Jaan tells the multitude:
"'They shall return. I, in whom lives the mind of Caruith, pledge this, if we will make our world worthy to receive them.'" (9, p. 151)
In Spiritualist terminology, Jaan claims to be the medium of a spirit guide. In Theosophist terminology, he claims to be the Vehicle of the World Teacher. No surprises there: Madame Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy, had been a medium.
Blavatsky's Theosophist successors prepared Jiddu Krishnamurti (see image) to be the next Vehicle, like Krishna and Jesus before him. On one occasion, when Krishnamurti was addressing a large open-air meeting, it was reported that his voice and face changed as he said, "And I come..." This was interpreted as the first manifestation of the Coming. However, on a later occasion, he dissolved the Order of the Star, the support organization that had been built around him, proclaiming that "...truth is a pathless land..."
His later non-Theosophical teaching is, in my opinion, indistinguishable from Zen except that he discouraged the important practice of "just sitting" meditation.
5 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
And you already know my view: Aycharaych was priming Jaan to preach what amounted to a latter day form of Gnosticism. Secret knowledge revealed to an Elect, mysterious powers, demiurges called the "Ancients," etc. A fraud, of course, trumped up by the Chereionite as a means for shattering the Empire.
Ad astra! Sean
Blavatsky was a very, very influential charlatan, and as Sean says more or less a gnostic.
Among her amusing (if you weren't within reach of him) followers was Baron von Ungern-Sternberg, the Baltic-German Russian warlord who took over Mongolia briefly in the early 1920's and proclaimed that he was the reincarnation of Genghis Khan and an avatar of the Mongol war-goddess Jamsaran.
He did drive the Chinese out of Mongolia, which probably preserved "Outer" Mongolia from the fate of "Inner", where the Mongols were outnumbered and overwhelmed by Chinese (Han) settlers.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
And your comments makes me even more keen on reading your new novel, SHADOWS OF ANNIHILATION, since Baron von Ungern-Sternberg seems to be a major character there. I am assuming he managed to rule Outer Mongolia much longer than von Ungern did in our timeline.
Yes, various kinds of gnosticism, ancient and modern, has been a perennial temptation to many, as we see in Anderson's own novel OPERATION CHAOS, with the fraudulent Johannine Church.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: the "Bloody Baron" doesn't come onstage in SHADOWS, though he's mentioned; he's a major figure in the second trilogy, which I'm working on now. Those will be:
DAGGERS IN DARKNESS
THE WARLORD OF THE STEPPES
THE TOMB OF THE GREAT KHAN
Unless the publisher wants different ones, of course. I haven't actually sold them yet -- negotiations are in progress. The first one's about half done and I'm having great fun with it.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Thanks for correcting my mistake! And I am even more keen to read your second Black Chamber trilogy, when the books come out. I can't help wondering if Horst will survive to play a role in them?
Ad astra! Sean
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