The Secret Life of Nature: Living in Harmony With the Hidden World of Nature Spirits from Fairies to Quarks

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deliberately to obfuscate Blavatsky's accurate perception and compre-
hension of the Christ, "manipulating her like a puppet, pulling her in
contrary ways according to their aims." Anthroposophy was therefore
developed to redress the one-sided pro-Indian bias of theosophy.
Steiner, explains Leviton, may have looked into Rosicruciai~,
Goethean, and theosophical methods and he may have taken scientific
degrees and he may have had respect for historical legacies, but at heart
he was a rebel, ui~comfortable with a supposedly spiritual movement
founded on the autocratic guidance of remote, often disembodied, ma-
hatmas. "He went his own individual way, breaking with the material-
ists, the Spiritualists, the Theosophists, and the lodges, following his
own way, following the indications of the supersensible hierarchy as
best he could, and presented the results within the established context
of Western Philosophy, initiation occultism, and esoteric Christian
spirituality." Theosophy, Leviton concludes, might be content with
received authority; it would have no place in anthroposophy. Yet,
carefully considered, every basic tenet of anthroposophy comes di-
rectly from the mouth, or pen, of Steiner.
Hodson, on the other hand, remained faithful to the lodges all his
life. Lamenting that much of the ancient wisdom has been allowed to
slip into oblivion, he reassured his followers that initiation into the
higher levels of the mysteries was still being constantly performed by
the occult lodges and that "among the hierophants of the Great White
Brotherhood the true secrets have been preserved, and they will always
reward the search of the earnest Mason."
Leadbeater describes adepts of the Great White Brotherhood con-
tinually working out new schemes by which evolution can be quick-
ened and by which the race may climb, some taking as pupils and
disciples those willing to tread the path, "so that the ranks of the hier-
archy may never be depleted." He describes how Master Morya or
Koot Hoomi continued to perform the rites of initiation of a candi-
date to the brotherhood, usually in their ancient cave temple near the
bridge across the river between their houses, where the candidate was
required, as at a witches'sabbath, to appear in the astral body.As part of
the first initiation by these masters, many astral objects were shown the

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