Blavatsky Blogger
Taking Theosophical
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century
Did
H P Blavatsky predict
The
First World War
and
**********
“The whole
world is hushed in breathless expectation.
Not a wife
or mother, but is haunted in her dreams
by the
black and ominous storm-cloud that overhangs
the whole of
**********
“I read
the fatal destiny upon the brow
of the
flower of
**********
“He rises from his couch weaker and wearier
than ever,
to see
around him endless lines of troops armed with
a new and
yet more murderous weapon of destruction –
ready for
the battlefield.”
**********
From Karmic Visions By H P Blavatsky 1888.
In this unusual saga, a victorious Frankish 10th
century
Christian warrior king is cursed and reincarnated
to
be king of his enemies and to suffer the misery
he
has inflicted. He is now heir to the throne of
the
German militarist state and given visions of defeat
by
the Franks and other tribes in a horrendous war.
Posted
In “Karmic Visions”, tormenting visions of a catastrophic future
war come the heir to the throne of the German
militarist state.
The heir to the throne is the reincarnation of a brutal warrior
king of the Franks named Clovis who is now born to become king of his old
enemies who were the Germanic tribes. As Clovis, he
nominally converted to Christianity but was warned that the Gods of his fathers
had risen against him and he would be born as king of his enemies and suffer the miseries he had inflicted.
As the heir to the throne he experiences a charmed existence and
even makes a name for himself in a small war.
Haunted by the militarist tradition he has inherited as a result
of Karma, the first visions come to him as a nightmare. The scenes of carnage
conjure up images of a battlefield in the industrial age.
These images are only a sample;
“What he now sees is a throng of bayonets clashing against each
other in a mist of smoke and blood; thousands of mangled corpses covering the
ground, torn and cut to shreds by the murderous weapons devised by science and
civilization,”
“The nightmare shows him men expiring on the battlefield with a
curse on those who led them to their destruction.”
“He sees
and feels the torture of the fallen millions, who die after long hours of
terrible mental and physical agony; who expire in forest and plain, in stagnant
ditches by the road-side, in pools of blood under a sky made black with smoke.”
There
seems to be a reference to Prussian Militarism and the success it has brought
in the past at great cost in human misery and liberty. There is also a realization
that the long military tradition and focus on the art of war has produced a war
machine which is effectively a country of robots;
"What
have they brought thee or to thy fatherland, those bloody victories!" . .
. whispers the Soul in him. "A population clad in iron armour,"
it replies. "Two score millions of men dead now to all spiritual
aspiration and Soul-life.”
“What is
thy future Kingdom, now? A legion of war-puppets as units, a great wild beast
in their collectivity.”
The lines
above, along with scenes of bereavement, with substantial casualties and
devastation, suggest that the military triumphs of the heroic past have been a
Pyrrhic victory.
The king
(the father) dies at this point and his son is immediately installed as king
and he inherits a kingdom on the road to ruin which it is his Dharma (duty) to
lead as absolute monarch;
“Cruel
Fate has erected a throne for him over an open grave, and beckons him to glory
and to power.”
His reign
appears doomed as he is not equal to the task and has inherited the Karma of a
violent past;
"waves
on waves in solid mountains rise"; whither he now speeds to reign and --
speeds to die.”
He is then
projected into the future and sees visions of Germanic heroism as portrayed in
Wagnerian legend.
He meets
several figures from Wagnerian legend, who clearly represent the German people,
and who are concerned with the past and the future. There is clearly a Karmic
debt to be paid;
(Orlog is the God of War)
"What
is my Past?" enquires the Soul-Ego of Urd, the
eldest of the Norn sisters.
"Why
do I suffer?"
“A long
parchment is unrolled in her hand, and reveals a long series of mortal beings, in
each of whom the Soul-Ego recognizes one of its dwellings. When it comes to the
last but one, it sees a blood-stained hand doing endless deeds of cruelty and
treachery, and it shudders. . . . . . .”
“Guileless
victims arise around it, and cry to Orlog for
vengeance.”
"What
is my immediate Present?" asks the dismayed Soul of Werdandi,
the second sister.”
"The
decree of Orlog is on thyself!" is the answer.
"But Orlog does not pronounce them blindly, as
foolish mortals have it."
"What
is my Future?" asks despairingly of Skuld, the
third Norn sister, the Soul-Ego. "Is it to be
for ever dark with tears, and bereaved of Hope?" . . .
“No answer
is received.”
These
exchanges suggest that a severe Karmic debt must ultimately be paid and as a
result something on the lines of Wagner’s Gotterdamerung
for the German people lies in the future.
The young king’s
vision continues and he sees a future of peace and harmony but awakes to find
himself sick and exhausted at the head of his national war machine with war
imminent.
“He rises
from his couch weaker and wearier than ever, to see around him endless lines of
troops armed with a new and yet more murderous weapon
of destruction -- ready for the battlefield.”
The young
king’s defeat was predicted in his previous warrior incarnation and he is
clearly in no state to lead his country in war.
I suggest
that this final scene represents a militarist nation which, although a
formidable fighting force, eventually exhausts itself by war.
______________________
If H P
Blavatsky did predict the First World War in “Karmic Visions”, she was not
alone. The term “The Great War” was originally coined by German Chancellor Otto
von Bismark who said that a cataclysmic European war
would come. He died in 1898. Bismark also believed
that the Germans would be worn down and defeated if they had to fight on two
fronts.
The
British Government were also thinking along the same lines, Tower Bridge was
built in the 1880s to prevent a German naval attack on London
_________________
This is my
interpretation of the piece and as everything in Theosophy is negotiable, you
may have a different view. There are many other themes in this story and I may
do future postings on these.
Here is a
link to the complete text so you can make you own mind up.
Karmic Visions By H P Blavatsky
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