Adepts of the Five Elements An Occult Survey of Past and Future Problems

THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK And now to give a few biographical details regarding him who elects to write under the pseudonym of David Anrias, thus retaining the name under which he figured in my recent book, The Initiate in the Dark Cycle. Coming from a Celtic stock, already as a child he was of a distinctly meditative disposition and much prone to solitary wanderings and day-dreaming. In early manhood, between 1908-14 he came into contact with books on occult science and particularly on astrology which aroused his keen interest and prompted him to make a serious study of the subject. Previous to this he had had an artistic training, and showed remarkable aptitude for pencil portraiture. Then the war came. Two years he spent in the trenches and was awarded the Military Medal for running messages under fire. Later on he received a commission in the field and was transferred to the Flying Corps. After the termination of hostilities, he felt a strong inner urge to go out to India, where he worked under Dr Annie Besant, of whom he speaks with great admiration. During that time he spent many months together in the Nilgiri Hills, and it was there that with untiring patience, self-sacrifice and perseverance he applied himself to that laborious process of "stilling the modifications of the mind", to which I have previously alluded. After years of effort he succeeded in establishing a rapport with the Adept known as the Rishi of the Nilgiri Hills, to whom he acquired the capacity of mentally "tuning in".(1) This venerable Sage specializes in Astrology, and it is to his tuition that Anrias owes his really remarkable proficiency in that most difficult and misunderstood science. He it was who urged him to publish some astrological prognostications in The Theosophist, which, although they provoked a certain scepticism at the time, have since been fulfilled. Towards the end of the seven years which Anrias spent in India, he finally acquired the power to "tune in" to several of the other Masters of Wisdom, to which fact we are indebted for the utterances and portraits contained in this book. Anrias returned to England in 1927 in order to make a study of the psychic conditions over here, and to perform certain work in conjunction with other pupils of the Adepts. This book is one such piece of work, for I should point out all that discoveries or pronouncements on the part of one individual should permit of verification by others; or, more colloquially expressed, in order to arrive at the truth, the "findings" of one man should be "checked up" by others capable of so doing. This rule applies in material Science, it also applies in Occult Science. That none of the pronouncements from the Masters published in this book have suffered through faulty transmission has been verified by the other pupils mentioned previously. THE PORTRAITS AND THE TEXT Finally we come to the reason why some of the Masters have permitted their portraits to be given tAnrias, David is the author of 'Adepts of the Five Elements An Occult Survey of Past and Future Problems', published 2007 under ISBN 9780979266515 and ISBN 0979266513.