The Mysteries of the Heart Doctrine
Original edition, 1902
From compiler's preface
Katherine Tingley's first book, published in 1902, three years after she moved the International Headquarters of the Theosophical Society to Point Loma, California. Katherine Tingley said that it was time for the history and teachings of Theosophy to be presented in a new way, adapted to the average mind and the new time.
The book was outlined by her to contain some of the vital teachings of the Heart Doctrine – the Wisdom Religion, Theosophy – and also a record of some of the facts, many hitherto unpublished, of the history of this now world-wide Movement. She carefully selected subjects which she felt were best adapted to the present needs of the world (see Contents), including short sketches of the lives of H.P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge.
Excerpt from chapter "Theosophy for the Young"
Those who live in heart-touch with children are often astonished by the mystical, spiritual character of their earliest questions:
Who am I? Where did I come from and how did I get here? Why don't we see the wind? What makes the grass grow? What does "forever and ever'' mean? What makes the flowers and insects die every Autumn and then come back to us every Spring? What is the moon? Where did the stars come from? What is the sun? What is God?
The child of three or four never concerns himself about the style of his garments, or the price of coal, or the last election. His questions force us to believe that this little Pilgrim Soul intuitively divines the nature of the journey before him and therefore asks for spiritual knowledge, the only compass that can guide him through it.
"The Soul knows what it requires," and it is therefore the most important thing in the world that these early mystic questions of the child be answered rationally.
Why is this important? Because the child is a soul, a warrior, early destined to enter that battle which we call life. Shall that divine Warrior-Soul express itself in the street fight, in business "competition", in "professional jealousy" — the curse of the world of art? Or shall the Warrior do battle with the lower personal nature, that elemental self which is harder to conquer than it is to take a city? It all depends upon the ideals given to a child during the earliest years of life; and that he looks to us for spiritual, high ideals his questionings clearly indicate.
"Give me a child until he is seven," said Katherine Tingley, "and not all the temptations of the world can move him afterwards, for he will have learned the divinity of his own soul."
