Blavatsky on Occult Hygiene

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Mystic Verse and Insights Series · 2 pages

Two pages taken from the Miscellaneous Notes in Blavatsky Collected Writings volume X, answering a correspondent whose letter to Lucifer is quoted in brackets alongside the reply.

The correspondent owns that he should like to see phenomena, and asks whether the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society is not likely to run counter to the editorial position taken against "Lodges of Magic," and who is to ensure that its members will abide by its rules. The answer is blunt on the first point: it is not in the Theosophical Society that anyone can hope to evoke spooks or to see physical phenomena. On the second, the question is called a natural one coming from a European, and is refused on a distinction — the Esoteric Section is not a lodge of magic but a lodge of training. The reason given is that few Western students realise how searching and inexorable the tests are which a candidate must pass before power is entrusted to him. The phrase that gives the file its title comes here: esoteric philosophy is described as the occult hygiene of mind and body, the unlearning of false beliefs and the acquisition of true habits of thought, and that alone is said to be more than sufficient work for a student during his probation. Those who pledge themselves expecting to acquire magic powers forthwith are told they will meet only disappointment and certain failure.

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