Esoteric School - Essentials
What is Occultism - quotes
Blavatsky Coll. Wr. XII, p. 89
No member need apply for admission into the E.S. unless he is prepared to adopt in full the three objects of the T.S. and to become practically an earnest worker for Theosophy.
Blavatsky Coll. Wr. XI, p. 428
Celibacy is not enforced either in the Society [TS] or its inner circle any more than vegetarianism.
... [It is a] fact that a large proportion of the members are married people, and that some eat meat and, when sick, drink wine even in the inner circle. None of these rules are enforced, and they are optional.
She Being Dead Yet Speaketh; quoted in Cranston p. 365,66
There is no room for despotism or ruling ... in it [the ES] ... no glory for me [H.P. Blavatsky] , but a series of misconceptions, slanders, suspicion and ingratitude in almost an immediate future; but if our of the hundred (109) theosophists who have already pledged themselves, I can place on the right and true path half a dozen or so - I will die happy. Many are called, few chosen ... I can only show the way to those whose eyes are open to the truth, whose souls are full of altruism, charity and love for the whole creation and who think of themselves last ...
The Esoteric Section is not of the earth earthy; it does not interfere with the exoteric administration of the Lodges ... It requires neither subscription, fees nor money, for as I have not so received it, I shall not so impart it and that I would rather starve in the gutter than take one penny for my teaching the sacred truths.
She Being Dead Yet Speaketh; quoted in Cranston p. 366,67
No man is required to carry a burden heavier than he can bear; nor do more than it is possible for him to do ... a man tied by his duty to one place has no right to desert it in order to fulfill another duty, let it be however much greater; for the first duty taught in occultism is to do one's duty unflinchingly by every duty. Pardon these seemingly absurd paradoxes and Irish Bulls; but I have had to repeat this ad nauseam usque for the last month. "Shall I risk to be ordered to leave my wife, desert my children and home if I pledge myself?" asks one. "No," I say, "because he who plays truant in one thing will be faithless in another. No real, genuine MASTER will accept a chela who sacrifices anyone except himself to go to that Master." If one cannot owing to circumstances or his position in life, become a full adept in this existence, let him prepare his mental luggage for the next, so as to be ready at the first call when he is once more reborn.