Throughout my life, various employment situations, adventures and travels across our country it has been my fortune and choice to encounter and read many books, pamphlets and tracts mostly of a scientific, religious, metaphysical or philosophical style alongside an occasional remarkable piece of fiction and history. Of course many of these experiences that originated in libraries and bookshops naturally became, for me, factors of  personal truth that have without doubt assisted in creating the personality I now project as my temporary self. It is said that we are what we eat and all readers know that we are affected in some way or another by what we choose to consume as our reading material. Our choices may add to or take from our natures as free thinkers, individual theosophical thinkers. This romp through many tomes (some great, some not so great) alongside encounters with individuals of various tones also led to my current worldly role as bookseller for a choice of occupation. Christopher Morley reminds booksellers that when we sell a person a book, we are not selling them a pile of glue, stitching and paper, rather, we are selling new life. New life that can lead to new experiences which are indeed chapters during our sojourn on earth.  Experience, action or karma affect what we theosophists call our swabhavic essence. It is this spiritual essence that will be used to cast the future life of today, tomorrow afternoon and also, if you will, our future incarnations as new personalities. Old script writers, new dramas. We alone are responsible for what we are becoming. It  follows  that  we are our own initiators,   our own masters of destiny.  We are  daily sacrificing  to  our transcendent natures.  In a recently published book by the leader of The Theosophical Society, Grace F. Knoche,  TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS * we read in the chapter on Western Occultism  “It is well to recall that in the ancient Greek Mysteries the stages of the initiatory process were variously enumerated, often broadly as three: katharsis, cleansing, purification of the soul; muesis, testing or trial of the candidate, to prove integrity of motive and firmness of will; and third, if successful, epopteia,  revelation, i.e., ‘seeing’ behind the veil of nature. Always the character had to be shaped in accordance with the noblest ideals; nothing was gained without sacrifice.......   True occultism - which is altruism lived, combined with knowledge of the inner structure of man and the universe - demands of its followers complete purity of thought and of deed.....  In the esoteric cycle of learning and discipline, the neophyte is enjoined first to absorb so far as he is able the ideal of self-forgetfulness and love for all beings.” Concerning this self-transcendence, the author further states that if it is to be lasting, it will not be obtained by external means alone as “It occurs without formality, in the still recesses of one’s inmost self. .... No exoteric training in self-transformation can match the inner transmutation of soul quality that takes place in the silence, the effects of which endure beyond death. They endure because they are registered in our spiritual nature.”

Some years back, as a young bookseller in New Mexico I happened upon several volumes by an author unknown to me. I had enjoyed for some years previous dipping in and out of the grand masterpieces of  H. P. Blavatsky’s SECRET DOCTRINE and ISIS UNVEILED alongside other theosophical classics including some of the writings of William Q. Judge. Many readings  were  inspiring.   The new author I came upon was G. de Purucker.  After reading the selection it became obvious to me that there is indeed an ethical base structure at the core of certain theosophical literature, thought and application that can lead a “seeker” to a valid path in a somewhat confusing world.

In Grace Knoche’s new book a reader will encounter also this same inspired theosophy that will deliver no false leads. In this
book one will find refreshing statements of theosophical thought, evolution, reincarnation, karma, death, the Christian message, the Buddhist Paramitas and much more. The chapters build on a foundation that the realities of the esoteric adventure can exist only through an ethical approach to the truth on the path we are all traveling. A path we are attempting to become. There is indeed new life here. A new life that includes the vision of a universal brotherhood that all thinking people seek.

Due to my occupation I am always surrounded by about 100,000 different titles at work and about 7,000 at home. It is staggering and overwhelming. Nobody needs this many books! As a result I have an imaginary library, in an imaginary room,
in an imaginary beachhouse somewhere that consists of only 100 books most of which are for reference and a few for rereading and sharing with others. Anything else I want to read for entertainment I can get at the imaginary public library down the street from my imaginary beachhouse.  TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS would indeed be in my 100 volume library. I think that any free thinking student of life, from any bent, should make this book a part of their reading agenda.

* TO LIGHT A THOUSAND LAMPS: A THEOSOPHIC VISION
Grace F. Knoche
Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, 2001,
Available in Cloth & Softcover