“‘The path to be trodden is both exterior and interior, and in order to reach the goal it is necessary to tread these paths with strength, courage, faith and the essence of them all, which is wisdom.
“‘For these two paths, which fundamentally are one, like every duality in nature, are winding paths, and now lead through sunlight, then through deepest shade. During the last few years the large majority of students have been rounding a curve in the paths of both inner and outer work, and this wearied many. But those who persevered and faltered not will soon reap their reward.
FIG. 39. PORTRAIT OF MRS. TINGLEY.
[Reproduced by courtesy of the New York Herald.]
“‘The present is pregnant with the promise of the near future, and that future is brighter than could be believed by those who have so recently been immersed in the shadows that are inevitable in cyclic progress. Can words describe it? I think not. But if you will think of the past twenty years of ploughing and sowing and will keep in your mind the tremendous force that has been scattered broadcast throughout the world, you must surely see that the hour for reaping is near at hand, if it has not already come.”
The invasion of English territory by the American crusaders was resented by the British Theosophists. The advocates of universal brotherhood waged bitter warfare against each other in the newspapers and periodicals. It gradually resolved itself into a struggle for supremacy between the two rival claimants for the mantle of Madame Blavatsky, Mrs. Annie Besant and Mrs. Tingley. Each Pythoness ascended her sacred tripod and hysterically denounced the other as an usurper, and false prophetess. Annie Besant sought to disprove the idea of Madame Blavatsky having re-incarnated herself in the body of Mrs. Tingley. She claimed that the late High Priestess had taken up her earthly pilgrimage again in the person of a little Hindoo boy, who lived somewhere on the banks of the Ganges. The puzzling problem was this: If Mrs. Tingley was Mme. Blavatsky, where was Mrs. Tingley? Oedipus would have gone mad trying to solve this Sphinx riddle.
The crusade finished, Mrs. Tingley, with her purple banner returned to New York, where she was royally welcomed by her followers. In the wake of the American adept came the irrepressible Annie Besant, accompanied by a sister Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachmeister. Mrs. Besant, garbed in a white linen robe of Hindoo pattern, lectured on occult subjects to crowded houses in the principal cities of the East and West. In the numerous interviews accorded her by the press, she ridiculed the Blavatsky-Tingley re-incarnation theory. By kind permission of the New York Herald, I reproduce a portrait of Mrs. Tingley. The reader will find it interesting to compare this sketch with the photograph of Madame Blavatsky given in this book. He will notice at once how much the two occultists do resemble each other; both are grossly fat, puffy of face, with heavy-lidded eyes and rather thick lips.
7. The Theosophical Temple.
If all the dreams of the Theosophical Society are fulfilled we shall see, at no distant date, in the state of California, a sombre and mysterious building, fashioned after an Egyptian temple, its pillars covered with hieroglyphic symbols, and its ponderous pylons flanking the gloomy entrance. Twin obelisks will stand guard at the gateway and huge bronze sphinxes stare the tourist out of countenance. The Theosophical temple will be constructed “upon certain mysterious principles, and the numbers 7 and 13 will play a prominent part in connection with the dimensions of the rooms and the steps of the stairways.” The Hierophants of occultism will assemble here, weird initiations like those described in Moore’s “Epicurean” will take place, and the doctrines of Hindoo pantheism will be expounded to the Faithful. The revival of the Egyptian mysteries seems to be one of the objects aimed at in the establishment of this mystical college. Just what the Egyptian Mysteries were is a mooted question among Egyptologists. But this does not bother the modern adept.
Mr. Bucham Harding, the leading exponent of Theosophy mentioned above, says that within the temple the neophyte will be brought face to face with his own soul. “By what means cannot be revealed; but I may say that the object of initiation will be to raise the consciousness of the pupil to a plane where he will see and know his own divine soul and consciously communicate with it. Once gained, this power is never lost. From this it can be seen that occultism is not so unreal as many think, and that the existence of soul is susceptible of actual demonstration. No one will be received into the mysteries until, by means of a long and severe probation, he has proved nobility of character. Only persons having Theosophical training will be eligible, but as any believer in brotherhood may become a Theosophist, all earnest truthseekers will have an opportunity of admission.