Understanding DK's Criticisms of the Jews

The writings of DK are full of praise for the spiritual elements seeking expression through all forms--this includes the Jews, all the nations of the world, and all humanity.

At the same time, there is a sense in which DK writings can be perceived as anti-Jewish, viewing the Jewish culture as a "form." And in the same sense he can also be read as anti-church, anti-Christian, anti-Piscean, anti-homosexual, anti-nationalism, etc. In the Ageless Wisdom, Spirit is--in a sense--always opposing itself to form. Esoterically speaking, all forms are the "anti-matter" of spirit and form and spirit are forever in conflict. Underlying this is one fundamental problem that DK frequently reiterates: separation. In Ageless Wisdom terms, if we are for unity, then we are against separation--we are anti-separation. The nations of the world, the various human groups, represent divine potentials, but also display separative and nationalistic obsessions that are contrary to the spiritual.

Metaphysical Paradox

There is an implied qualification and paradox in the above. On the one hand, spirit is in conflict with forms, and "anti" to them. In another sense, spirit is not. And here we have the perennial paradox that underlies all verbal formulations, and especially, for us, those of a metaphysical nature.

We might like to think ourselves above dualities and not "pro" this or "con" that. Yet who among us is not antislavery? And are we not all, in some measure, slaves to our bodies, to our emotions, our forms and our identifications?

The struggle between spirituality and materialism, between light and darkness, is a given in the Ageless Wisdom. In DK's Scorpio terms, "Warrior am I, and from the battle I emerge triumphant." So the words "against," etc. have some real validity here. That spirit is "opposite" to matter is another given. Yet, in another sense, as H. P. Blavatsky and all other metaphysical schools have affirmed, spirit is one with matter.

The struggle on any spiritual path is ever against separation and for unity, where conflicts between spirit and the world are ultimately resolved in the evolutionary process. When matter is shaped into forms, it is by the action of spirit. Forms hide the spirit, yet also come to reveal spirit, greater revelation or initiation making forms more the vehicle of soul or spirit. To the degree that any form embodies spirit and is truly shaped by spiritual energy and consciousness, to that degree we say the form is "good," it is closer to "god" than previous incarnations.

DK criticizes forms. But DK also praises forms. He praises some aspects of the nations and groups, Jews included. He praises cities and individuals and virtues of all types (even though basically "formal"). So there is no absolute rejection of all forms here, rather there is a timely nurturing of forms as they appear, and in so far as those forms are steps in the evolutionary process.

Any form is relatively good and useful as a spiritual and evolutionary vehicle, where spirit or soul is in partnership with it. This would be true, we may surmise, whether that form is an atom, a man, a city, a nation, a planet, solar system, or some greater cosmic entity. There is righteous identification with forms. We are given to understand, that it is the soul's identification with form that keeps us, as a persona, in incarnation. Since incarnations are part of the divine plan, then in that sense, such timely forms are "good."

The Prison of Forms

There is an imprisoning identification with forms. Eventually, every form becomes less of adequate vehicle for the soul's experience and more of an obstruction and a prison. This is the "Moon" principle in DK's esoteric astrology. When the form (physical and psychic) of any incarnate entity becomes outdated, it becomes esoterically "evil" and the Will of divinity eventually sweeps it away, often with much struggle and pain. That which makes the form hard to live with, and hard to die with, is our intense attachment to and identification with it. This is true, whether it is our body, our emotions, our family, or our nation.

The Basis of the Criticism

I review this ABC of the Wisdom, as I think that this is the underlying basis for understanding of DK's criticisms of any entity--or rather the form of it--whether it is the Jews, "The I AM movement," humanity's obsession with sex, Christian churches, the political corruption in the United States, or the psychological glamours he elaborates at length in "Glamour a World Problem." All of these—or rather the form they have taken—received strong criticism.

Is DK anti-nationalism?

DK, or any Master, is not anti- nationalism in any absolute sense. Masters respect forms up to a point. DK's "Destiny of the Nations" is full of praise and encouragement of nations. But, in so far as any nation is "for" itself alone, and so "against" other nations, then to that extent the nation falls into what DK calls the "heresy of separation," and in that sense nationalism is condemned.

Is DK Anti-Semitic?

The human sense of "anti-Semitism," suggests an emotional reaction or aversion. It suggests fear. It suggests that the person with that bias has an ignorance based knee-jerk reaction against the Jews. It suggests a separative spirit, that very separative spirit that DK repeatedly advises us to avoid. All of this “anti” reaction is at the level of unredeemed personality, and all of it is, by definition, impossible to a Master of the Wisdom. So, in this mundane sense, DK is not "anti-Semitic" or "anti-Jewish" or anything.

Numerous criticisms of the Jews may be found in the writings of DK. I suggest readers place these in the context of the above metaphysical concepts and remember that DK also wrote:

“The growing anti-Semitic feeling in the world is inexcusable in the sight of God and man.” DK in, “Esoteric Healing,” P. 269

“If the Jewish race would recall, therefore, their high symbolic destiny, and if the rest of humanity would see themselves in the Jewish people, and if both groups would emphasize the fact of human stock and cease thinking of themselves in terms of national and racial units, the karma of humanity would radically change from the retributive karma of the present to the recompensing good karma of the future.” DK in, “Esoteric Healing,” p. 226

Those who attack DK’s writings as anti-Semitic omit passages like those above and fail to understand the metaphysics of separation and unity that give perspective to the criticisms.

Are Jews no worse and no better than anyone else?

There is sense in which no one is better than another, and in which no nation is better than another. And in another sense individuals and nations are better and worse along a variety of lines. The truth is in the difference between the essence and the form. In essence, we are all transcendent, sacred, deserving of the utmost respect. Yet on the personality level, for nations and for individuals, better and worse are facts of external life. They not "real" in the absolute sense, but in this time-bound relative world, there are no equal entities. The US Declaration of Independence states, "All men are created equal." That is absolutely true in a spiritual sense, but not true in terms of forms and personalities evolving in time and space. It was also, alas, not entirely true at the emotional level for the men who wrote the document. If it were, they should have written, "All men and women are created equal."

Bad and Good

Of course it’s wrong to think of any entity as entirely bad or good, to divide things into black and white as is commonly done. Everything is in degrees and there is some "bad" and "good" spread over all nations and peoples. That said, I think its not realistic to say that "the Jews are not worse than anyone else." In some ways, the Jews are much better than other peoples, and in some ways, I think, much worse. It's multi-dimensional. In terms of forms, of manifestations and personalities, better and worse are always facts to be reckoned with. A clear-eyed recognition of weakness, in our selves, in other persons, and in nations and groups of all kinds; this is difficult but essential.

"Few too dare trust themselves to see their fellowmen as they really are, for fear of a critical spirit - so hard it is to develop the true practice of loving understanding which leads to the seeing of all people in truth, with their faults and their virtues, their pettiness and their grandeurs, and still to love them as before and even more." Discipleship in the New Age II, p. 763

Did DK Single Out the Jews for Special Criticism?

DK's fundamental message and criticisms to the Jewish people is basically the same as that he directed to humanity as a whole. We are all enjoined to cease our separative ways and to integrate harmoniously with the rest of humanity. No forcing is suggested here, but rather a change of consciousness that gives full expression to true brotherhood.

Human separativeness is expressed in religious forms. Man created religions, whether Jewish, Christian, or other, are part of a major impediment to unity. In religion, and in most other fields, people follow the form of things instead of finding the essence of them. Religious forms create separations, whereas a true religious impulse—that is to say, spirituality—creates unity.

DK's criticism of the Jews should be seen as part of his larger criticism of all types of separate forms that we humans identify with. He was severe in his criticism of the Jews, and the implication is that the Jewish religion and associated nationalism has much in it that is wrong from a spiritual standpoint. Yet the same is true of all other nations and religious in various degrees.

Anyone deeply submerged in any of the forms that DK criticized is apt to consider it an unjustified attack. Consider the following:

"It is this truth, misinterpreted and shockingly travestied, which lies behind the teaching anent the so-called Ascended Masters, put out by the leaders of the "I AM" movement, thus prostituting and bringing down almost into the realm of cheap comedy one of the most notable happenings which has ever taken place upon our planet." The Rays and the Initiation, p. 16

If you are of the "I AM movement" then DK is "Anti-I AM." Though the reference is brief, it is even more radical then his statements about the Jews, and unlike the Jewish ones, he makes no counterbalance of positive statements at all. Probably, this does not personally offend most of us, as most are not identified with the particular form that is the “I AM movement.” That is key of unhappy sensitive reactions--our form identifications.

DK’s criticism of the Jews is not unique and he directed many of the same criticisms to other groups and to humanity as a whole. What is relatively unusual, is DK’s elaboration of the underlying ancient historical causes that are behind the human crisis that we see being enacted on the world stage today.

Related passages:

" What is the condition surrounding the aspirants of the world today? We have a world full of unrest, a world full of pain, sorrow and strife, a world in which the emotional bodies of humanity are in a condition of tremendous disturbance, a world in which animals, men, women and children suffer, agonize and die; a world in which hunger, sin, sickness, famine, rapine, and murder stalk unarrested; a world in which the forms of religion exist but the life has gone...." The Externalization of the Hierarchy, 515

"The world situation today demonstrates this. For though material benefit and physical prosperity might eventually emerge from certain countries where great experiments are being undertaken, they will only exemplify the triumph of the form and will finally come to naught. Just as every human being struggles through in some one life to personality achievement so it is among the nations. Yet at the heart of every nation lies latent the mystical soul and eventually - after dire struggle and distress - all will be well. Tendencies towards materialism and towards personality achievement must, under the larger plan and the will-to-good, be offset by a counter move of spiritual living and this must be the objective of all working disciples." Discipleship in the New Age I, p. 30

"We need to bear in mind also that the forces of destruction or death are two-fold: first, the rapidly emerging and developing life with its demand for more room for expression and fuller experience, and its spiritual aspiration for change and progress; and secondly, the reactionary forces and the conservative attitudes which adhere to the well-known and the familiar, and which hate the new, the untried and the unknown. Both of these produce the great and divine transition from the past into the future, and from the old into the new, from experience into fruition and then into experience again. The realities are eternal and undying; the forms are ephemeral and temporary; the soul is persistent and deathless; the form is changing and doomed to die. The processes of evolution have in the past and will in the future prove successful in bringing forms to birth, to maturity and to death." The Externalization of the Hierarchy , 116

DK criticized the Jews for their aggressive militancy, but they were not alone or singled out exclusively, for instance:

"The history of the Christian nations and of the Christian church has been one of an aggressive militancy - the last thing desired by the Christ when He sought to establish the church on earth." The Reappearance of the Christ, p. 110

Likewise with the other themes:

"We could take the nations, one by one, and observe how this nationalistic, separative or isolationist spirit, emerging out of an historical past, out of racial complexes, out of territorial position, out of revolt and out of possession of material resources, has brought about the present world crisis and cleavage and this global clash of interests and ideals." The Externalization of the Hierarchy, p. 375

He clearly says that the vices of the Jews are also those of humanity in general, and he described the problems of the Jewish people as a kind of epitome of the human problems common to us all. He did emphasize the Jewish problem, highlighting it especially, because he considered it to be a major crisis confronting humanity, a fact which is obvious today.

Unpalatable Criticisms of the Jews and Others

Let's take another example of DK's strong criticism-- that of homosexuality.

"One of the major problems today to the psychologist and in a lesser degree to the medical man, is the growth of homosexuality, both female and male. Specious arguments are brought forth in order to prove that this abnormal development (and the consequent interest in this morbid tendency) is due to the fact that the race is slowly becoming androgynous ..." - Esoteric Healing, p. 63

The statements DK made on homosexuality are bound to be unpalatable and hard to assimilate for anyone who has that problem. He used words like "perverted" and "abnormal" in connection with it. There is no question that he regarded homosexuality as an unfortunate karma and not a "gay" condition.

There are two things worth mentioning. The first is, there is no standard human emotion behind his use of a word "perverted." I think he is using it in the literal sense of something that deviates from a normal, healthy, or ideal condition. It's not intended as an insult. The word is politically incorrect by modern standards, but he is obviously just saying that homosexuality is wrong in the sense of not being in line with the divine plan, and therefore ultimately something to be left behind rather than embraced and cultivated.

In this connection, he also uses the word "perverted" in reference to uncontrolled sexual energy generally. (A Treatise on White Magic, p. 241.) So, whether we are homosexual or heterosexual, welcome to the club of the "perverted." It seems virtually all us human types have "deviations" of energy that do not accord with the ideal divine scheme of things. And it seems that the white heat of heavenly purity is severe on us all. Perhaps our gay friends will take some comfort in that!

The truth is, from the Divine viewpoint, we are all rather "perverted" and fitting targets for harsh criticism. This relates to individuals, nations, and psychologies. This is just a strong-word way of saying we're not acting in accordance with Divine law. We simply need to realize that all forms become obstructive; we need to get over them, or "get over it," as they say, and move on.

The Unity of All

While not sparing in his criticism of human weaknesses, at the same time, DK is tolerant and affirms the complete Unity of everything and of all souls, groups, and nations. It is this, and not his criticisms, that are the dominant theme to which he dedicates the most pages and attention. And he indicates that, compared to the great underlying Unity, all our temporal identifications with body, family, group, nations, all of it is an illusion, or at best temporarily real. In so far as there is light shinning through a form, then it takes on some reality from above. But none of the forms that we humans want to make absolutely real, are actually so. Every last one of them is, when the right time comes, something to let go of.

"Realizing himself as a soul and not as the form. This involves a process of what is called "divine reflection", which works out in two ways. The soul now begins definitely to reject the form, and the man, through whom the soul is experiencing and expressing itself, is himself rejected by the world in which he lives." Esoteric Psychology II, 332

Tough Love or Cruel and Unjust Criticism?

Reading broadly in DK we find that his criticisms are by no means exclusively reserved for the Jewish people or for any other particular entity. Take, for instance, the word "cruel" that especially harsh synonym of separateness. He used that word for the Jews. But look at the larger context of its use:

"In the teaching of history, for instance, are we to revert to the bad old ways wherein each nation glorifies itself at the expense frequently of other nations, in which facts are systematically garbled, in which the pivotal points in history are the various wars down the ages - a history, therefore, of aggression, of the rise of a material and selfish civilization and one which had the nationalistic and, therefore, separate spirit, which has fostered racial hatred and stimulated national prides? The first historical date usually remembered by the average British child is "William, the Conqueror, 1066." The American child remembers the landing of the Pilgrim Fathers and the gradual taking of the country from its rightful inhabitants, and perhaps the Boston Tea Party. The heroes of history are all warriors - Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Attila the Hun, Richard Coeur de Lion, Napoleon, George Washington and many others. Geography is largely history in another form but presented in a similar manner - a history of discovery, investigation and seizure, followed frequently by wicked and cruel treatment of the inhabitants of the discovered lands. Greed, ambition, cruelty and pride are the keynotes of our teaching of history and geography." Education in the New Age, p. 45

Note the wording: "...seizure, followed frequently by wicked and cruel treatment of the inhabitants..." He might be talking about the Jews or about the US and many others nations? The problem is generic and somewhat universal and the indictment is correspondingly generic and somewhat universal.

DK's criticism of the Jews is strong and underscored. We are given to understand that it is a most ancient human problem and crucial in the current crisis (or series of them) in human history; hence, the extra worlds and extra strong words.

"Esoterically, all world Saviors and Sun Gods are born in Capricorn but also the very worst type of man - hard, materialistic, cruel, proud, selfishly ambitious and egoistic." Esoteric Astrology, p. 169

In the above DK names 1/12 of all human incarnations as "cruel" etc. That includes all Capricorn countries, individuals, and incidentally this writer.

Consider also the cruel sex-phobic Christians...

"...pre-eminently a religion which has waged a cruel and oft illogical war upon sex and its implications; it has emphasized a militant celibacy..." Esoteric Astrology, 213

And also the history of Christianity:

"...Christianity, making it a definitely militant religion, oft cruel and sadistic (as witness the murders and tortures carried out in the name of Christ, who was the outstanding Representative of God's love). Throughout the teaching of Christian theology, the theme of blood runs ceaselessly...."

Other groups and entities criticized as cruel include:

"The Gentile," "totalitarian powers," Germany, Japan, the world economic system, fanatical devotees, U.S.S.R., the Russian revolution, those who mistreat racial minorities everywhere, "disciples of Shamballa," the relation between man and animals, "sports," "children" (because of unconscious response to decomposing cosmic forces), those with "insanity in the mental body," the selfish magician, the disciples of Christ, the sixth ray, the first ray, theology, a certain type of nationalism; the "white race" as exemplified by the French in the French Sudan, the Belgians in the Belgian Congo, the Dutch and the British in South Africa and the West Coast of Africa, the Germans in German East Africa and the Italians in Eastern Africa. And lastly, all the nations of the world. (The Externalization of the Hierarchy, p 185)

The Problem of Crazy Bibles

“The true first ray personality who works in response to this Shamballa influence will have the ultimate good of the group deeply enshrined in his consciousness and heart; he will think in terms of the whole and not in terms of the part. That is the thing, which he will endeavor to impress upon the racial consciousness. This may lead at times to ruthlessness and cruelty if the personality of the individual is not yet controlled by soul impulse. Such cases can frequently be seen. An instance of this can be noted in the history of the Jews as found in the Old Testament. When the first ray was in control and passing through one of its rare cycles of activity we read that they butchered and slaughtered all their enemies - men, women and children, [Page 16] putting them to the sword. The sword is ever the symbol of the first ray force just as the pen is of the second ray influence." Destiny of the Nations, p. 15-16

Religions, as humans commonly take and use them, are deadly and poisonous. They warp and distort. They are cruel and make crazy, which is to say they are frequently not "religion" practiced in any true spiritual sense but simply the worst aspects of human nature projected on the cosmos with emotional and misleading theologies.

We should understand that the Bible/s, both old and New Testament, but especially the old, have some really crazy passages in them. I find that these crazy passages tend to be invisible to Christian readers or they explain them away. Consider the following bible passages:

"If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the Lord." When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through." (Zechariah 13:3 NAB)

"Go up, my warriors, against the land of Merathaim and against the people of Pekod. Yes, march against Babylon, the land of rebels, a land that I will judge! Pursue, kill, and completely destroy them, as I have commanded you," says the LORD. "Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction". (Jeremiah 50:21-22 NLT)

You must destroy all the nations the LORD your God hands over to you. Show them no mercy and do not worship their gods. If you do, they will trap you....and you will erase their names from the face of the earth. No one will be able to stand against you, and you will destroy them all. (Deuteronomy 7:16-24 NLT)

Paul, First Corinthians 14:34-35.-"Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home: . . ."

The Lord, to Moses, Numbers 12:14.-"And the Lord said unto Moses, If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be ashamed seven days? . . ."

Ahasuerus', Esther 2:12.-"Now when every maid's turn was come to go in to king Ahasuerus, after that she had been twelve months, according to the manner of the women, (for so were the days of their purifications accomplished, to wit, six months with oil of myrrh, and six months with sweet odours, and with other things for the purifying of the women;) Then thus came every maiden unto the king; . . ."

Amnon, Second Samuel 13:2, 14, 15.-"Amnon was so upset by his passion for his sister Tamar, that it made him ill-for she was a virgin, and it seemed to Amnon impossible to get hold of her. . . . But . . . being stronger than she was, he overpowered her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her fiercely; the hate he now felt for her was greater than the love he had felt for her." (This is Moffatt's rendering.)

Hosea, Hosea 3:1-2.-". So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barleyl" [about $22.50), the price of a slave, see Exodus 21:32. ]

Aholah and Aholibab, Ezekiel 23:2-4, 25.-"Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: And they committed whoredoms in Egypt; they committed whoredoms in their youth: there were their breasts pressed, and there they bruised the teats of their virginity. And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: . . Samaria is Aholah, and Jerusalem Aholibah. .And I will set my jealousy against thee, and they shall deal furiously with thee: they shall take away thy nose and thy ears; . . ." (This fate was especially for Aholibab, but throughout the chapter Ezekiel exhausts his vocabulary to depict the punishments awaiting the sister nations.)

Numbers 5:14-22.-". . . if the spirit of jealousy come upon him, and he be jealous of his wife, . . . Then shall the man bring his wife unto the priest, . . And the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water: And the priest shall set the woman before the Lord, . . . And the priest shall charge her by an oath, and say unto the woman, If no man hath lain with thee, and if thou hast not gone aside to uncleanness with another instead of thy husband, be thou free from this bitter water that causeth the curse: But if thou hast gone aside to another instead of thy husband, . . . this water that causeth the curse shall go into thy bowels, to make thy belly to swell, and thy thigh to rot: And the woman shall say, Amen, amen."

The Larger History of National Territorial Theft

Many nations down through history have stolen territory from former inhabitants. Yet that fact does not justify the continuation of the offence in modern times. In the US case, we've had a century or two of evolution as we've moved a little closer to Aquarius. In the case of Israel, it is a happening right now, and in the nuclear age. By comparison, the tragic history of Native Americans in the case of the US, poses no danger of bringing the human race, as we've known it, to an abrupt and untimely end.

The problem of religious justification for territorial aggression is a very serious one in the modern age:

"That the Jews should be rid of fear is of major importance; that they should know and recognize the Christ as the Messiah, and therefore find for themselves that the religion they follow is destructive of many of the finer values, is likewise of major importance; that orthodox Judaism, along with all the other faiths, should realize that there is no desire to make them Christian (in the ordinary sense of the term), but that they should all move towards some loving synthesis and eliminate their mutual antagonisms and rivalries is equally urgent, and this statement includes the Christian faiths as well. That the Vatican cease its political scheming, its exploitation of the masses and its emphasis upon ignorance is as important; that the manifold divisions of the Protestant churches be bridged is imperative. If none of these things happen, humanity is headed towards a religious war which will make the past war appear like child's play; antagonisms and hatreds will embroil entire populations and the politicians of all the nations will take full advantage of the situation to precipitate a war which may well prove the end of humanity. There are no hatreds so great or so deep as those fostered by religion." The Externalization of the Hierarchy, p. 545

DK does not want Jews to become "Christians" any more than he wants "Christians" to be the "Christians" that they mostly are. His main push is for love and brotherhood, and unity, nothing else.

The Limitations and Distortions of Religions

We know that religions go down hill from the moment that humans take possession of them. The spiritual archetype of a religion would be, of course, the higher aspect of its ray or energy. Yet, what most humans do not see is that religions--though spiritual in their archetype--are historically man-made. A fundamental glamour of religious devotees is that they treat their religions--which are substantially man-made--as if they were the divine archetype itself, the absolute truth. People do not bow down to truth, but to forms, which are largely heavy veils over truth.

The virtues of Judaism, Christianity, Islam or any religion must reside in the little that remains of the original archetype. Yet, this virtue, often little more than remnants, is swamped by the weight, sometimes the horror, of human additions that corrupt the purity of the archetype. In addition, each religion is limited and turned by the nature of its prophets and founders. The founders are spiritualized human agents, and not the absolute spokespersons for absolute God that the faithful imagine them to be.

The solution for humanity is to learn to love the essence of things, the divine archetype of things so that the forms and human constructions loose their appeal. By evolution, people must learn to see through the human elements and the forms. The limiting forms will cease to exist, being replace by ever newer and better ones—this is divine evolution. The forms of religions or of anything are steps. The steps are not God, but ways of progress whereby we leave one step for the next better one.

Religious and Personal Identifications

Virtually everything we think we know has been served up to us by people with their own agendas. And the things we know directly from personal experience are limited by the surrounding local culture and our conditioning as exponents of that culture. It takes extraordinary intelligence, intuition, and impersonality to begin to rise above the pressures and conditioning of the group thought that is natural to us.

"I am everything and, if you like, nothing. To be born in a certain belief is good-- to die in it is unfortunate." The Initiate

Incarnation or identification with forms is the involutionary part of our life cycle. Withdrawal from form or disidentification is the evolutionary part. Both are necessary and natural. The reason that ordinary life is painful and chaotic lies in the unconscious identification with form life. Unconscious form identifications are allied with separativness and create negative karmic circles.

Ideally, our identifications must be conscious, not automatic, instinctual and robotic. We are then "in forms" but never "of them." The soul is not an adherent of any religion. The soul is not in any fundamental way identified with family, race, or group of any kind. Evolutionary movement, movement toward increased soul or spiritual consciousness, is primarily a process of withdrawal and disidentification.

We die to old forms of emotion and to old thought forms of both individual and group nature. Fundamentally, we must die to all man made constructions, philosophies, religions, psychologies, etc. None of them match the inner or transcendental God, and none can withstand the fire of spiritual consciousness.

The Man-Made Part of Religions

Our religions, in principle, the would-be solution to our problems, in practice often aggravate the worst of our problems. It's because religions become infused with our non-sacred projections until the weight of our errors, disguised as "religion," drags us down toward chaos.

So people use religion or "faith" to cover a multitude of intellectual and emotional sins-dishonesty, fear, lack of common sense, and justification of childish concepts. It is known that the hierarchies of humans bolster their power by encouraging ignorant faith. In the lower sense, faith leads to worship of man-created images and acceptance of unfounded authority based on fear, self-interest, and unthinking desperation to escape the surrounding chaos. People look up with dim faith and try to build religions out of God but mostly build them out of themselves. They look up and sense only a tiny part of a picture, adding their halting often-discordant colorings to everything.

Does DK Want to Convert Jews to Christianity?

The Christian orientation and language DK’s writings seems to be a deliberate adaptation to the historical and Theological fact of a Christian West. He chose to speak the language of his main audience. This is what may be called leading by illusion.

Consider that, esoterically speaking, the whole phenomenal world--your body and mine, your words and mine, religions, planets, books, talks, and the daily newspapers--all of it is maya, glamour, illusion. Then what leads us on the path of life? It is illusion that leads us; we ascend through layers of maya. Yet each illusion has some light behind it. Some forms hide this light and some reveal it, and to some extent the hiding and revealing are in the eye of the beholder. Religions are just forms hiding light; some obscure it until little gets through, others less so. But none of these forms are “the Word of God.”

DK is not a Christian and his concept of "God" does not correspond to Christian Theology. We could say he is a Tibetan, but that's not right either. A Master, by definition, is not bound by nor basically identified with any form or any religion or any race. He uses forms for service but he does not personally identify with them in the common human way.

The future DK envisions for humanity is spiritual but not Christian or religious in any orthodox sense. He wrote:

"In the world of religion we shall see the solution of the second problem, and the ridding of the human consciousness of another area of doubt. The fact of God will be established and men's questioning in this respect will end. Such a God will not be a national or a racial God; not Christian, Hindu or Buddhist. Such a God will not be a figment of man's creative imagination or an extension of his own consciousness, but a Deity of essential life, who is the sum total of all energies; the energy of life itself, the energy of love, the energy of intelligence, of active experience, and that energy which produces the interplay between the seen and the unseen; a God most surely transcendent, but at the same time most assuredly immanent; a God of such immensity that the Heavens proclaim Him, and so intimate that the humblest child can recognize Him." Esoteric Psychology I, p. 182

He envisions a breaking away from churches and theology:

"When men recognize this and succeed in isolating that inner significant structure of truth which is the same in all climes and in all races, then there will emerge the universal religion, the One Church, and that unified though not uniform approach to God, which will demonstrate the truth of St. Paul's words "One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all." Theologies will disappear into the knowledge of God; doctrines and dogmas will no longer be regarded as necessary, for faith will be based on experience, and authority will give place to personal appreciation of Reality. The power of the Church over the group will be supplanted by the power of the awakened soul in men; the age of miracles and the disputations as to the why and how of those miracles with the consequent skepticism or agnosticism will give way to the understanding of the laws of nature which control the superhuman realm and the supernatural stage of the evolutionary process. Man will enter into his divine heritage and know himself as the Son of the Father, with all the divine characteristics, powers and capacities that are his because of his divine endowment. But in the meantime what have we? A breaking away from old established tradition, a revolt from authority, whether of the Church, of dogma, doctrine or theology; a tendency towards self-determination and an overthrowing of the old standards, and of old barriers of thought and the divisions existing between races and faiths." A Treatise on White Magic, p. 327

The Historical and Cosmic Christ

The meaning and message of DK’s “Christ” is primarily that of Love and its working out on the human scene as the spirit of brotherhood and unity. He speaks of the "Cosmic Christ." and of our entire solar system as the expression of the energy or “Ray” of Love. In this cosmic context, the little struggles of humanity to relate emotionally to their image of an historical Christ is of minor importance.

It does not really matter whether Jews or anyone use the word "Christ." What matters is that all manifest brotherhood based on Love and Wisdom. All are free to pick whatever synonym or alternate image they choose; the thing of central importance is benevolent energy and its effect on humanity.

The emphasis on an historical Christ, or Jesus is central in exoteric or external Christianity. But in DK’s writings, energy is central, Love is central. He acknowledges the reality of an historical Christ, but emphasizes it as a manifestation of divine principle. In esoteric thought, particular beings are important only in so far as they manifest a reality--an energy--in the case of Christ, it is the energy of Love.

Are DK’s Writings Universal?

DK’s books are not as universal as they might be had the language been less Christian, less Theosophical and something more generic. But if they were more universal in form they would not have the impact power that they do on those who have affinity with these schools and their language. Forms are rendered for specific audiences.

Does DK Look for an End to Judaism?

It's true that DK wants the Jews to leave their religion behind. It's also true that he wants the orthodox Christians to leave their religion behind as well. DK does not wish to see the Jews convert to any form of orthodox Christianity. He rejects orthodox Christianity as surely as he rejects all other superficial forms that masquerade as true spirituality. DK does not want the Jews to remain the Jews that they are. And he certainly does not want the Christians to remain the Christians that they are. In DK's thought, all forms of orthodoxy are more or less illusions.

DK tries to uplift the Christian world by directing it to a more esoteric and truly Love-centered path. He uses Christian terms, in concordance with the nature of the disciple he chose for the work and the Western world to which his message is especially adapted. But DK is no Christian. He is a Tibetan, yet not he is not that either. A Master is not an exponent of or the advocate of or a proselytizer of any particular religion--unless he happens to be founding a new one. He does desire to convert anyone to any particular formal institution, religion, or philosophy—these, following the initial release of the energy, quickly become largely human constructions. We must read between the lines and symbols. And do not forget, that in the eyes of most Christians, Alice Bailey and her Teacher are the identified with the Satan. The same is true of Blavatsky (who also incidentally launched a most severe and harsh criticisms against the Jews.)

Do DK’s Writings Contradict the Teachings of Christ and Buddha?

Do modern Christianity and churches relate well to Christ? Do we think that modern Buddhism and temples relate well to Buddha? Are many of Christ's words actually reflected in the New Testament? Are the words attributed to Buddha actually his? Persons who believe these things need to study biblical criticism and the problems of translation and communication. We have nothing written by Christ or Buddha. People try to get beyond this with a vague emotionalized concept of faith, as served to them by their all-to-human religious leaders.

"The prayer uttered by Christ when leaving Earth was not heard by people. The prayer uttered by Buddha was not heard by people." Infinity I, #151

Back