Occult Laws and Paradoxes

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Living the Life Series · 12 pages

A twelve-page compendium in two parts, with a contents page listing every entry. The running head describes it as a compendium of occult laws and paradoxes.

The first part is short and states three laws. That the exercise of white occult powers arouses the black — a warning about consequence rather than about intention. That occult knowledge is not for sale. And, third, the plain commandment: thou shalt not steal. The second part is much longer and is arranged alphabetically rather than by argument, which makes the file a reference to be consulted at a heading rather than read through. The entries run from Angels and Anger through to Love Thy Neighbour, and each states a proposition that cuts against the expected reading of its subject — that applying divine knowledge here and now matters far more than contemplating it; that astrology is mere superstition without a deep appreciation of the Law of Sympathy; that consciousness ascending to its divine abode causes friction; that moral taint is just as transmissible as physical. Others take up the code of honour, international brotherhood, the first rules of discipleship, and the injunction to forgive and forget. Calling them paradoxes rather than principles is the point: each is included because it reverses what a reader would assume, and the alphabetical order keeps them from being smoothed into a single system.

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