Occult Tendencies in England

1925?

At the beginning of this short enquiry, it is first necessary to state that the tendency of the Occult movement in England has seemed to become less more fashionable talk at tea tables. Occultism is not the vogue it was twenty-five years ago. The stranger in London would find it very difficult to get in touch with any serious people at all.

Let me say in parenthesis that I propose to exclude from this article any consideration whatever of the advertising crook organisations, the alleged Rosicrucians who have never heard of the Fama Fraternitatie, and the like.

We may also dispose of the tendencies to mystical and magical doctrine and practice in Free Masonry. The semi-public movement died with John Yarker and the attempt of the theosophists to capture the Rites of Memphis and Mizraim. The whole system was unwieldy and unworkable; and, on Yarker's death, the entire movement was absorbed by the O.T.O.^[1] which proceeded to teach the one practical secret worth possessing by means of a simplified and carefully graduated system of rituals. But this organisation was badly shaken by the war; and, though the chiefs are still alive and active, they have not attempted any outward reconstruction. The truth is that Lodge work is behind the times. People cannot be bothered to give up their evenings to this practice, still less to learn their parts. It seems, therefore, that the secret knowledge will be propagated after another manner.

In speaking of Free Masonry, the Continental reader must never forget that English Free Masonry has little or no connection with that familiar to him. It is going too far to say that initiations are merely excuses for conviviality, for some Masons take their obligations very strictly. But there is no political implication in the craft.

Of the semi-occult bodies in England perhaps the most formidable numerically is Spiritualism. It was even proposed to construct a political party with the special object of getting the laws against mediums repealed. But from the strictly magical point of view Spiritualism can never be a force, for the simple reason that it is bound by its very nature to the energies of disruption. Spiritualists implicitly make the assumption, which they explicitly deny, that communicating intelligences possess a certain binding moral and intellectual authority. They take no magical precautions whatever against impersonations of these spirits; and they are constantly the prey of the most degrading and disgusting delusions. Conan Doyle has never been taken seriously, he was ignorant even of the medical knowledge his diploma presumed him to possess—see his 'Round the Red Lamp'—and his adventures in Spiritualism are merely the mark of the senile decay of such microscopic intellect as he ever owned.

As to the validity of the phenomena themselves, it is just as well to keep a conservative opinion. Spiritualists constantly lay stress on the fact that many eminent men of science have joined their ranks. But the reason for this is obvious on a little investigation. One has only to enquire the age at which those men of science became converts to Spiritualism. It will be found to coincide with that which marks the decline of creative vital energy. The man suddenly realizes that he is mortal; and, being inhibited from seeking consolation in any of the religions whose authority is based on alleged revelation by his scientific training, he thus approached Spiritualism with the will-to-believe; and tricks which would not deceive an intelligent child of twelve years old are sanctioned by him as genuine. Personally, I am aware of no single instance of any spiritist communication which is really evidential. However, this Body has world power and is to be reckoned with, particularly notable with regard to its instinctive hostility to all properly based investigations into the occult sciences.

We may consider for a moment a number of ill-defined movement towards occultism in one or other of its forms which take place either within, or in close sympathy with, the Church or Churches. There is, for example, a set of people who appear to regard Glastonbury as the centre of the universe! This is partly a development of the old Celtic Church idea. The people who like this sort of thing have their cranial cavities rather loosely packed with delicately scented cotton wool, and the whole theory is mixed up with calculations about the connection of the Great Pyramid with the Labour Government, demonstrations of the squaring of the circle and the theory that the works of Shakespeare, Green, Nash, Peale, Dryden, Walt Whitman, and others, were all written by Francis Bacon; who carelessly omitted to die, and is now living as a count in Hungary.

The above is not to say that these people are not sometimes worthy and serious students after a fashion. The trouble with them is that they have never been trained to think.

The one really important and vital movement is that known to some as the work of the A∴A∴ This Order has a traditional basis extending back for centuries; and the documentary proofs of its work in the whole of the nineteenth century are still extant. Its chiefs include such great names as Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, Levi, Fred Hockley, Kenneth Mackenzie, Gerald Massey, General Forlong, and many others. In the latter part of the nineteenth century the work divided itself into two main branches. The secret branch which worked by initiation to small groups with a carefully graded system of degrees was known as the G∴D∴ [Golden Dawn], while the exoteric work consisted of the formation of the Theosophical Society by H.P. Blavatsky [Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]. It is quite impossible to obtain any proper conception of occult movement in England without realizing the firm link which bound these two branches of endeavour. It has also been forgotten, especially by post-Blavatsky theosophists who are simply apostates from her principle, that her clearly and repeatedly stated object was first of all to destroy Christianity in all its forms and, secondly, to open the eyes of men of science to the subtler energies of nature.

Many of the readers of this article will no doubt be aware of the infamous methods by which Mrs. Besant [Annie Besant] was placed in control of the Society, and the career of this woman shows her to have been a purely suggestible subject without any principles of her own, but reflecting those of any man or strong-minded person under whose influence she happened to be at the moment. It would be hard to find four people more in opposition on every point than Bradlaugh, Burroughes, Blavatsky, and Leadbeater, and yet she championed each cause in turn. An inferiority complex (on the other hand) has been a tremendous factor in her life. As soon as she hears of any society which seems a little remote and mysterious, and distributes pretty aprons and medals to its members, she wants to be the head of it. Hence Co-Masonry, Krishnamurti, and the Liberal Catholic Church.

The situation in regard to the Society is at the present moment extremely critical. Krishnamurti was chosen in childhood because he was a pet of her master Leadbeater's, and on practical reasons because (thanks to Leadbeater) he was apparently a harmless imbecile. He was brought up in fact just as is done with the Dalai Lama: but Mrs. Besant made a critical mistake. The Dalai Lama is rendered permanently harmless when he gets old enough to have a will of his own, and the dear old lady shrank from these prophylactic measures in the case of Krishnamurti. Besides, he had been in cold storage. The open scandals about his relations with Leadbeater had alienated from the Theosophical Society all its most serious members, though they could not have been very serious or they would have seen that bourgeois morality is not one of those considerations which hamper the work of the Masters. The result was that the Society disintegrated more and more every year.

In 1925 it received a crushing blow by the publication of the "Mediterranean Manifesto" of the Master Therion. A copy of this document being forwarded to Mrs.. Besant, she naturally took alarm, and in the absence of any new and attractive toy, dug up Krishnamurti and attempted to resuscitate him by means of botrees, loud speakers, and other means of grace. And then a very striking phenomena was observed. Mrs. Besant received the surprise that every mother of a son gets sooner or later. The innocent youth had grown up and did not want to be a holy man at all!

At least, he wanted to be a holy man, but not of the kind that you can put over on the unsuspecting American public. He wanted to play tennis and flirt with all the prettiest girls, and why shouldn't he? Holier men than he have done more desperate deeds. The result was that she found him more than a handful; and, as he gained a little confidence, he began to make the most heretical statements. He admitted that he was not the Master, though indeed he hoped to be the chosen instrument of the Master. He said publicly "I am not a Theosophist." He destroyed the Order of the Star in the East, which was supposed to have watched his coming; and, indeed, had built a vast temple to receive him. Thus, this temple is frequented, if not by "the lion and the lizard", by such animals as the bounty of Nature in Australia provides. The situation is, in fact, more amusing than that of The Rival Curates in the "Bad Ballads."

But there is a serious side to it. In 1904 a communication was received in Cairo which offers clear and indubitable internal evidence of praeter-human intelligence. This is known as the "Book of the Law"; and the Master Therion, as he has since become, was entrusted with the task of imposing that law upon mankind as the Rule of Life. Of his weakness and mistakes, it would be uncharitable to say too much, for it is impossible to exaggerate them. But, despite him, the Law has made its way (as it were) surreptitiously into the minds of men. In all sorts of moral and practical questions, the Law of Thelema is implicitly taken as the theoretical basis of action. This is so marked a phenomenon that one might well be content to rest upon the position attained, but the karma of the Therion-Krishnamurti Association is far from being worked out.

The extraordinary careers of both these men indicates that great work still lies before them. Perhaps both of them thought it was to be a battle to the death. But perhaps they were both wrong. At least it is perfectly clear to any serious student that the best hope for the future lies in the alliance of these forces acting in concert. The Theosophical Society could be reconstructed on the original principles of Blavatsky; but it needs a firm masculine mind which would introduce discipline in the ranks, and rid the Society of all its mere dilettanti and curiosity mongers.

On the other hand, the work of initiation of individuals into the real secrets and mysteries might be intensified. The publication of the proper principles and practices might be made very much more effective. And, supposing that this projected alliance can be made an actual fact, it might be possible to write an article on this subject in a year's time from now in a spirit of far greater confidence in the future welfare of mankind.

1—The history of this organisation is totally misunderstood in Germany, where it is wrongly considered as being entirely the work of the late Theodor Reuss.

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