Vegetarianism and Occultism - C.W. Leadbeater

Wow, I am certainly going out on the edge with some of these reviews, eh? Well, this was a Librivox reading, and it sounded interesting. I can certainly say that it was interesting.

As one of the earlier writings on vegetarianism, C.W. Leadbeater, a man whom I can certainly say exists on the fringe of 20th Century spirituality, thought and "isms", was a early proponent of the purity that a vegetarian diet can bring.

His arguments and postulates are at once simple, and yet evident, even as he wrote them nearly 100 years ago. There are the selfish and moral advantages of a vegetarian diet - for instance the respective tenants of better nutriment and increased compassion for life. And there is this hidden draw, the occult laws of nature. Here Leadbeater outlines man's duty to nature and how the reciprocal effect that diet changes can positively propogate in the world, and even the universe, that surrounds us, and to which we owe gratitude.

As I have always stated, we can learn not from discussions with those like us, but from confrontations and dialogue with those whose views are diametrically oppossed to our own. Only in this medium can our views expand and mature to their full ability.

The occultist, then, is a man who studies all the laws of nature that he can reach or of which he can hear, and as a result of his study he identifies himself with these laws and devotes his life to the service of evolution.