To Light a Thousand Lamps - The Theosophical Society

10
Western Occultism
THE INTERMINGLING OF CULTURAL and religious traditions
taking place today is exerting a profound influence on our
thinking and mores. Just as Western methods and thought
habits have left their energizing and often disruptive mark
on the Orient, just so has the influx of Eastern ideas and
rituals a¤ected the thinking and habitual attitudes of thousands
throughout Europe and America. As a result, huge
cracks are forming in entrenched attitudes. In the West this
is due to exposure to the philosophical and psychophysical
disciplines of India, Tibet, China, and Japan; also in part to
the growing interest in the rites and sacred lore of traditional
peoples of the Americas, Australasia, and Africa.
Even though the accent is largely on the ‘‘occult arts’’ (the
mere overlay of genuine occultism), already a distinct change
is taking place. From being strictly matter-dominated in
outlook, we are coming to recognize spirit/consciousness/
energy as the causal basis of all life, from the microworld
of the atom to the macroworld of the cosmos, and all in
between.
The entry into Western thought, from the 1780s on, of
the profound metaphysical scriptures of the East was e¤ected
in the main by British civil servants in India. They were