Selections from Theosophy’s Sacred Teachings in “The Key to Theosophy,” Part 1 of 2: On the Sacredness of the Pledge

Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born in 1831, into a noble family in Ukraine. As a child, young Helena displayed a gift for clairvoyance as well as an interest in metaphysical phenomena. Madame Blavatsky wrote several important books on Theosophy, including “Isis Unveiled,” “The Secret Doctrine,” “The Key to Theosophy,” and “The Voice of the Silence.” Today, on Words of Wisdom, we invite you to join us for excerpts from “The Key to Theosophy.”

On the Sacredness of the Pledge “Enquirer: Have you any ethical system that you carry out in the Society? Theosophist: The ethics are there, ready and clear enough for whomsoever follow them. They are the essence and cream of the world’s ethics, gathered from the teachings of all the world’s great reformers. Therefore, you will find represented therein Confucius and Zoroaster, Lao-Tzu and the Bhagavat-Gita, the precepts of Gautama Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth, of Hillel and His school, as of Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, and their schools.”

“Enquirer: But is a man expelled, or resigning, from the section free to reveal anything he may have learned, or to break any clause of the pledge he has taken? Theosophist: Certainly not. His expulsion or resignation only relieves him from the obligation of obedience to the teacher, and from that of taking an active part in the work of the Society, but surely not from the sacred pledge of secrecy. Enquirer: But is this reasonable and just?

Theosophist: Most assuredly. To any man or woman with the slightest honorable feeling, a pledge of secrecy taken even on one’s word of honor, much more to one’s Higher Self – the God within – is binding till death.”

“Believe me, the law of retribution (Karma) would very soon overtake one who so broke his pledge, and perhaps as soon as the contempt of every honorable man would, even on this physical plane. ‘Path’ just cited on this subject, ‘A pledge once taken, is forever binding in both the moral and the occult worlds. If we break it once and are punished, that does not justify us in breaking it again, and so long as we do, so long will the mighty lever of the Law (of Karma) react upon us.’”