Catholic Priest Sincerely
Believed In Pseudo-Theosophical Frauds
 
 
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
 
 
 
Discernment is necessary in theosophy,
and pseudo-clairvoyance must be left aside
 
 
 
It is not difficult to find these days a combination of good will and lack of discernment. Pious frauds abound in every conventional religion as in the wider “theosophical” movement.
 
The nice, good-willing book “Light of the Sanctuary – The Occult Diary of Geoffrey Hodson” [1] is a typical example of that.
 
The volume is a true monument to naïveté, and a handbook for the practice of unreasoning devotion towards fiction characters.
 
In its pages, we can see how often Mr. Geoffrey Hodson (1886-1983)  had imaginary “causal level” conversations with masters, mainly the very same teachers previously fabricated by C. W. Leadbeater and Annie Besant during their disastrous, if not comic, preparation for the Return of the Christ. [2]
 
Being younger and more modest than Besant and Leadbeater, Geoffrey Hodson tried to update and to adapt their frauds to the second half of last century. He seems to have sincerely imagined he was Blavatsky’s successor. He had frequent “personal conversations” with Masters of the Wisdom, whom his own subconscious imagination was kind enough to provide him with. As a logical result of that, nothing beyond common place and pious generalities is easy to find in “Light of the Sanctuary”. But one finds a vast number of personal praises from such “masters” to their “disciple” Hodson. Real masters never stimulate personal vanity in their disciples.
 
Since the early 1950s, the international presidents of the Adyar Society have carefully avoided confessing in public that they do not believe in Hodson’s conversations with “Masters”.
 
None of them ever accepted in any way Hodson’s clairvoyance or his delusional talks to Masters. Mrs. Radha Burnier (1923-2013) was no exception to the rule. She avoided contacts with imaginary Initiates, as her father did.
 
Regarding “theosophical” frauds, a quotation from a Real master of the wisdom, in an authentic letter addressed to Annie Besant and dated 1900, is useful to meditate upon.
 
It says:
 
“The T.S. [Theosophical Society] and its members are slowly manufacturing a creed. Says a Thibetan proverb ‘credulity breeds credulity and ends in hypocrisy’.” [3]
 
Annie Besant never paid attention to that warning, and G. Hodson seems to have been naïve enough to follow her example.
 
Illusion is not eternal: the “zeitgeist” and atmosphere of the present century are not favourable any longer to frauds, whether pious and “theosophical” or not. The numbers now grow of people who understand that and get away from blind belief.
 
“Catholic” Visions of Discipleship
 
In Jesuitism, as in Pseudo-Theosophy, a central goal is often subconscious: is the paralyzing of one’s mental principle, under the pretext of meditation or transcendence.
 
The occult reason for this is that free thinking leads students to see the religious frauds as they are.  
 
This creates a major problem to false gurus of all kinds. It is also inevitable in the process by which real spiritual intelligence awakens in the present mankind.
 
According to Geoffrey Hodson, one of the first things fake disciples must do regarding their (false) masters is – to stop thinking. In a frank attempt to forbid people from using their brains, Hodson establishes this jesuitic rule: 
 
“A human being cannot understand a superhuman Being, nor can he comprehend the conduct of the latter; therefore a man should never judge and pronounce upon a Master. The Master uses a higher dimension – not only level, but actual dimension – of consciousness. The man sees only cross-sections of the Master’s motives and actions cut by his three dimensional consciousness through the larger ‘mass’. When the Master in action produces effects in the man’s world, the man cannot hope fully to comprehend, since plan and motive and much of the action are out of his sight. Therefore man should never judge a Master.” [4]
 
Such a delusional idea should be compared to what a real Mahatma wrote in one of his Letters:
 
 “A chela under probation is allowed to think and do whatever he likes.  (…..)  The chela is at perfect liberty, and often quite justified from the standpoint of appearances – to suspect his Guru of being ‘a fraud’ as the elegant word stands. More than that: the greater, the sincerer his indignation – whether expressed in words or boiling in his heart – the more fit he is, the better qualified to become an adept. He is free to, and will not be held to account for using the most abusive words and expressions regarding his guru’s actions and orders, provided he comes out victorious from the fiery ordeal; provided he resists all and every temptation; rejects every allurement, and proves that nothing, not even the promise of that which he holds dearer than life, of that most precious boon, his future adeptship – is unable to make him deviate from the path of truth and honesty, or force him to become a deceiver.” [5]
 
Reality is always complex. A disciple or aspirant to discipleship must avoid prejudgment, or any judgment that is not based on enough evidence.
 
He is always stimulated to try to understand the way Masters work, not to worship what he supposes to be their personalities, or the portraits of the physical bodies they once may have used, or not. [6]
 
The Hodsonian attempt to define a teacher as someone who is “impossible to understand” works as a tool to prevent real awakening of spiritual intelligence. Buddhi-manas, the spiritual mind, requires free thought.  True devotion does not suspend or deny discernment.
 
The Jesuitic prohibition to think also allows all kinds of charlatans – “theosophical” or not – to pose as Masters or disciples of Masters.  However, there is a Brazilian saying according to which “Lies have short legs”: falsehoods cannot endure. 
 
The theosophical movement is gradually getting rid of the fake discipleship fabricated by Dr. Annie Besant and later adopted by Geoffrey Hodson.  Since 1953, no International President of the Adyar Society has had “verbal contacts” with Masters. This shows their respect for common sense, and for the theosophical public as well. 
 
Although the endless contacts between Geoffrey Hodson and the Masters he fabricated  have been ignored by N. Sri Ram, I. K. Taimni, Radha Burnier and most theosophical leaders, the various presidents of the Adyar Society postponed the moment when these fancies should be openly examined.   In the present century, the task is inevitable to those who have respect for the REAL MAHATMAS.
 
Ceremonialism, Delusion and Pseudo-Theosophy
 
“Theosophical” followers of medieval ritualisms, among them “liberal catholic” priest Geoffrey Hodson, often seem to suggest that “people are not prepared to seek for truth, nor to accept it”. The majority of population, they think, should be given beautiful forms of distraction from hard facts as the inexistence of any monotheistic “god”.
 
The motto of the theosophical movement, however, is directly opposite to such a pious and devotional fraud, and to other saintly falsehoods as well. It does not recommend going to a church. It says, instead:
 
“There is no religion higher than truth”.
 
The Mahatmas or Masters of the Wisdom teach in their letters that the “heresy or delusion of individuality” leads to “the maya of heresy and belief in the efficacy of vain rites and ceremonies; in prayers and intercession”. [7]
 
The duty of the theosophical movement is not to lead mankind back to the Middle Ages or to ceremonialism. It is, instead, to help humanity get rid of old superstitions, and attain direct wisdom.  
 
Monotheistic God a Nightmare to Our Mankind
 
It is worthwhile to compare the views of Hodson’s fake masters with the teachings of the real Mahatmas.
 
Geoffrey Hodson wrote this about his faith in Church and the “Holy” Mass:
 
“The Lord shines forth upon the seeds, in order that they may grow into the image of His perfection. The services of the Church provide Him with special opportunities for pouring forth His life and of utilizing the several streams of energy which are placed at His disposal.” [8]
 
True Masters teach quite the opposite of this old lullaby of the Middle Ages. One of the Mahatmas who inspire the theosophical movement wrote in a letter whose legitimacy is accepted by every serious theosophist:
 
“Neither our philosophy nor ourselves believe in a God, least of all in one whose pronoun necessitates a capital H. (….) Our doctrine knows no compromises. It either affirms or denies, for it never teaches but that which it knows to be the truth. Therefore, we deny God both as philosophers and as Buddhists.” [9]
 
Geoffrey Hodson insisted in his “wonderful” Church and his “God”:
 
“We may see, therefore, that the reason for the existence of the Church, with its wonderful systems of powers and presences, human and angelic, is to provide a forcing house within which the evolution of both man and angel may be quickened. The Church brings the worshipper and the object of worship into direct contact with each other by providing special conditions in which that meeting can take place; it also offers assistance to the worshipper, in his approach to the feet of his Lord.”
 
While trying to make people believe in God, Hodson wrote:
 
“This relatively external aid to communion is also intended to fill the devotee with a thirst for direct interior union with God. This longing will eventually become so strong and so insistent that the worshipper will be led to seek union, first with the God within himself, and then with the Logos, of whom the God within himself is an inherent part.” [10]
 
The Masters of the Wisdom, on the other hand, clarified once for all:
 
“The God of the Theologians is simply an imaginary power, ‘un loup garou’ as d’Holbach expressed it – a power which has never yet manifested itself. Our chief aim is to deliver humanity of this nightmare, to teach man virtue for its own sake, and to walk in life relying on himself instead of leaning on a theological crutch, that for countless ages was the direct cause of nearly all human misery.” [11]
 
A few pages later, the Mahatma re-states and expands the same point:
 
“I will point out the greatest, the chief cause of nearly two thirds of the evils that pursue humanity ever since that cause became a power. It is religion under whatever form and in whatsoever nation. It is the sacerdotal caste, the priesthood and the churches; it is in those illusions that man looks upon as sacred, that he has to search out the source of that multitude of evils which is the great curse of humanity and that almost overwhelms mankind. Ignorance created Gods and cunning took advantage of the opportunity.” [12]
 
It is easier to have nice conversations with imaginary Masters than to study, and live by, the teachings of the real ones.
 
Geoffrey Hodson clearly preferred the easy way and had imaginary talks with a number of fake teachers.  Authentic wisdom, however, points to the steep and narrow path uphill, while inviting students to avoid the easy road of medieval religions and ritualism.
 
NOTES:
 
[1] Compiled by Sandra Hodson, and published by “The Theosophical Publishers”, Manila, Philippines, 1988.
 
[2] The reappearance of the “Lord” Christ was an unfortunate parody enacted by the leaders of the Adyar Theosophical Society between 1911 and 1929. Mary Lutyens describes it in her various books about Jiddu Krishnamurti.
 
[3] “Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom”, first series, edited by C. Jinarajadasa, TPH, Adyar, 1973, p. 99.
 
[4] “Light of the Sanctuary – The Occult Diary of Geoffrey Hodson”. See p. 59.
 
[5] “The Mahatma Letters”, TUP, Pasadena, Letter 30, p. 231. In the Chronological edition of the Mahatma Letters,  see Letter 74, p. 222.
 
[6] Fortunately to real theosophy, most of the “portraits of Masters” used in the Esoteric school of the Adyar Society are fake and were fabricated under instructions from a false clairvoyant who also visited imaginary physical plane civilizations on Mars and Mercury.
 
[7] “The Mahatma Letters”, Letter XVI, p. 111, TUP edition; or Letter 68, p. 199, in the Chronological Edition, the Philippines.
 
[8] Geoffrey Hodson, in the Chapter 1 of his book “The Inner Side of Church Worship”.
 
[9] “The Mahatma Letters”, TUP, Pasadena, Letter X, p. 52.
 
[10] Geoffrey Hodson, in the Chapter 1 of his book “The Inner Side of Church Worship” – in the sequence of our previous quotation.
 
[11] “The Mahatma Letters”, TUP, Pasadena, Letter X, p. 53.
 
[12] “The Mahatma Letters”, TUP, Pasadena, Letter X. pp. 57-58.
 
000
 
 
On the difference between truth and falsehood in esoteric movements, see the book “The Fire and Light of Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.  
 
Published in 2013, the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
 
000