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Re: Charles W. Leadbeater on "Mars and Its Inhabitants"

Feb 01, 2004 07:56 AM
by stevestubbs


Given that none of WC's drivel squares with what we know to be true 
about Mars, what does that say about WC's great "clairvoyance"?

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel H. Caldwell" 
<danielhcaldwell@y...> wrote:
> Charles W. Leadbeater on "Mars and Its Inhabitants"
> 
> ------------------------------------------
> 
> MARS AND ITS INHABITANTS
> 
> The present condition of the planet Mars is by no
> means unpleasant. It is a smaller planet than the
> Earth and more advanced in age. I do not mean that it
> is actually older in years, for the whole chain of
> worlds came into existence - not simultaneously indeed
> - but within a certain definite area of time. But
> being smaller it lives its life as a planet more
> quickly. It cooled more rapidly from the nebulous
> condition, and it has passed through its other stages
> with corresponding celerity. When humanity occupied it
> in the third round it was in much the same condition
> as is the Earth at the present time - that is to say,
> there was much more water than land on its surface.
> Now it has passed into comparative old age, and the
> water surface is far less than that of the land. Large
> areas of it are at present desert, covered with a
> bright orange sandwich gives the planet the peculiar
> hue by which we so readily recognise it. Like that of
> many of our own deserts, the soil is probably fertile
> enough if the great irrigation system were extended to
> it, as it no doubt would have been if humanity had
> remained upon it until now.
> 
> The present population, consisting practically of
> members of the inner round, is but a small one, and
> they find plenty of room for themselves to live
> without great effort, in the equatorial lands, where
> the temperature is highest and there is no difficulty
> as to water. The great system of canals which has been
> observed by terrestrial astronomers was constructed by
> the second order of moon-men when they last occupied
> the planet, and its general scheme is to take
> advantage of the annual melting of enormous masses of
> ice at the outer fringe of the polar snow-caps. It has
> been observed that some of the canals are double, but
> the double line is only occasionally apparent; that is
> due to the fore-thought of the Martian engineers. The
> country is on the whole level, and they had great
> dread of inundations; and wherever they thought there
> was reason to fear too great an outrush of water under
> exceptional circumstances the second parallel canal
> was constructed to receive any possible overflow and
> carry it away safely. 
> 
> The actual canals themselves are not visible to
> terrestrial telescopes; what is seen is the belt of
> verdure which appears in a tract of country on each
> side of the canal only at the time when the water
> pours in. Just as Egypt exists only because of the
> Nile, so do large districts on Mars exist only because
> of these canals. From each of them radiate at
> intervals water-ways, which run some miles into the
> surrounding country and are then subdivided into
> thousands of tiny streamlets, so that a strip of
> country a hundred miles in width is thoroughly
> irrigated. In this area are forests and cultivated
> fields, and vegetation of all sorts stands forth in
> the greatest profusion, making upon the surface of the
> planet a dark belt which is visible to us even forty
> million miles away when the planet is at its nearest
> and favourably situated. 
> 
> Mars is much farther from the centre of the system
> than we are, and consequently the sun appears to its
> inhabitants scarcely more than half the size that it
> does to us. Nevertheless the climate of the inhabited
> portions of the planet is very good, the temperature
> during the day at the equator being usually about 70
> degrees Fahrenheit, although there are not many nights
> of the year when there is not a touch of frost. Clouds
> are almost unknown, the sky being for most of the year
> entirely clear.The country is therefore to a large
> extent free from the unpleasantness of rain or snow.
> The Martian day is a few minutes longer than out own
> and their year is nearly twice as long as ours, and
> the variation of the seasons in the inhabited part is
> but slight. In physical appearance the Martians are
> not unlike ourselves, except that they are
> considerably smaller. The tallest men are not above
> five feet in height and the majority are two or three
> inches shorter. According to our ideas they are
> somewhat broad in proportion, having very great chest
> capacity - a fact which may possibly be due to the
> rarity of the air and the consequent necessity of deep
> breathing in order fully to oxygenate the blood. The
> whole civilised population of Mars is one race, and
> there is practically no difference in features or
> complexion, except that, just as among ourselves,
> there are blondes and brunettes, some of the people
> having a faintly yellowish skin and black hair, while
> the majority have yellow hair and blue or violet eyes
> - somewhat Norwegian in appearance. They dress mostly
> in brilliant colours, and both sexes wear an almost
> shapeless garment of some very soft material which
> falls straight down from the shoulders down to the
> feet. Generally the feet are bare, though they
> sometimes use a sort of metal sandal or slipper, with
> a thong round the ankle. 
> 
> They are very fond of flowers, of which there is a
> great variety, and their towns are built on the
> general plan of the garden-city, the houses usually
> being one-storeyed only, but built round inner
> courtyards and straggling over a great deal of ground.
> These houses look exteriorly as though built of
> coloured glass, and indeed the material which is used
> is transparent, but it is somehow so fluted that while
> the persons inside enjoy an almost unimpeded view of
> their gardens, no one from outside can see what is
> going on in the house. 
> 
> The houses are not built up in blocks, but the
> material is melted and poured into moulds; if a house
> is to be built, a sort of double mould is first made
> in metal faced with cement, and then the curious
> glass-like substance is melted and poured into this
> mould,and when it is cold and hardened the moulds are
> taken away, and the house is finished except for a
> certain amount of polishing of the surface. The doors
> are not exactly like ours, since they have no hinges
> or bolts, and are opened and shut by treading on
> certain spots in the ground, either without or within.
> They do not swing on hinges, but run back into the
> walls on each side. All these doors and all furniture
> and fittings are of metal. Wood seems to be used
> scarcely at all. 
> 
> There is only one language in use over the whole
> planet, except for the few savage tribes, and this
> language, like everything in their world, has not
> grown up as ours have done, but has been constructed
> to save time and trouble. It has been simplified to
> the last possible extent, and it has no irregularities
> of any sort. They have two methods of recording their
> thoughts. One is to speak into a small box with a
> mouthpiece on one side of it, something like that of a
> telephone. Each word so spoken is by the mechanism
> expressed as a kind of complicated sign upon a little
> plate of metal, and when the message has been spoken
> the plate falls out and is found to be marked in
> crimson characters, which can easily be read by those
> who are familiar with the scheme. The other plan is
> actually to write by hand, but that is an enormously
> more difficult acquirement, for the script is a very
> complicated kind of shorthand which can be written as
> rapidly as one can speak. It is in this latter script
> that all their books are printed, and these latter are
> usually in the shape of rolls made of very thin
> flexible metal. The engraving of them is extremely
> minute, and it is customary to read it through a
> magnifier, which is fixed conveniently upon a stand.
> In the stand there is machinery which unrolls the
> scroll before the magnifier at any desired rate, so
> that one read without needing to touch the book at
> all. 
> 
> On every hand one sees signs of a very old
> civilization, for the inhabitants have preserved the
> tradition of all that was known when the great
> life-wave of humanity occupied the planet, and have
> since added to it many other discoveries. Electricity
> seems to be practically the sole motive power, and all
> sorts of labour-saving machines are universally
> employed. 
> The people are on the whole distinctly indolent,
> especially after they have passed their first youth.
> But the comparatively small size of the population
> enables them to live very easily. They have trained
> various kinds of domestic animals to a far higher
> condition of intelligent co-operation than has yet
> been achieved upon earth, so that a great deal of
> servant's and gardener's work is done by these
> creatures with comparatively little direction. 
> One autocratic ruler governs the whole planet, but the
> monarchy is not hereditary. Polygamy is practised, but
> it is the custom to hand over all children to the
> State at a very early age to be reared and educated,
> so that among the vast majority of the people there is
> no family tradition whatever, and no one knows who is
> his father and mother. there is no law compelling
> this, but it is considered so decidedly the right
> thing to do and the best for the children that the few
> families who choose to live somewhat more as we do,
> and to educate their children at home, are always
> regarded as selfishly injuring their prospects for the
> sake of what is considered mere animal affection. 
> The state is thus in the position of universal
> guardian and schoolmaster, and the school authorities
> of each district are instructed carefully to sort the
> children according to the aptitudes they display, and
> their line of life is decided for them in this manner
> - a very wide range of choice, however, being allowed
> the individual child as he approaches years of
> discretion. But children who show at the same time
> great intellect and wide general capacity are set
> apart from the rest, and trained with a view of
> becoming members of the ruling class. 
> 
> The King has under him what may be called viceroys of
> large districts, and they in turn have under them
> governors of smaller districts, and so on down to what
> would be equivalent here to the head man of a village.
> All these officials are chosen by the King from this
> group of specially educated children, and when the
> time of his own death is considered to be approaching
> it is from them or from among the already appointed
> officials that he chooses his successor. 
> 
> They have brought their scientific medical studies to
> such perfection that disease has been eliminated, and
> even the ordinary signs of the approach of old age
> have been to a large extent got rid of. Practically no
> one appears old, and it would seem that they hardly
> feel old; but, after a life somewhat longer than our
> own the desire to live gradually fades away, and the
> man dies. It is quite customary for a man who is
> losing interest and feels that death is approaching
> (this corresponds to what we would call a centenarian)
> to apply to a certain scientific department which
> corresponds to what we might call a school of surgery,
> and ask to be put painlessly to death - a request
> which is always granted. 
> 
> All these rulers are autocratic, each within his own
> sphere, but appeal to a higher official is always
> possible, though the right is not frequently
> exercised, because the people usually prefer to
> acquiesce in any fairly reasonable decision rather
> than take the trouble involved in an appeal. The
> rulers on the whole seem to perform their duties
> fairly well, but again one gets the impression that
> they do so not so much from any pre-eminent sense of
> right or justice as to avoid the trouble that would
> certainly ensue from a fragrantly unjust decision. 
> one of the most remarkable things about this people is
> that they have absolutely no religion. There are no
> churches, no temple, no places of worship of any sort
> whatever, no priest, no ecclesiastical power. The
> accepted belief of the people is what we should call
> scientific materialism. Nothing is true but what can
> be scientifically demonstrated, and to believe
> anything which cannot be so demonstrated is regarded
> as not only the height of folly, but even as a
> positive crime, because it is considered a danger to
> the public peace. 
> 
> Martian history in the remote past was not unlike our
> own, and there are stories of religious persecutions,
> and of peoples whose beliefs were of so uncomfortable
> a nature that they forced them not only into feverish
> energy for themselves, but also into perpetual
> interference with the liberty of thought of other
> people. Martian public opinion is quite determined
> that there shall never again be any opportunity for
> the introduction of disturbing factors of that sort,
> and that physical science and the lower reason shall
> reign supreme; and though there, as here, events have
> occurred which material science cannot explain, people
> find it best to say nothing about them. 
> 
> Nevertheless on Mars, as in other places, there are a
> certain number of people who know better than this,
> and many centuries ago a few of these joined
> themselves together in a secret brotherhood to meet
> and discuss these matters. Very gradually and with
> infinite precaution, they took other recruits into
> this charmed circle, and so came into existence, in
> this most materialistic of worlds, a secret society
> which not only believed in superphysical worlds but
> knew practically of their existence, for its members
> took up the study of mesmerism and spiritualism, and
> many of them developed a good deal of power.
> 
> At the present time this secret society is very widely
> spread, and at the head of it at this moment is a
> pupil of one of our Masters. Even now after all these
> centuries its existence is not officially known to the
> authorities, but as a matter of fact they something
> more than a suspicion of it, and they have learned to
> fear it. None of its members are actually identified
> as such, but many are strongly suspected, and it seems
> to have been observed that when any of these strongly
> suspected people have in the past been injured or
> unjustly put to death, the persons who were concerned
> in bringing about that result have invariably died
> prematurely and mysteriously, though never in any case
> has their death been traceable to any physical-plane
> action on the part of the suspected member.
> Consequently, although such a belief is no doubt
> somewhat of an infringement of the principles of pure
> reason by which everything is supposed to be governed,
> it has come to be generally understood that it is
> safest not to pry too closely into the beliefs of
> people who seem to differ in some degree from the
> majority, so long as they do not openly make
> profession of anything which would be considered
> subversive of the good morals of materialism. 
> Driven far away from the pleasant equatorial regions
> into inhospitable lands and impenetrable forests,
> there still exist some remnants of the savage tribes
> who are descended from those left behind when the
> great life-wave left Mars for the earth. These are
> primitive savages at a lower stage than any now living
> on the exterior of our earth, though bearing some
> resemblance to one of our interior evolutions. 
> Some at least of the members of the secret society
> have learnt how to cross without great difficulty the
> space which separates us from Mars, and have therefore
> at various times tried to manifest themselves through
> mediums at spiritualist seances, or have been able, by
> the methods which they have learnt, to impress their
> ideas upon poets and novelists. 
> 
> The information which I have given above is based upon
> observation and inquiry during various visits to the
> planet; yet nearly all of it might be found in the
> works of various writers within the last thirty or
> forty years, and in all such cases it has been
> impressed by someone from Mars, although the very fact
> of such impression was (at least in some cases) quite
> unknown to the physical writer. 
> 
> Of our future home, Mercury, we know much less than of
> Mars, for visits to it have been hurried and
> infrequent. Many people would think it incredible that
> life such as ours could exist on Mercury, with a sun
> that appears at least seven times as large as it does
> here. The heat, however, is not at all so intense as
> would be supposed. I am informed that this is due to a
> layer of gas on the outskirts of the Mercurian
> atmosphere, which prevents most of the heat from
> penetrating. We are told that the most destructive of
> all possible storms on Mercury is one which even for a
> moment disturbs the stability of this gaseous
> envelope. When that happens a kind of whirl-pool is
> set up on it, and for a moment a shaft of direct
> sunlight comes from the sun through its vortex. Such a
> shaft instantly destroys whatever life comes in its
> way, and burns up in a moment everything combustible.
> Fortunately such storms are rare. The inhabitants whom
> I have seen there are much like ourselves, though
> again somewhat smaller. 
> 
> The influence of gravity both on Mars and Mercury is
> less than half what it is on earth, but while on Mars
> I did not notice any particular way in which advantage
> had been taken of this. I observed on Mercury that the
> doors of the houses were quite a considerable height
> from the ground, needing what for us would be a
> respectable gymnastic feat to reach them, though on
> Mercury it is only a slight spring which is required.
> All the inhabitants of that planet are from birth
> possessed of etheric sight; I remember that the fact
> was first brought to my notice by observing a child
> who was watching the movements of some crawling
> creature; and I saw that when it entered its abode he
> was still able to follow its movements, even when it
> was deep down under the ground. 
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> 
> Quoted from:
> http://theos-l.com/archives/199606/tl01020.html
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> 
> 
> =====
> Daniel H. Caldwell
> BLAVATSKY STUDY CENTER/BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
> http://blavatskyarchives.com/introduction.htm
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> "...Contrast alone can enable us to appreciate things at 
> their right value; and unless a judge compares notes and 
> hears both sides he can hardly come to a correct decision."
> H.P. Blavatsky. The Theosophist, July, 1881, p. 2
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