Five Books from Madame Blavatsky - pdf [TKRG]

Five Books from Madame Blavatsky - pdf [TKRG]

The purpose of this book is exactly expressed in its title, The Key toTheosophy, and needs but few words of explanation. It is not a complete orexhaustive textbook of Theosophy, but only a key to unlock the door thatleads to the deeper study. It traces the broad outlines of theWisdom-Religion, and explains its fundamental principles; meeting, at thesame time, the various objections raised by the average Western inquirer,and endeavoring to present unfamiliar concepts in a form as simple and inlanguage as clear as possible. That it should succeed in making Theosophyintelligible without mental effort on the part of the reader, would be toomuch to expect; but it is hoped that the obscurity still left is of thethought and not of the language, is due to depth and not to confusion. Tothe mentally lazy or obtuse, Theosophy must remain a riddle; for in theworld mental as in the world spiritual each man must progress by his ownefforts. The writer cannot do the reader's thinking for him, nor would thelatter be any the better off if such vicarious thought were possible. Theneed for such an exposition as the present has long been felt among thoseinterested in the Theosophical Society and its work, and it is hoped that itwill supply information, as free as possible from technicalities, to manywhose attention has been awakened, but who, as yet, are merely puzzled andnot convinced.Some care has been taken in disentangling some part of what is true fromwhat is false in Spiritualistic teachings as to the postmortem life, and toshowing the true nature of Spiritualistic phenomena. Previous explanationsof a similar kind have drawn much wrath upon the writer's devoted head; theSpiritualists, like too many others, preferring to believe what is pleasantrather than what is true, and becoming very angry with anyone who destroysan agreeable delusion. For the past year Theosophy has been the target forevery poisoned arrow of Spiritualism, as though the possessors of a halftruth felt more antagonism to the possessors of the whole truth than thosewho had no share to boast of.Very hearty thanks are due from the author to many Theosophists who havesent suggestions and questions, or have otherwise contributed help duringthe writing of this book. The work will be the more useful for their aid,and that will be their best reward.