Studies in Occultism; A Series of Reprints from the Writings of H. P. Blavatsky | Page 4

daily life, the command not to touch even the
hand of one's nearest and dearest. How contrary to Western notions of
affection and good feeling! How cold and hard it seems. Egotistical too,
people would say, to abstain from giving pleasure to others for the sake
of one's own development. Well, let those who think so defer till
another lifetime the attempt to enter the path in real earnest. But let
them not glory in their own fancied unselfishness. For, in reality, it is
only the seeming appearances which they allow to deceive them, the
conventional notions, based on emotionalism and gush, or so-called
courtesy, things of the unreal life, not the dictates of Truth.
But even putting aside these difficulties, which may be considered
"external," though their importance is none the less great, how are
students in the West to "attune themselves" to harmony as here required
of them? So strong has personality grown in Europe and America, that
there is no school of artists even whose members do not hate and are
not jealous of each other. "Professional" hatred and envy have become
proverbial; men seek each to benefit himself at all costs, and even the
so-called courtesies of life are but a hollow mask covering these
demons of hatred and jealousy.
In the East the spirit of "non-separateness" is inculcated as steadily

from childhood up, as in the West the spirit of rivalry. Personal
ambition, personal feelings and desires, are not encouraged to grow so
rampant there. When the soil is naturally good, it is cultivated in the
right way, and the child grows into a man in whom the habit of
subordination of one's lower to one's higher Self is strong and powerful.
In the West men think that their own likes and dislikes of other men
and things are guiding principles for them to act upon, even when they
do not make of them the law of their lives and seek to impose them
upon others.
Let those who complain that they have learned little in the
Theosophical Society lay to heart the words written in an article in the
Path for last February:--"The key in each degree is the aspirant
himself." It is not "the fear of God" which is "the beginning of
Wisdom," but the knowledge of SELF which is WISDOM ITSELF.
How grand and true appears, thus, to the student of Occultism who has
commenced to realize some of the foregoing truths, the answer given
by the Delphic Oracle to all who came seeking after Occult
Wisdom--words repeated and enforced again and again by the wise
Socrates:--MAN KNOW THYSELF.
Chelaship has nothing whatever to do with means of subsistence or
anything of the kind, for a man can isolate his mind entirely from his
body and its surroundings. Chelaship is a state of mind, rather than a
life according to hard and fast rules, on the physical plane. This applies
especially to the earlier, probationary period, while the rules given in
Lucifer for April last pertain properly to a later stage, that of actual
occult training and the development of occult powers and insight.
These rules indicate, however, the mode of life which ought to be
followed by all aspirants so far as practicable, since it is the most
helpful to them in their aspirations.
It should never be forgotten that Occultism is concerned with the inner
man, who must be strengthened and freed from the dominion of the
physical body and its surroundings, which must become his servants.
Hence the first and chief necessity of Chelaship is a spirit of absolute
unselfishness and devotion to Truth; then follow self-knowledge and

self-mastery. These are all-important; while outward observance of
fixed rules of life is a matter of secondary moment.--_Lucifer_: IV, 348,
note.

OCCULTISM VERSUS THE OCCULT ARTS
"I oft have heard, but ne'er believed till now, There are, who can by
potent magic spells Bend to their crooked purpose Nature's laws."
Milton
In this month's Correspondence several letters testify to the strong
impression produced on some minds by our last month's article
"Practical Occultism." Such letters go far to prove and strengthen two
logical conclusions:--
(_a_) There are more well-educated and thoughtful men who believe in
the existence of Occultism and Magic (the two differing vastly) than
the modern materialist dreams of; and:--
(_b_) That most of the believers (comprising many theosophists) have
no definite idea of the nature of Occultism and confuse it with the
Occult sciences in general, the "Black art" included.
Their representations of the powers it confers upon man, and of the
means to be used to acquire them are as varied as they are fanciful.
Some imagine that a master in the art, to show the way, is all that is
needed to become a Zanoni. Others, that