Theos-Talk Archives (November 2006 Message tt00313)

HPB:  "...unless absolved from such secrecy 
by the Head of the Section."
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I give below from H.P. Blavatsky's 1888 "Pledge Folder", the
following part of the pledge of the E.S.T.S.:

"I pledge myself to preserve inviolable secrecy as regards . . . all
confidential documents."

And under the Rules of the Esoteric Section, notice the wording
about the pledged E.S. student preserving and maintaining the:

"...Secrecy of the documents of the Section...."

"...unless absolved from such secrecy by the Head of the Section."

Consider the above also in the light of what HPB said about the
pledge in THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY:

"...To any man or woman with the slightest honourable feeling a 
pledge of secrecy taken even on one's word of honour, much more to 
one's Higher Self -- the God within -- is binding till death....But 
if it [the pledge] does not bind as far as this [that is, till 
death], what use is a pledge at all? How can anyone expect to be 
taught secret knowledge, if he is to be at liberty to free himself 
from all the obligations he had taken, whenever he pleases? What 
security, confidence, or trust would ever exist among men, if pledges 
such as this were to have no really binding force at all? . . . As 
well expressed [by Jasper Niemand] in the N. Y. 'Path' . . . on this 
subject, 'A pledge once taken, is for ever 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.' (The 
Path, July, 1889.)"

SUMMARY:

H.P.B. writes that "a pledge of secrecy taken ... to one's Higher 
Self -- the God within -- is binding till death."

Therefore the honorable ES student who has taken such a pledge 
should "preserve inviolable secrecy as regards . . . all confidential 
documents . . ." UNLESS "absolved from such secrecy by the Head of 
the Section."

Otherwise, "what use is a pledge at all? How can anyone expect to be 
taught secret knowledge, if he is to be at liberty to free himself 
from all the obligations he had taken, whenever he pleases?"
 
See the full pledge of 1888 at:
http://blavatskyarchives.com/espage3.htm

See complete set of rules at:
http://blavatskyarchives.com/espage2.htm

See more of HPB's comments on the pledge in THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/37005

Daniel
http://hpb.cc