The Secret Gateway: Modern Theosophy and the Ancient Wisdom Tradition by Edward Abdill, Quest Books, Wheaton, IL, 2005; ISBN 0835608425, 241 pages, paperback, $15.95.
Clear and understandable, The Secret Gateway discusses basic theosophical ideas and how they apply to our lives and the universe around us. That truth is found in nature and ourselves, and must be experienced by each of us in order to be understood, is a thread that runs through the entire book. The first section deals with the three fundamental propositions of The Secret Doctrine — an ineffable cosmic principle, cyclic action, and spiritual evolution through becoming — as well as with the nature and evolution of our consciousness. The author’s treatment is direct and practical, avoiding theosophical jargon and not losing itself in metaphysical abstractions. Discussion of the Theosophical Society focuses on the writings of its chief founder, Helena Blavatsky; her teachers, the Mahatmas; and the Society’s objectives. The final section discusses the spiritual path and how through study, meditation, and service each of us progresses toward transcendence of our human limitations, either slowly through natural evolutionary processes or more quickly through entering the portals described in Blavatsky’s Voice of the Silence. With its warm and easy style, this book is an excellent and timely introduction to theosophy. — Sarah Belle Dougherty
(From Sunrise magazine, Winter 2007; copyright © 2006 Theosophical University Press)
Nature is a Volume written in celestial hieroglyphs, in a true Sacred-writing; of which even Prophets are happy that they can read here a line and there a line. — Thomas Carlyle