Chelaship Rules from the Kiu-te

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Higher Ethics and Devotion Series · 6 pages

First published in Lucifer, Vol. I, No. 4, December 1887, pages 325–28, and reprinted in Blavatsky Collected Writings VIII pages 292–95 under “Answers to Queries.” The occasion was a letter from a New York correspondent signing himself L.M.C.

The correspondent asks directly whether a would-be theosophist-occultist is required to abandon his worldly ties and duties — family affection, love of parents, wife, children, friends — saying it is rumoured that some theosophical publications have stated as much, and noting that the same demand appears in Matthew, where whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. He asks whether the Masters of Theosophy demand as much. Blavatsky's answer is one of the most emphatic in the literature. She calls it an old question and a still older charge started by the movement's enemies, answers NO in capitals, and adds that no theosophical publication could have rendered itself guilty of such a falsehood and calumny — that no disciple of a guru would ever be accepted on such conditions. The evidence she gives is the practice rather than the principle: many were the candidates but few the chosen, and dozens were refused precisely because they were married and had a sacred duty to wife and children. None, she says, has ever been asked to forsake father or mother, and one who is necessary to a parent for support and leaves is condemned by the rule rather than commended. The nine rules from the Kiu-te follow.

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