Sunday, September 14, 2025

"The Society will live on into and through the twentieth century ..." - Blavatsky on the Kali Yuga & the Theosophical Society's Mission

So long as the T.S. has a few devoted members willing to work for it without reward & thanks, so long as a few good Theosophists support it with occasional donations, so long will it exist, & nothing can crush it. - H.P.B., Key to Theosophy

Excerpts from H.P. Blavatsky's Key to Theosophy (1889)

To this day no one seems even to feel quite certain whether the Theosophists are a kind of Serpent-and-Devil worshipers, or simply “Esoteric Buddhists”—whatever that may mean. It was useless for us to go on denying, day after day and year after year, every kind of inconceivable cock-and-bull stories about us; for, no sooner was one disposed of, than another, a still more absurd and malicious one, was born out of the ashes of the first.

So long as the T.S. has a few devoted members willing to work for it without reward and thanks, so long as a few good Theosophists support it with occasional donations, so long will it exist, and nothing can crush it.
Enquirer: I have heard many Theosophists speak of a “power behind the Society” and of certain “Mahatmas,” mentioned also in Mr. Sinnett’s works, that are said to have founded the Society, to watch over and protect it.
HPB: You may laugh, but it is so.

We call them “Masters” because they are our teachers; and because from them we have derived all the Theosophical truths, however inadequately some of us may have expressed, and others understood, them. They are men of great learning, whom we term Initiates, and still greater holiness of life. They are not ascetics in the ordinary sense, though they certainly remain apart from the turmoil and strife of your western world.

The Society will live on into and through the twentieth century. It will gradually leaven and permeate the great mass of thinking and intelligent people with its large-minded and noble ideas of Religion, Duty, and Philanthropy. Slowly but surely it will burst asunder the iron fetters of creeds and dogmas, of social and caste prejudices; it will break down racial and national antipathies and barriers, and will open the way to the practical realization of the Brotherhood of all men.

Through its teaching, through the philosophy which it has rendered accessible and intelligible to the modern mind, the West will learn to understand and appreciate the East at its true value. Further, the development of the psychic powers and faculties, the premonitory symptoms of which are already visible in America, will proceed healthily and normally.

It is curious to see how prophetic in almost all things was the writer of Vishnu Purâna when foretelling to Maitreya some of the dark influences and sins of this Kali Yug. For after saying that the “barbarians” will be masters of the banks… There will be contemporary monarchs, reigning over the earth— kings of churlish spirit, violent temper, and ever addicted to falsehood and wickedness... Wealth and piety will decrease until the world will be wholly depraved. Property alone will confer rank; wealth will be the only source of devotion; passion will be the sole bond of union between the sexes; falsehood will be the only means of success in litigation; and women will be objects merely of sensual gratification.

Mankind will be saved from the terrible dangers, both mental and bodily, which are inevitable when that unfolding takes place, as it threatens to do, in a hot-bed of selfishness and all evil passions. Man’s mental and psychic growth will proceed in harmony with his moral improvement, while his material surroundings will reflect the peace and fraternal goodwill which will reign in his mind, instead of the discord and strife which is everywhere apparent around us today.

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF SAN FRANCISCO SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 PROGRAM

What then is Theosophy? It is the formulated system of natural Religion-Philosophy-Science, embracing the verities of infinite Nature, and teaching therefore of the structure, operations, and laws of Nature as they have been and are visioned, seen, experienced, witnessed by all the great Sages and Seers of the past and present. - Gottfried de Purucker, The Masters and the Path of Occultism (1939)

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF SAN FRANCISCO SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER 2025 PROGRAM 

IN-PERSON: Sunday, 9/21/25, 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. - Richard Power presents "Verities of Being, Part 4: Spanda"

ON-LINE: Sunday, 9/21/25,  at 6 p.m., - Richard Power presents "Verities of Being, Part 4: Spanda"

ON-LINE: Sunday, 9/28/25,  at 6 p.m., Elaine Santos presents "Antarayh Imagery - Understanding Your Obstacle to Practice"

ON-LINE: Sunday, 10/12/25,  at 6 p.m., Jeff Curtis presents "In the Beginning, There was Nothing, which Exploded"

IN-PERSON: Sunday, 10/26/25, 4 to 6 p.m. - Lodge Library Hours / Conversations in Theosophy (Topic:  "Cult versus Occult")

SPECIAL EVENT: "Verities of Being: Part IV: Spanda"

This last talk in Richard Power's "Verities of Being" series will be held both in-person (at the Lodge) and on-line (via Zoom). The talk itself, like the others, will start at 6 p.m.

For those attending in-person, the Lodge will open at 4 p.m.

Join us for refreshments. Explore the library. Catch up with friends.

For those who want to view the talk on-line, here is the Zoom registration link:

After you register, you will receive e-mail with confirmation and instructions.

If you already registered for any of the prior talks in the series, you don't have to register again.

For more information, e-mail us (sftslodge at gmail.com) or inquire via Facebook Messenger (https://www.facebook.com/sfts.lodge)