Some answers to the most frequently asked questions in Theosophy

Question: What is left today of the old Initiatory Schools?

As the time goes by the old traditions adapt and change their exterior forms, their languages and even the denominations. As you well know adaptability is a sign of vital intelligence. Therefore the oldest traditions as well conform to the change of the times. It is indeed the sense of adaptability that makes them invisible just like, probably, makes its adepts unrecognizable. Like a child changes his features in his adulthood, the "operating part" of some traditions seems different after some characteristics have matured. On the other hand, like in an adult you can still recognize the nature of the child, in them as well the principles of the ancient fundaments are still visible. Of course their "fields of action" change as well. Today they face their tasks in fields that were unthinkable in the past. Although the top of the two great initiatory Systems (Mystical and Mysteriosophical) stay "hidden" they tend to use modern instruments of political divulgation and economy.

Looking for a templar, a maltese or a rose+cross dressed in robe and suit of armor today would certainly be unacceptable. Those who like to dress up in robes, cloak, sword, crosses and chlamys like a guru or any other type of "esoterical folklore" are not "real" but only nostalgic comedians of ancient shadows that will hardly penetrate through clothing, garments or decorations.

Today like in the past the main factor is the "initiatory transmission", which is a completely personal instrument. In other words: in the initiatory sphere you don't choose but you are chosen. I'd like to remind you what could be considered the first rule of the postulant: you will be recognized by recognizing. This rule must be understood for what it is and not for what we would like to see in it. Apart from that, one can keep "trifling" as he thinks best but he will never be "introduced" in a universal Order.

Talking about this universality (the real one and not only enunciated) I know that at a certain level there's no difference between initiatory Order and mystic Confraternity (can you see the allusions?) and even less a differentiation between East and West. On the contrary, there is a "subtle link of necessity" that joins them all. A link that the youngest ones call: Service.

In reality both mystics (not to be confused with devotionals) and mysteriosophics draw from the same source. Only they operate on different spheres. The diversity, though, is limited to the different "operational necessity" and doesn't touch in any way the nature of the Adepts that are equals on "both sides" of their conscience, the mental (mysteriosophical) and spiritual (mystic) ones.

Spririt and mind, then, are the two "sides" of the initiatory conscience. It contains, expresses and implies both. In the symbolic representations, though, everything can assume a different aspect. In the "exoterical interpretations" of the old shadows appearance counts more than facts. Also because "to do the facts" costs a lot and it's more convenient "to appear". It looks chic and it doesn't involve much effort. Concluding this dissertation, if you want to know if old "organizations" still exist the answer is yes.

If you mean how is it possible to be accepted, I'll tell you that this depends on the good will of the postulant, on the possibility of his operational use and then to the demonstration of concrete abilities beyond the simple "goody-goody" reassurance. The great traditional organizations have never been used to close themselves in ivory towers. The traces of its Adepts can't be found in pseudo-initiatory ghettos that look like "hen houses" of esotericism of the disposable existential kind.

Knowing the "old principles", look around you and even through the simplest means of communication you will be able to guess the movements of Brothers and Sisters that "swim against the tide". The "swimming against" indolences, conformisms, integralisms, excessive interests, chaos, bad dreams and confusions created to impress consciences that are still inactive is the sign of the activities that occupy the most external fringe groups of the universal Brotherhood.

Question: I don't think a White Hierarchy exists

I understand that you can live perfectly well ignoring the existence of a white Brotherhood or excluding the possibility of an initiatory Hierarchy that takes care of the fate of the excellent part of humankind against a black Hierarchy that tries to confuse, cheat and ruin it.

Therefore it is possible to leave out of consideration the events of an initiatory Order made up by Masters, Initiates and several degrees of Disciples (seniors, accepted, in probation etc) whose teaching is based on the most suitable subjects of the initiatory science that through the - Tradition - has perpetuated the Art of "developing Oneself" and has contributed the conscience, the consciousness and the intelligence of the human being, by initiating men and women. I understand how just as easily it is possible to leave out the Idea of good and evil attributing it to the - mistaken - human nature.

By doing so, though, we forget that good and evil are not casual phenomena of life but in the sentient being are often the results of a free choice.

This freedom of choice is far from being compared to the Free Will because of its unconscious imperfection. Even if what makes the difference is often ignored, the differences stay.

Free choice originates from the casual combination of attractions and repulsion. These emotions consider only the contingent aspect of the present. The farsightedness and wisdom that characterize Free Will, on the other hand, originate from the intelligence of the soul (buddhist level).

Perhaps who can't accept such a hierarchy is not able to recognize the different graduation of the scale of values of which Masters, Initiates (instructors) and Disciples are only a physical and formal expression. Therefore it is not the Master or the Pupil that must be considered but the scale of values they represent.

It starts from the most common level of instinctive and "passional" (pos-session - see note 1) promiscuity and goes to the apex of spiritual conscience that any good esotericist should be able to recognize.

The fundaments of consciousness are individual values. We often forget that opinions have an absolute value only for those who formulate them whilst, objectively, they are in the lowest level of the scale of values of the intellect. When subjective (personal) values are placed at the center of psychic and conscientious activity the risk is intellectual anarchy and monothematic egocentrism.

In actual fact the chaos of languages is the leftover of a monothematic, individualistic, ignorant and unconscious vision that has separated humankind, breaking its cultural uses into billions of small conflictual and separative opinions, in which the term of comparison wasn't the truth but what some influential character thought or idealized.

Monothematic egocentrism and intellectual anarchy are the problems that afflict and separate humankind; they avert the sentient being from the inner Way that brings good and advantages, even in the physical form.

I think that these subjects shouldn't be underrated and rejected, but faced with the utmost care by the researchers (of the truth). On the other hand I am also aware that my problems of yesterday are the actual problems for many researchers. Approaching the super-sensitive has never been an easy or comfortable choice. On the threshold of this path, illusion is common and "mistrust" seems to be the quickest cure to keep any "legitimate doubt" that seizes the traveler quiet.

I know, though, that he will soon replace mistrust and suspicion with attention, strengthened by a more and more efficient knowledge. Knowledge is the best warranty against fraud, dream and imagination. "Knowledge and cognition" defend from mistakes and dangers of the individual journey.

Recognizing a Master is not necessary; in the same way accepting to work for the individual progress is not a dogma; at the worst the non-acknowledgement of its opportunities will become another karmic debt to be solved.

Question: XXX predicts the end of the world..

Perhaps the so-called "prophets" haven't understood yet that the "reign of God" is in the heart, that the four rivers that enclose the earthly paradise are the vital flow of the four limbs of the human being (arms and legs); in the center (the Eden) there is the sleeping (lost) heart that is where the sentient soul is. Therefore "by reaching the Eden" (that is by activating all the spirilla of the corolla in the cardiac chakra) the end of the world will start. This doesn't have the catastrophic aspect that is understood in popular imagination and beliefs.

The end of the world is produced by the ideas that change. If ideas had cardiac intelligence (Will and Wisdom) as origin - I emphasize cardiac intelligence and not devotion or cult - these ideas will end up by modifying the characters and the attitude of their - bearers -.

The "bearers of Light" work in order to change for the better the conditions that affect human attitude. By improving human attitude the course of man's destiny would change as a consequence, becoming - harmonious - with his universal nature.

But this change will not occur until everybody perches on himself defending his own tiny individual baricenter.

Therefore the White Brotherhood (not the yellow, red or black Caps) operates on the high levels of mind because there's no other phenomenal manifestation that has the strength of changing a destiny.

In the mind of human being the destiny of humankind is shaped. In the mind of the human being occurs the conflict between Light and Darkness. The tension of the individual mind must be raised and the Light (illumination) will prevail on darkness (concupiscence) of animal nature. Like it happens for a bulb, when the psychic tension raises the mind is able to "receive" more "conscientious energy" and this leads to the expansion of its faculties. After this, nothing will be the same again. Everything will change because nothing will be thought or perceived as it was before. This is the "end of the world", which is slowly already happening.

The signs of the big change are among us.

Although it is slow, it is still a conflictual change; it takes the conscience of more and more people apart from the animal individuality (egocentric and introflexed) and makes it closer to an ethereal perception of one's own natural identity, which is altruistic, generous and extroflexed.

The fastest ones are obstructed by the slowest fighting to keep the "old habits" that they call "traditions". Often these old habits and traditions are only dead weights to be rid of as soon as possible. This has always been the conflict between the "new that advances" and the "old" that doesn't want to leave.

Yet again another cyclic form (space-time wave) that like the backwash creates conflict between two currents of the "same force": the force of life. We are confused by this "backwash" and we keep struggling in the ambiguity of two opposite roles where we are half animals and half men, like "Centaurs".

The animal represents "what we were" whilst our thought is "what we will be". For this reason and others the true initiatory and spiritual work occurs inside the Mind (Manas). Only our mind can become the Window of our superior Conscience. As for the rest: chatters don't cook the rice!

Question: XXX announces in his visions that…

This feedback is quite interesting. In actual fact the question is pertinent and I agree with many doubts.

History leaves few doubts: man dreams and he loves making others dream; when the dream is shared by many people it becomes myth, legend and a matter of faith.

When myth or faith, though, are elevated to the value of essential notion, things don't seem to work any more. Especially when these notions become an ideological matter and part of commercial cultures. Observing our past we can understand many things about our present.

Once mentally dissociated, visionaries and nightbirds were given much credit. On the other hand we can't judge beforehand, so we will try and remember their visions.

How many of the predicted things actually happened in the ways and terms forecasted? It was said that: it won't be after a generation that the Reign of God will come to earth! So? And also, how many predicted the end of the world? The church that forecasted the most was the Jeovah witnesses'. After a long series of failures they've thought better of keeping "annunciations" quiet. We could keep going forever. The conclusion?

Unfortunately for the "announcers" of extraordinary events we are in a time of verification when almost everything can be verified and brought to light. This leaves little, very little space for bragging. Still something big does exist "inside us", but how to skim it from oneiric clouds?

I think the best attitude, despite everything else, is to be open with some exceptions.

One of these "buts" is the condition I call of scientific protection. I'll explain.

Many inventions were originated in dreams; therefore we must pay attention to imagination. From imagination, though, was originated all the evil of the world as well. Therefore the first thing to do is to distinguish the results of imagination from the fumes of imagination. Where a hypothesis exists this must be verified through facts (empirism) and not amplified by fantasies.

There is a group of people who dream by choice. They decide to believe because it is easier. Believing is less demanding than trying to find out.

Many people talk about abstract things which are far away from common reality but they don't even think of facing the chore of research or the effort of changing themselves. They are content with just "talking about it". They dream of fantastic escapes from everyday life, where the solution will go to them instead of the contrary, as it happens in real life.

The dream becomes hope, placebo to suffering and sometimes even miracle.

Often, though, all is left of these expectations is disappointment and an empty screen to hide moral idleness.

How to change this status of things? Perhaps by applying the only rule that old (and true) Initiate left us: Dare and Keep quiet.

Daring and keeping quiet are two actions opposite to what is usual today, where nobody ever risks anything himself but he debates ogling here and there among curiosity and firstlings without paying attention to appropriate verifications.

A first idea of wisdom could be to start feeling one's own tension originated by one's heart, which is very sensitive to truth, and abandon imagination.

This would mean starting to "Grow".

Question: Did Bailey call a magazine "Lucifer"?

Bailey doesn't have anything to do with Lucifer. Petrovna carelessly called one of her magazines like that. She is a sincere woman but too impulsive and improvident (words of her Master); she meant Lucifer as: "Bearer of Light", that is of truth. Doing so she laid herself open to the lances of counterinformation that have turned the meaning into Lucifer as for Satan.

Why expect anything different, though? The enemy is still the enemy and he does his job, that is to fight the LIGHT. Since he can't do it because he doesn't have the ability or the courage, though, he tries to stain, confuse, distract and possibly annul the orientation (the temptations of mysticism) of those who tend towards the truth.

Because truth frees. If freedom of conscience became a diffused and generalized aspect how could obscure Masters keep hold of the least advanced fringes of humankind?

Counterinformation is the Trojan horse of counter-initiation.

In order to understand this statement we should wonder which are the WINDOWS that can enlighten humandkind!

The answer is only one. They are the places delegated to the evolution of its conscience. That is why these windows are so full with "annoying insects". Light attracts who wants it but also who fights against it.

Who opposes the free circulation of spiritual Light tends to disguise it and to hide effects and differences through profane mystifications.

Although for opposite reasons, towards the places destined to Initiations flow both those who tend to the inner Light (truth) and those who live in the inner darkness. Black forces try and simulate the sense of light, mystifying and confusing its effects in order to stop the reaching of them. This is the sense of counterinformation, so much of which is present in any initiatory and esoterical sphere. If something can't be destroyed it can be confused.

The obscure inhabitants of the planet are defenseless against truth but through lies and dissimulation they can keep seizing the trust, or even better, the credulousness of those who hope in freedom.

As long as nothing changes they keep people hoping, talking and praying. In order to maintain high the status of psychological subjection it is necessary that people are kept in remissive ignorance; they will then delegate and expect the "strong powers" to decide for their destiny. In other words they try and fight against any form of intellectual growth and subject any freedom to the conformism called social conditioning.

How to do this? Making people believe that everything is easy, that there's no need for anything, that everything is ready and done. Look around you carefully and you will see how powerful this strategy is. If everything looks easy nothing can be obtained and this is what the obscure people want.

Once someone asked me what is the difference in the use of the "conviction" that is how the suggestive use of the word should be used.

The answer was there, plain and clear. Paradoxically, I said, there's no difference between the instruments used by a black Disciple and a white one but for the motivations!

This is what must be verified. It is necessary to pay much attention to the intention of those who would like to guide us, to the motivation which some instruments are used with. The word is a very powerful instrument in the hands of those who are educated to use it.

Words persuade in good and evil. This is the difference.

The black initiate uses the word to fascinate the listener, to charm him and tie him to himself and his interests.

On the contrary, the white Initiate uses the word to liberate the listener from the "mental images" (Maya) that bind him to his own grounds. The word in this case is simply the vehicle for the transmission of a teaching that doesn't belong either to the Initiate or to the listener, but to both.

The only understanding that can link them is not based on personal interests but purely on truth. It won't be difficult to distinguish them, then.

The black "binds" to the ground on the contrary of the white that, obviously, "frees" the mind and let the heart fly.

Question: What is psycosomathic communication?

The path of Discipleship that leads to the initiatory Masterhood is a path of wisdom. As it is known wisdom originates from "knowledge". Together with other relevant elements, knowledge and wisdom contribute to the composition of the summa called initiatory science. It helps the access to the Prime Initiation, trough an -educative and formative- process in which we find the stages of Discipleship that evolves and progresses through a series of so called minor initiations.

Therefore in order to approach a Master is not enough to "flatter" his image through one's loving cult, but it is necessary to switch one's intelligence on. By recognizing you will be recognized, the Rule states. And also: find the Disciple and you will find the Master. Sooner or later everybody must find the "occult" meaning of these statements. The researcher, though, must first of all learn to direct his attention beyond himself, his ideas and opinions and turn to a kind of scientific knowledge closer and closer to science and conscience. Such as the ideas contained in this short compendium.

Emotions can be found in the limbic system, that is in the upper and lower brain (ENS) Enteric Nervous System; this is why every emotion involves so strongly the intestine as well.

Here is demonstrated the axiom that every disease is Psychosomatic and therefore Somatic-Psychic.

A study of the State University of Ohio (USA) confirms that there is a close link between negative emotions and disease.

More than being positive, that is optimistic, it is necessary NOT to be pessimistic at all; this is the essence of the subject proved by these studies. The true medicine must be holistic and total and must allow the being to express all his potentialities towards health and recovery.

There are 7 levels of information

• The physical level is linked to the instinct of survival, the ability to regenerate, to the primary material needs and it describes the physical environment and the territory we live in. The correspondent parts of the body are: legs, feet and large intestine.

• The physical-emotional level is linked to pleasure, desire, sexuality and excitement. The correspondent parts of the body are: stomach, genitals and bladder.

• The emotional level is the level of sociality that describes the relationships with the outside environment in terms of competition and power; it is linked to will and action. The correspondent parts of the body are: digestive system, liver, spleen and the biliary bladder.

• The emotional-affective level is the level of identity and it is linked to the creative and affective activity of love. The correspondent parts of the body are: heart, lungs, arms and hands.

• The emotional-mental level is linked to the ability to communicate and "vocally" express feelings. The correspondent parts of the body are throat and shoulders.

• The mental level is linked to the ability to visualize. The correspondent parts of the body are the eyes.

• The mental-superior level is linked to the ability to elaborate complicated and abstract concepts. The correspondent part of the body is the cerebral cortex.

The ConScience of being, that is Ego/ME (made up by information) - mind meant as organ of plasmic energy, is the WHOLE of the inFormAtion - see note 2 - that ALL these levels provide and that are contained in the two brains through the electronic Energy of the Mind/organ, Conscious and Unconscious.

Physically there are 12 pairs of cranial nerves that depart from the upper brain, the one in the cranium, and reach every part of the body, up to the smallest. The longest and most important nerve among those departing from the brain is the "vagus" (tenth cranial nerve) but the characteristic that distinguishes it from the others is that it reaches the intestine and therefore also the enteric brain, also called lower brain; this is the emotional brain and where the unconscious is. It is almost a copy of the upper brain; it has the same cells, the same active principles and receptors - they are almost identical -. The lower brain doesn't only regulate and control digestions; it learns better when is young, it remembers painful experiences of the past; it has nevrosis, suffers from stress and dominates the upper one. It produces psycho-active substances that affect the mood, it has sensations, it thinks, it can hurt, get ill, it helps to make unconscious and spontaneous decisions. It wraps up the whole intestine up to the anus like a string vest, analyzing the substances that make the food we ingest. Therefore it is able to stimulate the secretion of digestive enzymes and activate the smooth muscles in order to push the partially digested food into the intestine (digestive canal) so that they can progress in their way to the anus. It rules the speed of the intestinal transit, the absorption and the excretion.

The 60/70% of the immunitary system is placed in the lower (enteric) brain. It is obvious that problems in digestion can alterate the right information that these two brains exchange, generating psychic problems and the opposite is true as well: psychic problems interfere with digestion, generating alterations of the intestinal bacterical flora, acid digestion with colonizazion of the candida and therefore malnutrition.

Since the intestine has its own independent brain there is a constant exchange of information with the upper one (in the head); this must follow the goals and aims of the manifestation in this space/time and that are in the DNA of the neurons of the two brains (in the head and in the intestine; the lower enteric brain sends more information to the upper one than he receives from it.

It is absolutely necessary, then, to feed the Ego/ME and the Mind that lives in the two brains with ideas, information and behaviors in line with the Laws of the Manifestation and to feed the cerebral and nervous system on vital non-toxic blood producing good intestinal digestion. For this reason it is necessary to know the fundamental Cosmic Laws that allow to make the right choices.

"There isn't crime, fraud, trick, cheat and vice that doesn't live in its secrecy. Bring to the daylight these secrets, describe them, make them ridiculous to everyone's eyes and sooner or later the public opinion will throw them away. The only divulgation itself is maybe not enough but it is the only means without which all the others fail". - Joseph Pulitzer

Question: initiatory science is difficult

If initiatory science was within everyone's reach it would be one of the many expressions of common culture, but it is not so. The initiatory science which esotericism refers to expects from its adepts a deep and thorough preparation on more than one field, the first of which is humanism. There is a question I often ask myself. If we can't understand the languages of men, how can we expect to understand the language of the soul? Also, how can we think that the language of the soul has any relation with the common emotiveness and sentimentalism? The initiatory soul of the aspirant and the popular correspondence forever disagree on the answer.

On one side there are those who believe they must approach a new metamorphosis of self, their conscience and culture (cult-ure = Cult of Ur, the inner sun, the lighting of the solar plexus) to be suitable for the language of the soul; on the other side the parts with a low intellectual profile that keep talking about a "divine" with human features.

Of course the profile of the "minimalist spirituality" has always had a grip on the audience, but its success doesn't mean that it is the most coherent method. It is only the easiest but at the same time the most deceiving instrument of Maya. The illusion of "being without being" is a trap prepared for the improvident ones; and they keep handing it down to each other through the tales of their "prophets".

Question: are intuitive Intelligence and psychic Sensitivity synonyms?

As we can easily guess from the words, intelligence and sensitivity are not the same thing. Intelligence is a psychic phenomenon of "re-ascent". Sensitivity, on the other hand, is a phenomenon of attention and it is a waiting and a receptive one. The use of the two parts of energy (active pole, masculine and negative pole, feminine. In other words Yin and Yang) is involved. Intuitivity is a mobile "entity of research"; sensitivity is, so to speak, a trace of the 6 th ray. If you can, read the short essay on vertical Telepathy on the site.

Question: I feel like I know nothing

The acknowledgment of not knowing represents a relevant moment for the progress of each individual; it is the first flash of intelligence we show and it prepares us to accept, modestly, all that is new and unknown. On the contrary being satisfied with what we know is the anteroom of our intellectual death.

At the beginning the biggest difficulty is to distinguish what we feed our intellect on and the recommendations to caution on what we are ready to accept as truth are never enough.

For this purpose Disciples exist; they can show us what is still hidden to us (I am not playing on words) acting as mirrors in which we can reflect ourselves until our mind is able to "reflect". In order for this to happen it must be re-oriented.

Therefore, don't put too much trust in an instrument not properly calibrated yet such as our mind today; to move a mirror means to change images and this is a process that needs time, perseverance and modesty.

By developing attention we discover many things and we start seeing what others look at without seeing.

Question: is it important to use a correct terminology?

Terminology is a code, a convention, an imaginary and imagined language but it is also the necessary and inreplaceable support to transmit and receive "information" through the "physical mind".

In order for it to have value it must be recognized by the other interlocutors as well, otherwise who speaks or feels stays in the form of mental onanism (mental masturbation result of the individual and collective imagination).

Remember, though, that the more you advance in the sphere of intellect and expansion of conscience, the more the codes of communication change and tend to become criptic principles only for initiates; they communicate through synthetic sounds (like the AUM of which very few know the symbolic meaning), colors and forms drawn (ideograms and numbers) like, for example, in the -holy geometry-. Semantic knowledge is not enough; it is necessary to practice the meanings linked to the fundamental meaning.

The art of the true esotericist is to find the meanings hidden in the common meaning of a word.

Question: how do we recognize the messages from external Entities?

By the rule that the major simile attracts only the minor simile: an "external entity" will get into an empathic relationship (see the word empathy) only with the part similar to itself hidden in the physical form. Therefore a major spirit can get in touch with an individual spirit, just like a major soul with a minor one or a superior Ego with another Ego and so on, up to the lowest of the lowest, that is the astral that will be able to get in "communication" only with an entity of similar - narrowness-.

Question: is the Astral Level superior to instinct?

It is superior to instinct but it is worse, because instinct acts by necessity and survival, so it is essential in its own way. The astral, on the other hand, is the instinct reinforced by physical reason (?) that transforms necessity into occasions to have personal satisfaction and pleasure. Astral is impulse, often unreasonable, to pos-session - see note 1 - to selfish desire (even to possess the Divinity, keeping hold of it), to sensual emotions of an absolutist and egocentric personality that perceives only what looks like it or what has its own characteristics.

Question: I would like an example of thought of the astral level

Impulsive and compulsive emotions, desire for possession, power and passionality, egocentrism and separatism, that is … me, me, me, me, me and…some others, if I like them and they are useful to me.

These positions, clearly extremist, too often are "disguised" with good reasons therefore it is said that the mind lies.

Question: what is the superior mind?

It is the super partes mind that is beyond any ideological, cultural and religious conditioning. In other words it is an impersonal mind that recognizes the truth and disowns the formulations that are convenient or originated by personal opinions, prejudices and fanatical preclusions.

Question: what is intuitive Intelligence?

It is the contact between the attempts of rationality of the physical conscience and the impulses coming from the super-physical conscience. In actual fact what separates the physical conscience from its metaphysical "sister" (the soul) is not a barrier but only a shadow of unconsciousness (called sleep) that must be re-activated with the help of intuitive intelligence. An inner "way of feeling" that from partial and intermittent phenomenon (remember the bulb that switches on) must become a steady psychic presence.

So the two "twin" parts of the same conscience (the inside and the outside) join to form the wide space that is superior mind!

Athos A. Altomonte

notes:

1) In Italian 'pos-sesso' where 'sesso' means 'sex'.

2) in Italian 'in-form-azioni' is also made up by the word 'azioni' which means 'actions'.