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17. Great White Brothers
The wisdom of the mysteries has been kept alive on the planet, ac-
cording to Hodson, by an active brotherhood of adepts, guardians of
the spiritual heritage of humanlund, keepers throughout the ages ofwhat
he calls "the sacred light of spiritual and occult knowledge and wis-
dom." Major centers of this "Great White Brotherhood"-as described
by Hodson and other theosophists-range from Luxor toyucatin, from
Hungary toTibet, its members "the shepherds of souls, not far away but
very near to mankind."
This "very near to mankind" has engendered no little controversy,
as the adepts are reputed to be able to appear to their followers either
alive in the flesh, disembodied in the astral, or spookily materialized in
the apparently physical.Volumes have been written on how St. Germain
kept his body from aging so that his presence could be recorded in
widely separate historical periods. It was adepts such as these, according
to Leadbeater, who deliberately devised the Theosophical Society as an
instrument by means of which to reintroduce occult wisdom to the
world and thus pave the way for reestablishment of the ancient myster-
ies. Two in particular are credited with the job: the Indian Rajput
prince Mahatma Morya and the Kashmiri Brahmin Koot Hoomi, so
familiar to Blavatsky. After careful consideration, says Leadbeater, "the
Masters Morya and Koot Hoomi undertook the responsibility of the
step and chose that noble worker Madame Blavatsky to help them on
the physical plane. In due course the Brotherhood sent her to America
to search for Colonel Olcott." In Blavatsky's words: "The Himalayan
masters are behind our movement and we founded our Theosophical
Society at their direct suggestion. They showed us that by combining