Adepts: Difference between revisions

From Theosophy Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
No edit summary
 
(47 intermediate revisions by 5 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
'''Adept''' is a word that comes from the Latin ''adeptus'', meaning "obtained, attained". It is commonly used to describe a highly skilled person; an expert in a particular discipline. In the Theosophical literature the Adepts are Initiates of various degrees, of which there are seven.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'', vol. 2 (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1979), 614.</ref> In the Theosophical Glossary [[H. P. Blavatsky]] defines the term as: "'He who has obtained.' In Occultism one who has reached the stage of Initiation, and become a Master in the science of Esoteric philosophy",<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Theosophical Glossary'' (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 6.</ref> while [[Koot Hoomi|Mahatma K. H.]] said: "The adept is the rare efflorescence of a generation of enquirers."<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 2 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 6.</ref>
'''Adept''' is a word that comes from the Latin ''adeptus'', meaning "obtained, attained". It is commonly used to describe a highly skilled person; an expert in a particular discipline.  


The Adepts are also known in the Theosophical literature as [[Masters]], [[Mahātmas]], Arhats, or simply "Brothers".
In Theosophical literature this term is employed in connection with the [[Occult Science]] and the [[Esoteric Philosophy]]. The word is used to define a wide variety of degrees of knowledge of [[Occultism]], from relatively advanced students to Masters of the science. The term does not imply high spiritual and moral development, since there is mention to "white" and "black" Adepts, meaning those who use the [[Siddhi|occult powers]] for unselfish and selfish purposes respectively. The high Adepts working for the welfare of humanity are also known as [[Masters of Wisdom]], [[Mahātmas]], [[Arhat]]s, or simply "Brothers".
 
== General description ==
 
[[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|H. P. Blavatsky]] explained the general meaning of the term Adept as follows:
 
<blockquote>An Adept is therefore an individual who is versed in some art or science, having acquired it in one or another manner. It follows that this term can be applied just as well to an adept in astronomy, as to one in the art of making ''pâtés de foies gras''. A shoemaker as well as a perfume-maker, the one versed in the art of making shoes, and the other in the art of chemistry, are both "adepts."<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. XI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 179.</ref></blockquote>
 
In Theosophical literature, this term is generally applied to a Master of the occult science:
 
<blockquote>In Occultism, one who has reached the stage of Initiation and become a Master in the science of Esoteric philosophy.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Theosophical Glossary'' (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 6.</ref></blockquote>
 
Despite the fact that in this definition Blavatsky implies that Adepts are Initiated, this is not always the case, and the term "adept" can also be applied to pre-initation stages of occult development. As she wrote:
 
<blockquote>Every Initiate must be an adept in occultism; he must become one before being initiated in the Greater Mysteries. But not every adept is always an Initiate.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. XI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 179.</ref></blockquote>
 
Therefore, one can think of those who have been initiated as ''higher'' Adepts:
 
<blockquote>In the Theosophical literature the high Adepts are Initiates of various degrees, of which there are seven.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''The Secret Doctrine'', vol. 2 (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1979), 614.</ref></blockquote>
 
It is using this sense of the term that [[Koot Hoomi|Mahatma K.H.]] wrote: "The adept is the rare efflorescence of a generation of enquirers."<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 2 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 6.</ref> For this reason, there are few Adepts in occultism in the world. As Mme. Blavatsky's stated: "Were adeptship easy of attainment many would achieve it, but it is the hardest task in nature".<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. IX (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 165.</ref>


== Adepts and Masters ==  
== Adepts and Masters ==  


The word "Adept" was used in a general way by Mme. Blavatsky. There were high and low adepts. Sometimes she called "Adept" people with occult knowledge, but not necessarily spiritually highly evolved. In fact, she mentions adepts who are black magicians. The word Master, however, seems to be reserved to high adepts, who work in line with the evolutionary movement. This idea is expressed to certain extent by [[Charles Johnston]] in an article published in H. P. Blavatsky's ''Collected Writings'':
The word "[[Adept]]" was used by [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|Mme. Blavatsky]] as a general term to denote people with a varying degree of [[Occultism|occult]] knowledge and [[initiation]]. This term does not necessarily imply a person with a high spiritual evolution, and it was sometimes used even to denominate black magicians. Thus, there are good and evil Adepts, of a high or low order.
 
The term Master or [[Master of Wisdom]], however, seems to be reserved to high adepts who work in line with the evolutionary movement. This idea is expressed to a certain extent by [[Charles Johnston]] in his published interview to H. P. Blavatsky:


<blockquote>Then she told me something about other Masters and adepts she had known -- for she made a difference, as though the adepts were the captains of the occult world, and the Masters were the generals. She had known adepts of many races, from Northern and Southern India, Tibet, Persia, China, Egypt; of various European nations, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, English; of certain races in South America, where she said there was a Lodge of adepts.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. 8 (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1960), 400.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>Then she told me something about other Masters and adepts she had known -- for she made a difference, as though the adepts were the captains of the occult world, and the Masters were the generals. She had known adepts of many races, from Northern and Southern India, Tibet, Persia, China, Egypt; of various European nations, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, English; of certain races in South America, where she said there was a Lodge of adepts.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. 8 (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1960), 400.</ref></blockquote>


== Women Adepts ==
== Women Adepts ==
There are many testimonies of Adepts visiting [[H. P. Blavatsky]] and other Theosophists. Most of them were male figures. However, [[H. S. Olcott|Col. Olcott]]'s sister, [[Isabelle Olcott Mitchell]], witnessed the visitation of a woman whom Blavatsky stated was one of the "Brothers." Mrs. Mitchell lived for nine months in an apartment in the same building where the famous [[The Lamasery|"Lamasery"]] was, and it is there that she experienced the following:
<blockquote>One other day I was sitting by her [Blavatsky's] dinner table when the door bell rang, and immediately there passed up the private hall a figure that seemed to glide rather than walk. She turned to me and said, "You have desired to see one of the Brothers, and you are to be gratified. As you pass the room on your left look in." So I did. I saw a figure of a woman sitting beside a table. A straw bonnet fastened by a pink ribbon that was tied under her chin, her shoulders wrapped in a plaid blanket shawl, were all that I gathered in a hasty glance. For all my attention was claimed by a pair of coal-black eyes that held in their depths such a weird, unearthly expression that the eight years which have since passed have not had power to efface, and that leaves with the memory no desire to see just such another pair.<ref>Belle Olcott Mitchell, "Madame Blavatsky" ''The Word'' 1 (February, 1905), 182-187. Published posthumously.</ref></blockquote>
The sex of the body that an Adept wears has little influence on him/her. In a review about a novel of "deep philosophical and occult truths" written by [[Franz Hartmann]], Blavatsky writes:
<blockquote>The hero follows, and finds he is brought to a “theosophical monastery,” in a hidden valley of the most gorgeous description. Therein he meets, to his surprise, with adepts of both sexes; for, as he learns later:—<br>"What has intelligence to do with the sex of the body? Where the sexual instincts end, there ends the influence of the sex."<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. VIII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1990), 132.</ref></blockquote>
In May, 1880, [[Henry Steel Olcott|Col. Olcott]] wrote an article in [[The Theosophist (periodical)|''The Theosophist'']] in answer to a claim by [[George Wyld|Dr. George Wyld]], who stated that no woman had become an Adept. The Colonel wrote:
<blockquote>It is equally incorrect to say that no woman has become an adept. Not to mention one example which will immediately recall itself to every Theosophist, I may say that I personally have encountered in India two other initiated women, and know of a number of others in the East.<ref>See [http://www.theosophical.org/component/content/article/65-olcott/1826# "Becoming a Theosophist"] by Henry S. Olcott</ref></blockquote>


In June, 1889, C. S. Stockholm sent a few questions to the editors of the Theosophical Journal ''Lucifer''. One of them was about the existence of Women Adepts:
In June, 1889, C. S. Stockholm sent a few questions to the editors of the Theosophical Journal ''Lucifer''. One of them was about the existence of Women Adepts:
Line 15: Line 49:
<blockquote>Has any woman ever attained to Adeptship proper? Will her intellectual and spiritual nature and gifts permit it, even while supposing that her physical nature might endure the hardships therefrom indispensable?</blockquote>
<blockquote>Has any woman ever attained to Adeptship proper? Will her intellectual and spiritual nature and gifts permit it, even while supposing that her physical nature might endure the hardships therefrom indispensable?</blockquote>


To this, [[H. P. Blavatsky]] answered:  
To this, [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|H. P. Blavatsky]] answered:  


<blockquote>Woman has as good a chance as any man has to reach high Adeptship. Why she does not succeed in this direction in Europe is simply due to her early education and the social prejudice which causes her to be regarded as inferior to man.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. 11 (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 301.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>Woman has as good a chance as any man has to reach high Adeptship. Why she does not succeed in this direction in Europe is simply due to her early education and the social prejudice which causes her to be regarded as inferior to man.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. 11 (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 301.</ref></blockquote>


[[Subba Row|T. Subba Row]], considered by [[H. P. Blavatsky]] to be her equal in occultism, wrote:
[[Subba Row|T. Subba Row]], considered by Mme. Blavatsky to be her equal in occultism, wrote:


<blockquote>There are instances of females becoming the greatest Adepts. Whether an individual is male or female depends upon temperament as much as anything else. . . . There is one woman who still stands in the list of the Mahachohans of one of the greatest Rays--that to which H ... belongs. She is not merely a great Adept of that Ray, but had made many original discoveries. . .
<blockquote>There are instances of females becoming the greatest Adepts. Whether an individual is male or female depends upon temperament as much as anything else. . . . There is one woman who still stands in the list of the Mahachohans of one of the greatest Rays--that to which H ... belongs. She is not merely a great Adept of that Ray, but had made many original discoveries. . .
Line 32: Line 66:
<blockquote>It is difficult to see any good reason why females should not become Adepts. None of us, Chelas, are aware of any physical or other defect which might entirely incapacitate them from undertaking the dreary ordeal. It may be more difficult, more dangerous for them than it is for men, still not impossible. The Hindu sacred books and traditions mention such cases, and since the laws of Nature are immutable, what was possible some thousand years ago must be possible now. . . . In Nepaul, we all know, there is a high female Adept. And in Southern India, flourished at a recent date, another great female Initiate named Ouvaiyar. Her mysterious work in Tamil on Occultism is still extant. It is styled Kural, and is said to be very enigmatically written, and consequently inexplicable. In Benares too lives a certain lady, unsuspected and unknown but to the very few. . .<ref>Sven Eek, ''Damodar and the Pioneers of the Theosophical Movement'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1965), 320.</ref></blockquote>
<blockquote>It is difficult to see any good reason why females should not become Adepts. None of us, Chelas, are aware of any physical or other defect which might entirely incapacitate them from undertaking the dreary ordeal. It may be more difficult, more dangerous for them than it is for men, still not impossible. The Hindu sacred books and traditions mention such cases, and since the laws of Nature are immutable, what was possible some thousand years ago must be possible now. . . . In Nepaul, we all know, there is a high female Adept. And in Southern India, flourished at a recent date, another great female Initiate named Ouvaiyar. Her mysterious work in Tamil on Occultism is still extant. It is styled Kural, and is said to be very enigmatically written, and consequently inexplicable. In Benares too lives a certain lady, unsuspected and unknown but to the very few. . .<ref>Sven Eek, ''Damodar and the Pioneers of the Theosophical Movement'' (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1965), 320.</ref></blockquote>


== Renouncing Nirvana ==
Mme. Blavatsky added an interesting perspective about the possibilities of high women adepts. In talking about the divine virgin figures such as the [[Gnosticism|Gnostic]] [[Sophia]] she wrote:
 
An important feature of the highest Adepts is that, although they have attained the right to enter in [[nirvāṇa]] they renounce to it in order to stay in touch with humanity. This is the same concept of the [[Bodhisattva]]s in [[Mahayana Buddhism]], which was not very well know at the time to the Western world:
 
<blockquote>. . .the hitherto very esoteric doctrine of the Nirmanakayas was lately brought forward as a proof and explained in the treatise called ''The Voice of the Silence''. These Nirmanakayas are the Bodhisattvas or late Adepts, who having reached Nirvana and liberation from rebirth, renounce it voluntarily in order to remain invisibly amidst the world to help poor ignorant Humanity within the lines permitted by Karma.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. 12 (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1991), 31. </ref></blockquote>
 
This is evidently a sacrifice on their part, renouncing to live in a state of bliss on higher planes to incessantly work on the lower ones. As [[Koot Hoomi|Mahatma K.H.]] wrote to [[A. P. Sinnett]]:
 
<blockquote>I will be busy night and day, morning, noon, and evening. At times I feel a passing regret that the Chohans should not evolute the happy idea of allowing us also a "sumptuary allowance" in the shape of a little spare time. Oh, for the final Rest! for that Nirvana where — "to be one with Life, yet — to live not." Alas, alas! having personally realized that: ". . . the Soul of Things is sweet, The Heart of Being is celestial Rest," one does long for — eternal REST!<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 68 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 203-204.</ref></blockquote>
 
== The work of the adepts ==
 
When asked by [[Charles Johnston]] about their work she answered: "You would hardly understand, unless you were an adept. But they keep alive the spiritual life of mankind."<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. 8 (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1960), 401.</ref> He then asked her how the adepts guide the souls of men, to which [[H. P. Blavatsky]] answered:
 
<blockquote>In many ways, but chiefly by teaching their souls direct, in the spiritual world. But that is difficult for you to understand. This is quite intelligible, though. At certain regular periods, they try to give the world at large a right understanding of spiritual things. One of their number comes forth to teach the masses, and is handed down to tradition as the Founder of a religion. Krishna was such a Master; so was Zoroaster; so were Buddha and Shankara Acharya, the great sage of Southern India. So also was the Nazarene. He went forth against the counsel of the rest, to give to the masses before the time, moved by a great pity, and enthusiasm for humanity; he was warned that the time was unfavorable, but nevertheless he elected to go, and so was put to death at the instigation of the priests. . . .<br>
But that is not the only work of the adepts. At much shorter periods, they send forth a messenger to try to teach the world. Such a period comes in the last quarter of each century, and the Theosophical Society represents their work for this epoch.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'', vol. 8 (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1960), 401-402.</ref></blockquote>


There are some references to some kind of involvement of the Adepts in political or social matters. For example in [[The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (book)|''The Mahatma Letters'']], the [[Koot Hoomi|Master K.H.]] wrote to [[Alfred Percy Sinnett|A. P. Sinnett]] around November 1880:
<blockquote>[[Śakti]] being a female principle, it is fully manifested through a woman, although, properly speaking, the inner man is neither male, nor female. It is only the preponderance of either of the two principles (positive and negative) which determines the sex. Now, this preponderance is determined by the Law of Affinity; and hence in a woman is manifested abnormally the occult power represented by Śakti. She is moreover gifted with a wonderfully vivid imagination—stronger than man’s. And as the phenomenal is the realization or rather the manifestation of the IDEAL, which can be properly and strongly conceived only by a powerful IMAGINATION—a WOMAN-ADEPT can produce high occultists—a race of “Buddhas and Christs,” born “without sin.The more and the sooner the animal sexual affinities are given up, the stronger and the sooner will be the manifestation of the higher occult powers which alone can produce the “immaculate conception.” And this art is practically taught to the occultists at a very high stage of initiation.<ref>Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ''Collected Writings'' vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 262.</ref></blockquote>


<blockquote>A crisis, in a certain sense, is upon us now, and must be met. I might say two crises — one, the Society's, the other for Tibet. For, I may tell you in confidence, that Russia is gradually massing her forces for a future invasion of that country under the pretext of a Chinese War. If she does not succeed it will be due to us; and herein, at least we will deserve your gratitude. You see then, that we have weightier matters than small societies to think about; yet, the T.S. must not be neglected.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 5 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 15.</ref></blockquote>
== See also ==
*[[Masters of Wisdom]]
*[[Brotherhood of Adepts]]
*[[Portraits of the Masters]]
*[[Mahatma]]
*[[:Category:Mahatmas and Adepts|Wiki articles on Mahatmas and Adepts]]


Another reference by the same [[Masters of Wisdom|Master]], written around July, 1882, states:
== Additional resources ==


<blockquote>The Egyptian operations of your blessed countrymen involve such local consequences to the body of [[Occultism|Occultists]] still remaining there and to what they are guarding, that two of our adepts are already there, having joined some Druze brethren and three more on their way. I was offered the agreeable privilege of becoming an eye-witness to the human butchery, but — declined with thanks. For such great emergency is our Force stored up, and hence — we dare not waste it on fashionable tamasha.<ref>Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence'' No. 68 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 203.</ref></blockquote>
* [[Masters_of_Wisdom#Online_resources|Resources on Masters, Adepts and Mahatmas]]
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/adept Adept] in Theosophy World
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/illuminati Illuminati] in Theosophy World
* [https://www.theosophy.world/encyclopedia/initiator Intiator] in Theosophy World


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
<references/>
<references/>
==Further reading==
*[http://www.theosophy.ph/encyclo/index.php?title=Adept# Adept] at Theosopedia
==Additional resources==
===Audio===
*[http://www.theosophical.org/files/resources/Downloads/mp3/abdill/The%20Adepts:%20Our%20Brothers.mp3# The Adepts: Our Brothers] by Ed Abdill


[[Category:Theosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Theosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Concepts in The Secret Doctrine]]
[[Category:Concepts in The Secret Doctrine]]
[[es:Adeptos]]
[[it:Adepto]]

Latest revision as of 21:43, 26 November 2023

Adept is a word that comes from the Latin adeptus, meaning "obtained, attained". It is commonly used to describe a highly skilled person; an expert in a particular discipline.

In Theosophical literature this term is employed in connection with the Occult Science and the Esoteric Philosophy. The word is used to define a wide variety of degrees of knowledge of Occultism, from relatively advanced students to Masters of the science. The term does not imply high spiritual and moral development, since there is mention to "white" and "black" Adepts, meaning those who use the occult powers for unselfish and selfish purposes respectively. The high Adepts working for the welfare of humanity are also known as Masters of Wisdom, Mahātmas, Arhats, or simply "Brothers".

General description

H. P. Blavatsky explained the general meaning of the term Adept as follows:

An Adept is therefore an individual who is versed in some art or science, having acquired it in one or another manner. It follows that this term can be applied just as well to an adept in astronomy, as to one in the art of making pâtés de foies gras. A shoemaker as well as a perfume-maker, the one versed in the art of making shoes, and the other in the art of chemistry, are both "adepts."[1]

In Theosophical literature, this term is generally applied to a Master of the occult science:

In Occultism, one who has reached the stage of Initiation and become a Master in the science of Esoteric philosophy.[2]

Despite the fact that in this definition Blavatsky implies that Adepts are Initiated, this is not always the case, and the term "adept" can also be applied to pre-initation stages of occult development. As she wrote:

Every Initiate must be an adept in occultism; he must become one before being initiated in the Greater Mysteries. But not every adept is always an Initiate.[3]

Therefore, one can think of those who have been initiated as higher Adepts:

In the Theosophical literature the high Adepts are Initiates of various degrees, of which there are seven.[4]

It is using this sense of the term that Mahatma K.H. wrote: "The adept is the rare efflorescence of a generation of enquirers."[5] For this reason, there are few Adepts in occultism in the world. As Mme. Blavatsky's stated: "Were adeptship easy of attainment many would achieve it, but it is the hardest task in nature".[6]

Adepts and Masters

The word "Adept" was used by Mme. Blavatsky as a general term to denote people with a varying degree of occult knowledge and initiation. This term does not necessarily imply a person with a high spiritual evolution, and it was sometimes used even to denominate black magicians. Thus, there are good and evil Adepts, of a high or low order.

The term Master or Master of Wisdom, however, seems to be reserved to high adepts who work in line with the evolutionary movement. This idea is expressed to a certain extent by Charles Johnston in his published interview to H. P. Blavatsky:

Then she told me something about other Masters and adepts she had known -- for she made a difference, as though the adepts were the captains of the occult world, and the Masters were the generals. She had known adepts of many races, from Northern and Southern India, Tibet, Persia, China, Egypt; of various European nations, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, English; of certain races in South America, where she said there was a Lodge of adepts.[7]

Women Adepts

There are many testimonies of Adepts visiting H. P. Blavatsky and other Theosophists. Most of them were male figures. However, Col. Olcott's sister, Isabelle Olcott Mitchell, witnessed the visitation of a woman whom Blavatsky stated was one of the "Brothers." Mrs. Mitchell lived for nine months in an apartment in the same building where the famous "Lamasery" was, and it is there that she experienced the following:

One other day I was sitting by her [Blavatsky's] dinner table when the door bell rang, and immediately there passed up the private hall a figure that seemed to glide rather than walk. She turned to me and said, "You have desired to see one of the Brothers, and you are to be gratified. As you pass the room on your left look in." So I did. I saw a figure of a woman sitting beside a table. A straw bonnet fastened by a pink ribbon that was tied under her chin, her shoulders wrapped in a plaid blanket shawl, were all that I gathered in a hasty glance. For all my attention was claimed by a pair of coal-black eyes that held in their depths such a weird, unearthly expression that the eight years which have since passed have not had power to efface, and that leaves with the memory no desire to see just such another pair.[8]

The sex of the body that an Adept wears has little influence on him/her. In a review about a novel of "deep philosophical and occult truths" written by Franz Hartmann, Blavatsky writes:

The hero follows, and finds he is brought to a “theosophical monastery,” in a hidden valley of the most gorgeous description. Therein he meets, to his surprise, with adepts of both sexes; for, as he learns later:—
"What has intelligence to do with the sex of the body? Where the sexual instincts end, there ends the influence of the sex."[9]

In May, 1880, Col. Olcott wrote an article in The Theosophist in answer to a claim by Dr. George Wyld, who stated that no woman had become an Adept. The Colonel wrote:

It is equally incorrect to say that no woman has become an adept. Not to mention one example which will immediately recall itself to every Theosophist, I may say that I personally have encountered in India two other initiated women, and know of a number of others in the East.[10]

In June, 1889, C. S. Stockholm sent a few questions to the editors of the Theosophical Journal Lucifer. One of them was about the existence of Women Adepts:

Has any woman ever attained to Adeptship proper? Will her intellectual and spiritual nature and gifts permit it, even while supposing that her physical nature might endure the hardships therefrom indispensable?

To this, H. P. Blavatsky answered:

Woman has as good a chance as any man has to reach high Adeptship. Why she does not succeed in this direction in Europe is simply due to her early education and the social prejudice which causes her to be regarded as inferior to man.[11]

T. Subba Row, considered by Mme. Blavatsky to be her equal in occultism, wrote:

There are instances of females becoming the greatest Adepts. Whether an individual is male or female depends upon temperament as much as anything else. . . . There is one woman who still stands in the list of the Mahachohans of one of the greatest Rays--that to which H ... belongs. She is not merely a great Adept of that Ray, but had made many original discoveries. . . There is a Ray specially adapted to women; it is sometimes called "the body of love". Its Logos is rather a female than a male; it belongs to the magnetic pole of the universe. I do not think there will ever be a female Adept of the First Ray, because it belongs entirely to the positive pole.[12]

In The Theosophist, October, 1883, "An Inquirer" asked:

Will you kindly let me know whether females can attain to adeptship, and whether female adepts exist at all?

To this, Damodar K. Mavalankar, a chela of Mahatma K. H. wrote:

It is difficult to see any good reason why females should not become Adepts. None of us, Chelas, are aware of any physical or other defect which might entirely incapacitate them from undertaking the dreary ordeal. It may be more difficult, more dangerous for them than it is for men, still not impossible. The Hindu sacred books and traditions mention such cases, and since the laws of Nature are immutable, what was possible some thousand years ago must be possible now. . . . In Nepaul, we all know, there is a high female Adept. And in Southern India, flourished at a recent date, another great female Initiate named Ouvaiyar. Her mysterious work in Tamil on Occultism is still extant. It is styled Kural, and is said to be very enigmatically written, and consequently inexplicable. In Benares too lives a certain lady, unsuspected and unknown but to the very few. . .[13]

Mme. Blavatsky added an interesting perspective about the possibilities of high women adepts. In talking about the divine virgin figures such as the Gnostic Sophia she wrote:

Śakti being a female principle, it is fully manifested through a woman, although, properly speaking, the inner man is neither male, nor female. It is only the preponderance of either of the two principles (positive and negative) which determines the sex. Now, this preponderance is determined by the Law of Affinity; and hence in a woman is manifested abnormally the occult power represented by Śakti. She is moreover gifted with a wonderfully vivid imagination—stronger than man’s. And as the phenomenal is the realization or rather the manifestation of the IDEAL, which can be properly and strongly conceived only by a powerful IMAGINATION—a WOMAN-ADEPT can produce high occultists—a race of “Buddhas and Christs,” born “without sin.” The more and the sooner the animal sexual affinities are given up, the stronger and the sooner will be the manifestation of the higher occult powers which alone can produce the “immaculate conception.” And this art is practically taught to the occultists at a very high stage of initiation.[14]

See also

Additional resources

Notes

  1. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings, vol. XI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 179.
  2. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Theosophical Glossary (Krotona, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 6.
  3. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings, vol. XI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 179.
  4. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. 2 (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1979), 614.
  5. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 2 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 6.
  6. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings, vol. IX (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 165.
  7. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings, vol. 8 (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1960), 400.
  8. Belle Olcott Mitchell, "Madame Blavatsky" The Word 1 (February, 1905), 182-187. Published posthumously.
  9. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. VIII (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1990), 132.
  10. See "Becoming a Theosophist" by Henry S. Olcott
  11. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings, vol. 11 (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973), 301.
  12. Tallapragada Subba Row, Esoteric Writings (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1931), 570.
  13. Sven Eek, Damodar and the Pioneers of the Theosophical Movement (Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1965), 320.
  14. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. VI (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1989), 262.