men shrink from giving women equality of power with themselves in wordly affairs.

Let me here declare what I believe to be the real truth; namely, that after H. P. Blavatsky's death in 1891, neither Mrs. Besant, nor Mr. Judge, nor Colonel Olcott, nor anyone else, could "communicate," because H. P. B.'s withdrawal meant the withdrawal of her Masters as well. It has always seemed strange to me that this was never realised by anyone, for in this pamphlet I have quoted quite enough from H. P. B. to make it perfectly clear. Does she not say in the 1890 letter to the Indians (see p. 2) that after she had to leave India in 1885 the Masters' influence at Adyar became a dead letter? Did not the Masters Themselves write as early as 1884 that they could only communicate through her or in places previously prepared magnetically by her presence? How, then, could They be expected to continue to communicate or direct the affairs of the T. S. (as They did in India until 1885), or the E. S. (as They did from 1888 to 1891), after They had withdrawn the Agent They had so carefully prepared and subjected to the severest trials and initiations in Tibet? Barely three years after this withdrawal the fatal "Split" took place owing to Mr. Judge giving out what purported to be "direct" communications, but which, as I discovered after working for a time under his inspirer and successor, Mrs. Tingley, were obtained from her. Mrs. Besant, in accusing him, did precisely the same, for she stated in her Case against W. Q. Judge that she had received her orders direct from the Master, whereas (as I relate elsewhere, post, p. 56) she admitted to the Inner Group that they came "through" her Brahmin guide.

This, then, was the great and fundamental error committed by the leaders of the movement, after H. P. B. was withdrawn. It is responsible for all the subsequent troubles, and the appalling situation with which we are faced to-day. A great and world-wide organisation is being used to promulgate blasphemous, poisonous and absolutely anti-Theosophical and anti-Occult doctrines as emanating direct from the Masters who definitely withdrew Their chosen Agent in 1891. (See ante p. 2.)

In any case, even had she lived, H. P. B. told the E. S. that the "last hour of the term" was December 31st, 1899, after which "no Master of Wisdom from the East will himself appear or send anyone to Europe or America." (See footnote, ante p. 2.) She also said that the next Messenger would be sent out in 1975. Yet the fiction that the Masters are still directing the leaders and the movement is kept up, not only by Mrs. Besant, but also by Mrs. Tingley, 22 years after "the last hour of the term."

It is the same with all this wild talk about the imminent advent of a "World-Teacher." Is this in the least probable, in view of the above pronouncements? H. P. B. definitely states in The Secret Doctrine the exact opposite; but all the Neo-Theosophists seem to prefer the Besant and Leadbeater books. H. P. B. says, with reference to this very Maitreya whose name they so lightly take in vain, that He is not due until the Seventh Sub-Race, i.e., several thousand years hence; and that, in any case, "it is not in the Kali Yug, our present terrifically materialistic age of Darkness, the 'Black Age,' that a new Saviour of Humanity can ever appear." (S. D. Third Ed., Vol. I, p. 510 et seq. See also Theosophical Glossary, "Kalki Avatar" and "Maitreya Buddha.") If we accept H. P. B.'s authority there is no evading this issue, and we must reject the Besant-Leadbeater pretensions in toto, for their absurdity is patent. Yet they claim to have been specially taught and prepared by her to carry on her message! (Vide Mrs. Besant in the Theosophist, March, 1922; and also post p. 68.)

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