Theoretical and Practical Arcane Terms

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Theosophy and Theosophists Series · 23 pages

Twenty-three pages with a contents page of key concepts, each carrying its page number. *It is the file to read for what the various words in this field are supposed to mean* — occultism, mysticism, Atma-Vidya — and how they differ from one another.

Atma-Vidya is placed at the top as the highest grade of esoteric knowledge. Occultism is then defined in a phrase worth remembering — the science of life and the art of living — before the file makes its central distinction: an abyss separates theoretical from practical occultism. The most useful section is the one on secrecy, because it gives a reason rather than a rule. The only reason for secrecy, it says, is to shield fools and the wicked from their own folly and their proclivities to self-destruction — which is a far narrower and more defensible claim than the general air of mystery around the subject would suggest, and it sits well with the file on the Mysteries earlier in this section. A second distinction is drawn generously: there is no essential difference between mystics and eastern occultists, except in degrees of cognition and ability to teach — so the two words name a difference of attainment rather than of camp. The observation that follows is the most quotable thing in the file and the one a general reader might take away: metaphysics and ethics are different tongues for the same process. A closing section of parting thoughts for mystics and a page of suggested reading end it.

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