Programme for 2007 / 08

Study groups on Wednesdays are in two parts:

                                7:00 pm     Original Study group

                          8:20 pm     Isis Unveiled group

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STUDY GROUP      Wednesdays  7 - 8¹⁵ pm 

The 7 pm Wednesday Study Group is taking up:

         ۞   The LIGHT ON THE PATH by Mabel Collins  

         ۞   The SECRET DOCTRINE by H P Blavatsky

         ۞   selected passages from other writings by H P Blavatsky and William Q Judge

The study group meets on Wednesdays and takes an few pages of each book in some detail, with time and opportunity to explore the ideas.  The meetings are held in the Library of the ULT, among a group of students led by those who have been studying the subjects for some years.

Current topics

The SECRET DOCTRINE    A Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy

The Secret Doctrine is the greatest work of Mme Blavatsky.  In its huge range its systematically treats the great questions of life: on Cosmogenesis and Anthropogenesis (the origin and formation of the Cosmos and Man), on the Evolution of Symbolism and of the World-Religions, and on the contrasts between Science (the modern Western science) and the 'Secret Doctrine', the perennial wisdom.

"Some of our ablest scientists, Albert Einstein and Robert Millikan are said to have had THE SECRET DOCTRINE on their table all the time."  

                                                            The Journal of San Diego History

Description and ordering information for the Secret Doctrine.

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Recent Study Group topics have included:

The Key to Theosophy - a summary of the essential ethics, science and philosophy of the system

Tao Te King - the Chinese philosophical classic by Lao Tse.

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ISIS UNVEILED study group      Wednesdays  8²⁰ - 9²⁰ pm

The ISIS UNVEILED group is on Wednesdays after the 7 pm study group, and takes a 

section of half a dozen pages or so of Volume 2 of Isis Unveiled, which is read and discussed.  

Volume 2 of Isis examines the beliefs and practices of the world's religions, the myths and symbols of ancient cultures, and explains these in the Indian, Egyptian and Greek civilisations.  

The study of Isis assists us in understanding today's problems with religion by showing the how the beliefs of the ancient's were integrated into the newer religions, such as Christianity.  By tracing their origin it explains how theology altered them into the now established dogmas such as the Trinity (originally  'Pagan'), atonement and 'forgiveness of sins' (an adaptation of the suffering of our Higher Ego for the actions of the personality), the practices of magic and spiritualism in the early orthodox, the Gnostic pagan-leaning and the Neo-Platonic groups (and their internal battles for influence that resulted in the persecution and expulsion of these sects).  The resulting loss of esoteric knowledge with its underpinning ethical precepts led the way to the establishment of a powerful and intolerant orthodoxy that used such means as the Inquisition and Jesuitism to further its ends.

Volume 2 ends with a comparison of Christianity to the eastern teachings of Buddhism, and finished with conclusions drawn from the survey.  For those who have not yet read a balanced portrayal of the early Christian period it makes a fascinating, often disturbing and sometimes humorous account.

Description and ordering information for Isis Unveiled

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One may become an Associate of the ULT at any time, which is a declaration of sympathy for the purposes of the ULT, with no other obligations.