Recent statistics from the World Health Organization reveal the following facts, which provide a more shocking and alarming view of things than one might have imagined to be the case:

* In today’s world, nearly 30% of all pregnancies end in abortion.

* Each year, around 70 million women around the world choose to terminate their pregnancy.

* There are approximately 190,000 abortions every day across the world.

* Since you started reading this article, around 70 abortions have taken place.

These figures are currently on the rise with every passing year. It was from the 1960s and 1970s that abortion gradually started to become so commonplace and accepted in the Western world. This was surely due in part to the rise of a grossly materialistic worldview, in which the existence and reality of soul and spirit is denied and a human being is often considered to be little more than a soulless and ultimately purposeless collection of cells and molecules . . . a lump of matter, in other words. For those who view life in this way, what does it really matter in the whole scheme of things whether there are 70 million or 700 million abortions every year?

However, there are certainly many women who undergo abortions who are not materialists or atheists. Relatively large numbers are shown to hold various religious or spiritual views.

For the vast majority of women who choose to have an abortion, it is no easy or casual decision. It involves much heartache, grief, and suffering: psychological, emotional, physical, and indeed spiritual. We all know that there can be many reasons why a woman, or both parents together, decide to abort the pregnancy that has come about. While there are sadly some women who view the whole process casually and flippantly and genuinely think nothing of having repeated abortions, most find it deeply traumatising but do not see any other option available to them.

Whilst Theosophy does not and technically cannot support or condone abortion, due to metaphysical reasons, it is thoroughly untheosophical to criticise, judge, or condemn any particular woman for choosing to undergo such a procedure. Theosophy sheds valuable and necessary light on the hidden side of things but it never attempts to add to the suffering or pain of anyone. Taking absolute Compassion as its basis, it attempts to educate, never to torment. It also acknowledges that sometimes there are no easy answers or solutions.

Take, for example, a woman made pregnant through rape or even incestual rape by a family member; no man – except an Adept – can even begin to accurately imagine what it would feel like to find oneself in such a situation. It should be noted, however, that according to the Guttmacher Institute, these account for a mere 1% of abortions. The remaining 99% arise from consensual sex.

From the spiritual perspective, however, it is not merely a matter of aborting a “pregnancy” but of aborting the reincarnation of a soul. When we stop to consider it from that perspective, we perceive many far-reaching ramifications.

H. P. Blavatsky (1831-1891), founder of the modern Theosophical Movement, is attributed with having changed the face of world spirituality forever, largely by introducing Eastern spirituality into the Western world and teaching and explaining both the practical and metaphysical sides of esoteric philosophy in her writings such as the highly renowned “The Secret Doctrine,” “Isis Unveiled,” “The Key to Theosophy,” and “The Voice of the Silence.” It was she who first introduced – or rather, clearly and definitively re-introduced – the vitally important concepts of KARMA and REINCARNATION to the West, emphasising that these are the two most important spiritual truths for humanity to clearly and accurately understand.

On this site are several articles which provide an overview and explanation of these twin teachings, such as Questions about Karma, A Right Understanding of Karma, A Right Understanding of Reincarnation, Is Karma Merciful and Compassionate?, and 12 Things Theosophy Teaches. They can be read by clicking on these title links.

Although HPB said very little at all regarding abortion – or foeticide as it was often called in her day – the little she did say was so clear, firm, and to the point, that it is interesting and important to take note.

When asked by a medical doctor to state the view of Theosophy on abortion, she prefaced her response by saying, “It is neither from the standpoint of law, nor from any argument drawn from one or another orthodox ism that the warning voice is sent forth against the immoral and dangerous practice, but rather because in occult philosophy both physiology and psychology show its disastrous consequence.”

Although the world abounds with many differing legal, moral, and religious views on abortion, HPB explains that the view of Theosophy on the matter is derived from none of these but from what we have elsewhere called “an intimate acquaintance with Ancient Wisdom, with Esoteric Philosophy, with Spiritual Science, and with a clear and profound knowledge of the unseen yet ever present Laws of Nature.”

In her response titled “Is Foeticide a Crime?” she describes it in terms of being murder, crime, a crime against nature, an immoral and dangerous practice, sin, and the “willful and sinful destruction of life.” These are very strong words indeed and, coming from one initiated into the timeless truths of the Eastern Esoteric Doctrine, it would be well for us to heed them.

In using the term “sin,” she clarifies that “the sin is not regarded by the occultists as one of a religious character.” For the Mahatmas or Master Teachers or Master Yogis, who were behind Blavatsky and her teachings and spiritual movement, “sin” does not mean something that is going to be punished by a God or something that will send the perpetrator to hell. Instead, it simply means something that goes against the laws and principles of Nature and of Life itself. In the case of abortion, the action is also against the incoming soul whose process of reincarnation on this Earth is abruptly and violently halted thereby.

“The crime committed,” adds HPB, “lies precisely in the willful and sinful destruction of life, and interference with the operations of nature, hence – with KARMA – that of the mother and the would-be future human being.”

The fact is that all life is sacred, all life is precious, and all life is divine. All life is the ONE LIFE.

It is true that the first proper “ensouling” of the growing astral-physical form (which medical terminology calls the foetus) in the womb does not occur until the completion of its seventh month in the womb, i.e. when it turns seven months old. This is when what Theosophy calls the Lower Manas or the personal ego – which has the task of animating the new personality for the impending new lifetime – connects itself into the brain and senses of the foetus, as explained by HPB in “The Secret Doctrine Dialogues” and elsewhere.

It is explained that the higher and spiritual part of the soul, that part which we call the Higher Ego, does not fully unite itself with the new body until the child turns seven years old although it is engaged in a gradual and ongoing process of doing so from the moment of birth. One of the primary fundamentals of Esoteric Science is that all manifestation is of a septenary nature.

Does this mean then that it’s more or less permissible and okay – from the esoteric or metaphysical or occult perspective – to abort the pregnancy at some point during the first seven months? Theosophy would say that it is not. Those first seven months are spent in the active and continual preparation and preliminary building of the astral body and the physical (its outer shell) in preparation for the entrance of the soul. Although the soul may at that time still be in its “heavenly” state between lifetimes, it is in a certain way overshadowing the process right from the moment of conception.

H. P. Blavatsky explains: “The Monad overshadows the fetus only in the seventh month, and enters fully the child after he reaches consciousness. The Devachanic entity [i.e. the Monad–Ego or Spirit–Soul in its own self-created blissful heavenly state, called in Theosophy by the Tibetan name of Devachan; see Death and The Afterlife for explanations] envelops, so to speak, the new entity, lights it up, but begins its process of assimilation only after the first ray of consciousness, say at seven or eight months, then it does not enter it, it begins to overshadow it, it is there, it is led by Karmic law to it, but it cannot enter immediately.” (“The Secret Doctrine Dialogues” p. 559)

But then, perhaps surprisingly, she adds this sentence: “It is perfect nonsense to say the child has a soul, and is a human being before it is born.”

We can only assume that she is essentially pointing out that although there is indeed a sacred occult process taking place within the womb from the moment of conception, and even though the Lower Manas or psyche connects itself in with the foetus’s brain and senses at seven months, this still does not amount to the actual immortal soul or divine spiritual individuality being merged with the foetus or present within the womb.

Similarly, in “Is Foeticide a Crime?” she remarks “there is no more of spirit and soul, for the matter of that, in a foetus or even in a child before it arrives at self-consciousness, than there is in any other small animal.” However, she then immediately adds: “for we deny the absence of soul in either mineral, plant or beast, and believe but in the difference of degree.” One could thus say, using other Theosophical terminology, that after seven months in the womb the “animal soul” or “human-animal soul” is present in the foetus, but not the true human soul or Higher Ego itself, which is something higher. Nonetheless, HPB then re-affirms: “But foeticide is a crime against nature.”

Now, considering again the statistics, let us reflect on the fact that 190,000 of these birth processes – or rather re-birth processes – are aborted every single day. 190,000 a day . . . approximately 70,000,000 every year . . . between a quarter and a third of all attempts at reincarnation are aborted, halted, stopped, terminated, destroyed. It’s hard, as well as painful, to imagine it. But try to imagine just how hard and painful it must presumably be for all those souls, some of whom will no doubt end up being aborted several times before finally succeeding in beginning a new earth life.

HPB began her words about it by saying, “Theosophy in general answers: “At no age as under no circumstance whatever is a murder justifiable!””

William Q. Judge, a co-founder with H. P. Blavatsky of the Theosophical Movement and her trusted friend and associate, once wrote, “It is the karma of the past that brings the child to that mother,” (“Forum Answers” p. 47) adding, “The child has far-reaching karmic relations with the parents, as they also with the child. The discipline and joys that come through children are karmic on both sides. If the child is a wicked one, it is the Karma of the parents also. Again, the incoming Ego requires a certain line of family so as to get the needed sort of body. In many and various ways, then, parentage can be seen to be more than a mere door to this plane.” (“The Path,” March 1896)

But what actually happens to the incoming soul when abortion takes place?

Although not going into specifics or saying whether there are ever any exceptions to the rule, HPB tells us a little about it in her first book “Isis Unveiled.” It is there explained that when “the laws of harmony of nature” are violated – as happens in abortion – those same laws automatically seek to restore their “disturbed equilibrium.”

She writes: “Thus, in cases of abortion, . . . nature’s original design to produce a perfect human being has been interrupted. Therefore, while the gross matter . . . is suffered to disperse itself at death, through the vast realm of being, the immortal spirit and astral monad of the individual – the latter having been set apart to animate a frame and the former to shed its divine light on the corporeal organization – must try a second time to carry out the purpose of the creative intelligence.” (Vol. 1, p. 351)

It is certainly valid to point out that if everything proceeds according to the Law of Karma – the law of self-created destiny manifesting through cause and effect, action and reaction – the incoming souls whose attempts at rebirth get aborted must presumably be themselves at least partly Karmically responsible in some way for that interruption or obstruction. On this point the Theosophical literature is silent, so we are not in a position to comment on it. But HPB does at least say with regard to “cases of abortion” “What reward or punishment can there be in that sphere of disembodied entities for a foetus or a human embryo which had not even time to breathe on this earth, still less an opportunity to exercise the divine faculties of the spirit?” (“Isis Unveiled” Vol. 1, p. 352)

Hence it would seem that following an abortion, the reincarnation process is automatically attempted once again.

Every soul has past Karmic connections with thousands and no doubt tens or even hundreds of thousands of other souls and thus, since “it is the karma of the past that brings the child to that mother” and “the incoming Ego requires a certain line of family so as to get the needed sort of body,” the soul will begin the reincarnation process all over again as soon as another would-be mother – one who is suitably Karmically connected with it – can be found in incarnation. Alternatively, the process could be attempted a second time through the same mother who had chosen to have the abortion.

But none of this need happen in the first place. Nearly 50% – half! – of all pregnancies are unintended and unwanted, according to World Health Organization statistics. This points plainly to the obvious fact that there is a lot of irresponsible sexual activity going on in the world today.

When the highly sacred and divinely potent act of procreation becomes viewed by millions or even billions as a mere hobby and sport, and when masses of human beings view themselves as little more than lumps of soulless matter or highly evolved apes and animals, it is hardly surprising that many and varied problems and untold suffering will be the result. The Theosophical teaching that the sexual act is intended solely for purposes of procreation and ought not to be engaged in for mere sensual gratification and personal pleasure or out of uncontrolled lust seems so far-fetched, puritanical, and impossible of achievement nowadays to so many people – including so many Theosophists – that it is virtually futile to even attempt to promote such notions in the present social climate of the 21st century.

But perhaps eventually people will begin to realise of their own accord or through their own intuitions that so many of the presently accepted ways of living life are completely unsustainable and ultimately only harm instead of help the human race and its further evolution and unfoldment.

Up to 70 million abortions every single year cannot happen without a corresponding darkening of the Karma of humanity as a whole but, as said at the start, it is thoroughly untheosophical to criticise, judge, or condemn any particular woman for choosing to undergo such a procedure. In HPB’s “The Voice of the Silence” is the statement “Compassion is the law of laws.” We should have the very highest compassion and very highest love for each and all, regardless of past, present, or future actions. Our Karma – that is, our actions and every cause that we set in motion – is our own judge. But Karma does not solely take the external act into account but also the motives, thoughts, and feelings involved and bound up with that outward action. “Motive is everything,” Theosophy repeats, and, as we have observed, there can be numerous and varied motives behind why people decide to have an abortion. It is often far from simplistic or “black and white.”

Although this may surprise some who have read this article all the way through, this writer personally believes that abortion should be legally permitted and available. We view every abortion as a truly unfortunate tragedy for all involved but at the same time we know that prohibition is rarely an answer or solution to anything. What is needed in this situation is not restrictive or punitive laws – especially not ones devised by fundamentalist evangelical Christians – but a dramatic reformation of human nature and human consciousness itself, leading to self-induced and self-devised transformation of society and conduct. That is not going to happen anytime soon but it certainly should occur at some point in this New Age of mankind, the Age of Aquarius, which is as yet only in its infancy.

~ * ~

This article may have raised more questions about various things. Please make use of the site search function (the magnifying glass symbol at the top of the page) and visit the Articles page to see the complete list of over 400 articles covering all aspects of Theosophy and the Theosophical Movement. Two which relate closely to this one are Theosophy on Sex and Sexuality and The Elevation of Woman.

~ BlavatskyTheosophy.com ~