You Have the Right to Share the Experience
of Your Spiritual Journey with Your Friends
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
A friend of the Independent Lodge submits this question:
“How can I spread Theosophy correctly, without disturbing people?”
Anyone who identifies with theosophy will hardly take pleasure in trampling the state of mind of others. He’s not attracted by the prospect of inflicting a lecture about karma and reincarnation on people who would prefer to think about how to get a higher salary, buy a new car, get their son a job, or spend money at the mall.
To speak of philosophy is to emit a (sacred) mantra.
Many practice the mantras of politics, or the mantras of travel, food, or basketball. The mantras of environmental protection were once fashionable.
In a world where every citizen is constantly interrupted by propaganda, salespeople, advertisements and political and ideological campaigns thinly disguised as news, what right does a theosophist have to talk about theosophy to his friends and acquaintances?
When a student of philosophy asks people if they have made a lot of money lately, the question will seem normal. But when he asks someone “how is your Soul?” it may seem strange, or even absurd. And yet, the strangest thing around is that the people who think about their own spiritual souls are so few in modern times.
– How are you? I’d like to know: have you been in actual touch with your own higher self lately?
– I am fine, thanks. And you, what planet are you from? Did you get off the spacecraft just now?
– You guessed it. It’s parked over there across the street, it’s the green one with the blue antennas. And here on this planet, people don’t have souls?
– Here, this soul talk belongs to the Middle Ages. What counts now is your bank account, the smartest way to get materially rich, and your knowledge of the lives of celebrities.
– See you later.
The theosophist has the right to share the experience of his spiritual journey with his friends. By doing this, at the very least, he will know whether they are his friends indeed. When a citizen feels annoyed upon hearing someone talk about the Art of Living, it is because he lives on another planet.
If one transcends the outer mask, it is not difficult to find suffering in the life of any citizen. In some cases, even unconfessed despair. But pain has causes, which classic philosophy reveals and allows one to eliminate. The same person who considers a conversation about theosophy “extraterrestrial” may have his soul suppressed all the time by a thousand forms of materialism, which surround him. Among the pilgrim’s rights is that of expressing to others what is present in his soul. Whether they like it or not is not his problem.
Being sincere and transparent, calmly making your declaration of principles without losing your job or being considered “excessively crazy” by organized collective ignorance, is perhaps within your reach.
There are stranger things in the world today than studying classical theosophy.
After the first shock, most people can survive a direct dialogue with someone who believes in the law of karma, who practices sincerity, thinks well of the future of humanity and states that whatever you sow, sooner or later you reap.
– And how can I be effective in spreading theosophy?
– According to a popular saying in the Portuguese language, it is by trying and practicing that one can learn to fulfil his duty. Both defeat and victory are sources of valuable learning.
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The above text is available on the websites of the Independent Lodge of Theosophists since 11 August 2026. An initial, anonymous version of it is part of “The Aquarian Theosophist”, May 2023 edition, pp. 1-3. Original title: “Is It Possible to Talk About Theosophy, Without Shocking People?”
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Red more:
* The Prophet Isaiah Gave Us the Key.
* The Mahatmas and Christianity.
* Do Theosophists Fight Demons?
* Other writings of Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
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Helena Blavatsky (photo) wrote these words: “Deserve, then desire”.
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