It’s no secret that H. P. Blavatsky and her Teachers – those living Men who we call the Masters, Mahatmas, or Brothers – were not remotely keen on the institution of the Roman Catholic Church, and least of all that fraternity or religious order within the Church which is called the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits for short, founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1534 (or 1540 officially), just under 500 years ago.
We find statements such as these:
“We cast our gauntlet at the dogmatic theologians who would enslave both history and science; and especially at the Vatican, whose despotic pretensions have become hateful to the greater portion of enlightened Christendom.” (H. P. Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled” Vol. 2, p. iv, Preface)
“It [i.e. Roman Catholicism, or “Popery”] not only obstructs the way to Theosophy and Occultism but threatens to throttle both.” (“The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett” p. 232)
“The opposition [to the Masters’ work] represents enormous vested interests, and they have enthusiastic help from the Dugpas – in Bhootan and the Vatican!” (Master K.H., “The Mahatma Letters” p. 322)
“The Jesuits have practised not only Occultism, but BLACK MAGIC in its worst form, more than any other body of men; and to it they owe in large measure their power and influence.” (HPB, “Theosophy or Jesuitism?” article)
It is not actually denied in Theosophical literature that Roman Catholism has some good points, nor is the sincerity, devotion, and spirituality of many of its adherents doubted. But it is maintained that some of the priests – especially some who belong to the Society of Jesus – do not have humanity’s best interests at heart and are quite happy to lie, deceive, and even use magical or occult means (which they would condemn and repudiate publicly,) to further the interests and spread of their own organisation.
Please notice that we emphasised the word “some.” It is not Roman Catholics in general who are accused, nor is it all or even the majority of Catholic priests, and nor is it all Jesuits. Among the Jesuits are good, pure, decent, harmless, pious people. But it is claimed that some – perhaps only a minority but a significant one nonetheless – are indeed a menace (unsuspected by most) to humanity’s freedom and spiritual evolution. It would appear that the disclaimer HPB makes to her remarks about the Dugpas, or black magicians, within certain Buddhist sects and the Bon or Bhon religion in Central Asia, also applies to the Jesuits:
“We must beg the reader not to misunderstand us. For though the whole of Bhûtan and Sikkim belongs to the old religion of the Bhons, now known generally as the Dug-pas, we do not mean to have it understood that the whole of the population is possessed, en masse, or that they are all sorcerers. Among them are found as good men as anywhere else, and we speak above only of the élite of their Lamaseries, of a nucleus of priests, “devil-dancers,” and fetish worshippers, whose dreadful and mysterious rites are utterly unknown to the greater part of the population.” (“Elementals”)
It may come as a surprise to read that some Roman Catholic priests regularly took advantage (in the Victorian era and potentially still today) of the great sacredness and energetic power of ancient, pre-Christian sites such as Stonehenge, to secretly engage in collective occult rituals for furthering the purposes of their Church. In her “Preliminary Survey,” which formed an introductory chapter to her first and largely discarded draft of “The Secret Doctrine,” and which was only published several years after her passing, HPB writes:
“But there exists in the world another class of adepts, belonging to a brotherhood also, and mightier than any other of those known to the profane. Many among these are personally good and benevolent, even pure and holy occasionally, as individuals. Pursuing collectively, however, and as a body, a selfish one-sided object with relentless vigour and determination, they have to be ranked with the adepts of the Black Art.
“These are our modern Roman Catholic “fathers” and clergy. Most of the hieratic writings and symbols have been deciphered by them since the Middle Ages. A hundred times more learned in secret Symbology and the old Religions than our Orientalists will ever be, the personification of astuteness and cleverness, every such adept in the art holds the keys tightly in his firmly clenched hand and will take care the secret shall not be easily divulged if he can help it.
“There are more profoundly learned Kabalists in Rome and throughout Europe and America than is generally suspected. Thus are the professedly public “brotherhoods” of “black” adepts more powerful and dangerous for Protestant countries than any host of Eastern Occultists.
“People laugh at Magic! Men of Science, Physiologists and Biologists, deride the potency and even the belief in the existence of what is called in vulgar parlance “Sorcery” and “Black Magic”?
“The Archaeologists have their Stonehenge in England with its thousands of secrets, and its twin-brother Karnac of Brittany and yet there is not one of them who even suspects what has been going on in its crypts and its mysterious nooks and corners, for the last century. More than that, they do not even know of the existence of such “magic halls” in their Stonehenge, where curious scenes are taking place whenever there is a new convert in view.
“Hundreds of experiments have been and are being made daily at the Salpetriere and also by learned hypnotisers at their private houses. It is now proved that certain sensitives – both men and women – when commanded in trance by the practitioner who operates on them to do a certain thing – from drinking a glass of water up to simulated murder – on recovering their normal state lose all remembrance of the order inspired – “suggested” it is now called by Science. Nevertheless, at the appointed hour and moment, the subject, though conscious and perfectly awake, is compelled by an irresistible power within himself to do that action which has been suggested to him by his mesmeriser; and that too, whatever it may be and whatever the period fixed by him who controls the subject, that is to say, holds the latter under the power of his will as a snake holds a bird under its fascination and finally forces it to jump into its open jaws.
“Worse than this: for the bird is conscious of the peril; it resists, however helpless in its final efforts, while the hypnotized subject does not rebel but seems to follow the suggestions and voice of its own free-will and soul. Who of our European men of Science who believe in such scientific experiments – and very few are they who still doubt them now-a-days, and who do not feel convinced of their actual reality – who of them, it is asked, is ready to admit this as being Black Magic? Yet it is the genuine, undeniable, and actual fascination and sorcery of old.
“The Mulu Kurumbas of Nilgiri do not proceed otherwise in their envoûtements when they seek to destroy an enemy, nor do the Dugpas of Sikkim and Bhutan know of any more potential agent than their will. Only, in them that will does not proceed by jumps and starts but acts with certainty; it does not depend on the amount of receptivity or nervous impressibility of the “subjects.” Having chosen his victim and placed himself en rapport with them, the Dugpa’s “fluid” is sure to find its way, for his will is immeasurably more strongly developed . . .
“And now the question is openly and squarely asked: Why should not the fanatical and zealous priest, thirsting to convert some selected rich and influential member of society, use the same means to accomplish his end as the French Physician and experimenter uses in his case with his subject? The conscience of the Roman Catholic priest is most likely at peace. He works personally for no selfish purpose but with the object of “saving a soul” from “eternal damnation.” In his view, if Magic there be in it, it is holy, meritorious, and divine Magic. Such is the power of blind faith.
“Hence, when we are assured by trustworthy and respectable persons of high social standing and unimpeachable character that there are many well-organised societies among the Roman Catholic priests which, under the pretext and cover of Modern Spiritualism and mediumship, hold séances for the purposes of conversion by suggestion directly and at a distance – we answer: We know it. And when, moreover, we are told that whenever those priest-hypnotists are desirous of acquiring an influence over some individual or individuals, selected by them for conversion, they retire to an underground place allotted and consecrated by them for such purposes (viz. ceremonial Magic); and there forming a circle throw their combined will-power in the direction of that individual and thus by repeating the process, gain a complete control over their victim – we again answer: Very likely.
“In fact, we know the practice to be so, whether this kind of ceremonial Magic and envoûtement is practised at Stonehenge or elsewhere. We know it, we say, through personal experience; and also because several of the writer’s best and most loved friends have been unconsciously drawn into the Romish Church and under her “benign” protection by such means.
“And therefore we can only laugh in pity at the ignorance and stubbornness of those deluded men of Science and cultured experimentalists who, while believing in the power of Dr. Charcot and his disciples to “envoûté” their subjects, find nothing better than a scornful smile whenever Black Magic and its potency are mentioned before them.” (HPB, “Preliminary Survey”)
There is a whole section about the Jesuits in the second volume of HPB’s first book “Isis Unveiled,” in which known facts, quotations, and references regarding them and their activities are presented alongside emphatic statements and pieces of information provided by some of the Masters and Adepts who aided her in the writing of the book.
There we are informed that the Roman Catholic Church is today almost completely under the control of the Jesuits, who are “the hidden enemy that would-be reformers must encounter and overcome.”
“The Church is henceforth an inert tool, and the Pope a poor weak instrument in the hands of this Order. But for how long?” . . . “That crafty, learned, conscienceless, terrible soul of Jesuitism, within the body of Romanism, is slowly but surely possessing itself of the whole prestige and spiritual power that clings to it.” . . . “The Jesuits have done more moral harm in this world than all the fiendish armies of the mythical Satan. Whatever extravagance may seem to be involved in this remark, will disappear when our readers in America, who now know little about them, are made acquainted with their principles (principia) and rules as they appear in various works written by the Jesuits themselves.”
Quoted on the same page of “Isis Unveiled” is an excerpt from the report about the Jesuits delivered to the King of France in 1762 by the Commissioners of the French Parliament, who wrote of “the perversity of this doctrine. . . . A doctrine authorizing Theft, Lying, Perjury, Impurity, every Passion and Crime, teaching Homicide, Parricide, and Regicide, overthrowing religion in order to substitute for it superstition, by favoring Sorcery, Blasphemy, Irreligion, and Idolatry . . . etc.”
HPB also quotes from Mackenzie’s “Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia,” which says about the Jesuits that “The Order has secret signs and passwords, according to the degrees to which the members belong, and as they wear no particular dress, it is very difficult to recognize them, unless they reveal themselves as members of the Order; for they may appear as Protestants or Catholics, democrats or aristocrats, infidels or bigots, according to the special mission with which they are entrusted. Their spies are everywhere, of all apparent ranks of society, and they may appear learned and wise, or simple or foolish, as their instructions run. There are Jesuits of both sexes, and of all ages, and it is a well-known fact that members of the Order, of high family and delicate nurture, are acting as menial servants in Protestant families, and doing other things of a similar nature in aid of the Society’s purposes. We cannot be too much on our guard, for the whole Society, being founded on a law of unhesitating obedience, can bring its force on any given point with unerring and fatal accuracy.”
This would of course be casually dismissed by most people nowadays as nothing more than paranoia, ignorance, and a dated forerunner of today’s many lurid conspiracy theories. Yet suspicion of the Jesuits was relatively widespread amongst all classes of Western society until fairly recently. The only real reason this is no longer the case is due to repeated strenuous efforts by the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuits themselves to repair their tarnished image and to present themselves as decent and respectable in the eyes of the world.
One way of doing this is to repeatedly laugh to scorn any criticism and condemnation, no matter how valid or undeniably legitimate, until eventually the unthinking masses will just join in and put it all down to crazy conspiracy theories and overactive imaginations . . . just as the Jesuits would want them to.
HPB explains that “The cry of an outraged public morality was raised against this Order from its very birth. (It dates from 1540; and in 1555 a general outcry was raised against them in some parts of Portugal, Spain, and other countries.) Barely fifteen years had elapsed after the bull approving its constitution was promulgated, when its members began to be driven away from one place to the other. Portugal and the Low Countries got rid of them, in 1578; France in 1594; Venice in 1606; Naples in 1622. From St. Petersburg they were expelled in 1815, and from all Russia in 1820. It was a promising child from its very teens. What it grew up to be every one knows well.” (see chapter titled “JESUITRY AND MASONRY” in “Isis Unveiled” Vol. 2, p. 348-404)
In HPB’s “The Trial of the Sun Initiate,” we come across the following insight:
“The Jesuits . . . To give one instance of their success in throwing dust into the eyes of ordinary individuals to prevent their seeing the truths of Occultism, we will point out what they did in what is now called Freemasonry. This Brotherhood does possess a considerable portion of the symbolism, formulae, and ritual of Occultism, handed down from time immemorial from the primeval Initiations. To render this Brotherhood a mere harmless negation, the Jesuits sent some of their most able emissaries into the Order, who first made the simple brethren believe that the true secret was lost with Hiram Abiff; and then induced them to put this belief into their formularies. They then invented specious but spurious higher degrees, pretending to give further light upon this lost secret, to lead the candidate on and amuse him with forms borrowed from the real thing but containing no substance, and all artfully contrived to lead the aspiring Neophyte to nowhere. And yet men of good sense and abilities, in other respects, will meet at intervals, and with solemn face, zeal and earnestness, go through the mockery of revealing “substituted secrets” instead of the real thing.”
Her article “Theosophy or Jesuitism?” informs the reader that “The Roman Catholic [Church] is rapidly decaying from within. It is honeycombed throughout, and is being devoured by the ravenous microbes begotten by Loyola. It is no better now than a Dead Sea fruit, fair for some to look at, but full of the rottenness of decay and death within. Roman Catholicism is but a name. As a Church it is a phantom of the Past and a mask. It is absolutely and indissolubly bound up with, and fettered by the Society of Ignatius Loyola.”
“It is vain to argue and claim a difference between Jesuitism and Roman Catholicism proper,” she continues, “for the latter is now sucked into and inseparably amalgamated with the former.”
The same article goes on to say:
“What was the origin of that order? It may be stated in a few words. In the year 1534, on August 16th, an ex-officer and “Knight of the Virgin,” from the Biscayan Provinces, and the proprietor of the magnificent castle of Casa Solar – Ignatius Loyola, became the hero of the following incident. In the subterranean chapel of the Church of Montmartre, surrounded by a few priests and students of theology, he received their pledges to devote their whole lives to the spreading of Roman Catholicism by every and all means, whether good or foul; and he was thus enabled to establish a new Order. Loyola proposed to his six chief companions that their Order should be a militant one, in order to fight for the interests of the Holy seat of Roman Catholicism. Two means were adopted to make the object answer; the education of youth, and proselytism (apostolat). This was during the reign of Pope Paul III, who gave his full sympathy to the new scheme. Hence in 1540 was published the famous papal bull – Regimini militantis Ecclesiae (the regiment of the warring, or militant Church) – after which the Order began increasingly rapidly in numbers and power.”
Today the Society of Jesus numbers around 14,000 members throughout the world, making it the largest male Order within the Roman Catholic Church. Since there are various levels and degrees or grades of the Order, with the Superior General (often termed the “Black Pope”) at the apex, the average Jesuit no doubt has no idea whatsoever of the true nature of the association to which he belongs and, as we emphasised earlier, is most probably a good, sincere, and perfectly harmless and decent person.
The Wikipedia entry states that “The society is engaged in evangelization and apostolic ministry in 112 nations on six continents. Jesuits work in education (founding schools, colleges, universities and seminaries), intellectual research, and cultural pursuits. Jesuits also give retreats, minister in hospitals and parishes and promote social justice and ecumenical dialogue.” – which sounds harmless enough.
Loyola’s opening statement in the fundamental charter of the Order declares:
“Whoever desires to serve as a soldier of God beneath the banner of the Cross in our Society, which we desire to be designated by the Name of Jesus, and to serve the Lord alone and the Church, his spouse, under the Roman Pontiff, the Vicar of Christ on earth, should, after a solemn vow of perpetual chastity, poverty and obedience, keep what follows in mind. He is a member of a Society founded chiefly for this purpose: to strive especially for the defence and propagation of the faith and for the progress of souls in Christian life and doctrine, by means of public preaching, lectures and any other ministration whatsoever of the Word of God, and further by means of retreats, the education of children and unlettered persons in Christianity, and the spiritual consolation of Christ’s faithful through hearing confessions and administering the other sacraments. Moreover, he should show himself ready to reconcile the estranged, compassionately assist and serve those who are in prisons or hospitals, and indeed, to perform any other works of charity, according to what will seem expedient for the glory of God and the common good.”
However, the 19th century Italian writer Giovanni Battista Nicolini, author of “History of The Jesuits,” states that “There is also a secret class, known only to the General and a few faithful Jesuits, which, perhaps more than any other, contributed to the dreaded and mysterious power of the Order.”
Sorting fact from fiction can be extremely difficult in a subject like this, due largely to the undeniable presence of bias on all sides. When it comes to the Theosophical literature, statements about the Jesuits seem to fall under two main categories: historical and esoteric. The former recounts facts of verifiable exoteric history, while the latter involves assertion and information which only those initiated could possess. We can do our own careful, independent research to check the accuracy of the historical statements that HPB or others make. But as for the esoteric statements, we can only either accept them as true based on confidence in the writer, accept them as untrue due to reasons of our own, or just withhold all judgment.
Unfortunately, the historical statements made by H. P. Blavatsky regarding the Jesuits are not always accurate. Occasionally, they are very inaccurate and misleading. We personally do not doubt that she believed she was relating the truth, but where she sourced such misinformation from is a mystery. The most prominent example is this:
“The Jesuits reckon it among the greatest achievements of their Order that Loyola supported, by a special memorial to the Pope, a petition for the reorganization of that abominable and abhorred instrument of wholesale butchery — the infamous tribunal of the Inquisition.” (“Isis Unveiled” Vol. 2, p. 354)
But all of history plainly shows that Ignatius Loyola did not petition the Pope to continue the Inquisition. Instead, historical records show a highly tense and adversarial relationship between Loyola and the tribunal. Far from being a promoter or architect of the Inquisition, Loyola was repeatedly targeted by it. The Spanish Inquisition arrested and imprisoned him at least twice (in Alcalá and Salamanca) on suspicion of being an uneducated heretic or a member of the forbidden mystical sect known as the Alumbrados (Illuminati). Although he was consistently acquitted of heresy, the Inquisition forbade him from preaching or teaching theology until he completed formal university training. This harassment drove him to leave Spain for the University of Paris to get his degree.
In short, history tells us that Loyola himself spent a great deal of his life defending his orthodoxy from persecution by the Inquisition, and that the Jesuits were a target of the Inquisition, rather than a collaborator, organiser, or instigator. It was only somewhat later that they became widely accepted by and influential within the Catholic Church.
Some people react to learning of mistakes made by HPB with the attitude that if she got some things wrong, she can’t be trusted in anything. But this is illogical and only makes sense if one believes all spiritual and esoteric writers or teachers are required to be literally infallible. No-one at all is infallible, and HPB repeatedly emphasised that she herself was not. Her writings were also never intended to be automatically, blindly, unquestioningly accepted as fact or truth, so we do not personally see a problem. It is precisely because she was human (albeit, as we happen to believe, a much more advanced human than most others) that a number of erroneous statements can be found in her work. Such things are a valuable testament to the fact that all of us, even the greatest, are still fallible.
On the esoteric side of things, which few if any of us reading this are in a position to either prove or disprove, there is a very profound and emphatic letter published in the book “The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett,” in which the Jesuits are unhesitatingly called “the enemies of the human race.” It was thought by Alice Leighton Cleather – one of HPB’s trusted friends and disciples in her final days in London and one of the specially chosen twelve members of her “Inner Group” of esoteric students – that this particular letter (No. CVI, p. 230-233) was in fact dictated to HPB by the Master K.H. The letter was unsigned and the style, tone, and phraseology bear many of the distinctive hallmarks of the K.H. Letters that later became well known, thus giving credence to this theory.
We quote here some of the most interesting and important parts of that letter, which deals solely with the subject of the Jesuits:
“Their plottings have a much wider scope and embrace a minuteness of detail and care of which the world in general has no idea. Everything is done by them to bring the mass of mankind again to the state of passive ignorance which they well know is the only one which can help them to the consummation of their purpose of Universal Despotism.”
“In former times, at least, no country has better and more successfully withstood the encroachments and treacherous designs of Popery than England. Consequently, there is no country the Jesuits would so much like to dismember and destroy.”
“They have openly avowed they will put an end, at any rate, a stop to the wheels of the English political machine by making converts of her chief men. All the world knows they have secured a few of the richest, noblemen and others.”
“These particulars are given that not only Occultists, but also Nations, Communities and individuals may be aware and forewarned against what we have no hesitation in saying are the enemies of the human race. It is generally known that the College of Jesuits is at Rome. It is not so well known that virtually, for some years, their Head Quarters are in London and were so even before they were expelled from Republican France. They then flocked to England in greater numbers and were allowed to come, the English showing their usual apathy.”
“Students of Occultism should know that while the Jesuits have by their devices, contrived to make the world in general, and Englishmen in particular, think there is no such thing as Magic and laugh at Black Magic, these astute and wily schemers themselves hold magnetic circles and form magnetic chains by the concentration of their collective WILL, when they have any special object to effect, or any particular and important person to influence. Again, they use their riches lavishly also to help them in any project. Their wealth is enormous.”
“The time may come, when their wealth will be violently taken from them for the poor, and they themselves mercilessly left to be destroyed amidst the general execrations of all Nations and peoples. There is a Nemesis called KARMA, tho’ often it allows evil-doers to go on successfully for centuries. Meanwhile, who has ears – “let him hear.””
Although this letter was written over 120 years ago, it would be very surprising if the main facts of the matter have changed since then. If we give any credence at all to H. P. Blavatsky and to the Masters who trained her, taught her, and sent her to the West on her Theosophical mission, then we would perhaps do well to think twice before laughingly dismissing or forgetting about such notions as the Jesuits being the “enemies of the human race.”
It would not be amiss here to mention that during the time HPB was busily engaged in writing “The Secret Doctrine,” a member of the Roman Catholic Church was sent to offer her 25,000 Francs (a tremendous amount of money in those days!) if she would agree not to say anything about Christianity and the Church in the book. Naturally she furiously refused the offer or, to be more precise, the bribe. Her good friend Countess Wachtmeister, who was staying with her during that time, wrote about this and added that “They are fighting for life, for the S.D. has that which will give them their death blow, they may be a long time in expiring, but they surely will in time.” (“The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett” p. 265)
Later on in the “Theosophy or Jesuitism?” article, HPB asks “But what are we to think of the future of Society if it is to be controlled in word and deed by this villainous Body? What are we to expect from a public, which, knowing the existence of the above mentioned charges, and that they are not exaggerated but pertain to historical fact, still tolerates, when it does not reverence, the Jesuits on meeting them, while it is ever ready to point the finger of contempt at Theosophists and Occultists? Theosophy is persecuted with unmerited slander and ridicule at the instigation of these same Jesuits, and many are those who hardly dare to confess their belief in the Philosophy of Arhatship. Yet no Theosophical Society has ever threatened the public with moral decay and the full and free exercise of the seven capital sins under the mask of holiness and the guidance of Jesus! Nor are their rules secret, but open to all, for they live in the broad daylight of truth and sincerity. And how about the Jesuits in this respect?”
The Society of Jesus is “the insatiable monster feeding on the brain and marrow of humanity, and developing an incurable cancer on every spot of healthy flesh it touches,” according to the Master K.H. In one place, he writes these very serious and powerful words, contrasting the Masters of the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood and their ways of training disciples with the methods of the Jesuit Masters:
“As I once said before, they know that what they teach is a lie; and we know that what we impart is truth, the only truth and nothing but the truth. They work for the greater power and glory (!) of their order; we – for the power and final glory of individuals, of isolated units, of humanity in general, and we are content, nay forced – to leave our Order and its chiefs entirely in the shade. They work, and toil, and deceive, for the sake of worldly power in this life; we work and toil, and allow our chelas to be temporarily deceived, to afford them means never to be deceived hereafter, and to see the whole evil of falsity and untruth, not alone in this but in many of their after lives. They – the Jesuits sacrifice the inner principle, the Spiritual brain of the ego, to feed and develop the better the physical brain of the personal evanescent man, sacrificing the whole humanity to offer it as a holocaust to their Society – the insatiable monster feeding on the brain and marrow of humanity, and developing an incurable cancer on every spot of healthy flesh it touches. We – the criticized and misunderstood Brothers – we seek to bring men to sacrifice their personality – a passing flash – for the welfare of the whole humanity, hence for their own immortal Egos, a part of the latter, as humanity is a fraction of the integral whole, that it will one day become. They are trained to deceive; we – to undeceive.” (“The Mahatma Letters” p. 231)
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While some things do not change, Theosophists ought to be aware that in numerous ways the Roman Catholic Church has changed for the better since the time of H. P. Blavatsky, specifically since its extensive self-reformation from 1962-1965, called the Second Vatican Council or Vatican II.
Although the Church is still very far from a Theosophical view of things – and realistically that will always be the case – it has in some respects come closer, perhaps especially in its now embracing all religions as divinely inspired and as the work of the Holy Spirit, although considering Christianity the one, supremely and completely inspired religion. We cannot particularly criticise the latter point, however, for every religion considers itself either the best or the most complete and sufficient, and it is hypocritical or prejudiced for Theosophists to single out Christianity alone for criticism on this point, as is quite often done.
The ultramontanism which HPB considered so dangerous is nowadays more of an outlying or fringe position in the Church than the central, dominant one. Today’s ultramontanists frequently refer to themselves as “traditional” or “traditionalist” Catholics, to distinguish themselves from the perceived liberalism of the official, dominant character and influence in today’s Church. It is nowadays the traditionalist position, rather than the official Vatican and Papal position, that religious freedom and liberty is a bad thing which should not exist. In HPB’s time, that was the main, standard view held by the Roman Catholic Church, but not today.
Interestingly, some of the most theologically, ecumenically, and socially liberal of Catholic priests in the 20th and 21st centuries have been Jesuits. Pope Francis (1936-2025, the first ever Pope to also be a Jesuit) was one. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955) was another; his evolutionary, mystical philosophy, which was suppressed and banned from publication during his lifetime by his Jesuit superiors, has many striking similarities with Theosophy while still being distinctly Christian. How much Teilhard de Chardin was consciously borrowing from “The Secret Doctrine” is unclear and unknown, but he must have been familiar with it, since he often uses the same terminology as H. P. Blavatsky, and occasionally his sentences are virtually identical to hers. There was also Karl Rahner (1904-1984), who famously said that “The Christian of the future will be a Mystic, or he will not exist at all.”
In fact, the Jesuits have largely become synonymous with Catholic liberalism, including friendly openness to and acceptance of LGBT people. The student of Theosophy, familiar with all that has been laid out in this article, can perhaps never feel entirely sure that this is not merely a cynical ploy, a methodology, a carefully contrived act, a tactic to help further the purposes of the Society of Jesus and ingratiate itself more with the majority of the population, particularly the younger generations.
Nonetheless, constant suspicion, distrust, and paranoia on our part is not beneficial, nor is dwelling on the negatives. It would be best to simply not spare a thought for those who the Masters have identified as enemies of humanity and fierce foes of the right kind of spiritual progress – i.e. the Jesuits of Christendom, the Brahmins of India, and the Dugpas of Central Asia – except for when circumstances necessitate it. Focus on the light, not the darkness, but never entirely forget that darkness does indeed exist in this world and in its psychic atmosphere.
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AFTERWORD
If you have read this article in its entirety, it should be easy to understand why many students of the original Theosophical teachings perceive the sinister influence of the Jesuits in much that unfolded within the largest Theosophical Society organisation (“The Theosophical Society – Adyar”) following a relatively brief period of sinister Orthodox Brahminical influence after the death of H. P. Blavatsky.
Strangely – or perhaps not so strangely, when the facts are examined – nothing was ever said about or against the Jesuits by leaders of “The Theosophical Society – Adyar” such as Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater or by Adyar Theosophist Alice Bailey who went on to found her own organisation, the Lucis Trust.
Indeed, these three even spoke favourably of the Catholic Church, with Leadbeater eventually co-founding a so-called Theosophical church known as the Liberal Catholic Church (complete with confession of sins to, and absolution of those sins by, its priests, and an affirmed belief in the apostolic succession of the Church of Rome!) and announcing the impending Second Coming of Christ, and Alice Bailey informing her readers that the “Master Jesus” was planning to eventually travel to Rome in order to become the new Pope and then to redirect the whole sphere of world religion and spirituality from the Vatican . . . not to mention the almost enforced Christianisation of the Adyar Society and its literature by Annie Besant under Leadbeater’s dominating influence.
In the Bailey books, one finds such statements as the following, which was purportedly telepathically dictated to her by the actual Trans-Himalayan Esoteric Buddhist Initiate D.K., a known chela of the Mahatma K.H.:
“Upon the spiritual side, as I told you in an earlier book, the whole field of religion will be re-inspired and re-orientated from Rome because the Master Jesus will again take hold of the Christian Church in an effort to re-spiritualise it and to re-organise it. From the chair of the Pope of Rome, the Master Jesus will attempt to swing that great branch of the religious beliefs of the world again into a position of spiritual power.” (“The Destiny of the Nations” p. 59)
As was said in Why Do Blavatsky Students Warn Against Alice Bailey?: “Bailey’s “Tibetan” is so undeniably Christian that he speaks not of “THE New Testament” but of “OUR New Testament” (“D.K.” via Alice Bailey, “The Light Of The Soul” p. 426). In the Bailey books, the religious scripture referred to, quoted from, and expounded upon most often, is the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Her unseen inspirer also evinces some small degree of familiarity with the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads, and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali but none at all with anything Tibetan or Buddhist. Judging from his quotes and references, he prefers even the Old Testament to any Buddhist scripture and doesn’t even make the slightest mention of the existence of such a thing as the Dhammapada, the most popular, well known, and basic Buddhist scripture. And yet this Christ-praising, God-believing, Gospel-recommending, Church-supporting, Bible-quoting “Tibetan” is implicitly believed by Bailey followers to be some sort of wise old Lama or Abbot at a Buddhist monastery somewhere in Tibet and a high ranking member of the Trans-Himalayan Brotherhood! And why? Simply because Alice Bailey said so.”
H. P. Blavatsky had written: “The present volumes have been written to small purpose if they have not shown . . . that the apostolic succession is a gross and palpable fraud.” (“Isis Unveiled” Vol. 2, p. 544)
But C. W. Leadbeater (see The Case Against C. W. Leadbeater) wrote: “My clairvoyant investigation into those early periods absolutely confirms the contention of the Roman Church. They know that there has been no break in apostolic succession.” (“Science of the Sacraments” p. 286)
Purposely suppressing, criticising, altering, depreciating and distorting the teachings and work of H. P. Blavatsky after her death, Besant (who had previously been married to a Church of England priest) and Leadbeater (who had previously been a Church of England priest himself) deliberately turned the attention and focus of the Theosophical Society away from the Eastern Esoteric Philosophy which had originally characterised it and towards a peculiar form of psychically inspired Christianity.
Happily allowing HPB’s books such as “The Key to Theosophy,” “Isis Unveiled,” and even her major work “The Secret Doctrine” to go out of print and the remaining copies to be locked away and forbidden to be sold, they instead began publishing such tomes as Leadbeater’s weighty work “The Science of the Sacraments,” “The Christian Creed,” and “The Hidden Side of Christian Festivals,” and Besant’s “Esoteric Christianity” and “The Coming Christ.” Just like the later Alice Bailey (who had previously been an evangelical Christian missionary and, in her own words, formerly “a rabid, orthodox Christian worker”) books, the dominant and central theme was the impending reappearance on the world scene of the “Lord Christ” and of the role and importance of the Christian Church.
Bearing in mind that HPB, her closest and most trusted colleague William Q. Judge, the actual Masters, and all the proponents of the original genuine Theosophy, viewed and spoke of the official, ecclesiastical Christian religion – and especially the Roman Catholic Church – as an enemy of humanity and emphasised that it was the light of Eastern esoteric philosophy alone that could save the Western world . . . and that HPB once explained that one way the Jesuits work to destroy a potentially powerful spiritual movement is to infiltrate it and then gradually weaken it from within by means of replacing its authentic teachings and practices with a weak and insipid form of Christianity or ritualism . . . those Theosophists who have concluded that Leadbeater, Bailey, and Besant were either themselves Jesuits or agents of the Jesuits (whether consciously or otherwise) can hardly be blamed for arriving at such an opinion.
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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.
Some related articles include Blavatsky on The Brahmins, Freemasonry: The Theosophical Perspective (Note: The Catholic Church and Masonry are sworn enemies of one another; this is partly gone into in the article), Why Do Blavatsky Students Warn Against Alice Bailey?, Tibetan Master or Christian Priest? (“Uncovering the real inspiration behind the Alice Bailey Books”), The Case against C. W. Leadbeater, Rudolf Steiner’s Lies about H. P. Blavatsky and The Mahatmas, and Jesus, Christos or The Christ Principle, and Christianity.
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