GoipghtN^ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA 
 
 AN INTERPRETATION OF 
 
 THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS 
 
 Ccv- ■ 'MABEL COLLINsY^vu.-^. 
 
 A THREEFOLD NARRATIVE 
 
 I. A STORY OF BLACK MAGIC IN ANCIENT 
 EGYPT. 
 
 2. THE INITIATIONS OF AN EGYPTIAN HEIRO- 
 
 PHANT. 
 
 3. THE TRAGEDY AND APOTHEOSIS OF THE 
 
 HUMAN SOUL. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 
 John W. Lovell, Publisher, 
 
 1 V/est 34th Street 
 

 Copyright, J91S, 
 
 BY 
 
 MABEL COOK 
 
 0^C1.A3 6J.273 
 
^ 
 
 ^vTHE STORY OF SENSA 
 
 An Interpretation of 
 The Idyll of the White Lotus 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The story of Sensa, as told with marvel- 
 lous and mystic art in The Idyll of the 
 White Lotus contains within itself three 
 narratives, separate yet inseparable, 
 united in their very nature and essence, as 
 are the three leaflets of the trefoil clover. 
 They cannot be taken apart, but they can 
 be looked upon separately and in each 
 is contained something vital which ap- 
 peals to the deepest part of the human 
 nature within ourselves. No student of 
 occultism who has once read this Idyll 
 and penetrated within any part of its 
 mystic veil, can forget it or be parted 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 from it, because it relates his own story, 
 the tragedy and ultimate apotheosis of 
 his own soul, and is therefore an essen- 
 tial part of himself. 
 
 I am able to write of the Idyll as a 
 critic and a student, not as its author in 
 any sense, because I simply placed it 
 upon paper in human language, as it was 
 told to me in the mystical and universal 
 language, when my personality was in 
 the state known to the occultists of 
 Southern India as " swapna " — obscurely 
 translated into English by the words 
 " somnambulic clairvoyance." In 1878 I 
 was deeply engrossed in literary work 
 which kept me constantly at my writing 
 table, and from the window of the room 
 I worked in I saw Cleopatra's Needle 
 brought up the river and set up upon the 
 Embankment. A procession of superb 
 Egyptian priests began from that time to 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 come into my room — coming up the 
 staircase and entering the door — and 
 stood around my table. I thought at 
 first it was the appearance of astral 
 forms connected with the Needle. But 
 as these mysterious visits continued 
 and culminated in a great effort, it is 
 evident that if they were astral forms 
 they were animated and directed by the 
 egos to which they belonged, and were 
 indeed the Kas of certain priests of an- 
 cient Egypt. It is of course known as a 
 fact that the religious Egyptians under- 
 stood that the Ka or astral form of a 
 person who had lived a spiritual life 
 could be used by the ego of that person 
 for great purposes if carefully preserved 
 and protected. Also it has been stated 
 that the Ka or astral form exists to serve 
 the purpose of supplying information 
 with regard to events on the physical 
 3 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 plane to its ego in Devachan. This 
 seems to be what took place in this case, 
 and when the hour was ripe the ego 
 came to the place where its work had to 
 be done, and aroused the ego within my- 
 self so that I stood out of myself 
 to receive the message, and wrote it 
 down upon the paper on my table, ar- 
 resting the thinking principle of my 
 brain in its action while this was ac- 
 complished. Thus the story was passed 
 from the higher consciousness to the 
 lower, intact and perfect. The ''Ka" of 
 the Ancient Egyptians is the " astral 
 form " of the Theosophists, the " spook " 
 of the spiritualist's seance room, the 
 " ghost " of all time and all countries. It 
 was regarded by the Egyptians as earth- 
 bound, unenlightened, ignorant and re- 
 taining the lowest of the physical de- 
 sires of the man. They had an object 
 4 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 in keeping it imprisoned in the tomb of 
 the body, and they therefore provided it 
 with amusements and pleasures there 
 to prevent its roaming about and per- 
 haps seeking still less desirable gratifica- 
 tions. They had an elaborate ritual by 
 which they kept it there instead of allow- 
 ing it to become disintegrated on the 
 astral plane. This was done because they 
 held that the ego in its high place might 
 in the future need its services upon earth, 
 and come to seek it ; and they believed 
 that from time to time this occurred. Of 
 course the priests's knowledge of magic 
 and the mysteries of the after life was 
 regarded as great enough to establish and 
 hold such a connection over the centur- 
 ies. The shapes of priests who came into 
 my room and stood around my table be- 
 fore the Idyll of the White Lotus was 
 written were not seen by others; it re- 
 5 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 quired " waking clairvoyance " {jagrat) 
 to perceive them; but still, they were 
 ghosts, pure and simple, the shades of 
 the dead. But, as no doubt the ego of a 
 great adept undertook the task of writ- 
 ing the Idyll it is more than probable that 
 at the moment when the work was actu- 
 ally begun, when I was summoned into 
 the higher consciousness, each one of 
 these ghosts was inhabited by its true 
 ego, or spiritual form. 
 
 These priests were not the priests who 
 appear as characters in the book ; it is 
 necessary to state this clearly to avoid 
 any confusion. The priests who gave 
 the story of Sensa to the world were 
 representatives of the great spiritual re- 
 ligion, (that " white magic " which came 
 from prehistoric times,) acting once 
 more in a definite manner upon man and 
 aiding his evolution. 
 6 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 The priests in the story represent those 
 who were sorcerers, workers of " black 
 magic." 
 
 It must be remembered that magic is 
 a word of dignity and spirituaHty, de- 
 rived as it is, from the ancient Zend. 
 It simply means the powers and prac- 
 tises of the wise men, the Magi. Pro- 
 fessor Walter Budge says : * " The belief 
 in magic, the word being used in its best 
 sense, is older in Egypt than the belief 
 in God." — " Egyptian magic dates from 
 the time when the pre-dynastic and pre- 
 historic dwellers in Egypt believed that 
 air, and the sky were peopled with count- 
 less beings, visible and invisible, which 
 were held to be friendly or unfriendly 
 the earth, and the underworld, and the 
 to man — " He points out that the magic 
 known in other countries has been drawn 
 * Walter Budge's " Egyptian Magic," Kegan Paul. 
 
 7 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 from " the White Magic " and " the 
 Black Magic " of ancient Egypt, and 
 adds : " it is impossible to say exactly 
 how much the beliefs and religious sys- 
 tems of other nations were influenced by 
 them, but there is no doubt that certain 
 views and religious ideas of many 
 heathen and Christian sects may be 
 traced directly to them." 
 
 This is the glorious side of the retro- 
 spect, showing how the highest that is 
 in us, and the best that we know, has its 
 origin and root in the mysterious pre- 
 historic past of Egypt. 
 
 A great, dark, gloomy shape arises 
 from the same ancient source and the 
 light and the darkness battled ceaselessly 
 then as they have done ever since, in the 
 world and in every man's own nature. 
 
 Professor Wallis Budge says : " To 
 him that was versed in the lore contained 
 8 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 in the books of ' the double house of life ' 
 the future was as well known as the 
 past and neither time nor distance could 
 limit the operations of his power ; the 
 mysteries of life and death were laid 
 bare before him — Now if such views as 
 these concerning the magician's power 
 were held by the educated folk of an- 
 cient Egypt there is little to wonder at 
 when we find that beliefs and supersti- 
 tions of the most degraded character 
 flourished with rank luxuriance among 
 the peasants and working classes of that 
 country — To meet the religious needs 
 of such pople the magician, and in later 
 times the priest, found it necessary to 
 provide pageants and ceremonies which 
 appealed chiefly to the senses — this 
 magic degenerated into sorcery, and 
 demonology, and witchcraft, and those 
 who dealt in it were regarded as associ- 
 9 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 ates of the Devil and servants of the 
 powers of darkness, and workers of the 
 ' black art.' " Here we have the atmos- 
 phere in which the story of Sensa is set, 
 we feel how true to life is the picture of 
 the innocent neophyte plunged into the 
 battle between the powers of good and 
 evil. Subba Rao, the learned Brahmin 
 Theosophist says of the Idyll : * "It 
 truly depicts the Egyptian faith and the 
 Egyptian priesthood, when the religion 
 had already begun to lose its purity and 
 degenerate into a system of Tantric wor- 
 ship contaminated and defiled by black 
 magic, unscrupulously used for selfish 
 and immoral purposes." 
 
 If we first of all read the Idyll in its 
 artistic setting as a story of ancient 
 Egypt, laid in one of its great Temples, 
 (now long since a ruin, buried beneath 
 
 ♦ " Esoteric Writings " page 240, (Bombay). 
 10 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 the dust of ages,) we see the young boy, 
 born of the peasants, a fellah, chosen 
 out of his family to enter its sacred 
 hidden priestly life as a novice. He is 
 innocent, untrained, simple. He is awe- 
 struck at the vocation open to him, and 
 at the majesty and dignity of the priests. 
 To them he is simply an ignorant boy 
 from the country who will have enough 
 work given him to do, such as he is 
 fitted for. They think nothing of him, 
 and Agmabd, the high priest of the 
 " dark goddess," the leader of the group 
 of black magicians, does not notice how 
 profound is the impression made on 
 the sensitive child by his presence and 
 personality. His golden beard, his ex- 
 quisite robe, white, embroidered with 
 gold in mystic patterns, the glamour 
 which encompassed him, filled Sensa 
 •with strange new emotions, inexplicable 
 II 
 
TPIE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 and bewildering. In spite of his charm 
 and gentleness the child recognized in 
 him something hard and cold, something 
 scarcely human. He indicates this by- 
 saying that Agmabd seemed to him like 
 something carved. Agmabd sees a timid 
 boy, and bids him not to fear. He di- 
 rects that he shall be taken into the 
 school. Here where pale students study 
 difficult papyri, the priest who is their 
 teacher treats him with contempt. The 
 new novice is only a country boy, clearly 
 no scholar ; there is no time to be wasted 
 on him. He directs that the child be 
 taken to the gardener, who will be able 
 to give him some work. He goes into 
 this place of beauty, and being a seer 
 and clairvoyant becomes aware of the 
 presence of The Goddess — the spirit of 
 true religion becomes visible to him, per- 
 sonified, rising out of the sacred flower 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 of Egypt. In full waking clairvoyance 
 he gazes upon her, and then tries to ap- 
 proach her, but this effort is too great, 
 and he faints away. 
 
 The fact that he is a seer at once 
 changes his position in the Temple. The 
 black magicians determine to control 
 him and use his gifts for their own ends. 
 They are in great need of one with this 
 gift, to act as a medium for their dark 
 goddess, to enable her to communicate 
 with them and with the people. Every 
 effort is made to secure him for this pur- 
 pose. The battle between the two 
 forces of good and evil literally rage 
 over him. He is of priceless value to 
 Agmabd and the black magicians who 
 follow and obey him. They have need 
 of a medium, there is no seer or clairvoy- 
 ant amongst them, and although they 
 have all the learning of the ancient Egyp- 
 13 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 tian, all the powers of the students of 
 magic, they cannot communicate with 
 their innermost guide and controller, 
 the dark Queen, without the psychic gift. 
 It has been lost by reason of their utter 
 selfishness and degradation, so that they 
 have had nothing to ofifer the people but 
 inventions and deceit. They are placed 
 before us in the position of the fortune- 
 tellers and miracle-workers of to-day — 
 when the power has left them, in order 
 to keep the suffrages and the support of 
 the public on whom they depend it be- 
 comes necessary to invent and to lie. 
 The company of the high priests are 
 weary of subterfuge and exhausted in 
 invention. The discovery of a natural 
 clairvoyant, a born seer, in one of the 
 young neophytes, is to them like the 
 sight of gold in the soil to a gold-digger. 
 The child must be secured, made their 
 14 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 slave, trained in mediumsiiip, taught how 
 to Hsten to the strange voice of the dark 
 Queen, (the personification of evil and 
 falsehood and selfishness,) and to give 
 her messages to her servants ; taught how 
 to take their requests to her and obtain 
 from her the gratification of their de- 
 sires. This is the vocation laid down for 
 Sensa, upon which he is to enter imme- 
 diately, without any delay whatever. 
 They cannot afford to wait — they have 
 sold their very souls to the Devil, and 
 they must have payment — power and 
 the gratification of desire for them- 
 selves, miracles and excitement for the 
 people who support them. None of 
 these things can they get, because there 
 is none among them with psychic power, 
 none who is not bound by materialism 
 in consequence of evil doing and selfish- 
 ness. Therefore so soon as the gardener 
 15 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 tells them that the child has seen a vis- 
 ion, they claim him for their own. But 
 the vision was that of Truth, of the 
 personification of the Logos ; the Lily- 
 Queen of Egypt's pure religion had dis- 
 covered his open sight before the black 
 magicians knew of it ; and his heart had 
 gone out to truth and purity and love ; 
 he had done obeisance to the Supreme. 
 Therefore the black magicians found the 
 task of subduing him to their evil pur- 
 poses, and selfish will, much harder than 
 they had expected it to be. They 
 thought he was merely an ignorant boy 
 who would be as wax in their hands ; 
 whom they could use and exploit with- 
 out difficulty ; but he was indeed a human 
 being within whom was illumination and 
 who was struggling to retain it and to 
 draw nearer and nearer to the light. 
 The ordeals to which he was subjected, 
 i6 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 the temptations placed in his way, the 
 seductions offered to him, give the set- 
 ting of sombre and briUiant pictures re- 
 quired for the enactment of this 
 tragedy of the soul. 
 
 That the black magicians should have 
 so misjudged the neophyte is perfectly 
 natural and true to life. An inability to 
 recognise the higher natures is a charac- 
 teristic of those who have chosen the 
 path of self -aggrandisement. The 
 priests who surrounded Sensa were so 
 deeply plunged in the gratification of 
 desire and in the blind materialism 
 which results from it, that they no 
 longer understood the laws of evolu- 
 tion and did not realise that waking 
 clairvoyance and the true Vision are only 
 possible to one who has entered upon 
 the upward path. Therefore they mis- 
 calculated his strength, and met with a 
 17 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 resistance they did not look for. They 
 thought that by the mere exercise of au- 
 thority over this helpless child they could 
 get all that they wanted. And at first it 
 seemed as if it was to be so. He was 
 taken into the holy of holies in which 
 dwelled the dark Power. Again he 
 sees — this time to tremble with horror. 
 And he refuses to obey the command of 
 the dark Power ; fainting, once more, 
 from exhaustion. And so passed his 
 first day within the Temple. The 
 priests seek for means to entice the 
 soul from the body, and leave it un- 
 controlled, to be used by the dark Queen 
 as her medium ; the attempts in which 
 the fascinations and pleasures of black 
 magic on the subtle planes of experience 
 are ofifered to him seems at first to be 
 successful. The longing for freedom 
 from his imprisonment can be gratified 
 i8 
 
Of THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 by leaving his body ; and when the chance 
 to do this comes he takes it without 
 hesitation, in complete ignorance of the 
 danger. But the Lotus Queen herself 
 comes to his entranced body and wakens 
 it and calls the soul back to take the 
 command. Then Agmabd creates a per- 
 sonification of pleasure, which comes to 
 the boy as another child, a girl full of 
 fun and play. This most difficult feat of 
 the black magician brings success at 
 last; Sensa follows his new playmate 
 with natural delight. She leads him 
 into gardens of flowers ; among children 
 who are playing games ; and he becomes 
 possessed by the very spirit of pleasure, 
 playing eagerly with the others. This 
 time Agmabd conquered; while the soul 
 wandered away into the world of child- 
 like delights, the entranced body was 
 seized upon, used, controlled by the dark 
 19 
 
THE STORV OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 Goddess. The soul of the neophyte saw 
 itself surrounded by merry children like 
 himself; the body of the neophyte was 
 raised up and surrounded by worship- 
 ping priests, its voice used to utter words 
 of authority. The gay and innocent soul 
 which had been led from one plane to 
 another by Agmabd's magical powers 
 was happy in the experiences of dream- 
 consciousness, while its body was thus 
 used. Returning to its own place it 
 found all changed. No longer was the 
 ego of this neophyte the ruler of its 
 body. The boy had become a medium, 
 made so by witchcraft and sorcery de- 
 spite the power of the Lotus Queen. His 
 voice had been used without his knowl- 
 edge. His body had been worshipped 
 as the dwelling and vehicle of the Avidya 
 herself while he had been playing with 
 his child friends in the dream conscious- 
 20 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 ness. It is a most interesting study in 
 the simultaneous enactment of events, 
 and in the passing of the soul from one 
 state of consciousness to another, which 
 is here given. Ambition and emulation 
 have come to him in the subtile conscious- 
 ness, artfully drawn forth in him by 
 the black magician who is guiding his 
 fate ; he is the successful competitor in 
 the games, and then he is lifted up to be 
 a leader of the children and placed on a 
 throne in their midst to speak to them. 
 He is quite forgetful of his body and of 
 his responsibility with regard to it, ex- 
 cited by the subtile pleasures offered to 
 him. Then he " fell asleep " as it is ex- 
 pressed. Any one who has had a very 
 vivid dream consciousness and returned 
 suddenly from it to the physical con- 
 sciousness will recognise this description 
 as' perfectly correct. The feeling is ex- 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 actly the same as that of falHng asleep 
 in the physical consciousness. Followed 
 by the voices of the children acclaiming 
 him and praising him, he entered into his 
 body and found it surrounded by wor- 
 shipping priests to whom he had spoken 
 words he knew not, and could not have 
 understood if he had known them. The 
 only child among the crowd was the little 
 girl who had led him into the gardens of 
 subtile pleasure and returned with him ; 
 the creature of Agmabd, a form ani- 
 mated by his mind. The manner in 
 which this child appears, and her actions, 
 is one of the signs of that high priest be- 
 ing a very highly advanced Yogin, a 
 sorcerer of the first rank. And even 
 now, so late in his career, he might have 
 cast the darkness from him and become 
 by suffering and expiation, a Yogin of 
 the first rank. But he is unable to pass 
 
 22 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 beyond the contemplation of the phenom- 
 enal universe. He cannot escape from 
 the thrall of the dominating characteris- 
 tic of his nature, the love of power. He 
 is destroyed by his own ambition. He 
 has conquered the child-seer who goes 
 helplessly with him into the desecrated 
 and terrible Holy of Holies, there to be 
 the medium between him and his evil 
 ruler. He has sought long for this op- 
 portunity of direct communication with 
 the powerful spirit, determined to secure 
 the prizes for which he has worked, the 
 gratification of his colossal ambition. 
 He desires to be a ruler in the world of 
 men, to wear a crown of absolute power. 
 Now he is able, by reason of his con- 
 quest of Sensa's will, to make his final 
 demand of the evil one. And he is im- 
 mediately confronted by the supreme or- 
 deal of the black magician. Till now he 
 23 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION" 
 
 has retained his claim to immortality and 
 to the possibility of ultimate redemption. 
 But if he is to have his desired prize, he 
 must surrender the heritage of man. he 
 must sell his birthright. And after a 
 brief pause, in which his great intellect 
 and his widely developed consciousness, 
 survey the bargain, he pronounces " the 
 fatal words." Henceforth he is one of 
 the Prakritilaya, those Yogins who are 
 soulless and without knowledge of the 
 Supreme, and who must ultimately be dis- 
 integrated, or " resolved into nature " 
 because there is no spiritual being within 
 which can live on. And the boy, looking 
 on him as he makes the dreadful choice, 
 sees that his face grows " colder and 
 more stony than any carven form." Al- 
 ready he experiences an augmentation of 
 the peculiar strength of the magician. 
 He exhibits the complete perfection of 
 24 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 body which is one of the powers of the 
 magician, the perfection which accord- 
 ing to PatanjaH, the Persian sage, in- 
 cludes " beauty, gracefulness, strength, 
 and adamantine hardness." The aspect 
 as of a carved figure had belonged to him 
 in the eyes of the child-seer from the 
 first; now it has become confirmed. 
 Agmabd has bartered immortality for a 
 mortality during which he can be injured 
 by none, he can suffer no ill, he will be 
 immune from all danger. Such are the 
 great and terrible beings who appear as 
 rulers of masses of men from time to 
 time, who conquer and control by sheer 
 force of will, who bear charmed lives, 
 against whom revenge and justice are 
 alike unavailing. 
 
 In order to give to Agmabd the crown 
 which he demands of her the evil spirit 
 requires twelve " sworn servants " to do 
 25 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 her bidding. For there is work to do, 
 and the workers must be secured. The 
 dark Queen tells Agmabd that the num- 
 ber must be complete. There are ten 
 priests in the Temple who are hungry 
 with desire for pleasure ; the dark Queen 
 promises to satisfy them and in so doing 
 to bind them to their service. There is 
 Kamen Baka, the second in dignity in 
 the Temple ; his heart's desire is known 
 to the dark Queen and she is prepared to 
 gratify it, without delay. " And who 
 shall be the one to complete the num- 
 ber? " asks Agmabd. 
 
 " This child," she answers, and by 
 those words the fate of Sensa is sealed ; 
 that fate which changes him from " a gay 
 child, a happy creature of sunshine " into 
 a " sad youth " whose " sick heart held 
 hidden within it many secrets " of shame 
 
 26 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 and sin and sorrow, and who knew him- 
 self for a slave. 
 
 This terrible scene is immediately fol- 
 lowed by the summons from the dark 
 Queen to Kamen Baka. He enters the 
 holy of holies, a blind man, stumbling 
 in the dark, seeing nothing, altogether 
 dependent on the mediumship of an- 
 other, despised by the evil power whom 
 he serves. The dark Queen views him 
 with contempt because his human per- 
 sonality is his limitation. He craves 
 personal adoration, personal love given 
 to him by those around him, whom he 
 feels regard him now with coldness and 
 dislike. His demand is easily granted, 
 if he pronounces the fatal words which 
 belong to this step in the downward path. 
 He knows well what they are, and with 
 the dreadful glare upon his face of the 
 one who desires to have and to take all 
 27 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 and give nothing, utters them, though 
 with pain. " From henceforward, 
 though all men love me, I love no man." 
 The dark Queen knows that the 
 strength of the young seer has been tried 
 to the uttermost, and orders that he shall 
 be given rest. Agmabd therefore leaves 
 him to himself and tells the gardener to 
 take him out among the flowers. Sebona 
 is not to take him to the lotus tank 
 but among beautiful things which refresh 
 his soul and awaken his artistic nature. 
 But all true art is fed from the Supreme, 
 and in the midst of his delight in beauty, 
 of his rejoicing in the glory of life, the 
 Lady of the Lotus suddenly comes to him 
 and tells him the mystery of the water, 
 and shows him how to rise upon it. But 
 he is not strong enough to remain with 
 her ; he falls away, sinking back into the 
 darkness of his slavery and the words 
 28 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 she speaks to him become but a memory. 
 But still he cherishes them in his heart 
 and they ring out dimly from time to 
 time in the obscure regions of his dark- 
 ened brain, as the years of slavery and 
 shame pass by and he grows, in his 
 bondage, from childhood to manhood. 
 So ends the first Book of the Idyll. The 
 battle for this poor human soul still 
 rages, the Supreme holds fast to the 
 spark of divinity which it has lit, though 
 apparently Sensa is lost and is fated to 
 be one of the black magicians. 
 
 29 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The first book of the Idyll can be read 
 as the story of any neophyte of the 
 priesthood in the days of the degeneracy 
 and degradation of the great religion of 
 Egypt, if he was found to be a natural 
 psychic. But the second book contains 
 scenes and events which show that Sensa 
 regarded as an individual, was not only 
 a seer but a soul so highly advanced as 
 to be ready to become an adept. He is 
 moreover described as a heirophant, one 
 who teaches. So that in reading the de- 
 tailed description of the ordeals and tests 
 through which he passes, it is inevitable 
 that the student of occultism shall look 
 upon him as a recognised personality, 
 one of the great ones of the race. Subba 
 30 
 
OF THE IDVLL OF tHE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 Rao, who observes * that the Idyll is 
 probably a true story, goes on to say, 
 " Sensa is represented to be the last great 
 heirophant of Egypt. Just as a tree 
 leaves its seed to develope into a similar 
 tree, even if it should perish completely, 
 so does every great religion seem to leave 
 its life and energy in one or more great 
 adepts destined to preserve its wisdom 
 and revive its growth at some future 
 time when the cycle of evolution tends 
 in the course of its revolution, to bring 
 about the desired result. The grand 
 old religion of Chemi is destined to re- 
 appear on this planet in a higher and 
 nobler form when the appointed time 
 arrives, and there is nothing unreason- 
 able in the supposition that the Sensa of 
 our story is probably now a very high 
 adept, who is waiting to carry out the 
 
 ♦Esoteric Writings, pagre 240. 
 31 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 commands of the " Lady of the White 
 Lotus." This view, of course, is based 
 upon the character of the ordeals de- 
 scribed, and upon Sensa's action in 
 teaching the people. The grounds for it 
 are inherent in the story. But it is not 
 possible to identify Sensa with any 
 known adept, nor has any such attempt 
 been made except as a vague speculation. 
 Still, the idea suggested by Subba Rao 
 that the ego of Sensa may yet have serv- 
 ice to do for humanity gives a keen in- 
 terest to the character and adds to the 
 profound occultism of the story the ro- 
 mance of a personal touch. The Sensa 
 of whose trials and fierce struggles we 
 read may be amongst us now — visible 
 or invisible — embodied or unembodied. 
 In the begining of the second book we 
 are shown the boy grown to manhood, 
 though still a young man. He is valued 
 32 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 and cared for in the Temple as such a 
 priceless servant would be ; he is amused 
 and waited upon by other young priests 
 in the intervals of the exhausting forms 
 of mediumship to which he is compelled 
 to give himself. The waking clairvoy- 
 ance in which, in his more innocent days, 
 he became conscious of the Lady of the 
 Lotus and received her direct inspira- 
 tion, has apparently become no longer 
 possible for him. He is utterly given 
 over to the madness of irresponsible 
 mediumship, and knows nothing of the 
 dread teachings and instructions uttered 
 in his voice to the priestly sorcerers. He 
 needs not only rest but refreshment to 
 preserve his vitality. The dark goddess 
 had said to him in his childhood that he 
 must have beauty. She told him that he 
 would have been a great artist if he 
 had lived for beauty ; but that might not 
 33 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 be. He had other work to do. In his 
 childhood and youth he was surrounded 
 with quantities of flowers and all beau- 
 tiful things; as he grew to manhood he 
 needed more than this, and was allowed 
 to go out of the Temple into the city and 
 find pleasures that would restore his 
 strength. Throughout the story he is 
 shown as being only attracted by beauty, 
 or by pleasures of a beautiful kind. He 
 had felt no interest in any of the mental 
 work or mental studies done in the Tem- 
 ple; this would naturally be the case 
 with a child-seer, and regarding the 
 story as that of one who was passing 
 through the initiations of adeptship, it 
 is evident that he would have evolved be- 
 yond the mental plane. But beauty and 
 beautiful pleasures attracted him so 
 deeply that this was indeed his undoing. 
 By recognising and taking advantage of 
 34 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 this part of his nature Agmabd had ob- 
 tained control over him at the beginning. 
 And now the slave of the high priest was 
 sent out to experience all the seductions 
 and passions of human life in the city; 
 knowing full well that his chains were 
 upon him and that when his strength 
 was restored he would be recalled. It is 
 at this point in the story that a new char- 
 acter appears, Malen, a young priest who 
 is his companion, whose connection with 
 him is full of mystery and meaning. It 
 is Malen who suggests to him to go forth 
 in search of pleasure, as otherwise he 
 will die of exhaustion ; and who assures 
 him that Agmabd has already given per- 
 mission. Malen leads him forth and 
 leaves him in the city with a beautiful 
 woman who is evidently a re-appearance 
 of the personification of pleasure known 
 to him in childhood as his little girl play- 
 35 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 mate. The description of his meeting 
 with her again is most wonderfully vivid. 
 He is amazed to think that he has so long 
 neglected her. So Malen leaves him in 
 the company of a creature formed by 
 Agmabd from one of the serpents which 
 are the dark Queen's living robe. When 
 the child-seer's innocent eyes had seen 
 this garment of Desire upon the evil spirit 
 it had filled him with horror. But this 
 horror had left him, he had become fa- 
 miliar with the aspect of the monstrous 
 forms ; and now when by sorcery the evil 
 thing was made lovely he dwelled with 
 it in delight. Uncounted Time passed 
 by; he reckoned it not. But Agmabd 
 watched and waited, counting all and 
 knowing all. And when the great day 
 of the river festival arrived he went into 
 the city of pleasure to fetch the seer of 
 the Temple, saying simply : " Come ! " 
 36 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 And the seer, knowing himself a slave, 
 obeyed. The beautiful woman who was 
 his companion, vanished ; the sorcerer 
 had removed the spell, and when Sensa 
 looked for her he saw but a serpent 
 which reared its head. Agmabd smiles 
 at his fear and assures him that this fav- 
 orite of the evil one will not harm the 
 chosen servant. But Sensa cannot look 
 on the horrible shape undisguised, and 
 he hears its hiss of anger as he goes with 
 averted eyes. His was the true seer's 
 love for true beauty which is beautiful 
 to the core. Still pleasure and rest had 
 restored his strength, and as the " chosen 
 servant " of the dark Queen he follows 
 Agmabd, a deep gloom falling on him as 
 he enters the Temple. The hour of the 
 great ordeal is at hand, and he knows it, 
 blinded and besotted though he is. 
 . It will be well, before entering upon 
 37 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 the consideration of the great ordeal, to 
 go over the story from the commence- 
 ment once more in the light of its real, 
 vital interpretation, that of the Tragedy 
 of the Soul. In the other tw^o interpreta- 
 tions there are necessarily limitations; 
 we are taken into the atmosphere of an- 
 cient Egypt, or into the personal life of 
 a great adept and must remain there till 
 the end of the mysterious narrative. 
 Hovvf mysterious is this narrative be- 
 gins to be apparent to the student only 
 as he understands that the soul-tragedy 
 which is so perfectly fitted into the splen- 
 did setting is literally the story of Every- 
 Soul, of all souls that incarnate on this 
 earth, and that it is a drama which is 
 continually enacted from all time and to 
 all time, in all races and countries and in 
 all conditions. As it took place in the 
 past, so it is taking place now, and here. 
 38 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 To the Soul, liberation is a birthright; 
 as it descended into matter so it must 
 eventually emerge therefrom, freed and 
 purified. We ourselves, and those others 
 of the race whom we know and can 
 observe, are at one point or at an- 
 other of this universal path. In the 
 great Sanskrit teachings the same story- 
 is told in the Bhagavad Gita, where Ar- 
 gund, the Soul of man, is shown fight- 
 ing upon the battlefield of his human na- 
 ture. The whole of the Gita bears this 
 interpretation, while it can also be read 
 as the story of a war. So the whole of 
 the Idyll bears this interpretation, while 
 it can also be read as the story of a 
 seer. In both cases the story is most per- 
 fect and complete when regarded in the 
 greater meaning, although in each case 
 the setting in which it is so fitted as to 
 be hidden to the ordinary reader, is true 
 39 
 
THE STORY Or SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 to the life of the ancient peoples from 
 whom the Song and the Idyll have been 
 drawn. The short preface, written in the 
 same manner as the prologue, and the 
 narrative, states clearly and concisely 
 the real meaning of the whole. 
 
 " The ensuing pages contain a story 
 which has been told in all ages and among 
 every people. It is the Tragedy of the 
 Soul. Attracted by Desire, the ruling 
 element in the lower nature of man, it 
 stoops to sin ; brought to itself by suf- 
 fering, it turns for help to the redeem- 
 ing spirit within ; and in the final sacri- 
 fice achieves its apotheosis and sheds a 
 blessing on mankind." 
 
 The key to the meaning of the Idyll 
 in this aspect lies in the point that Sensa, 
 when he enters the Temple gate, enters 
 his physical body. From that moment 
 everything which is related takes place 
 40 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 within himself ; every person who plays a 
 part in the drama is a personification of 
 a quality or characteristic of his own 
 nature. When he goes into the city for 
 pleasure, when he appears among the 
 people on the sacred boat, when he speaks 
 to the people at the gate, the events 
 are still being enacted within himself, 
 for in each case it is a part of himself 
 which he meets and encounters. The 
 beautiful woman in the city is a form 
 of his own desire ; the dark goddess on 
 the sacred boat is his own evil nature ; 
 the Lily Queen is his own divine nature. 
 The All-mother — Isis of Egypt — who 
 guides the souls of men to their places 
 of birth upon earth brings him to the gate 
 of the Temple. From the quiet fields of 
 the unborn she leads him into the world 
 of men, where he is at once roused and 
 captivated by the sights and sounds of 
 41 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 this special form of life — human life. 
 She, the veiled and mystic Mother, comes 
 from Eternity into Time, when she 
 guides souls hither; and she pauses a 
 brief moment ere her return, to gaze 
 upon the confusion and listen to the 
 babble, which are a part of human evolu- 
 tion. 
 
 She has nothing to do with physical 
 birth, or with the raising of the Temple 
 — when it is ready to receive the soul and 
 come into communication with its ego, 
 she plays her incessant and unwearying 
 part of bringing the soul to the gate and 
 stays until it is admitted and the gate 
 closed upon it. We therefore see Sensa 
 first not as a baby, but as a young boy, 
 at the time when the awakening of hu- 
 man intelligence usually takes place, and 
 that which draws him to enter the gate, 
 that which attracts and awakens him is 
 42 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 Ambition, personified as the high priest 
 Agmabd. 
 
 The personification of various parts of 
 man's nature as Agmabd and the other 
 priests of the Temple, and as the other 
 persons who take part in the story, is nat- 
 ural for an Egyptian author and charac- 
 teristic of the modes of thought of his 
 race. Professor Wiedemann of Bonn 
 says, " the body of man throughout life 
 was regarded [by the ancient Egyptian] 
 as a battlefield where good and evil 
 spirits fought for the mastery." 
 
 The soul, entering into its human con- 
 sciousness, is first seized upon by ambi- 
 tion, and under its direction surveys the 
 possibilities of its kingdom. 
 
 It is indicated at once, by the actual 
 
 movement of the story, that the mental 
 
 life of man plays no important part in 
 
 'the evolution of the soul. Sensa, enter- 
 
 43 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 ing the " large and beautiful room " of 
 intellectual pursuits, finds that the 
 teacher is dim of sight, and the neophytes 
 who study with him pay no heed to life 
 itself and do not look upon it. He is 
 himself the teacher and the taught; and 
 that part of him which has worked upon 
 the mental plane for ages has but grown 
 blind, and the other part which studies 
 new mental statements sees no fresh re- 
 alities, but gazes only on a written page. 
 To him, full of the craving to under- 
 stand life itself, this large and beautiful 
 room appears bare and unfurnished and 
 he passes on through it, by command of 
 his own wise intellect, personified in the 
 dim-sighted old teacher, to things living 
 and things real — the garden of life! He 
 can only enter this part of his own na- 
 ture by permission of the gardener, who 
 has to appear before the gate can be un- 
 44 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 locked which admits him to this " world 
 of delicate and refreshing glory." The 
 instinct which has led him to this gate, 
 personified as a novice who has acted as 
 his guide from the time of his entrance 
 into the temple, is now strong in action, 
 and clamours that he shall be admitted. 
 Three times does he ring the bell before 
 the gardener answers the summons. 
 And when at last he slowly comes, mov- 
 ing among the flowers in his black robe, 
 and agrees to receive the " new pupil " it 
 is instinct which unlocks the gate, ushers 
 the Soul through it and returning into 
 the inner dimness, is seen no more. 
 
 " Come with me," says the gardener, 
 " and fear not." 
 
 Who is this " strange man whose 
 face would awaken interest in any hu- 
 man breast?" 
 
 45 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The story of Sensa, is, as we are told 
 by its author, in the preface, the tragedy 
 of the soul of man. It takes no heed of 
 the bodily life, or the mental life of man. 
 Its activity and movement begin with the 
 meeting with the gardener when the soul 
 awakens and by its own instinct and 
 effort reaches out beyond the walls of 
 the temple to the mystery of that garden 
 which belongs to it. This is not the field 
 of open nature, but the temple garden, 
 man's heritage, as much as the temple 
 itself. But, though it belongs to the 
 soul, the gardener must show the way 
 among its beauties ; Sensa would be 
 helpless without him. Too often does 
 46 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 the soul remain imprisoned in its temple, 
 ignorant that there is a temple garden, 
 for lack of demanding help from the 
 gardener. 
 
 This is how Subba Rao speaks of the 
 gardener, in Esoteric Writings. 
 
 " Sebona, the gardener is intuition. 
 ' They cannot make a phantom of me,' 
 declares Sebona; and in saying so this 
 unsophisticated but honest rustic truly 
 reveals his own mystery." 
 
 While Sensa is in the garden the very 
 existence of ambition is forgotten by 
 him. Agmabd controls him when he is 
 within the temple walls, but not when he 
 enters into that higher consciousness 
 which is represented by the garden. His 
 intuition is then his guide, and leads 
 him to the sacred lotus tank without de- 
 lay and we are at once at the heart of 
 •the mystery, in the thick of the story; 
 47 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 the battle has begun. His own spiritual 
 intelligence is within this garden, and 
 by its aid he can perceive the light of the 
 Logos, — wisdom. We are shown, practi- 
 cally, what is waking clairvoyance, as, 
 later on we are shown, practically, what 
 is mediumship. By the help of intu- 
 ition Sensa raises himself into conscious- 
 ness in his spiritual body [the sixth prin- 
 ciple of man according to the sevenfold 
 constitution of the microcosm derived 
 from Brahminical philosophy]. This 
 spiritual being in its awakened and en- 
 lightened state is able to perceive wis- 
 dom, and therefore Sensa, the human 
 monad, is able to hold direct communi- 
 cation with the Logos. Intuition has 
 led him to the home of the Lady of 
 the Lotus, passing by all the other 
 flowers, drawn by the sound of the 
 " delicate-voiced " waters. There he 
 48 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 sees the Goddess of Truth, and endeav- 
 ours to approach her; but he is not 
 strong enough to succeed in this first at- 
 tempt, and sinks down through the planes 
 of consciousness till with the gardener's 
 help he re-enters the walls of the temple. 
 He does so by a different gate from that 
 by which he had come forth — the way is 
 now not that of instinct, but of knowl- 
 edge. 
 
 And now it is necessary to consider the 
 exquisite and wonderful mystery of the 
 Lotus Tank. 
 
 In the astral body, or etheric double of 
 man, there exist centres of life, or con- 
 sciousness, which correspond to the nerv- 
 ous ganglia of the physical body. In 
 the ethereal body, as we are taught by 
 ancient Hindu mystical writers as well 
 as by seers of the present day, exist cen- 
 tres which are known by the Sancrit 
 49 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 word for them " Chakras " as it is diffi- 
 cult to convey the meaning in a single 
 word of any modern language. A 
 Chakra is a wheel of living fire, and as 
 the ego developes its higher form it 
 learns to use these psychic powers of its 
 etheric double and then the correspond- 
 ing powers of its ethereal body. As St. 
 Paul put it, having been sown a psyche it 
 is raised a quickening spirit. The Chakra 
 of the brain is the seventh and highest, 
 and according to the Yogins must be- 
 come living and conscious before en- 
 lightenment can be attained. Its San- 
 crit name is " Sahasrava Chakram." 
 which means the centre of the thousand- 
 petalled lotus — what Sebona calls " the 
 home of our Lady of the Lotus." Subba 
 Rao in his exposition of the Idyll of the 
 White Lotus draws special attention to 
 what he declares is the real meaning of 
 50 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 the Lotus Tank in the garden. He says 
 " Sahasrava Chakram in the brain is 
 often spoken of as a Lotus tank in the 
 Hindu mystical writings. The ' sweet- 
 sounding water ' of this tank is described 
 as Amritam or Nectar Padma, the White 
 Lotus, is said to have a thousand petals, 
 as has the mysterious Sahasravam of the 
 Yogis. It is an unopened bud in the 
 ordinary mortal, and just as a lotus 
 opens its petals and expands in all its 
 beauty when the sun rises above the 
 horizon and sheds his rays on the flower, 
 so does the Sahasravam of the neophyte 
 open and expand when the Logos begins 
 to pour its light into its centre. When 
 fully expanded it becomes the glorious 
 seat of the Lady of the Lotus, the sixth 
 principle of man ; and sitting on this 
 flower the great goddess pours out the 
 waters of life and grace for the gratifica- 
 51 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 tion and regeneration of the human 
 soul." * 
 
 He goes on to say that the followers 
 of Hatha Yoga, (which is the endeav- 
 our to develope the soul by psycho- 
 physical training, such as " posture " and 
 the regulation of the breath,) believe 
 that in the ecstatic trance known as 
 Samadhi the soul can reach this thousand 
 petalled flower and " obtain a glimpse of 
 the Splendour of the Spiritual Sun." 
 But this is a most profound and difficult 
 effort, and is not the result of concentra- 
 tion, or of trance alone, but is attained 
 through sushumna (the dath of the Kab- 
 balists). This requires much physical 
 and psychic knowledge and effort. The 
 path of the Hatha Yoga exits for those 
 who are so steeped in materialism that it 
 is necessary for them to begin l)y the 
 
 * Page 344, " Esoteric Writingrs." 
 52 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 control of the body before attempting to 
 control the thinking principle. There are 
 many followers of Hatha Yoga in the 
 present day, but unfortunately there is 
 an indisposition to study profoundly so 
 as to obtain the whole teaching at the 
 fountain-head. The bits and scraps 
 of it which are practised, such as 
 " breathing " and " posture ", partially 
 understood and separated from the 
 whole, are a great danger to those who 
 attempt them. " Concentration " with- 
 out due understanding and due prepa- 
 ration is the greatest danger of all. The 
 follower of Hatha Yoga who is deter- 
 mined to attain success by that method 
 will give twenty years to the conquest of 
 his body, before attempting anything 
 further. This path is the slowest route 
 of all to the goal. Patanjali Yoga com- 
 mences with the control of the mind and 
 53 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 thinking principle, taking for granted 
 diat the body is in subjection. But it is 
 fully admitted by ancient writers that 
 instantaneous illumination is possible by 
 means of intuition. And in Sensa we 
 have the soul which, if it has sought to 
 reach wisdom by the weary way of 
 Hatha Yoga, or the lofty method of 
 Patanjali Yoga, has left all this in the 
 past. He is capable of absolute faith, he 
 is a seeker after absolute truth, and 
 therefore by the guidance of his own 
 intuition he is able to raise himself in a 
 flash of enlightenment, to the sacred 
 water tank, which is the awakened organ 
 of perception of his spiritual form ; and 
 for a moment of supreme joy, to gaze 
 upon wisdom. 
 
 And now we come to the point where 
 the intense and vital teaching of Light 
 on the Path is needed. The uttermost 
 54 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 tragedy of the soul, its deep degradation, 
 may be spared the neophyte who has 
 learned to " kill out ambition." But 
 Sensa has not learned this lesson. Am- 
 bition is the incentive to effort for the 
 ordinary man; it is that which brings 
 him even upon the path. For to become 
 an occultist is the highest ambition of 
 man. And Sensa, who is upon the path, 
 who is capable of instantaneous illumi- 
 nation, has not learned that he must dom- 
 inate the qualities of human nature be- 
 fore he can safely enter upon the exer- 
 cise of his super-nature. Therefore in- 
 stead of controlling ambition he is con- 
 trolled by it. Dark-visaged, unnamed 
 instincts press upon him; they are the 
 creatures and tools of ambition. And 
 intuition is of no use to Sensa now. 
 Sebona cries out, " you have seen — you 
 are a teacher of men " — and hands him 
 55 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 over to the instincts of the lower nature 
 which place him immediately in the thrall 
 of ambition. 
 
 This is a profound lesson for the neo- 
 phyte, hard to learn. He does not know 
 that until he has learned, he cannot teach. 
 A glimpse of wisdom is enough to make 
 him think he is a teacher of men ; and 
 his intuition leaves him helpless. From 
 want of knowledge he fails under this 
 first great temptation and becomes the 
 tool of his own ambition. There are 
 those in all ages who go thus far, and 
 no further, who are so completely dom- 
 inated by the ambition which seizes upon 
 them that never again do they see the 
 Lady of the Lotus. And now begins the 
 battle — is this to be Sensa's fate? or not. 
 
 Ambition alone was not tempting 
 enough to seize and possess the soul 
 which had so lately looked upon the Su- 
 56 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 preme ; and therefore, the high priest 
 does not address Sensa when he comes 
 into his presence from the garden, nor 
 does he act alone. So soon as he has 
 looked upon the strange face of the 
 illumined soul he goes for his great ally, 
 his brother, as he calls him, Kamerj Baka. 
 This high priest is clearly shown by the 
 movement of the story to be the person- 
 ification of human desire. 
 
 All the lower qualities of the man's 
 nature now rise into activity, anxious, and 
 determined, to obtain the mastery over 
 the higher nature and use its supreme 
 gift of perception for their own gratifica- 
 tion. In some natures the cold and 
 heartless claim of ambition for power 
 and supremacy would have sufficed to 
 eflfect this ; but this soul whose history 
 we are following is highly evolved, it is 
 full of love of beauty and of beautiful 
 57 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 pleasure, and therefore the priest who 
 personifies desire is called to consult 
 with Agmabd. Throughout the whole 
 struggle Agmabd holds the position of 
 ruler among the priests; and Kamen 
 Baka, though called by him " my 
 brother " is dominated by him. This 
 highly evolved soul is ambitions in de- 
 sire ; it seeks no common or crude gratifi- 
 cation. The lower instincts, personified 
 as younger priests, wait upon Sensa, re- 
 fresh him, and make him ready, so far 
 as is in their power, for the supreme 
 effort decided upon. For Kamen Baka 
 has advised that the seer should be at 
 once taken straight into the presence of 
 Desire itself.* From her he draws his 
 own inspiration direct, and he regards 
 her as that which is life. Agmabd per- 
 
 *Avi(lyd, " thedark sldeof human nature " SubhaRao 
 " The first illusion and the last" Ancient Wisdom. 
 
 58 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 mJts himself to be led by this advice, and 
 lets the soul rest. From this rest it 
 awakens to find itself in darkness, the 
 awful darkness of the Temple, and sur- 
 rounded by a dense crowd of beings 
 animated by desire alone, and eager to 
 use his priceless gift for their own ends. 
 The whole of his mysterious and in- 
 finitely complex nature is demanding life 
 and gratification, and this fierce crowd, 
 silent in its passion takes the child in 
 its grip, and compels him to approach 
 the door of the innermost sanctuary 
 of his being, the dark and awful 
 holy of holies. The circle of priests 
 which had surrounded his couch when 
 he awoke, closes round him as he 
 moves at the command of Agmabd and 
 he passes on his way, powerless. For 
 not only do these nearest close about 
 him, but they are closed upon by 
 59 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 Others, and in every direction, so far as 
 he can see, the crowd closes in. Is 
 not this the true picture of the awaken- 
 ing of manhood and womanhood? The 
 whole being arises in a storm of agita- 
 tion, to demand of brief human life all 
 that it has to give ; the little spark of di- 
 vinity in its midst is led hither and thither 
 by it. And the horizon is scarcely to be 
 seen, or the world outside remembered, 
 for the turbulence and growing strength 
 of all these strange qualities which go to 
 the making of a human being. Sensa, 
 passing to the inner sanctuary, catches 
 a faint glimpse of the outer world 
 he has left and it is to him like 
 the face of an old friend. Prisoned in 
 the microcosm he looks for a fleeting in- 
 stant upon the macrocosm before he en- 
 ters the deepst darkness of the tomb into 
 which he has descended. 
 60 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 He is not conquered yet ; he is still the 
 unsullied soul, and the first sight of the 
 lambent fire of Desire makes him alarmed 
 and miserable; and when he sees its ac- 
 tual form he is filled with horror. Desire 
 commands him to enter the sanctuary 
 alone, and he neither can nor will do so. 
 Then in anger she reveals her face to 
 him and he shrinks with loathing and 
 fear, falling once more into unconscious- 
 ness. Again the strain had been too 
 great for him ; the first time it was the 
 attempt to reach the light of the Logos 
 which was beyond his strength ; now the 
 revulsion from that which lurks in the 
 darkness of his own lower nature utterly 
 exhausts him. This is a crisis in life 
 which every one experiences in himself 
 more or less definitely, and which those' 
 who have the opportunity of watching 
 the change from youth to maturity take 
 6i 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 place in others, are familiar with. To 
 the one who is passing through it, nothing 
 else in the universe is of any importance 
 for the time being; the amazement of 
 discovering within one's nature the great 
 cosmic forces which form the two arms 
 of the crucifix, at work and at war is so 
 bewildering. That good and evil should 
 be encountering each other on the gen- 
 eral battlefield of human life, in the 
 affairs of men and of nations; is com- 
 paratively easy to understand ; but that 
 this same warfare should be found 
 within one's own small heart is at first 
 a great surprise and a great shock. But 
 it is so; the fact is there, the microcosm 
 reproduces the macroscosm in every de- 
 tail, and the great dark Queen of Desire 
 who is almost visible in the midst of the 
 carnage of a revolution is quite visible 
 to the spiritual seer in the dark place of 
 62 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 his own inner nature. The vision leaves 
 him almost lifeless, helpless and amazed. 
 When he recovers from the swoon and 
 cries aloud in terror at the recollection 
 of what he has seen, a priest who is in 
 attendance upon him, a representative of 
 his lower mentality, offers him fresh 
 water and brings light into his room. 
 And then he proceeds to urge upon him 
 that he need not fear, that it is only his 
 youth which makes him afraid, that he 
 has received great honour, that the gaze 
 of " our all powerful lady " is enough to 
 make a man swoon. This priest is evi- 
 dently an emissary of Agmabd's for he 
 speaks as one who has been told what to 
 say, and recites his lesson well. He bids 
 the youth not to rebel against the vision, 
 but to appreciate the honour which has 
 fallen on him; and above all not to be 
 afraid. The arguments brought forward 
 63 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 by this priest are those which every soul, 
 horror struck at the first sight of evil 
 within itself hears from its urgent de- 
 sire — nature, and the instincts attend- 
 ant upon that nature. " Surely the world 
 and all that is in it exists for the pleas- 
 ure of the soul ; is it not mere cowardice 
 to shrink from that which arises natur- 
 ally and which draws and leads all 
 men ? " Unable to answer such ques- 
 tions the weary and terrified soul looks 
 for the help of intuition and asks for 
 Sebona. The thought of going into the 
 wonderful and beautiful garden of his 
 soul rejoices Sensa, and he waits pa- 
 tiently for Sebona to be aroused and 
 brought to him. Intuition does not 
 work in the dark ; it needs the light of 
 the sun, it lives and moves in life and 
 light and beauty. Its quickest and keen- 
 est moment is at the wonderful hour of 
 64 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 dawn ; and the weary spirit must wait 
 for the first faint ray of light before in- 
 tuition is strong enough to come to his 
 aid. Then the priest, whose words had 
 chilled and disheartened Sensa, summons 
 the gardener, and Sebona, — " human ! 
 loving," — if uncouth and dark, comes to 
 the sad and shadowy room where the 
 spirit is brooding. This description of a 
 weary and hopeless night vigil, followed 
 by a return of courage and hope when 
 the dawn comes, will be recognised by 
 most people ; it is a part of the common 
 lot and general experience of man. Se- 
 bona kneels humbly beside the gifted 
 child, who demands of him an explana- 
 tion of the reason for his being horri- 
 fied by the sight of the ghastly face of 
 Desire. Sebona does not attempt to an- 
 swer this question but leads him forth at 
 once among the flowers, and when the 
 65 
 
TflE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 joy of life has seized again upon the child, 
 points out to him that in spite of the 
 darkness and its horrors, the sun rises 
 again and again in all his magnificence. 
 Then he leads Sensa, unawares, to the 
 lotus tank and asks him if he sees the 
 goddess. Sensa is still full of fear, and 
 dreads to see the dark and cruel face of 
 Desire. But when he looks up the fair 
 woman of the Lotus * is once again be- 
 fore him and he knows that intuitively 
 he has once more reached her home. Se- 
 bona urges him to speak to her, and falls 
 again upon his knees to watch the great 
 event which might possibly now take 
 place, of the opening of communication 
 between man's higher nature and the Di- 
 vine itself. Sensa attempts to approach 
 her, again, and with Sebona's help, 
 reaches the water tank in his higher con- 
 
 * Vidya, wisdom. 
 
 66 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 sciousness and touches the very garment 
 of the goddess where it falls upon the 
 surface of the water. He tries to look 
 into her face, but light radiates from it 
 and he cannot see it because of its glory. 
 He is blinded by the splendour of the 
 Logos. The Lily Queen addresses him, 
 and this gives him courage to ask the 
 question which fills his soul and haunts 
 him. 
 
 " Mother, what of the darkness f " 
 Poor quivering human soul, asking of 
 its own highest the question of the ages 
 — how to deal with its own lowest. And 
 now the Logos itself gives in plain words 
 the grand teaching of the ages, taught 
 always by every true philosopher and 
 mystic. 
 
 " The darkness is not to be feared ; it 
 is to be conquered and driven back as 
 the soul grows stronger in the light." 
 67 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 If the darkness of man's own inner 
 nature is not to be feared, then is there 
 nothing in the cosmos which can strike 
 him with dismay or fill him with alarm. 
 For the darkness of " the innermost 
 sanctuary of the Temple " is of the same 
 substance as that of Hell itself. The 
 Lily Queen explains to the seer, in simple 
 language, that this innermost sanctuary 
 of the Temple is secluded from the light 
 of day in order that it may be illumined 
 by the light of the spirit. It is not so 
 illumined because the " blind priests " 
 the qualities of man's nature which are 
 drawn from darkness (Tamas) comfort 
 themselves with its brood, and resist illu- 
 mination. 
 
 These same priests, with their attend- 
 ant brood of the evil thoughts of dark- 
 ness, were already at work upon their 
 task of shutting out the light of the spirit. 
 68 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 Sensa was drawn back, in suffering, from 
 the high place he had reached; Sebona 
 stood rebuked and downcast. Ambition 
 and Desire, in the persons of the two high 
 priests, placed themselves one on each 
 side of the soul, and made it understand 
 that its place was between them. Thus 
 Sensa re-entered the " gloomy gates " of 
 the Temple, leaving the place of spirit- 
 ual light and life, guarded and guided by 
 these two ruling and dominant passions 
 of human nature. He approaches his 
 doom ; he enters upon his term of slav- 
 ery. There will be resistance — there will 
 be veiled and fearful rebellion — there 
 will be flashes of illumination — but from 
 now until the final great ordeal Sensa is 
 guarded as a prisoner by the strong 
 qualities of his own lower nature, and 
 bidden to serve them as a slave serves. 
 
 69 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Ambition now assumes absolute control 
 over the developing nature, and compels 
 intuition to remain silent, not allowing 
 it to approach the soul. Sensa is impris- 
 oned in the sanctuary of the Temple, 
 guarded and watched by the crowd of 
 lower instincts which figure as novices 
 and priests in the drama. He is prevented 
 from going forth into the garden, or from 
 meeting the gardener. The composite 
 nature, approaching maturity, demands 
 success in its undertakings, and is coerced 
 by its overwhelming crowd of lower in- 
 stincts into measuring success by the 
 standard of the world. Wisdom and 
 pure spirituality are of no use to one who 
 desires to win prizes. Intuition makes a 
 70 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 great effort to lead the soul into the 
 higher places which belong to it, and 
 finding it is not able to come to the lotus 
 tank, Sebona plucks a bloom — a flower 
 of wisdom — and sends an emissary of 
 his own to take it to Sensa in his im- 
 prisonment. A strange imprisonment it 
 is, for the soul is shut in its temple by 
 those who should be its servants, as a 
 king might be locked in his palace by his 
 people. Sensa receives the flower of wis- 
 dom with the utmost delight and cher- 
 ishes it " as though it were the breathing 
 form of one I loved." His great anxiety 
 is to hide it from the alien eyes which 
 surround him. Encouraged by the pos- 
 session of this precious thing Sensa 
 speaks boldly to Agmabd, and tells him 
 he cannot endure the dullness and soli- 
 tude of his imprisonment in the Temple. 
 When relating this Sensa stays to tell the 
 71 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 reader that five years later he would not 
 have dared to address Agmabd in such a 
 manner. Five years later he was the 
 slave of ambition, as are so many of the 
 great and successful of the world. They 
 obey its dictates without hesitation. 
 And in a little while Sensa would reach 
 and pass through that condition. But as 
 yet ambition does not mean all to him. 
 He knows there are intensely desirable 
 things in the cosmos which are outside 
 the scope of human ambition. There- 
 fore he speaks boldly to Agmabd, who, 
 knowing the latent power of the human 
 soul makes no angry reply, but places 
 before it a great and terrible temptation, 
 which has to be encountered by all as 
 they pass along the path. It is early for 
 Sensa to meet it ; and fearing lest his 
 strength should fail before so great a 
 danger, the Lady of the Lotus herself 
 72 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 comes to his aid. Agmabd places before 
 him a volume bearing the title " the Arts 
 and Powers of Magic " and tells him he 
 need never again be lonely if he looks 
 upon its pages. He does so, and immedi- 
 ately temptation, personified, appears 
 before him and offers him freedom 
 from his prison house. He offers to 
 gratify any wish, and " freedom from 
 this room " is Sensa's one desire. 
 " Come " says the man in black, " fol- 
 low me." 
 
 " No ! " replies Sensa, " the high 
 priests have imprisoned me — if I am 
 found escaping I shall be punished." 
 
 The events now taking place must all 
 be considered with the picture of Sensa 
 (on this plane) as a young man entering 
 upon life, born well in mind. Ambition 
 directs that he shall take a high place in 
 the world. Is he to do so, or is he to 
 73 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 be a seer of spiritual truth disregarded 
 and despised by men ? Sensa knows well 
 the punishment which would fall on him 
 if he left his appointed place; the self- 
 contempt, the regret. But the tempter 
 does not stay to argue with him ; he 
 merely says in a tone of command, 
 " Come ! and look not back." This is 
 the moment of greatest danger which 
 has yet come to him. Had he obeyed the 
 tempter implicitly soul-death must have 
 been his lot. But his higher nature com- 
 pels him to look back and see the conse- 
 quences of his attempt to secure free- 
 dom, and he beholds his beloved Lady of 
 the Lotus, and hears her voice calling 
 upon him to return. " Lady, I obey," he 
 murmurs, and is saved. Subba Rao, in 
 writing of the real nature of soul-death 
 and the ultimate fate of a black magician, 
 says, " A soul — may place itself en rap- 
 74 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 port with a spiritual or elemental exist- 
 ence by evoking it, and concentrating its 
 attention on it for purposes of black 
 magic and Tantric worship. In such a 
 case it transfers its individuality to such 
 existence and is sucked up into it, as it 
 were. In such a case the black magician 
 lives in such a being, and as such a being 
 he continues till the end of Manwan- 
 tara." * Sensa is saved from this awful 
 fate by his own sixth principle which 
 comes into the very sanctuary in which 
 the human soul is imprisoned, and calls 
 upon it to awaken from the " accursed 
 spell." He does so, and finds himself 
 in his prison house, quite alone, deserted 
 by his tempter and also by his higher self ; 
 compelled to endure his solitude and 
 realise himself. He finds his flower of 
 wisdom, but it is " languid." He clings to 
 * Esoteric Writings, p. 247. 
 
 75 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 it however, and places it within his robe. 
 By this faithful clinging to his blossom of 
 truth he is strengthened to pass through 
 the ordeal which follows, when Agmabd 
 leads him blindfold into the inner holy of 
 holies and then bids him look upon the 
 goddess of Desire. But when he dares 
 to gaze into the awful darkness fearing 
 to see the face of horror, it is upon the 
 glorious vision of the Lady of the Lotus 
 that his eyes fall. She soothes and com- 
 forts him and bids him believe that he is 
 safe, although he has been placed in " the 
 very dungeon of vice and falsehood," 
 because he himself has entered her atmos- 
 phere. And now she utters perhaps the 
 most beautiful of all her speeches : " The 
 royal flower of Egypt dwells upon the 
 sacred waters, which in their purity and 
 peace fitly form its eternal resting place. 
 I am the spirit of the flower, I am sus- 
 76 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 tained upon the waters of truth and my 
 life is formed of the breath of the heav- 
 ens, which is Love." 
 
 At her bidding the weary soul lies 
 down to rest ; and ambition's record of 
 this great effort is contained in the one 
 word " Vain." 
 
 77 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The soul has escaped this great danger, 
 only to be met by more subtle and deeper 
 temptations. This is the ordained line of 
 progress, terrible in its steady advance 
 from one pitfall to another yet deeper. 
 
 Sensa awakes from rest, to find a 
 white flower in his hand. Truth has re- 
 mained with him ; only a plucked blos- 
 som, but still a flower of wisdom. He 
 regards it with pleasure and is happy in 
 the contemplation of its perfect beauty. 
 Upon this mood of content and confi- 
 dence enters himself in another form, 
 called into being by this very content and 
 confidence. 
 
 A little girl, younger than himself and 
 " bright as the sunshine " comes gayly 
 78 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 into his seclusion and snatches the flower 
 from him, shaking the water from its 
 leaves. 
 
 Man is tempted and betrayed by his 
 own powers, up to the very threshold of 
 immortality. 
 
 This little girl is interpreted by Hindu 
 students as daiva-prakriti, the higher 
 mind of man rejoicing in its perpetual 
 youth and power, and its capacity to 
 revel in the primordial light. The 
 plucked bloom, separated from the root 
 of truth, led Sensa into this greatest 
 danger of all to the highly evolved soul 
 and the highly sensitive mind. Subba 
 Rao, in one of his lectures, speaking 
 of the " little girl of the Idyll," 
 pointed out that daiva-prakiti is com- 
 pared to a girl by Hindu writers and 
 the " protean power " being superior 
 to daiva-prakriti therefore all the souls 
 79 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 of human beings are made to be the 
 wives of Krishna. The httle girl is the 
 human soul upon that plane of glory and 
 pleasure with which Sensa had estab- 
 lished communication, and was indeed 
 none other than Sensa himself in another 
 state, using another form and entering 
 another consciousness. It is well at this 
 point in the story to recall the fact once 
 more that it is Egyptian and emanates 
 from an Egyptian source. Professor 
 Wiedemann says of the Egyptian writ- 
 ings— " parts of the soul are treated in 
 the tents as entirely independent beings." 
 He enumerates them as the " Ka " — 
 (which is the best known, and is generally 
 understood as the etheric double)— the 
 " Osiris '"^i the immortal double)— the 
 " Khou " (the " perfect shining one ") — 
 
 * Professor Wiedemann says that " Osiris " is some- 
 times used for the Immortal Double, sometimes for 
 the Ka, (etheric double or astral form). 
 80 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 the " Ba" (which was the human-headed 
 bird, depicted by the ancient Egyptians 
 as revisiting the mummy of the dead) 
 and three other independent souls. These 
 last three are often named in the tents, as 
 the " Sahu " which wears the mumny 
 wrappings, the " Khaibit " which is 
 shaped like a fan, and casts a shadow, and 
 the " Sekheni " " the reverend form " 
 which is the transfigured and quickened 
 spiritual being. Of these last three little 
 is said in the tents ; they belong to that 
 higher nature of man whose functions 
 cannot be described in words. This sep- 
 tenary conception of separate forms or 
 souls, acting on different planes of con- 
 sciousness and all attached to the physi- 
 cal form or Temple, and all engaged in 
 working out the evolution of the ego, 
 must be borne In mind when considering 
 the story of Sensa. Later in the drama, 
 8i 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 when the little girl has fulfilled her task 
 of making Sensa a man of the world, the 
 young priest Malen appears as again 
 Sensa himself in another form, an inner 
 personality, a more permanent self. 
 
 The " little girl " is a favoured servant 
 of Agmabd's ; she leads Sensa into places 
 of inexpressible pleasures and she draws 
 him into games where as a matter of 
 course he succeeds beyond his fellows, 
 and " zvins all the prhes." Ambition 
 stimulates the soul in this world of con- 
 sciousness, and from the delightful ex- 
 periences which befall the soul in that 
 place of bliss, it returns to find itself no 
 longer a free agent on the plane of hu- 
 man life. It has sold itself to ambition 
 and desire and must obey them implicitly ; 
 the pleasures of the mind are the pay- 
 ment — some given already, some yet to 
 come, for the " little girl " tells him he 
 82 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 is to play often with the children. She 
 tells him too that in future he is to dwell 
 among earth-fed flowers — no longer is he 
 to pluck blooms from the- lily of the 
 water-tank. And his first punishment is 
 to find himself uttering strange words 
 which to him (the soul) have no mean- 
 ing, for they appeal only to the lower na- 
 ture. His inspiration, poured into him 
 from the Queen of Desire, causes him 
 to be worshipped, even by the most splen- 
 did of the priests. His brain is not 
 now " frenzied with the follies of his 
 own conceit " to use Agmabd's words, 
 but he is obedient to the spell laid on him 
 by Desire and his speech gladdens and 
 satisfies the throng of priests who listen 
 to him. All bow down before him ; the 
 novices kneel to offer him food ; His 
 room is made sweet and beautiful by 
 bushes of earth-fed flowers set about .it, 
 83 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 and great bunches of flowers are brought 
 to him to satisfy his love of beauty and 
 fragrance. Agmabd stands silently 
 within the curtains which seclude the 
 young seer from the other priests, but 
 Sensa is no longer afraid of him. In- 
 stead he is glad and proud, for he knows 
 he has satisfied the demands of this cold 
 ruler. And soon Agmabd leaves him, 
 and the " little girl " returns. It is for 
 her now to lead the soul in to the great 
 ordeal. Agmabd knows that she alone 
 can do it, and leaves her to the task, 
 while he summons the crowd of priests 
 to take part in the ceremonial and to 
 prepare the couch covered with roses and 
 hedged about with flowers. Here the 
 " little girl " induces Sensa to play with 
 her at ball, so that he forgets to be 
 afraid. And when the sanctuary door 
 opens the " little girl " leads him to it 
 84 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 and so brings him to the dark goddess, 
 Avidya herself. He has now been 
 brought to her with such ga.y companion- 
 ship that he is not overcome with fear, 
 though the child leaves him. He is alone 
 with the personification of the dark side 
 of human nature. When the goddess 
 draws him to her he perceives that her 
 robe is a living thing, a drapery of coil- 
 ing snakes. And then terror falls on 
 the startled soul. The dark goddess 
 laughs at his fear and makes her robe 
 dim while she places her hand on his 
 forehead. Then fear left him forever. 
 Again he sees the living robe and be- 
 holds the serpents wreathing her body 
 and rearing themselves about her head ; 
 but he feels no terror. Doubtless he 
 knows now that the child who has been 
 his merry playmate is one of those terri- 
 ble serpents. She vanished as he en- 
 85 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 tered the presence of the goddess, going 
 to her own place in the queen's robe. 
 The little girl is daiva-prakriti — so is the 
 beautiful woman of the city — they are 
 identical, and both are himself, his own 
 mind, and both are a part of the living 
 robe of the dark queen. It is the souls 
 of men who clothe and veil the presence 
 of the queen of darkness and her living 
 robe changes into such forms as they 
 desire and will to have. 
 
 Sensa is worn out with this severe ex- 
 perience and Agmabd, in order to pre- 
 vent too great a strain, allows Sebona to 
 take him into the garden and to let him 
 bathe in fresh water ; but he is not 
 to take him to the lotus tank. This 
 is because he is so changed that he 
 cannot approach the royal flower or 
 the sacred water, but seeks his 
 freedom from imprisonment, his rest 
 86 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 and refreshment, in the astral fluid. 
 Nevertheless he sees the goddess of 
 truth, who comes to tell him that this 
 mystic water is fed from the sacred tank ; 
 and that if instead of sinking in it he 
 rises and kneels upon it, and by another 
 effort rises and stands upon it, he can do 
 so safely, it will support him. But while 
 making these efforts he must address 
 himself to the Logos and demand illumi- 
 nation. How plain a teaching this is to 
 the many who find sufficient pleasure and 
 satisfaction in the experiences of the as- 
 tral life, and regard these as true gifts of 
 the spirit. But to them the Lady of the 
 Lotus will come, sooner or later, and lift 
 them up as she lifted Sensa up. She does 
 this though she knows that he is about to 
 leave her; but she will not permit him to 
 forget her utterly, and through the dark 
 years that follow, her sweet voice sings 
 87 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 dimly in the obscurity of his brain and 
 her words remain with him and, as he 
 expresses it " cast a strange Hght upon 
 my wretched hfe." For Sensa now be- 
 comes completely a man of the world, 
 the soul within him being entirely dom- 
 inated by the two ruling passions of men, 
 ambition and desire. In the company of 
 his own mind, personified as the beauti- 
 ful woman of the city, he drinks deep of 
 every kind of beautiful pleasure and is 
 utterly happy. And then when Agmabd 
 gives the summons to the great ordeal 
 which awaits him he sees the beautiful 
 woman revert to the shape of a serpent 
 of desire and is once more alone. 
 
 Everything connected with initiation 
 is purposely veiled and obscurely stated 
 in all esoteric writings ; and so it is in 
 this mystery-drama. But we know that 
 the initiate must gaze into the dark face 
 88 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 of Avidya and upon the blinding light of 
 the Logos. These ordeals are endured 
 by Sensa and clearly described. He suc- 
 cumbs to the first ordeal and becomes the 
 interpreter and messenger of Avidya 
 herself. But having been able to see the 
 light of the Logos, he is strong enough 
 in the course of the final great trial to 
 make a desperate effort for true freedom 
 and to obtain it. He is depicted as hav- 
 ing become inhuman in his ambition and 
 selfish in his desires ; and yet the great 
 effort is still possible. But it is only pos- 
 sible at the cost of life itself; Sensa dies 
 in the struggle. The awful Ten drive 
 him forth from his body, which dies, and 
 the temple in which it dwelled is de- 
 stroyed. It must be remembered that the 
 ten are not homeless when the temple is 
 destroyed. They belong to the five-fold 
 field in which the human soul works out 
 89 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 its evolution, and they pass into other 
 activities in that field when the soul 
 withdraws. Man, in his physical nature 
 is mysteriously united with the physical 
 universe by means of the five " tattvas " 
 which enter into his composition as well 
 as into the composition of all that he 
 dwells amongst. 
 
 In the light of Egyptian modes of 
 thought it seems clear that the body 
 of Sensa which dies is the personal 
 individuality. This has been so de- 
 graded that it has to be sacrificed. 
 The author of the story states explicitly 
 that it is the story of the soul. Isis is 
 the mother of the souls of men, not of 
 their bodies. When therefore at the 
 final fierce ordeal Sensa's higher nature 
 asserts itself and he goes into the holy of 
 holies to find the true Queen, the light of 
 the Logos, there, he yields up the dese- 
 90 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 crated personality. " I am perception," 
 he cries, " the imperishable soul " and 
 at the command of the Queen-mother 
 enters into another of his own forms. 
 In the disintegration of his personality- 
 he watches the sparks of life disperse. 
 Ambition flees forth with a rush to feed 
 elsewhere ; and the soul of Malen goes 
 to soul-death. Here is a great mystery 
 depicted but still inevitably veiled. All 
 the names used in the Idyll of the White 
 Lotus are words of Hebrew origin, be- 
 longing to Aramaic or Arabic idioms and 
 convey ideas which help to explain the 
 characters. Malen has in it the idea of 
 a refuge, or retreat, or a place of recu- 
 peration. It was Malen who guided 
 Sensa to the city in order that he should 
 recover his strength. It appears that he 
 was an inner-personality or soul-form 
 which should have guided him to a place 
 91 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 of true recuperation. Having failed in 
 this, and led the human soul astray, 
 Malen himself no longer lives. But Sensa 
 can raise up his deserted form and enter 
 into it and use it. It would seem that 
 Malen should have been the " immortal 
 double," for by using this form the " I," 
 the ego who relates the story, is enabled 
 " since then, to live, change form and 
 live again ; yet know myself through the 
 long ages as they pass." But he does 
 not say, or imply, that he re-enters any 
 Temple during these long ages, or in- 
 habits any physical body. And indeed it 
 seems evident that he is never again a 
 soul of man, for he clearly states that his 
 mother * would not know him in his new 
 form. He is suffering a great expi- 
 ation, enduring a great loss, as the result 
 of the terrible conflict through which he 
 
 *Isis. 
 92 
 
OF THE IDYLL OF THE WHITE LOTUS. 
 
 had passed and in which vital parts of 
 his being had been destroyed. But the 
 Queen-mother bids him arise in his new 
 shape, and he finds he is still strong to 
 move among men though he cannot be 
 of them. He has survived the ordeal 
 and is claimed by the Queen-mother as 
 her own ; and she gives him his work 
 during the ages, of influencing the hearts 
 of the people — and promises that he shall 
 live to teach her truth in that " new 
 fane that shall arise in the distance of 
 time " — the transfigured form, the " per- 
 fect shining one" which shall be his 
 glorified Temple when he has won full 
 liberation. 
 
 It must be remembered that the Egyp- 
 tian held that these various entities, souls, 
 and forms, which go to the making-up 
 of a man, have to be reunited before the 
 transfigured man, the " new fane " can 
 93 
 
THE STORY OF SENSA, AN INTERPRETATION 
 
 be built. The Queen-mother explains 
 that Malen's form is pure and un- 
 stained, although his soul is lost. He led 
 Sensa to the city and left him there, an- 
 swering for him to ambition by the sign 
 of a jewel worn by desire. Thus he be- 
 trayed him; but he did not himself stay 
 in the city of pleasure. The ego can use 
 this form ; but it appears as though 
 the esoteric teaching of this mysterious 
 part of the story is that the soul of 
 Malen must be recovered, revived, and 
 purified, before the " new fane " can be 
 built. 
 
 94 
 
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