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Blavatsky H.P. - Thoughts on the New Year and the False Noses

2026-04-14T15:34:43Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Thoughts on the New Year and the False Noses
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 97-104
| publications = La Revue Théosophique. Paris, Vol. II, No. 11, January 21, 1890, pp. 193-98
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Pensées sur le Nouvel An et les Faux Nez
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - The Last Song of the Swan
| alternatives =
| translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/Блаватская_Е.П._-_Размышления_о_Новом_годе_и_фальшивых_носах Russian]
| notes = Translation of the foregoing French text
}}

{{Page aside continues|97}}

{{Style P-Title|THOUGHTS ON THE NEW YEAR AND THE FALSE NOSES}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''La Revue Théosophique''. Paris, Vol. II, No. 11, January 21, 1890, pp. 193-98]}}
{{Vertical space|}}
{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Translation of the foregoing original French text''.]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

Hail, 1890!

“''Annum novum faustum felicemque tibi!''”

Such was the sacramental phrase on the lips of all Gentiles, great or lowly, rich or poor, during the day of the first of January, centuries before the Christian era; and we hear it even today, especially in Paris. This mutual greeting was exchanged on that day throughout the length and breadth {{Page aside|98}}of the Roman Empire. It awoke the echoes in the palaces of Caesars, made cheerful the poor hovel of the slave, and soared to the clouds in the spacious open galleries of the Colosseum, at the Capitol and the Forum, everywhere under the blue sky of Rome. On that day, everybody assumed, in honor of the double-faced Janus, a more or less prominent false nose of goodness, frank cordiality and sincerity.

“''May the New Year bring you happiness and prosperity!''” —we say to everyone of our readers. “Let it be light to you,” we say to our enemies and traducers. Brothers—we say to Theosophists in every part of the world—Brothers, let us discard, at least for today, ''all our respective false noses'', in order to wish each other health and success, and, especially, ''a little more cordial mutual understanding'' than in the year 1889, now happily defunct.

However, whether we repeat the old Latin formula one way or another, in French or in English, it will never be but a variation of the ancient pagan phrase. For the New Year, as well as every other festival, is but a legacy to the Christian people from the worshippers of the Olympian gods. Let us, by all means, exchange wishes and gifts (''étrennes''), but let us not be ungrateful, Theosophists! Let us not forget that these customs come to us from paganism; and that felicitations and gifts also came to us from the same source.

As a matter of fact, gifts (''étrennes'') are but the ''strenae'', the presents exchanged by the Latins on the first of January,<ref>From ''Janua''—“door” or any kind of entrance; the door that opens up the year.</ref> the day that opened the New Year. As everybody does or does not know—which is all the same to me—this day was consecrated to Janus, who gave his name to the month of ''Januarius'' or January, and even to the Saint of that name, the patron of Naples and of its lazzarone [beggars]. But, after all, this amiable Saint is but one of the false noses of the god ''Bifrons''. The old pagan was called in his early youth ''Diaus'', after his Vedic name, the beautiful god of the day and of light. Having immigrated to Thessaly, {{Page aside|99}}and thence to Italy, where he established himself in the little hamlet of Janiculum, on the Tiber, latinizing his name and becoming Dianus, god of light (whence Diana). His false noses were many, and history has lost count of them. However, since those days he has let himself be converted. Thus it is that for more than eighteen centuries, having replaced his latest and more modest false nose with a more respectable, if not more impenetrable, mask—he is called Saint Peter.

Let the reader kindly abstain from protesting, and particularly from slinging offensive epithets at us, which would not harm us, but might well lower him in our estimation. I am but the humble interpreter of the more or less veiled truths and symbols, well known to all who have studied their Virgil and their Horace, as well as their Ovid. Neither a false nose nor a mask could prevent an old pagan from recognizing his double-faced Janus in the Apostle who denied his Master. The two are identical, and everybody has the right to take what is his own, wherever he finds it. Saint Peter is the ''coeli Janitor'' merely because Janus was that too. The old doorkeeper of heaven, who pulled the door-cord at the palace of the Sun, at every dawn and every New Year, and closed it again when ushering them out, is but too easily recognizable in his new role. It is written in the stars which rule the destiny of gods as well as mortals, that Janus—who held the key to heaven in one hand and a halberd in the other, just as St. Peter, having suceeded him, does—would relinquish his role of janitor to the Sun to him who would become the guardian of the portals to Paradise, the abode of Christ-Sun. The new ''coeli Janitor'' has become the successor to all the functions and privileges of the ancient one, and we see no harm in that. Solomon has said: “There is nothing new under the sun”; and he was right. It would be silly to invent new functions and new gods—which we fashion in our image—when our forefathers on the other side of the flood went to all the trouble of doing so for us. That is why everything has been allowed to remain as in the past, and why nothing has been changed in this world—except the names.

{{Page aside|100}}
In all the religious ceremonies the name of Janus was always invoked first, for it was only through his immediate intercession that the prayers of the pagan devotees could reach the ear of the immortal gods. Thus it is even today. Anyone who would presume to communicate with one of the personages of the Trinity over the head of St. Peter would certainly be caught. His prayer would suffer the fate of a petition one sought to leave at the office of the janitor, after having had an argument with him and having called him “old door-keeper”; it would never reach the higher levels.

The fact is, the Great Army of the “Pipelets” and the “Anastasies”<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Monsieur and Madame Pipelet are characters in Eugène Sue’s work, ''Mystères de Paris'' (1842), who typify the curious habits and peculiarities of the French ''portier'', or Janitor. “Anastasie” has not been identified.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref> should recognize Janus ''Bifrons'' as their patron, the god in whose image it was created. It is only then that it would have a legal right to its gifts, the first of the year, while its great patron would receive his ''mite'' from the beginning to the end of the year. Everything is relative in this world of illusion; nevertheless there should exist a difference of degree between a celestial and a terrestrial janitor. As for the ''gifts'', they have existed in all ages both for lowly and great men alike. Caligula, emperor as he was, did not disdain remaining throughout New Year's day in the vestibule of his palace, in order to receive the ''strenae'' of his trembling subjects; sometimes, their own heads, for a change. The Virgin-Queen, “Queen Bess” of England, when she died, left three thousand court dresses, which represented her most recent gifts. Both great and lowly behave similarly even now, in the year of our Lord 1890, on this crazy ball we call ''Terra''—the “footstool” of God.

Did not this same God of Abraham and of Jacob allow himself to be moved to pity by promises and presents, just like the gods of other nations? This God and these gods, did they not receive, just like mortals, gifts for services rendered or about to be rendered? Did not Jacob himself bargain with {{Page aside|101}}his God, promising him as ''gifts'' “the tithe of all that thou [God] wilt give me”? And he added, this good patriarch, at Luz near “Bethel”: “. . . . If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on . . . . then shall the Lord be my God.” Saying this he did not forget to make an offering (''étrenner'') to the stone “Bethel” which he had raised, by pouring some oil on its top, in a simple but beautiful phallic ceremony (''Genesis'' xxviii, 18, 20-22).

This touching ceremony came to the Israelites direct from India, where the stone of ''Śiva'', the ''lingam'', is today the object of the same exoteric rite with oil and flowers, every time his worshippers celebrate the festival of the god of Destruction (of brute matter) and of the Yogis.

All has remained as of yore. In Christian countries, especially in France, the New Year makes its triumphal entrance just as it did two thousand years ago, when the Pagans celebrated it with indigestion caused by the figs and gilded prunes they ate. The latter fruit have migrated since to the Christmas tree, which does not alter the fact that they came to us from the temples of Janus. It is true that the priests no longer sacrifice a young white bull upon his altar; that is replaced by a lamb of the same color, but whole hecatombs of quadrupeds and fowl are slaughtered annually in his honor on that day. Certainly more innocent blood is spilled today to satisfy the voracious appetite of one Paris street alone, on New Year’s day, then was necessary to feed a whole Roman city in the time of the Caesars. The gentle Julian, the pagan who rediscovered his well-beloved gods in Lutetia—after the gods of Gaul had been disguised by order of Caesar, with the false noses of Roman divinities—spent his leisure hours taming doves in honor of Venus. The ferocious potentates who came after him, the elder sons of the Church, tamed only Venuses that made pigeons out of them. Servile history called the former ''Apostate'', to please the Church, and added to the names of the others some high-sounding epithets: the “Great,” the “Saint,” the “Beautiful.” But if Julian became the “Apostate,” it was perhaps because he had a horror of false noses, while his Christian {{Page aside|102}}successors would hardly be presentable in good society without such an artificial appendage. A false nose, when necessary, becomes a guardian angel, and upon occasion even a god. This is history. The metamorphosis of the divinities of barbarous Gaul into the gods of Olympus and Parnassus did not stop there. In their turn, these Olympians had to undergo treatment by order of the successors of Janus St. Peter—namely, a forced baptism. With the help of tinsel and brass, of paste and cement, we find the beloved gods of Julian appearing, after their violent death, in the ''Golden Legend'' and the calendar of the good Pope Gregory, under the titles of beatified Saints.

The world is like the sea: it often changes in appearance, but remains basically the same. The false noses of civilization and of the bigots, however, have hardly embelished it: on the contrary, with every New Year it becomes more ugly and more dangerous. We ponder and compare, but in the sight of a philosopher comparison with its predecessors of ancient days does not reflect favorably upon the modern New Year’s Day. The millions stored in the safes and vaults of state banks do not make either the rich or the poor any happier. Ten bronze coins with the effigy of Janus, given as a gift, were worth more in those days than ten gold coins, with the effigy of the Republic or the Queen, are worth today; the baskets of gilded prunes, a few cents worth, contained less cause of indigestion than the boxes of candy exchanged on New Year’s Day today—these candies representing in Paris alone the sum of half a million francs. Five hundred thousand francs ''in candies'', and the same number of men and women dying from hunger and privations! Let us go back in our minds, my readers, fifteen centuries, and try to make a comparison between a New Year’s dinner in the years 355 to 360, and a similar dinner in 1890. Let us seek out the same good and kind Julian, when he lived in the palace of Thermae, which is known today as the Hotel de Cluny—or what is left of it. Do you see him, this great general, at his dinner, surrounded by his soldiers whom he loves better than anyone else in the world outside of his gods, and who idolize him! It is the first of January and {{Page aside|103}}they are celebrating the day of Janus In two days, the third of January, they will render a similar homage to Isis, patroness of the good city of ''Lutetia Parisiorum''. Since those days, the virgin-mother of ancient Egypt was rebaptized as Geneviève, and this Saint and Martyr (of Typhon?) has remained the patroness of the good city of Paris—true symbol of a false nose furnished by Rome for the Christian world. We see neither knives nor forks, neither silver nor porcelain of Sèvres, at that imperial table, not even a napkin; but the meats and other foods which the guests consume with so much appetite do not have to be inspected under the microscope of chemists attached to public health offices. No artificial or poisonous product is to be found in their bread or wine. Arsenic does not add to their vegetables the false nose of a deceptive freshness; rust does not hide itself in the corners of their preserved food containers, and red brick pulverized in a mortar does not play the role of their pepper. Their sugar (or that which takes its place) is not extracted from the tar in the wheels of their chariots of war; in swallowing their liqueurs and cognac, they do not swallow a solution made from the old boots of a policeman, found in the basket of a rag picker; they did not devour, with a casual smile on their lips, a bouillon condensed from the grease of corpses (of men as well as of animals) and the rags used in all the hospitals of Paris—as a substitute for butter For all of this is a product of modern culture, the fruit of civilization and scientific progress, while Gaul at the time of Julian was but a barbarous and savage land. But what they ate on their New Year’s Day could be eaten with safety and with advantage (except for the doctors) at the dinners on the first of the year 1890.

“They had neither forks nor silver,” they will say; “and they ate with their fingers, those barbarians!”

That’s true; they had no use for forks, and probably for handkerchiefs also; but on the other hand, they did not have to swallow their ancestors in their kitchen grease, and the bones of their dogs in their white bread, as we do daily.

{{Page aside|104}}
If given a choice, we would definitely not choose the gala dinner of the first of the year of grace 1890, at Paris, but the one of a thousand years ago, at Lutetia. A case of barbarian taste, don’t you see! A ridiculous and baroque preference, according to the opinion of the majority, for ''natural'' in the fourth century, attracts us infinitely more than the false noses and the artificiality of everything in the nineteenth century.
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H. P. Blavatsky}}

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - Thoughts on the New Year and the False Noses

2026-04-14T15:34:19Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Thoughts on the New Year and the False Noses
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 97-104
| publications = La Revue Théosophique. Paris, Vol. II, No. 11, January 21, 1890, pp. 193-98
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Pensées sur le Nouvel An et les Faux Nez
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - The Last Song of the Swan
| alternatives =
| translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/Блаватская_Е.П._-_Размышления_о_Новом_годе_и_фальшивых_носах Russian]
| notes = Translation of the foregoing French text
}}

{{Page aside continues|97}}

{{Style P-Title|THOUGHTS ON THE NEW YEAR AND THE FALSE NOSES}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''La Revue Théosophique''. Paris, Vol. II, No. 11, January 21, 1890, pp. 193-98]}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Translation of the foregoing original French text''.]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

Hail, 1890!

“''Annum novum faustum felicemque tibi!''”

Such was the sacramental phrase on the lips of all Gentiles, great or lowly, rich or poor, during the day of the first of January, centuries before the Christian era; and we hear it even today, especially in Paris. This mutual greeting was exchanged on that day throughout the length and breadth {{Page aside|98}}of the Roman Empire. It awoke the echoes in the palaces of Caesars, made cheerful the poor hovel of the slave, and soared to the clouds in the spacious open galleries of the Colosseum, at the Capitol and the Forum, everywhere under the blue sky of Rome. On that day, everybody assumed, in honor of the double-faced Janus, a more or less prominent false nose of goodness, frank cordiality and sincerity.

“''May the New Year bring you happiness and prosperity!''” —we say to everyone of our readers. “Let it be light to you,” we say to our enemies and traducers. Brothers—we say to Theosophists in every part of the world—Brothers, let us discard, at least for today, ''all our respective false noses'', in order to wish each other health and success, and, especially, ''a little more cordial mutual understanding'' than in the year 1889, now happily defunct.

However, whether we repeat the old Latin formula one way or another, in French or in English, it will never be but a variation of the ancient pagan phrase. For the New Year, as well as every other festival, is but a legacy to the Christian people from the worshippers of the Olympian gods. Let us, by all means, exchange wishes and gifts (''étrennes''), but let us not be ungrateful, Theosophists! Let us not forget that these customs come to us from paganism; and that felicitations and gifts also came to us from the same source.

As a matter of fact, gifts (''étrennes'') are but the ''strenae'', the presents exchanged by the Latins on the first of January,<ref>From ''Janua''—“door” or any kind of entrance; the door that opens up the year.</ref> the day that opened the New Year. As everybody does or does not know—which is all the same to me—this day was consecrated to Janus, who gave his name to the month of ''Januarius'' or January, and even to the Saint of that name, the patron of Naples and of its lazzarone [beggars]. But, after all, this amiable Saint is but one of the false noses of the god ''Bifrons''. The old pagan was called in his early youth ''Diaus'', after his Vedic name, the beautiful god of the day and of light. Having immigrated to Thessaly, {{Page aside|99}}and thence to Italy, where he established himself in the little hamlet of Janiculum, on the Tiber, latinizing his name and becoming Dianus, god of light (whence Diana). His false noses were many, and history has lost count of them. However, since those days he has let himself be converted. Thus it is that for more than eighteen centuries, having replaced his latest and more modest false nose with a more respectable, if not more impenetrable, mask—he is called Saint Peter.

Let the reader kindly abstain from protesting, and particularly from slinging offensive epithets at us, which would not harm us, but might well lower him in our estimation. I am but the humble interpreter of the more or less veiled truths and symbols, well known to all who have studied their Virgil and their Horace, as well as their Ovid. Neither a false nose nor a mask could prevent an old pagan from recognizing his double-faced Janus in the Apostle who denied his Master. The two are identical, and everybody has the right to take what is his own, wherever he finds it. Saint Peter is the ''coeli Janitor'' merely because Janus was that too. The old doorkeeper of heaven, who pulled the door-cord at the palace of the Sun, at every dawn and every New Year, and closed it again when ushering them out, is but too easily recognizable in his new role. It is written in the stars which rule the destiny of gods as well as mortals, that Janus—who held the key to heaven in one hand and a halberd in the other, just as St. Peter, having suceeded him, does—would relinquish his role of janitor to the Sun to him who would become the guardian of the portals to Paradise, the abode of Christ-Sun. The new ''coeli Janitor'' has become the successor to all the functions and privileges of the ancient one, and we see no harm in that. Solomon has said: “There is nothing new under the sun”; and he was right. It would be silly to invent new functions and new gods—which we fashion in our image—when our forefathers on the other side of the flood went to all the trouble of doing so for us. That is why everything has been allowed to remain as in the past, and why nothing has been changed in this world—except the names.

{{Page aside|100}}
In all the religious ceremonies the name of Janus was always invoked first, for it was only through his immediate intercession that the prayers of the pagan devotees could reach the ear of the immortal gods. Thus it is even today. Anyone who would presume to communicate with one of the personages of the Trinity over the head of St. Peter would certainly be caught. His prayer would suffer the fate of a petition one sought to leave at the office of the janitor, after having had an argument with him and having called him “old door-keeper”; it would never reach the higher levels.

The fact is, the Great Army of the “Pipelets” and the “Anastasies”<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Monsieur and Madame Pipelet are characters in Eugène Sue’s work, ''Mystères de Paris'' (1842), who typify the curious habits and peculiarities of the French ''portier'', or Janitor. “Anastasie” has not been identified.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref> should recognize Janus ''Bifrons'' as their patron, the god in whose image it was created. It is only then that it would have a legal right to its gifts, the first of the year, while its great patron would receive his ''mite'' from the beginning to the end of the year. Everything is relative in this world of illusion; nevertheless there should exist a difference of degree between a celestial and a terrestrial janitor. As for the ''gifts'', they have existed in all ages both for lowly and great men alike. Caligula, emperor as he was, did not disdain remaining throughout New Year's day in the vestibule of his palace, in order to receive the ''strenae'' of his trembling subjects; sometimes, their own heads, for a change. The Virgin-Queen, “Queen Bess” of England, when she died, left three thousand court dresses, which represented her most recent gifts. Both great and lowly behave similarly even now, in the year of our Lord 1890, on this crazy ball we call ''Terra''—the “footstool” of God.

Did not this same God of Abraham and of Jacob allow himself to be moved to pity by promises and presents, just like the gods of other nations? This God and these gods, did they not receive, just like mortals, gifts for services rendered or about to be rendered? Did not Jacob himself bargain with {{Page aside|101}}his God, promising him as ''gifts'' “the tithe of all that thou [God] wilt give me”? And he added, this good patriarch, at Luz near “Bethel”: “. . . . If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on . . . . then shall the Lord be my God.” Saying this he did not forget to make an offering (''étrenner'') to the stone “Bethel” which he had raised, by pouring some oil on its top, in a simple but beautiful phallic ceremony (''Genesis'' xxviii, 18, 20-22).

This touching ceremony came to the Israelites direct from India, where the stone of ''Śiva'', the ''lingam'', is today the object of the same exoteric rite with oil and flowers, every time his worshippers celebrate the festival of the god of Destruction (of brute matter) and of the Yogis.

All has remained as of yore. In Christian countries, especially in France, the New Year makes its triumphal entrance just as it did two thousand years ago, when the Pagans celebrated it with indigestion caused by the figs and gilded prunes they ate. The latter fruit have migrated since to the Christmas tree, which does not alter the fact that they came to us from the temples of Janus. It is true that the priests no longer sacrifice a young white bull upon his altar; that is replaced by a lamb of the same color, but whole hecatombs of quadrupeds and fowl are slaughtered annually in his honor on that day. Certainly more innocent blood is spilled today to satisfy the voracious appetite of one Paris street alone, on New Year’s day, then was necessary to feed a whole Roman city in the time of the Caesars. The gentle Julian, the pagan who rediscovered his well-beloved gods in Lutetia—after the gods of Gaul had been disguised by order of Caesar, with the false noses of Roman divinities—spent his leisure hours taming doves in honor of Venus. The ferocious potentates who came after him, the elder sons of the Church, tamed only Venuses that made pigeons out of them. Servile history called the former ''Apostate'', to please the Church, and added to the names of the others some high-sounding epithets: the “Great,” the “Saint,” the “Beautiful.” But if Julian became the “Apostate,” it was perhaps because he had a horror of false noses, while his Christian {{Page aside|102}}successors would hardly be presentable in good society without such an artificial appendage. A false nose, when necessary, becomes a guardian angel, and upon occasion even a god. This is history. The metamorphosis of the divinities of barbarous Gaul into the gods of Olympus and Parnassus did not stop there. In their turn, these Olympians had to undergo treatment by order of the successors of Janus St. Peter—namely, a forced baptism. With the help of tinsel and brass, of paste and cement, we find the beloved gods of Julian appearing, after their violent death, in the ''Golden Legend'' and the calendar of the good Pope Gregory, under the titles of beatified Saints.

The world is like the sea: it often changes in appearance, but remains basically the same. The false noses of civilization and of the bigots, however, have hardly embelished it: on the contrary, with every New Year it becomes more ugly and more dangerous. We ponder and compare, but in the sight of a philosopher comparison with its predecessors of ancient days does not reflect favorably upon the modern New Year’s Day. The millions stored in the safes and vaults of state banks do not make either the rich or the poor any happier. Ten bronze coins with the effigy of Janus, given as a gift, were worth more in those days than ten gold coins, with the effigy of the Republic or the Queen, are worth today; the baskets of gilded prunes, a few cents worth, contained less cause of indigestion than the boxes of candy exchanged on New Year’s Day today—these candies representing in Paris alone the sum of half a million francs. Five hundred thousand francs ''in candies'', and the same number of men and women dying from hunger and privations! Let us go back in our minds, my readers, fifteen centuries, and try to make a comparison between a New Year’s dinner in the years 355 to 360, and a similar dinner in 1890. Let us seek out the same good and kind Julian, when he lived in the palace of Thermae, which is known today as the Hotel de Cluny—or what is left of it. Do you see him, this great general, at his dinner, surrounded by his soldiers whom he loves better than anyone else in the world outside of his gods, and who idolize him! It is the first of January and {{Page aside|103}}they are celebrating the day of Janus In two days, the third of January, they will render a similar homage to Isis, patroness of the good city of ''Lutetia Parisiorum''. Since those days, the virgin-mother of ancient Egypt was rebaptized as Geneviève, and this Saint and Martyr (of Typhon?) has remained the patroness of the good city of Paris—true symbol of a false nose furnished by Rome for the Christian world. We see neither knives nor forks, neither silver nor porcelain of Sèvres, at that imperial table, not even a napkin; but the meats and other foods which the guests consume with so much appetite do not have to be inspected under the microscope of chemists attached to public health offices. No artificial or poisonous product is to be found in their bread or wine. Arsenic does not add to their vegetables the false nose of a deceptive freshness; rust does not hide itself in the corners of their preserved food containers, and red brick pulverized in a mortar does not play the role of their pepper. Their sugar (or that which takes its place) is not extracted from the tar in the wheels of their chariots of war; in swallowing their liqueurs and cognac, they do not swallow a solution made from the old boots of a policeman, found in the basket of a rag picker; they did not devour, with a casual smile on their lips, a bouillon condensed from the grease of corpses (of men as well as of animals) and the rags used in all the hospitals of Paris—as a substitute for butter For all of this is a product of modern culture, the fruit of civilization and scientific progress, while Gaul at the time of Julian was but a barbarous and savage land. But what they ate on their New Year’s Day could be eaten with safety and with advantage (except for the doctors) at the dinners on the first of the year 1890.

“They had neither forks nor silver,” they will say; “and they ate with their fingers, those barbarians!”

That’s true; they had no use for forks, and probably for handkerchiefs also; but on the other hand, they did not have to swallow their ancestors in their kitchen grease, and the bones of their dogs in their white bread, as we do daily.

{{Page aside|104}}
If given a choice, we would definitely not choose the gala dinner of the first of the year of grace 1890, at Paris, but the one of a thousand years ago, at Lutetia. A case of barbarian taste, don’t you see! A ridiculous and baroque preference, according to the opinion of the majority, for ''natural'' in the fourth century, attracts us infinitely more than the false noses and the artificiality of everything in the nineteenth century.
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H. P. Blavatsky}}

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - Pensees sur le Nouvel An et les Faux Nez

2026-04-14T15:27:49Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Pensées sur le Nouvel An et les Faux Nez
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 91-97
| publications = La Revue Théosophique, Paris, Vol. II, No. 11, 21 janvier, 1890, pp. 193-98
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (59)
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Thoughts on the New Year and the False Noses
| alternatives =
| translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/Блаватская_Е.П._-_Размышления_о_Новом_годе_и_фальшивых_носах Russian]
}}

{{Page aside|91}}

{{Style P-Title|PENSÉES SUR LE NOUVEL AN ET LES FAUX NEZ}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''La Revue Théosophique'', Paris, Vol. II, No. 11, 21 janvier, 1890, pp. 193-98]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

1890, salut!

«''Annum novum faustum felicemque tibi!''»

Telle fut la phrase sacramentelle dans la bouche de tout gentil, grand ou petit, riche ou pauvre, pendant la journée du 1er janvier, des siècles avant l’ère chrétienne; telle nous l’entendons encore aujourd'hui, surtout à Paris. Ce souhait mutuel s'échangait au susdit jour dans toute l’étendue de l’Empire romain. Il réveillait les échos du palais des Césars, égayait le pauvre taudis de l’esclave, et montait aux nuages dans les vastes galeries ouvertes du Colisée, au Capitole et au Forum, partout sous le ciel bleu de Rome. Ce jour-là, tout le monde s’affublait, en l’honneur de Janus, à la double face, d’un faux nez plus ou moins saillant, de bonte, de franche cordialité et de sincérité.

«''Que la nouvelle'' {{Style S-Small capitals|année}} ''vous apporte bonheur et prospérité!''» disons-nous à chacun de nos lecteurs! «Qu’elle vous soit légère», disons-nous à nos ennemis et détracteurs. Frères! —disons-nous à tous les théosophes dans toutes les parties du monde,—Frères, débarrassons-nous, pour ce jour, du moins, ''de nos faux nez respectifs'', pour nous souhaiter réciproquement santé et succès, et, surtout, ''un peu plus d’entente cordiale'' que pendant l’année 1889, heureusement décédée.

Cependant, que nous répétions la vieille formule latine d'une manière ou d’une autre, en français ou en anglais, ce ne sera toujours qu’une variation sur l’ancienne phrase païenne. Car le nouvel an, ainsi que toute autre fête, n’est qu’un legs fait aux peuples chrétiens par les adorateurs des dieux de l’Olympe. Échangeons donc souhaits et étrennes, mais ne soyons pas ingrats, theosophes. N’oublions pas que nous tenons ces coutumes du paganisme; et que félicitations et étrennes nous viennent de la même source.

{{Page aside|92}}
En effet, les étrennes ne sont que les ''strenae'', les présents échangés par les Latins au ler janvier, le jour qui ouvrait le nouvel an.<ref>De ''Janus''—“porte” ou ''entrée'' quelconque; la porte qui ouvre l’année.</ref> Comme tout le monde sait,—ou ne sait pas, ce qui m’est bien égal,—ce jour était consacré à Janus, lequel donna son nom au mois de ''Januarius'' ou janvier, et même au saint de ce nom, patron de Naple et de ses lazzaroni. Mais cet aimable saint n’est, après tout, qu’un des faux nez du dieu ''Bifrons''. Le vieux païen s’appelait, dans sa première jeunesse, ''Diaus'' de son nom védique, le beau dieu du jour et de la lumière. Après avoir émigré en Thessalie, et de là en Italie, où il s’établit sur le Tibre dans son petit hameau du Janiculum, il fit latiniser son nom et devint Dianus, dieu de la lumière (d’où Diane). Ses faux nez furent nombreux, et l’histoire n’en sait plus le nombre. Mais il s’est laissé convertir depuis; et voici maintenent plus de dix-huit siècles, qu’ayant remplacé son dernier et modeste faux nez par un masque plus respectable, sinon plus impénétrable—il se nomme saint Pierre.

Que le lecteur veuille bien ne pas se récrier, et qu’il s’abstienne surtout d’épithètes malsonnantes à notre addresse, lesquelles ne nous feraient aucun mal, mais pourraient lui faire du tort,—à nos yeux. Je ne suis que l’humble interprète des vérites et symboles plus ou moins voilés, mais fort connus de tous ceux qui ont étudié leur Virgile et leur Horace, ainsi que leur Ovide. Ni faux nez, ni masque, ne pourraient empêcher un vieux païen de reconnaître, dans l’apôtre qui renia son Maître, son Janus à double face. Les deux son identiques, et tout le monde a le droit dc prendre son bien où il le trouve. Saint Pierre n’est le ''coeli Janitor'' que parce que Janus le fut. Le vieux concierge du ciel, qui tirait le cordon de la porte du palais du Soleil, à chaque nouveau jour, comme à chaque nouvel an, et la refermait sur eux, en les reconduisant, n’est que trop reconnaissable dans son nouveau rôle. Il était écrit, dans les étoiles qui gouvernent la destinée des dieux comme celle des mortels, que Janus,—qui tenait la clef du ciel dans une main et une hallebarde de l’autre, tout comme saint {{Page aside|93}}Pierre le fait depuis qu’il lui a succédé,—céderait sa place de portier du Soleil à celui qui deviendrait le gardien des portes du Paradis,—la demeure du Christ-Soleil. Le nouveau ''coeli Janitor'' a succédé à toutes les fonctions et privilèges de l’ancien, et nous n’y voyons aucun mal. Salomon l’a dit; «Il n’y a rien de nouveau sous le soleil»;—et il a bien dit. On serait joliment bête d’aller inventer de nouvelles fonctions ou de nouveaux dieux,—que nous créons à notre image,—lorsque nos pères d’au delà du Déluge avaient si bien pris cette peine pour nous. C’est pour cela que tout est resté comme par le passé et que rien n’est changé dans ce monde,—sauf les noms. Dans toutes les cérémonies religieuses le nom de Janus était toujours invoqué le premier, car ce n’est que par son immédiate intercession que les prières des fidèles idolâtres pouvaient parvenir aux oreilles des dieux immortels. Maintenant, il en est de même. Celui qui croirait communiquer avec l’un des personnages de la trinité par-dessus la tête de saint Pierre serait bien attrappé. Sa prière subirait le sort d’une supplique qu’on chercherait à laisser dans la loge du concierge, après avoir eu des mots avec lui et l’avoir appelé «vieux portier»: elle n’arriverait jamais aux étages supérieurs.

Le fait est que la Grande armée des «Pipelets»<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[See footnote appended to the English translation of this article.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref> et des «Anastasies» devrait avoir pour patron reconnu Janus ''Bifrons'', le dieu à l’image de qui elle se créa. Ce n’est qu’alors qu’elle aurait un droit légal aux étrennes, le jour de l’an, tandis que son grand patron recevrait son ''denier'' depuis le commencement jusqu’à la fin de l’année. Tout est relatif dans cet univers illusoire; cependant il est nécessaire qu’entre un portier céleste et un portier terrestre il existe une différence de degré. Quant aux ''étrennes'', elles ont existé de tout temps pour les grands comme pour les petits. Caligula, tout Empereur qu’il était, ne dédaignait pas de rester sur pied toute la journée du nouvel an, dans le vestibule de son palais, pour recevoir les ''strenae'' de ses sujets tremblants,—avec leurs têtes quelquefois,—pour varier. La Reine-Vierge, {{Page aside|94}}la «Queen Bess» d’Angleterre mourut, en laissant 3,000 robes de gala, qui représentaient ses dernières étrennes. Et c’est ainsi qu’agissent encore les grands et les petits, dans l’année du Seigneur 1890, sur notre boule détraquée que nous nommons ''Terra''—«le marche-pied» de Dieu.

Ce même Dieu d’Abraham et de Jacob ne se laissait-il pas attendrir par des promesses et des présents, aussi bien que les dieux des nations? Ce Dieu et ces dieux ne recevaient-ils point, tout comme les mortels, des ''étrennes'' pour services rendus ou à rendre? Jacob, lui-même, ne marchandait-il pas avec son Dieu, en lui promettant comme ''étrennes'' «la dime de tout ce que tu [Dieu] m’aura donné»? Et il ajoutait, ce bon patriarche, à Luz devant «Bethel»:—«Si Dieu est avec moi . . . . s’il me donne du pain à manger, et des habits pour me vêtir . . . certainement, l’Éternel me sera Dieu.» Disant cela, il n’oubliait pas non plus, dans une simple, mais belle cérémonie phallique, d’''étrenner'' la pierre «Bethel» qu’il avait dressée, en arrosant son sommet d’huile (''Genèse'', xxviii, 18, 20-22).

Cette touchante cérémonie venait aux Israélites directement des Indes, où la pierre de ''Shiva'', le ''lingam'', subit aujourd’hui la même opération exotérique avec de l’huile et des fleurs, à chaque fête des adorateurs du dieu de la Destruction (de la matière brute) et des Yogis.

Tout est resté alors comme jadis. Le nouvel an fait son entrée triomphale dans les pays chrétiens,—en France surtout,—comme il la faisait, il y a deux mille ans, lorsque les Païens le célébraient en se donnant une indigestion de figues et de prunes dorées. Celles-ci ont émigré depuis sur les arbres de Noël, ce qui n’empêche pas toujours qu’elles ne nous viennent des temples de Janus. Il est vrai que les prêtres ne sacrifient plus sur son autel un jeune taureau blanc; —il est remplacé par l’agneau de la même couleur,—mais des hécatombes de quadrupèdes et de volailles sont égorgées annuellement en son honneur, ce jour-là. Il est certain que plus de sang innocent est versé aujourd’hui, pour satisfaire l’appétit vorace d’une seule rue de Paris, le jour de l’an, qu’il n’en fallait pour nourrir toute une ville romaine du temps des Césars. Le doux Julien, le païen, qui retrouva à {{Page aside|95}}Lutèce ses dieux bien-aimés,—après que les dieux gaulois eurent été, par ordre de César, affublé des faux nez des divinités romaines,—passait ses heures de loisir à apprivoiser des colombes en l’honneur de Vénus. Les féroces potentats qui vinrent après lui,—les fils ainés de l’Église,—n’apprivoisaient que des Vénus, qui en faisaient leurs pigeons. L’histoire servile surnomma le premier, pour plaire à l’Église, l’''Apostat'', et fit suivre les noms des autres d’épithètes sonnantes:— le «Grand», le «Saint», «le Bel». Mais si Julien devint «Apostat»—ce fut, peut-être, parce qu’il avait en horreur les faux nez; tandis que ses successeurs chrétiens ne seraient probablement pas présentables en bonne société, sans cet appendice artificiel. Un faux nez devient, au besoin, un ange gardien, voire même à l’occasion,—un dieu. Ceci est de l’histoire. La métamorphose des divinités de la Gaule barbare en dieux de l’Olympe et du Parnasse ne s’est pas arrêtée là. À leur tour ces Olympiens eurent à subir une opération par ordre des successeurs de Janus-Saint Pierre,— celle du baptême forcé. À l’aide d’oripeaux et de clinquants, de colle-forte et de ciment romain, nous retrouvons les dieux aimés de Julien, figurant, depuis leur mort violente, sous les titres de Saints et de Saintes béates, dans la Légende doré et le calendrier du bon pape Grégoire.

Le monde est comme la mer: il change souvent d’aspect, mais reste au fond le même. Les faux nez de la civilisation et des cagots ne l’ont guère embelli, cependant . . . . Bien au contraire, puisqu’avec chaque nouvelle année il devient plus laid et plus dangereux. Nous réfléchissons et nous comparons, et le jour du nouvel an moderne ne gagne rien à cette comparison avec ses précurseurs, du temps de l’antiquité, aux yeux d’un philosophe. Les milliards dans les coffresforts et banques des gouvernements ne rendent pas le pauvre peuple plus heureux, ni les riches non plus. Dix pièces de monnaie en bronze, à l’effigie de Janus, données pour étrennes, valaient, en ces jours, plus que dix pièces en or, à l’effigie de la République ou à celle de la Reine, ne valent maintenant; les paniers de prunes dorées, valant quelques sous, contenaient moins de germes d’indigestion que les boîtes de bonbons échangées au jour du nouvel an moderne, {{Page aside|96}}—ces bonbons représentant, à Paris seulement, une somme de plus d’un demi-million de francs. Cinq cent mille francs de ''bonbons'', à la face du même nombre d’hommes et de femmes mourant de faim et de privations! Portons-nous en esprit, ami lecteur, quinze siècles en arrière, et tâchons d’établir une comparaison entre un diner du nouvel an, dans les années 355 à 360, et un diner analogue en 1890. Allons à la recherche de ce même bon et doux Julien, lorsqu’il habitait le palais des Thermes, qui se nomme aujourd’hui l’hôtel de Cluny,—ou ce qu’il en reste. Le voyez-vous, ce grand général, à son diner à lui, entouré de ses soldats qu’après ses dieux il aime le plus au monde, et qui l’idolâtrent. C’est le ler du mois de janvier et ils célèbrent le jour de Janus. Dans deux jours, le 3 janvier, ils rendront pareil honneur à Isis, patronne de la bonne ville de ''Lutetia Parisiorum''. Depuis, la vierge-mère de l’ancienne Égypte s’est laissé baptiser Geneviève, et cette Sainte et Martyre (de Typhon?) est restée patronne de la bonne ville de Paris,—vrai symbole d’un faux nez fourni par Rome au monde chrétien. Nous ne voyons ni couteaux ni fourchettes, ni argenterie, ni porcelaines de Sèvres, à cette table impérial,—pas même une nappe; mais les viandes et les provisions que les convives font disparaître avec tant d’appétit n’ont nul besoin de passer sous les microscopes de chimistes de la police sanitaire. Aucun produit artificiel ou vénéneux ne fait partie de leur pain ou de leur vin. L’arsenic ne colore pas leurs herbes et légumes d’un faux nez de fraîcheur trompeuse; le vert-de-gris ne se niche point dans les angles de leurs boîtes de conserves, et leur poivre ne se fait pas représenter par la brique rouge pilée dans un mortier. Leur sucre (ou ce qui le remplaçait), n’est point tiré du goudron des roues de leurs chariots de guerre; en avalant leurs liqueurs et cognac, ils n’avalent pas une solution de vieilles bottes de gendarme tirées de la hotte d’un chiffonnier; ils ne dévoraient pas, avec un sourir inconscient sur les lèvres, un bouillon condensé de graisse de cadavres (d’hommes comme d’animaux) et de chiffons et charpie usés dans tous les hôpitaux de Paris,—au lieu de beurre. Car tout ceci est le produit de la culture moderne, le fruit de la civilisation et {{Page aside|97}}du progres de sciences, et la Gaule, du temps de Julien. n’était qu’un pays sauvage et barbare. Mais ce qu’ils mangeaient, à leur nouvel an, pourrait être mangé avec sécurité et profit (sauf celui des médecins) à nos diners du premier jour de l’an 1890.

«Ils n’avaient ni fourchettes, ni argenterie», me dit-on; «et,—les barbares!—ils mangeaient avec leurs doigts!»

Il est vrai; ils se passaient de fourchettes, comme peutêtre de mouchoirs de poche; mais, en revanche, ils n’avalaient pas, comme nous le faisons tous les jours, leurs ancêtres dans la graisse de cuisine, et les os de leurs chiens dans leur pain blanc.

Qu’on nous donne le choix, et décidément ce n’est pas le diner de gala du jour de l’an de grâce 1890, à Paris, que nous choisirons, mais celui d’il y a mille ans, à Lutèce. Affaire de goût barbare, voyez-vous; une préférence baroque et ridicule, selon l’avis de la majorité—pour le naturel dans le siècle IV, qui nous séduit infiniment plus que les faux nez et l’artificiel en tout du xixme siècle.
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H. P. Blavatsky}}

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (59)

2026-04-14T10:09:51Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Miscellaneous Notes
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 90
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 29, January, 1890, pp. 442-43
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Colonel Henry S. Olcott and the Esoteric Section
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Pensées sur le Nouvel An et les Faux Nez
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside|90}}

{{Style P-Title|MISCELLANEOUS NOTES}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 29, January, 1890, pp. 442-43]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

In America, as in England and every other civilised country, complaints are heard from the press of the failure of Christianity to influence the lives of the people. We have just come across an article in an American paper on “The Failure of Christianity in Villages,” in which our contemporary declares that:

{{Style P-Quote|Nothing is more marked in American social life, or more to be regretted, than the manifest decay of religious activity and the loss of vitality in our American towns and villages, especially in the rural districts. New England presents this failure in one form, and the North-West presents it in another, but in nearly all American villages, wherever you go, the Christian religion in the existing forms in which its friends try to commend it to the public, is set forth in ways which for the most part are not attractive to the average man, and do not impress the people with much respect for the truths which are behind them.}}

The truth is that the age is outgrowing the dead-letter rendering which materializes truth into falsehood. Everywhere empty hands are outstretched into the darkness groping after the Truth. It is for the Theosophists to chase away the darkness with the “light from the East.”

{{HPB-CW-separator}}

Theosophists, and more especially Occultists, will be interested in learning that Dr. Albertini has discovered that colour blindness is accompanied by a corresponding deafness to certain notes. Persons who cannot see ''red'' cannot distinguish the note ''Sol''; those who cannot see ''green'' cannot distinguish ''Re''. Thus, from time to time, do the discoveries of Western science confirm Eastern knowledge; and as science presses nearer to the heart of things, we may look to see these confirmations increase.

Blavatsky H.P. - Colonel Henry S. Olcott and the Esoteric Section

2026-04-14T10:08:12Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Colonel Henry S. Olcott and the Esoteric Section
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 89
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 29, January, 1890, p. 437; The Theosophist, Vol. XI, Supplement to March, 1890, p. cv
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Was Cagliostro a “Charlatan”?
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (59)
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside|89}}

{{Style P-Title|COLONEL HENRY S. OLCOTT AND THE ESOTERIC SECTION}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 29, January, 1890, p. 437; ''The Theosophist'', Vol. XI, Supplement to March, 1890, p. cv]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{Style P-Align right|Theosophical Society, Esoteric Section}}
{{Style P-Align right|London, 25th December, 1889.}}

I hereby appoint Colonel H. S. Olcott my confidential agent and sole official representative of the Esoteric Section for Asiatic countries.

All correspondence relative to admission into, and resignation from, the Section shall be referred to him, and all ''Instructions'' transmitted by him, and his decision is to be taken and accepted as given by myself. Such correspondence to be invariably marked "Private" on the envelope.
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H. P. Blavatsky}}

{{HPB-CW-separator}}

{{Style P-Quote|{{HPB-CW-comment|[The above appointment was followed in ''Lucifer'' by a brief statement signed by H.P.B. and which is reproduced herewith:]}}}}

The members of the Esoteric Section in London and the surrounding district have formed themselves into a Lodge, for the purpose, among other things, of stimulating Theosophical activity and organizing members of the Society into active groups of workers. It is hoped that, in this way, they may become useful to the Society at large.

No member need apply for admission into the E.S. unless he is prepared to adopt ''in full'' the three objects of the T.S. and to become practically an earnest worker for Theosophy.
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H.P.B.}}

Blavatsky H.P. - Was Cagliostro a Charlatan

2026-04-14T10:04:31Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Was Cagliostro a “Charlatan”?
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 78-88
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 29, January, 1890, pp. 389-95
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - 1890! On the New Year’s Morrow
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Colonel Henry S. Olcott and the Esoteric Section
| alternatives = [https://universaltheosophy.com/hpb/was-cagliostro-a-charlatan/ UT]
| translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/Блаватская_Е.П._-_Был_ли_Калиостро_«шарлатаном»%3F Russian]
}}

{{Page aside continues|78}}

{{Style P-Title|WAS CAGLIOSTRO A “CHARLATAN”?}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 29, January, 1890, pp. 389-95]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{Style P-Epigraph|
To send the injured unredressed away,
How great soe’er the offender, and the wrong’d.
Howe’er obscure, is wicked, weak and vile—
Degrades, defiles, and should dethrone a king.
|Smollett.}}

The mention of Cagliostro’s name produces a twofold effect. With the one party, a whole sequence of marvellous events emerges from the shadowy past; with others the modern progeny of a too realistic age, the name of Alexander, Count Cagliostro, provokes wonder, if not contempt.

{{Page aside|79}}
People are unable to understand that this “enchanter and magician” (read “Charlatan”) could ever legitimately produce such an impression as he did on his contemporaries. This gives the key to the posthumous reputation of the Sicilian known as Joseph Balsamo, that reputation which made a believer in him, a brother Mason, say, that (like Prince Bismarck and some Theosophists) “Cagliostro might well be said to be the best abused and most hated man in Europe.” Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the fashion of loading him with opprobrious names, none should forget that Schiller and Goethe were among his great admirers, and remained so to their deaths. Goethe while travelling in Sicily devoted much labour and time to collecting information about “Giuseppe Balsamo” in his supposed native land; and it was from these copious notes that the author of ''Faust'' wrote his play “The Great Kophta.”

Why this wonderful man is receiving so little honour in England, is due to Carlyle. The most fearlessly truthful historian of his age—he, who abominated falsehood under whatever appearance—has stamped with the ''imprimatur'' of his honest and famous name, and thus sanctified the most iniquitous of historical injustices ever perpetrated by prejudice and bigotry. This owing to false reports which almost to the last emanated from a class he disliked no less than he hated untruth, namely the Jesuits, or—lie incarnate.

The very name of Giuseppe Balsamo, which, when rendered by cabalistic methods, means “He who was sent,” or “The Given, ”also “Lord of the Sun,” shows that such was not his real patronymic. As Kenneth R. H. MacKenzie, F.T.S., remarks, toward the end of the last century it became the fashion with certain theosophical professors of the time to transliterate into Oriental form every name provided by Occult Fraternities for disciples destined to work in the world. Whosoever then, may have been Cagliostro’s parents, their name was not “Balsamo.” So much is certain, at any rate. Moreover, as all know that in his youth he lived with, and was instructed by, a man named, as is supposed, Althotas, “a great Hermetic Eastern Sage” or in other words an Adept, it is not difficult to accept the {{Page aside|80}}tradition that it was the latter who gave him his symbolical name. But that which is known with still more certainty is the extreme esteem in which he was held by some of the most scientific and honoured men of his day. In France we find Cagliostro—having before served as a confidential friend and assistant chemist in the laboratory of Pinto, the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta—becoming the friend and ''protégé'' of the Prince Cardinal de Rohan. A high born Sicilian Prince honoured him with his support and friendship, as did many other noblemen. “Is it possible, then,” pertinently asks MacKenzie, “that a man of such engaging manners could have been the lying imposter his enemies endeavoured to prove him?”

The chief cause of his life-troubles was his marriage with Lorenza [or Serafina] Feliciani, a tool of the Jesuits; and two minor causes, his extreme good nature, and the blind confidence he placed in his friends—some of whom became traitors and his bitterest enemies. Neither of the crimes of which he is unjustly accused could lead to the destruction of his honour and ''posthumous'' reputation; but all was due to his weakness for an unworthy woman, and the possession of certain secrets of nature, which he would not divulge to the Church. Being a native of Sicily, Cagliostro was naturally born in a family of Roman Catholics, no matter what their name, and was brought up by monks of the “Good Brotherhood of Castiglione,” as his biographers tell us; thus, for the sake of dear life he had to outwardly profess belief in and respect for a Church, whose traditional policy has ever been, “he who is not ''with us'' is ''against'' us,” and forthwith to crush the enemy in the bud. And yet, just for this, is Cagliostro even today accused of having served the Jesuits as their spy; and this by Masons who ought to be the last to bring such a charge against a learned Brother who was persecuted by the Vatican even more as a Mason than as an Occultist. Had it been so, would these same Jesuits even to this day vilify his name? Had he served them, would he not have proved himself useful to their ends, as a man of such undeniable intellectual gifts could not have blundered or disregarded ''the orders of those whom he {{Page aside|81}}served''. But instead of this, what do we see?
Cagliostro charged with being the most cunning and successful impostor and charlatan of his age; accused of belonging to the Jesuit Chapter of Clermont in France; of appearing (as a proof of his affiliation to the Jesuits) in clerical dress at Rome. Yet, this “cunning impostor” is tried and condemned —by the exertions of those same Jesuits—to an ignominious death, which was changed only subsequently to lifelong imprisonment, owing to a mysterious interference or influence brought to bear on the Pope!

Would it not be more charitable and consistent with truth to say that it was his connection with Eastern Occult Science, his knowledge of many secrets—deadly to the Church of Rome—that brought upon Cagliostro first the persecution of the Jesuits, and finally the rigour of the Church? It was his own honesty, which blinded him to the defects of those whom he cared for, and led him to trust two such rascals as the Marquis Agliato and Ottavio Nicastro, that is at the bottom of all the accusations of fraud and imposture now lavished upon him. And it is the sins of these two worthies—subsequently executed for gigantic swindles and murder—which are now made to fall on Cagliostro. Nevertheless it is known that he and his wife (in 1770) were both left destitute by the flight of Agliato with all their funds so that they had to beg their way through Piedmont and Geneva. Kenneth MacKenzie has well proven that Cagliostro had never mixed himself up with political intrigue—the very soul of the activities of the Jesuits. “He was most certainly unknown in that capacity to those who have jealously guarded the preparatory archives of the Revolution, and his appearance as an advocate of revolutionary principles has no basis in fact.” He was simply an Occultist and a Mason, and as such was allowed to suffer at the hands of those who, adding insult to injury, first tried to kill him by lifelong imprisonment and then spread the rumour that he had been their ignoble agent. This cunning device was in its infernal craft well worthy of its primal originators.

There are many landmarks in Cagliostro’s biographies to show that he taught the Eastern doctrine of the “principles” {{Page aside|82}}in man, of “God” dwelling in man—as a potentiality ''in actu'' (the “Higher Self”)—and in every living thing and even atom—as a potentiality ''in posse'', and that he served the Masters of a Fraternity he ''would not'' name because on account of his pledge ''he could not''. His letter to the new mystical but rather motley Brotherhood, the (Lodge of) Philalethes, is a proof in point. The Philalethes, as all Masons know, was a rite founded in Paris in 1773 in the ''Loge des Amis Réunis'', based on the principles of Martinism,<ref>The Martinists were Mystics and Theosophists who claimed to have the secret of communicating with (Elemental and Planetary) Spirits of the ultramundane Spheres. Some of them were practical Occultists.</ref> and whose members made a special study of the Occult Sciences. The Mother Lodge was a philosophical and ''theosophical'' Lodge, and therefore Cagliostro was right in desiring to purify its progeny, the Lodge of Philalethes. This is what the ''Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia'' (p. 95) says on the subject:

{{Style P-Quote|. . . on the 15th of February, 1785, the Lodge of Philalethes (or Lovers of Truth), in solemn Session—with Savalette de Langes, royal treasurer; Tassin, the banker, and Tassin, an officer in the royal service —opened a Fraternal Convention at Paris . . . Princes (Russian, Austrian, and others), fathers of the Church, councillors, knights, financiers, barristers, barons, Theosophists, canons, colonels, professors of magic, engineers, literary men, doctors, merchants, postmasters, dukes, ambassadors, surgeons, teachers of languages, receivers general, and notably two London names—Boosie, a merchant, and Brooks of London—compose this Convention, to whom may be added M. le Comte de Cagliostro, and Mesmer, “the inventor,” as Thory describes him (''Acta Latomorum'', Vol. II. p. 95), “of the doctrine of magnetism!” Surely such an able set of men to set the world to rights, as France never saw before or since!}}

The grievance of the Lodge was that Cagliostro, who had first promised to take charge of it, withdrew his offers, as the “Convention” would not adopt the Constitutions of the Egyptian Rite, nor would the ''Philalethes'' consent to have its archives consigned to the flames, which were his conditions ''sine qua non''. It is strange that his answer to that Lodge should be regarded by Brother K. R. H.

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[[File:Hpb_cw_12_82_1.jpg|center|x200px]]
<center>COUNT ALESSANDRO DI CAGLIOSTRO</center>
<center>1743?-1795?</center>
<center>Engraved by Robert Samuel Marcuard (1751-1792) from a Painting by Francesco Bartolozzi (1727-1815).</center>
<center>(''Bibliothèque Nationale, Collect. Caffarelli Calamy'')</center>
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{{Page aside|83}}
{{Style P-No indent|MacKenzie and other Masons as emanating “from a Jesuit source.” The very style is Oriental, and no European Mason—least of all a Jesuit—would write in such a manner. This is how the answer runs:}}

{{Style P-Quote|. . . . The unknown Grand Master of true Masonry has cast his eyes upon the Philaletheans . . . Touched by their piety, moved by the sincere avowal of their desire, he deigns to extend his hand over them, and consents to give a ray of light into the darkness of their temple. It is the wish of the unknown Grand Master ''to prove to them the existence of one God''—the basis of their faith; ''the original dignity of man; his powers and destiny'' . . . . It is by deeds and facts, by the testimony of the senses, that they will know {{Style S-Small capitals|God, Man}} and ''the intermediary spiritual beings'' [''principles''] ''created between them;'' of which ''true'' Masonry gives the symbols and indicates the real road. Let then, the Philalethes embrace the doctrines of this real Masonry, submit to the rules of its supreme chief, and adopt its constitutions. But above all let the sanctuary be purified, let the Philalethes know that light can only descend into the Temple of Faith [based on knowledge], and not into that of scepticism. Let them devote to the flames that vain accumulation of their archives; for it is only on the ruins of the Tower of Confusion that the Temple of Truth can be erected.”<ref>''Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia'', p. 96.</ref>}}

In the Occult phraseology of certain Occultists “Father, Son and Angels” stood for the compound symbol of physical, and astro-Spiritual {{Style S-Small capitals|Man}}.<ref>See the ''Three Principles'' and the ''Seven Forms of Nature'' by Böhme and fathom their Occult significance, to assure yourself of this.</ref> John G. Gichtel (end of XVIIth cent.), the ardent lover of Böhme, the Seer of whom de Saint-Martin relates that he was ''married'' “to the heavenly Sophia,” the Divine Wisdom—made use of this term. Therefore, it is easy to see what Cagliostro meant by proving to the Philalethes on the testimony of their “senses,” “God, man and the ''intermediary'' Spiritual beings,” that exist between God (''Atma''), and Man (the ''Ego''). Nor is it more difficult to understand his true meaning when he reproaches the Brethren in his parting letter which says: “We have offered you the truth; you have disdained it. We have offered it for the sake of itself, and you have refused it ''in consequence of a love of forms'' . . . Can you elevate {{Page aside|84}}yourselves to (''your'') God and the ''knowledge of yourselves'' by the assistance of a Secretary and a Convocation?” etc.<ref>The statement on the authority of Beswick that Cagliostro was connected with the ''Loge des Amis Réunis'' under the name of Count Grabianca is not proven. There was a Polish Count of that name at the time in France, a mystic mentioned in Madame de Krüdner’s letters which are with the writer’s family, and one who belonged, as Beswick says, together with Mesmer and Count de Saint-Germain, to the Lodge of the Philalethes. Where are Savalette de Langes’ Manuscripts and documents left by him after his death to the Philosophic Scottish Rite? Lost?</ref>

Many are the absurd and entirely contradictory statements about Joseph Balsamo, Count de Cagliostro, so called, several of which were incorporated by Alexander Dumas in his ''Mémoires d’un Médecin'', with those prolific variations of truth and fact which so characterize Dumas ''père’s'' romances. But though the world is in possession of a most miscellaneous and varied mass of information concerning that remarkable and unfortunate man during most of his life, yet of the last ten years and of his death, nothing certain is known, save only the legend that he died in the prison of the Inquisition. True, some fragments published recently by the Italian ''savant'', Giovanni Sforza, from the private correspondance of Lorenzo Prospero Bottini, the Roman ambassador of the Republic of Lucca at the end of the last century, have somewhat filled this wide gap.<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[H.P.B.’s statement to the effect that the fragments she is about to quote had been ''recently'' published, presents a problem which has never been fully solved. Some of the excerpts which she quotes in this article have been published over the signature of Giovanni Sforza in a communication entitled: “La Fine di Cagliostro,” which appeared in the ''Archivio Storico Italiano'', 5th Series, Vol. VII, February, 1891, pp. 144-151. This ''Archive'' was published in Florence by G. P. Vieusseux. Obviously, this source is over a year later than H.P.B.’s own article, and could not have been used by her at the time. She also brings up several points which are not mentioned in the above source. Further research is therefore required to identify the source she used.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref> This correspondance with Pietro Calandrini, the Great Chancellor of the said Republic, begins from 1784, but the really {{Page aside|85}}interesting information commences only in 1789, in a letter dated June 6, of that year, and even then we do not learn much.

It speaks of the “celebrated Count di Cagliostro, who has recently arrived with his wife from Trent ''via'' Turin to Rome. People say he is a native of Sicily and extremely wealthy, but no one knows whence that wealth. He has a letter of introduction from the Bishop of Trent to Albani . . . . So far his daily walk in life as well as his private and public status are above reproach. Many are those seeking an interview with him, to hear from his own lips the corroboration of what is being said of him.” From another letter we learn that Rome had proven an ungrateful soil for Cagliostro. He had the intention of settling at Naples, but the plan could not be realised. The Vatican authorities who had hitherto left the Count undisturbed, suddenly laid their heavy hand upon him. In a letter dated 2nd January, 1790, just a year after Cagliostro’s arrival, it is stated that: “last Sunday secret and extraordinary debates in council took place at the Vatican. It (the council) consisted of the State Secretary and Antonelli, Pallotta and Campanelli, Monsignor Vicegerente performing the duty of Secretary. The object of that Secret Council remains unknown, but public rumour asserts that it was called forth owing to the sudden arrest on the night between Saturday and Sunday, of the Count di Cagliostro, his wife, and a Capuchin, Fra Giuseppe da S. Maurizio. The Count is incarcerated in Castel Sant’ Angelo, the Countess in the Convent of Santa Apollonia, and the monk in the prison of Ara Coeli. That monk, who calls himself ‘Father Svizzero,’ is regarded as a confederate of the famous magician. In the number of the crimes he is accused of is included that of the circulation of a book by an unknown author, condemned to public burning and entitled, ‘The Three Sisters.’ The object of this work is ‘to ''pulverize'' certain three high-born individuals’.”

The real meaning of this most extraordinary misinterpretation is easy to guess. It was a work on Alchemy; the “three sisters” standing symbolically for the three “Principles” in their duplex symbolism. On the plane of occult chemistry {{Page aside|86}}they “pulverize” the triple ingredient used in the process of the transmutation of metals; on the plane of Spirituality they reduce to a state of pulverization the three “lower” ''personal'' “principles” in man, an explanation that every Theosophist is bound to understand.

The trial of Cagliostro lasted for a long time. In a letter of March the 17th, Bottini writes to his Lucca correspondent that the famous “wizard” has finally appeared before the Holy Inquisition. The real cause of the slowness of the proceedings was that the Inquisition, with all its dexterity at fabricating proofs, could find no weighty evidence to prove the guilt of Cagliostro. Nevertheless, on April the 7th, 1791, he was condemned to death. He was accused of various and many crimes, the chiefest of which were his being a Mason and an “Illuminate,” an “Enchanter” occupied with unlawful studies; he was also accused of deriding the ''holy'' Faith, of doing harm to society, of possessing himself by ''means unknown'' of large sums of money, and of inciting others, sex, age and social standing notwithstanding, to do the same. In short, we find the unfortunate Occultist condemned to an ignominious death for deeds committed, the like of which are daily and publicly committed now-a-days, by more than one Grand Master of the Masons, as also by hundreds of thousands of Kabbalists and Masons, mystically inclined. After this verdict the “arch heretic’s” documents, diplomas from foreign Courts and Societies, Masonic regalias and ''family relics'' were solemnly burned by the public hangmen in the ''Piazza della Minerva'', before enormous crowds of people. First his books and instruments were consumed. Among these was the MS. on the ''Maçonnerie Egyptienne'', which thus can no longer serve as a witness ''in favour'' of the reviled man. And now the condemned Occultist had to be passed over to the hands of the civil Tribunal, when a mysterious event happened.

A stranger, never seen by any one before or after in the Vatican, appeared and demanded a private audience of the Pope, sending him by the Cardinal Secretary a ''word'' instead of a name. He was immediately received, but only stopped with the Pope for a few minutes. No sooner was

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[[File:Hpb_cw_12_86_1.jpg|center|x200px]]
<center>LORENZA SERAFINA FELICIANI</center>
<center>Countess di Cagliostro</center>
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{{Page aside|87}}
{{Style P-No indent|he gone than his Holiness gave orders to commute the death sentence of the Count to that of imprisonment for life, in the fortress called the Castle of San Leo, and that the whole transaction should be conducted in great secrecy. The monk Svizzero was condemned to ten years’ imprisonment; and the Countess Cagliostro was set at liberty, but only to be confined on a new charge of heresy in a convent.}}

But what was the Castle of San Leo? It now stands on the frontiers of Tuscany and was then in the Papal States, in the Duchy of Urbino. It is built on the top of an enormous rock, almost perpendicular on all sides; to get into the “Castle” in those days, one had to enter a kind of open basket which was hoisted up by ropes and pulleys. As to the criminal, he was placed in a special box, after which the jailors pulled him up “with the rapidity of the wind.” On April 23rd, 1792, Giuseppe Balsamo—if so we must call him—ascended ''heavenward'' in the criminal’s box, incarcerated in that living tomb for life. Giuseppe Balsamo is mentioned for the last time in the Bottini correspondence in a letter dated March 10th, 1792. The ambassador speaks of a marvel produced by Cagliostro in his prison during his leisure hours. A long rusty nail taken by the prisoner out of the floor was transformed by him without the help of any instrument into a sharp triangular ''stiletto'', as smooth, brilliant and sharp as if it were made of the finest steel. It was recognized for an old nail only by its head, left by the prisoner to serve as a handle. The State Secretary gave orders to have it taken away from Cagliostro, brought to Rome, and to double the watch over him.

And now comes the last kick of the jackass at the dying or dead lion. Luigi Angiolini, a Tuscan diplomat, writes as follows: “At last, that same Cagliostro, who made so many believe that he had been a contemporary of Julius Caesar, who reached such fame and so many friends, died from apoplexy, August 26, 1795. Semproni had him buried in a wood-barn below, whence peasants used to pilfer constantly the crown property. The crafty chaplain reckoned very justly that the man who had inspired the world with such superstitious fear while living, would inspire people with {{Page aside|88}}the same feelings after his death, and thus keep the thieves at bay . . . .”

But yet—a query! Was Cagliostro dead and buried indeed in 1795, at San Leo? And if so, why should the custodians at Castel Sant’ Angelo of Rome show innocent tourists the little square hole in which Cagliostro is said to have been confined and “died”? Why such uncertainty or—imposition, and such disagreement in the legend? Then there are Masons who to this day tell strange stories in Italy. Some say that Cagliostro escaped in an unaccountable way from his aerial prison, and thus forced his jailors to spread the news of his death and burial. Others maintain that he not only escaped, but, thanks to the Elixir of Life, still lives on, though over twice three score and ten years old!

“Why,” asks Bottini, “if he really possessed the powers he claimed, has he not indeed vanished from his jailors, and thus escaped the degrading punishment altogether?”

We have heard of another prisoner, greater in every respect than Cagliostro ever claimed to be. Of that prisoner too, it was said in mocking tones, “He saved others; him self he cannot save . . . . . let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe . . .”

How long shall charitable people build the biographies of the living and ruin the reputations of the dead, with such incomparable unconcern, by means of idle and often entirely false gossip of people, and these generally the slaves of prejudice!

So long, we are forced to think, as they remain ignorant of the Law of Karma and its iron justice.

{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H.P.B.}}

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{{HPB-CW-comment|[Consult the Bio-Bibliographical Appendix at the end of the present Volume. S.V. {{Style S-Small capitals|Cagliostro}}, for additional information about him.—''Compiler''.]}}

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - 1890 On the New Years Morrow

2026-04-14T09:48:00Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = 1890! On the New Year’s Morrow
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 67-78
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No 29, January, 1890, pp. 357-364
| scrapbook =
| previous = Zirkoff B. - The Voice of the Silence
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Was Cagliostro a “Charlatan”?
| alternatives = [https://theosophytrust.org/362-1890-on-the-new-years-morrow TT]
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside|67}}

{{Style P-Title|1890!<br>
ON THE NEW YEAR'S MORROW}}
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{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No 29, January, 1890, pp. 357-364]}}
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{{Style P-Epigraph|“The veil which covers the face of futurity is woven by the hand of Mercy.”
|—Bulwer-Lytton.}}

A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! This seems easy enough to say, and everyone expects some such greeting. Yet, whether the wish, though it may proceed from a sincere heart, is likely to be realized even in the case of the few—is more difficult to decide. According to our theosophical tenets, every man or woman is endowed, more or less, with a magnetic potentiality, which when helped by a sincere, and especially by an intense and indomitable ''will''—is the most effective of magic levers placed by Nature in human hands—for woe as for weal. Let us then, Theosophists, use that will to send a sincere greeting and a wish of good luck for the New Year to every living creature under the sun—enemies and relentless traducers included. Let us try and feel especially kindly and forgiving to our foes and persecutors, honest or dishonest, lest some of us should send unconsciously an “evil eye” greeting instead of a blessing. Such an effect is but too easily produced even without the help of the occult combination of the two numbers, the 8 and the 9, of the late departed, and of the newly-born year. But with these two numbers staring us in the face, an evil wish, just now, would be simply disastrous!

“Halloo!” we hear some casual readers exclaiming. Here’s a ''new'' superstition of the theosophic cranks: let us hear it. . . . .”

You shall, dearly beloved critics, though it is not a ''new'' but a very ''old'' superstition. It is one shared, once upon a {{Page aside|68}}time, and firmly believed in, by all the Caesars and World-potentates. These dreaded the number 8, because it postulates the ''equality of all men''. Out of eternal ''unity'' and the mysterious number ''seven'', out of Heaven and the seven planets and the sphere of the fixed stars, in the philosophy of arithmetic, was born the ''ogdoad''. It was ''the first cube of the even numbers'', and hence held sacred.<ref>As shown by Ragon, the Mason-Occultist, the gnostic ogdoad had eight stars representing the 8 Cabiri of Samothrace, the 8 ''principles'' of the Egyptians and Phoenicians, the 8 gods of Xenocrates the 8 angles of the cubic stone. [''Maçonnerie occulte'', p. 435 footnote.]</ref> In the Eastern philosophy number eight symbolizes equality of units, order and symmetry in heaven, transformed into inequality and confusion on earth, by selfishness, the great rebel against Nature’s decrees.

“The figure 8 or ∞, infinity [TdH]" indicates the perpetual and regular motion of the Universe,” says Ragon. But if perfect as a cosmic number it is likewise the symbol of the lower ''Self'', the animal nature of man. Thus, we augur ill for the ''unselfish'' portion of humanity from the present combination of the year-numbers. For the central figures 89 in the year 1890, are but a repetition of the two figures in the tail-end of 1889. And ''nine'' was a digit terribly dreaded by the ancients. With them it was a symbol of great changes, cosmic and social, and of versatility, in general; the sad emblem of the fragility of human things Figure 9 represents the earth under the influence of an ''evil principle''; the Kabalists holding, moreover, that it also symbolizes the act of reproduction and generation. That is to say that the year 1890 is preparing to reproduce all the evils of its parent 1889, and to generate plenty of its own. ''Three times three'' is the great symbol of ''corporisation'', or the materialisation of spirit according to Pythagoras—hence of gross matter.<ref>The reason for this is because according to the Pythagoreans each of the three elements that constitute our bodies is a ''ternary'': water containing earth and fire; earth containing aqueous and igneous particles; and fire being tempered by aqueous globules and terrestrial corpuscles serving it as food. Hence the name given to matter, the “nonagous envelope.”</ref> {{Page aside|69}}Every material extension, every circular line was represented by number 9, for the ancient philosophers had observed that, which the philosophicules of our age either fail to see, or else attribute to it no importance whatever. Nevertheless, the natural depravity of this digit and number is awful. Being sacred to the spheres it stands as the sign of circumference, since its value in degrees is equal to 9—''i.e''., to 3 + 6 + 0. Hence it is also the symbol of the human head—especially of the modern average head, ever ready to be parading as 9 when it is hardly a 3. Moreover, this blessed 9 is possessed of the curious power of reproducing itself in its entirety in every multiplication and whether wanted or not; that is to say, when multiplied by itself or any other number this cheeky and pernicious figure will always result in a sum of 9—a vicious trick of material nature, also, which reproduces itself on the slightest provocation. Therefore it becomes comprehensible why the ancients made of 9 the symbol of Matter, and we, the modern Occultists, make of it that of the ''materialism'' of our age—the fatal ''nine''teenth century, now happily on its decline.

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If this antediluvian wisdom of the ages fails to penetrate the “circumference” of the cephaloid “spheres” of our modern Scientists and Mathematicians—then we do not know what will do so. The occult future of 1890 is concealed in the exoteric past of 1889 and its preceding patronymical eight years.

Unhappily—or shall we say, happily—man in this dark cycle is denied, as a collective whole, the faculty of foresight. Whether we take into our mystic consideration the average business man, the profligate, the materialist, or the bigot, it is always the same. Compelled to confine his attention to the day’s concern, the business man but imitates the provident ant by laying by a provision against the winter of old age; while the elect of fortune and Karmic illusions tries his best to emulate the grasshopper in his perpetual buzz and summer-song. The selfish care of the one and the {{Page aside|70}}utter recklessness of the other make both disregard and often remain entirely ignorant of any serious duty towards Human kind. As to the latter two, namely the materialist and the bigot, their duty to their neighbours and charity to all begin and end at home. Most men love but those who share their respective ways of thinking, and care nothing for the future of the races or the world; nor will they give a thought, if they can help it, to ''post-mortem'' life. Owing to their respective psychical temperaments each man expects death will usher him either through golden porches into a conventional heaven, or through sulphurous caverns into an asbestos hell, or else to the verge of an abyss of non-existence. And lo, how all of them—save the materialist—do fear death to be sure! May not this fear lie at the bottom of the aversion of certain people to Theosophy and Metaphysics? But no man in this century—itself whirling madly towards its gaping tomb—has the time or desire to give more than a casual thought either to the grim visitor who will not miss one of us, or to Futurity.

They are, perhaps, right as to the latter. The future lies in the present and both include the Past. With a rare occult insight Rohel made quite an ''esoterically'' true remark, in saying that “the future does not come from before to meet us, but comes streaming up from behind over our heads.” For the Occultist and average Theosophist the Future and the Past are both included in each moment of their lives, hence in the eternal {{Style S-Small capitals|Present}}. The Past is a torrent madly rushing by, that we face incessantly, without one second of interval; every wave of it, and every drop of it, being an event, whether great or small. Yet, no sooner have we faced it, and whether it brings joy or sorrow, whether it elevates us or knocks us off our feet, than it is carried away and disappears behind us, to be lost sooner or later in the great Sea of Oblivion. It depends on us to make every such event nonexistent to ourselves by obliterating it from our memory; or else to create of our past sorrows Promethean Vultures—those “dark-winged birds, the embodied memories of the Past,” which, in Sala’s graphic fancy “wheel and shriek over the Lethean lake.” In the first case, we are real {{Page aside|71}}philosophers; in the second—but timid and even cowardly soldiers of the army called mankind, and commanded in the great battle of Life by “King Karma.” Happy those of its warriors by whom Death is regarded as a tender and merciful mother. She rocks her sick children into sweet sleep on her cold, soft bosom but to awake them a moment after, healed of all ailing, happy, and with a tenfold reward for every bitter sigh or tear. ''Post-mortem'' oblivion of every evil—to the smallest—is the most blissful characteristic of the “paradise” ''we'' believe in. Yes: oblivion of pain and sorrow and the vivid recollection only, nay once more the living over of every happy moment of our terrestrial drama; and, if no such moment ever occurred in one’s sad life, then, the glorious realization of every legitimate, well-earned, yet unsatisfied desire we ever had, as true as life itself and intensified seventy-seven times sevenfold . . . .

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Christians—the Continental especially—celebrate their New Year days with special pomp. That day is the ''Devachan'' of children and servants, and everyone is supposed to be happy, from Kings and Queens down to the porters and kitchen-malkins. The festival is, of course, purely pagan, as with very few exceptions are all our ''holy days''. The dear old pagan customs have not died out, not even in Protestant England, though here the New Year is no longer a sacred day—more’s the pity. The presents, which used to be called in old Rome ''strenae'' (now, the French ''étrennes''), are still mutually exchanged. People greet each other with the words:—''Annum novum faustum felicemque tibi'', as of yore; the magistrates, it is true, sacrifice no longer a white steer to Janus. But magistrates, priests and all devour still in commemoration of swan and steer, big fat oxen and turkeys at their Christmas and New Year’s dinners. The gilt dates, the dried and gilt plums and figs have now passed from the hands of the tribunes on their way to the Capitol onto the Christmas trees for children. Yet, if the modern Caligula receives no longer piles of copper coins with the {{Page aside|72}}head of Janus on one side of them, it is because his own effigy replaces that of the god on every coin, and that coppers are no longer touched by royal hands. Nor has the custom of presenting one’s Sovereigns with ''strenae'' been abolished in England so very long. Disraeli tells us in his ''Curiosities of Literature'' of 3,000 gowns found in Queen Bess’s wardrobe after her death, the fruits of her New Year’ tax on her faithful subjects, from Dukes down to dustmen. As the success of any affair on that day was considered a good omen for the whole year in ancient Rome, so the belief exists to this day in many a Christian country, in Russia pre-eminently so. It is because instead of the New Year, the mistletoe and the holly are now used on Christmas day, that the symbol has become Christian? The cutting of the mistletoe off the sacred oak on New Year’s day is a relic of the old Druids of pagan Britain. Christian Britain is as pagan in her ways as she ever was.

But there are more reasons than one why England is bound to include the New Year as a sacred day among Christian festivals. The 1st of January being the 8th day after Christmas, is, according to both profane and ecclesiastical histories, the festival of Christ’s circumcision, as six days later in the Epiphany. And it is as undeniable and as world-known a fact as any, that long before the advent of the three Zoroastrian Magi, of Christ’s circumcision, or his birth either, the 1st of January was the first day of the civil year of the Romans, and celebrated 2,000 years ago as it is now. It is hard to see the reason, since Christendom has helped itself to the Jewish Scriptures, and along with them their curious chronology, why it should have found it unfit to adopt also the Jewish ''Rosh ha-Shanah'' (the head of the year), instead of the pagan New Year. Once that the 1st Chapter of ''Genesis'' is left headed in every country with the words, “Before Christ, 4004,” consistency alone should have suggested the propriety of giving preference to the Talmudic calendar over the Pagan Roman. Everything seemed to invite the Church to do so. On the undeniable authority of revelation Rabbinical tradition assures us that it was on the 1st day of the month of ''Tishri'', that the Lord God of Israel {{Page aside|73}}created the world—just 5,848 years ago. Then there’s that other historical fact, namely that our father Adam was likewise created on the first anniversary of that same day of ''Tishri''—a year after. All this is very important, pre-eminently suggestive, and underlines most emphatically our proverbial western ingratitude. Moreover, if we are permitted to say so, it is dangerous. For that identical first day of ''Tishri'' is also called “Yom ha-Din,” the Day of Judgment. The Jewish ''El Shaddai'', the Almighty, is more active than the “Father” of the Christians. The latter will judge us only after the destruction of the Universe, on the Great Day when the Goats and the Sheep will stand, each on their allotted side, awaiting eternal bliss or damnation. But El Shaddai, we are informed by the Rabbins, sits in judgment on every anniversary of the world’s creation—''i.e''., on every New Year’s Day. Surrounded by His archangels, the God of Mercy has the astro-sidereal minute books opened, and the name of every man, woman and child is read to Him aloud from these Records, wherein the minutest thoughts and deeds of every human (or is it only Jewish?) being are entered. If the good deeds outnumber the wicked actions, the mortal whose name is read lives through that year. The Lord plagues for him some Christian Pharaoh or two, and hands him over to him to shear. But if the bad deeds outweigh the good—then woe to the culprit; he is forthwith condemned to suffer the penalty of death during that year, and is sent to Sheol.

This would imply that the Jews regard the gift of life as something very precious indeed. Christians are as fond of their lives as Jews, and both are generally scared out of their wits at the approach of Death. Why it should be so has never been made clear. Indeed, this seems but a poor compliment to pay the Creator, as suggesting the idea that none of the Christians care particularly to meet the Unspeakable Glory of the “Father” face to face. Dear, loving children!

A pious Roman Catholic assured us one day that it was not so, and attributed the scare to ''reverential awe''. Moreover, he tried to persuade his listeners that the Holy {{Page aside|74}}Inquisition burnt her “heretics” out of pure Christian kindness. They were put out of the way of terrestrial mischief in this way, he said, for Mother Church knew well that Father God would take better care of the roasted victims than any mortal authority could, while they were raw and living. This may be a mistaken view of the situation, nevertheless, it was meant in all Christian charity.

We have heard a less charitable version of the real reason for burning heretics and all whom the Church was determined to get rid of; and by comparison this reason colours the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination to eternal bliss or damnation with quite a roseate hue. It is said to be stated in the secret records of the Vatican archives, that burning to the last atom of flesh, after breaking all the bones into small fragments, was done with a predetermined object. It was that of preventing the “enemy of the Church” from taking his part and share even in the last act of the drama of the world—as theologically conceived—namely in “the Resurrection of the Dead” or of all flesh, on the great Judgment Day. As cremation is to this hour opposed by the Church on the same principle—to wit, that a cremated “Sleeper” will upon awakening at the blast of the angel’s trumpet, find it impossible to gather up in time his scattered limbs —reason given for the ''auto-da-fé'' seems reasonable enough and quite likely. The sea will give up the dead which are in it, and death and hell will deliver up their dead (''Vide Revelation'' xx, 13); but terrestrial fire is not to be credited with a like generosity, nor supposed to share in the asbestosian characteristics of the orthodox hellfire. Once the body is cremated it is as good as annihilated with regard to the last rising of the dead. If the occult reason of the inquisitorial ''auto-da-fé'' rests on fact—and personally we do not entertain the slightest doubt of it, considering the authority it was received from—then the Holy Inquisition and Popes would have very little to say against the Protestant doctrine of Predestination. The latter, as warranted in ''Revelation'', allows some chance, at least, to the “Damned” whom hell delivers at the last hour, and who may thus yet be pardoned. While if things took place in {{Page aside|75}}nature as the theology of Rome decreed that they should, the poor “Heretics” would find themselves worse off than any of the “damned.” Natural query: which of the two, the God of the Calvinists or the Jesuit of God, he who first invented burning, beats the other in refined and diabolical cruelty? Shall the question remain in 1890, ''sub judice'', as it did in 1790?

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But the Inquisition, with its stake and rack and diabolical tortures, is happily abolished now, even in Spain. Otherwise these lines would never have been written; nor would our Society have such zealous and good theosophists in the land of Torquemada and the ancient paradise of man-roasting festivals, as it has now. Happy NEW YEAR to them, too, as to all the Brethren scattered all over the wide globe. Only we, theosophists, so kindly nicknamed the “sevening lunatics,” would prefer another day for ''our'' New Year. Like the apostate Emperor, many of us have still a strong lingering love for the poetical, bright gods of Olympus and would willingly repudiate the double-faced Thessalonian. The first of Januarius was ever more sacred to Janus than Juno; and ''janua'', meaning “the gate that openeth the year,” holds as good for any day in January. January 3, for instance, was consecrated to Minerva-''Athênê'', the goddess of wisdom and to ''Isis'', “she who generates life,” the ancient lady patroness of the good city of Lutetia. Since then, mother Isis has fallen a victim to the faith of Rome and civilization and Lutetia along with her. Both were converted in the ''Julian'' calendar (the heirloom of pagan Julius Caesar used by Christendom till the XIIIth century). Isis was baptized Geneviève, became a beatified saint and martyr, and Lutetia was called Paris for a change, preserving the same old patroness but with the addition of a false nose.<ref>This festival remains thus unchanged as that of the lady Patroness of Lutetia-Paris, and to this day ''Isis'' is offered religious honours in every Parisian and Latin church.</ref> Life itself is a gloomy masquerade wherein the {{Page aside|76}}ghastly ''danse macabre'' is every instant performed; why should not calendars and even religion in such case be allowed to partake in the travesty?

To be brief, it is January the 4th which ought to be selected by the Theosophists—the Esotericists especially—as their New Year. January is under the sign of Capricornus, the mysterious ''Makara'' of the Hindu mystics—the “Kumaras,” it being stated, having incarnated in mankind under the 10th sign of the Zodiac. For ages the 4th of January has been sacred to Mercury-Budha,<ref>The 4th of January being sacred to Mercury, of whom the Greeks made ''Hermes'', the R. Catholics have included St. Hermes in their Calendar. Just in the same way, the 9th of that month having been always celebrated by the pagans as the day of the “conquering sun” the R. Catholics have transformed the noun into a proper name, making of it St. Nicanor (from the Greek ''nikao'', to conquer), whom they honour on the 10th of January.</ref> or Thoth-Hermes. Thus everything combines to make of it a festival to be held by those who study ancient Wisdom. Whether called Budh or ''Budhi'' by its Aryan name, ''Mercurios'', the son of ''Caelus'' and ''Hecate'' truly, or of the ''divine'' (white) and infernal (black) magic by its Hellenic, or again Hermes or Thoth, its Greco-Egyptian name, the day seems in every way more appropriate for us than January 1, the day of Janus, the double-faced “god of the time”-''servers''. Yet it is well named, and as well chosen to be celebrated by all the political opportunists the world over.

Poor old Janus! How his two faces must have looked perplexed at the last stroke of midnight on December 31! We think we see these ancient faces. One of them is turned regretfully toward the Past, in the rapidly gathering mists of which the dead body of 1889 is disappearing. The mournful eye of the God follows wistfully the chief events impressed on the departed ''Annus'': the crumbling Eiffel tower; the collapse of the “monotonous”—as Mark Twain’s “tenth mule”—Parnell-Pigot alliteration; the sundry abdications, depositions and suicides of royalty; the ''Hegira'' of aristocratic Mohammeds, and such like freaks and ''fiascos'' of civilization. This is the Janus face of the Past. The other, the face of {{Page aside|77}}the Future, is enquiringly turned the other way, and stares into the very depths of the womb of Futurity; the hopeless vacancy in the widely open eye bespeaks the ignorance of the God. No; not the two faces, nor even the occasional four heads of Janus and their eight eyes can penetrate the thickness of the veils that enshroud the karmic mysteries with which the New Year is pregnant from the instant of its birth. What shalt thou endow the world with, O fatal Year 1890, with thy figures between a unit and a cipher, or symbolically between living man ''erect'', the embodiment of wicked mischief-making and the universe of matter.<ref>It is only when the cipher or nought stands by itself and without being preceded by any digit that it becomes the symbol of the infinite Kosmos and of absolute—Deity.</ref> The “influenza” thou hast already in thy pocket, for people see it peeping out. Of people daily killed in the streets of London by tumbling over the electric wires of the new “lighting craze,” we have already a premonition through news from America. Dost thou see, O Janus, perched like “sister Anne” upon the parapet dividing the two years, a wee David slaying the giant Goliath, little Portugal slaying great Britain, or her ''prestige'', at any rate, on the horizons of the torrid zones of Africa? Or is it a Hindu Sûdra helped by a Buddhist Bonze from the Empire of the Celestials who make thee frown so? Do they not come to convert the two-thirds of the Anglican ''divines'' to the worship of the azure coloured Krishna and of the Buddha of the elephant-like pendant ears, who sits cross-legged and smiles so blandly on a cabbage-like lotus? For these are the theosophical ''ideals''—nay, Theosophy itself, the divine Wisdom—as distorted in the grossly materialistic, all-anthropomorphizing mind of the average British Philistine. What unspeakable new horrors shalt thou, O year 1890, unveil before the eyes of the world? Shall it, though ironclad and laughing at every tragedy of life, sneer too, when Janus, surnamed on account of the key in his right hand, ''Janitor'', the doorkeeper to Heaven—a function with which he was entrusted ages before he became St. Peter—uses that key? It is only when {{Page aside|78}}he has unlocked one after the other the door of every one of the 365 days (true “Blue Beard’s secret chambers”) which are to become thy future progeny, O mysterious stranger, that the nations will be able to decide whether thou wert a “Happy” or a ''Nefast'' Year.

Meanwhile, let every nation, as every reader, fly for inquiry to their respective gods if they would learn the secrets of Futurity. Thus the American, Nicodemus-like, may go to one of his three living and actually reincarnated Christs, each calling himself Jesus, now flourishing under the star-spangled Banner of Liberty. The Spiritualist is at liberty to consult his favorite medium, who may raise Saul or evoke the Spirit of Deborah for the benefit and information of his client. The gentleman-sportsman can bend his steps to the mysterious abode of his rival’s jockey, and the average politician consult the secret police, a professional chiromancer, or an astrologer, etc., etc. As regards ourselves we have faith in numbers and only in that face of Janus which is called the Past. For—doth Janus himself know the future?—or

. . . . “perchance himself he does not know.”

{{Footnotes}}

Zirkoff B. - The Voice of the Silence

2026-04-14T09:30:30Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = The Voice of the Silence
| item author = Zirkoff B.
| volume = 12
| pages = 64
| publications =
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - The Facts Brought Before Masters
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - 1890! On the New Year’s Morrow
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{{Page aside|64}}

{{Style P-Title|“THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE”}}
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{{HPB-CW-comment|[In July and August, 1889, H.P.B. went first to Fontainebleau, France, and later to St. Helier and St. Aubins, on Jersey Island. She was accompanied at least part of the time by Mrs. Ida Garrison Candler of Brookline, Boston, Mass., who was a Trustee of the European T. S. Headquarters, and a close friend of H.P.B.}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|It is during this brief trip, the main purpose of which was to rest and have a change of surroundings, that H.P.B. wrote ''The Voice of the Silence'', her devotional gem which was published later in the same year.}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|It may be found, together with ''The Key to Theosophy'' published the same year, in a separate Volume of the present Series.]}}

Blavatsky H.P. - The Facts Brought Before Masters

2026-04-14T09:28:35Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = The Facts Brought Before Masters
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 59-63
| publications =
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (58)
| next = Zirkoff B. - The Voice of the Silence
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}}

{{Page aside|59}}

{{Style P-Title|THE FACTS BROUGHT BEFORE MASTERS<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[The original Manuscript of this statement in H.P.B.’s own handwriting is in the Archives of the former Point Loma Theosophical Society. It is unsigned and undated and was apparently sent to W. Q. Judge. It must have been written when the Blavatsky Lodge in London was beginning to grow and expand rather rapidly, which would be in 1888-89. Confronted with diametrically opposing views from various types of people, H.P.B. must have felt the urge to ask these questions.<br>
Countess Constance Wachtmeister was at the time managing the Theosophical Publishing Society and was the head of the Library and the Propaganda Fund. The initials I.C.O. stand for Mrs. Isabel Cooper-Oakley. Annie Besant was against the idea of inviting all these fashionable people to such functions as are discussed here.<br>
This Manuscript was originally published in ''The Theosophical Forum'', Covina, Calif., Vol. XXVI, January, 1948.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref>}}
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The party on Monday last, consisted of between 47 or 50 theosophists. Each had been asked to bring friends. The Countess and I. C. O. invited most of them, and of these I find two-thirds of the guests interested in Theosophy and one-half of them having accepted tickets for “Thursday” meetings. All our home-Theosophists spoke Theosophy, each trying to interest his group. I am told they worked admirably and Thursday next will show the results. Yet, as A. B. seemed dead against the thing, I got determined to get from the right quarters the opinion of Masters. I found I was right and there was nothing in the Mondays that could be brought against the T. S. or ourselves. It is the Countess and I. C. O. who bear the expenses, and as they do it for Theosophy they work in accordance with the programme.

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{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|Answers To Some Questions Concerning This.}}}}
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Uncertain about the correctness of my own impressions I addressed the following queries and received the replies as stated.

Q. Was I wrong in encouraging the proposed monthly receptions with the view of interesting some society men and women in the T. S. movement?

A. Not in the least. The time is short, and as the Sage says: “No effort is ever lost. Every cause must produce its effects. The result may vary according to the circumstances which form a part of the cause, but ''it is always wiser to work and force the current of events than to wait for time''.” Unless sought for, no man or woman of the better classes and education will come to you at this stage of opposition and struggle; and by not coming they will never learn the truth about earnest Theosophists and their meritorious efforts to win the day and unveil truth.

Q. Is it likely that the Theosophists who give these parties as those who help them should be regarded as frivolous?

A. If their motive is not frivolous, what should it matter, if they are? Let them fix their eye on the goal before them and never lose sight of it—and thus shall they be justified.

Q. Is it untheosophical to ask into the house persons of the world, rich and well-to-do people, who have their carriages and who dress fashionably?

A. To question the right of such or any other people to participate in the “Movement,” is in itself untheosophical. If Theosophists realize that every man is a component and integral part of universal brotherhood and of Humanity, then, whoever he may be, he is entitled to a trial, at least. That which affects one, will act and react on all. The motto {{Page aside|61}}of the Headquarters of the T. S. should be—“rigid justice to all.” If it is right to care for the poor and those who suffer, it is as right to care for the rich and all those who will unavoidably be brought to far greater sufferings, unless warned and shown the true cause of all such Karmic sorrows. The poorer a man, the more sad his life, the nearer he is to the end of his punitive Karma; the richer his neighbour, the more is full of pleasures his life, the nearer he is—unless he acts in the right path— [to] his Karmic doom. Help the poor, but pity the ignorant rich.

Q. How much truth is there that the Monday party filled the house with Elementals, with the spooks of frivolity, etc.?

A. You said yourself and very correctly that the Thursday meetings crowd was as bad, as most of the visitors come moved more by morbid curiosity than sympathy, by more latent prejudice and ill-feeling than interest in your work. Every crowd has its emanations; every gathering—and the larger it is, the more potent its occult excretions—its spook-creating effluvia. The gatherings at the “Club” are as bad; the crowds in Lecture Halls, still worse. The motive, however, for facing them in each case being meritorious and pure, no harm will be allowed to come to those who beard the “Elementals” with the holy object of doing ultimate good.

Q. Am I wrong in thinking that our Theosophists in doing as they did, have really made a sacrifice? That they have put their personalities to discomfort and taken upon themselves trouble, expenditure of money, loss of time, etc., for the sake, merely, of helping the Movement, and spread of our ideas?

A. No; you are not wrong. It was no pleasure for most of them, but simply duty.

Q. They are not to be blamed then for such gatherings? I mean for trying to make these receptions attractive; for dressing and having music, etc.?

{{Page aside|62}}
A. I do not see why they should be blamed. Every Theosophist does what he can and ought to do it on the lines he can work upon and knows how. One carries his energies among one group of people, works for one class of men. Another tries to do the same among those he sympathizes with the most. Every man is an embodiment of different ideas, and while he lives and moves on this plane, has to work through and with the help of his physical body, which is the necessary instrument that enables him to come in contact with matter and to control it, to mix with other people and influence them. Why should they not dress these bodies? The personality should be neither exalted nor neglected. The T. S. may be compared to a human body. Each organ performs a different function, apart from others, yet all work for the body and help one another. Why expect the brain to digest your food and the muscles of your legs to think out ideas? Why should the heart say to the tongue— “Move not, your jabbering disturbs me,” if the tongue performs its duty allotted to it by Nature and for the benefit of the whole body? The ''Self'' is the Master of the body and it is his duty not to allow his mental equilibrium to be disturbed by anything that may befall his physical body, or to refuse its use under any circumstances, if that use be of any benefit to his neighbour. But it is also his duty to guide his heart-emotions and not let these emotions guide him. Tell those who surround you that they are each of them a Self different from the “Self” of his Brother or Sister, and that whatever the body of one may be led to do for the benefit of all and in an absolute Spirit of unselfishness—is meritorious . . . . . . .

<center>. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .</center>

Q. When it was declared that should the Master Himself give the orders to remain in the house or participate in these “frivolities” the Master’s orders would not be obeyed, what should I have said?

A. Nothing. The party who declared it being the only responsible one for the statement.

{{Page aside|63}}
Q. Just so; but what I want ''You'' to state is the Occult aspect of such attitude, the Nidana aroused, so that I may repeat your own words. Was this remark right? or wrong? and if so—why?

A. Every one has a right to act according to his own conscience; but it is the nature of such act of conscience that decides whether it will be right or wrong. Suppose a “pledge-order” came to do something base and criminal— for instance sell one’s son or daughter, or rob in a legal way one’s neighbour. Then no pledge could avail. The “order” would be something going entirely against a universally recognized law, a principle. But in the case in hand the situation is quite different: here the “Order” would concern something that was only a personal prejudice based on party-spirit. The pledged party cannot go against such an innocent thing as a social gathering in the name of Theosophy, but does so, opposing her co-students and colleagues on grounds entirely selfish and personal, a sin in itself. Were then, such an order ever given (which luckily for all concerned it never will) and the pledged person refused to obey it, though knowing that since it was given there must be something serious involved in it, then—you know, what the effects of it would be.

Q. I know, but then the “party” does not know it.

A. Then she ought to. A ''direct'' “order” is a rare thing indeed and a most serious one. You have no right to let any one of them remain in ignorance.

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (58)

2026-04-14T09:23:40Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Miscellaneous Notes
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 58
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 28, December 15, 1889, pp. 344, 351
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - “Going To and Fro in the Earth” (3)
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - The Facts Brought Before Masters
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}}

{{Page aside|58}}

{{Style P-Title|MISCELLANEOUS NOTES}}
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{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 28, December 15, 1889, pp. 344, 351]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{Style P-Quote|[In connection with a lecture delivered by Dr. Jerome A. Anderson at a meeting of the San Francisco Free-thought Society, in which he had been reported to have said that “the spiritual monad in man was given ''individual'' persistence only during one manvantara, or cycle of material existence.”]}}

This sentence must not be misunderstood as it is reported a little too vaguely. The “Spiritual Monad” is eternal because uncreate, but its “Individual persistence”—''in human form and bodies on this terrestrial chain or during the life-cycle'', lasts only “one manvantara.” This does not prevent the same Spiritual Monad starting at the end of Maha-pralaya (the Grand Age of Rest) into another ''higher and more perfect'' “life-cycle with the fruit of the accumulated experiences of all the personalities the “individual” Ego (''manas'') had informed.

{{Style P-Quote|[Commenting on a sentence in Nizida’s ''The Astral Light'' (London: Theos. Publishing Co.) which ran: “The thought substance of the universe, ''i.e''., the astral light . . .”]}}

According to Occult teaching the Astral light is ''not'' the “thought substance” of the Universe, but the recorder of every thought; the universal mirror which reflects every event and thought as every being and thing, animate or inanimate. We call it the great Sea of Illusion, ''Maya''.— ({{Style S-Small capitals|Ed.}})

Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (58)

2026-04-14T09:23:23Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Miscellaneous Notes
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 58
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 28, December 15, 1889, pp. 344, 351
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - “Going To and Fro in the Earth” (3)
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - The Facts Brought Before Masters
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside|58}}

{{Style P-Title|MISCELLANEOUS NOTES}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 28, December 15, 1889, pp. 344, 351]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{Style P-Quote|[In connection with a lecture delivered by Dr. Jerome A. Anderson at a meeting of the San Francisco Free-thought Society, in which he had been reported to have said that “the spiritual monad in man was given ''individual'' persistence only during one manvantara, or cycle of material existence.”]}}

This sentence must not be misunderstood as it is reported a little too vaguely. The “Spiritual Monad” is eternal because uncreate, but its “Individual persistence”—''in human form and bodies on this terrestrial chain or during the life-cycle'', lasts only “one manvantara.” This does not prevent the same Spiritual Monad starting at the end of Maha-pralaya (the Grand Age of Rest) into another ''higher and more perfect'' “life-cycle with the fruit of the accumulated experiences of all the personalities the “individual” Ego (''manas'') had informed.

[Commenting on a sentence in Nizida’s ''The Astral Light'' (London: Theos. Publishing Co.) which ran: “The thought substance of the universe, i.e., the astral light . . .”]

According to Occult teaching the Astral light is ''not'' the “thought substance” of the Universe, but the recorder of every thought; the universal mirror which reflects every event and thought as every being and thing, animate or inanimate. We call it the great Sea of Illusion, ''Maya''.— ({{Style S-Small capitals|Ed.}})

Blavatsky H.P. - Going To and Fro in the Earth (3)

2026-04-14T09:20:29Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = “Going To and Fro in the Earth”
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 55-57
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 28, December, 1889, pp. 349-350
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Footnotes to “The Alchemists”
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (58)
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside continues|55}}

{{Style P-Title|“GOING TO AND FRO IN THE EARTH”}}
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{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 28, December, 1889, pp. 349-350]}}
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{{Style P-Quote|{{HPB-CW-comment|[After some rather extensive quotes from current newspapers and missionary organs, H.P.B. quotes also a passage from the ''Fire-Brand'' of the American Free Methodist Church. A very materialistic view is presented with regard to God and the manner in which He is alleged to supply food to his workers. In this connection, H.P.B. asks the question:]}}

Would it be regarded as too disrespectful were one to suggest to the “King” and “Father” that a little brains along with the “squash” and “rich milk” in that quarter might be more useful perhaps, even if less acceptable?}}

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{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|The Catechism of Science}}}}
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Going to and fro in the earth, the adversary came across a relic of Paul Bert, the vivisector. He was a practical man it seems; who having succeeded in his praiseworthy efforts to “exile the god” of theology from the schools, tribunals, burial grounds and hospitals of France, proceeded to replace the old by new primers; hence his “Civil Catechisms,” for the use of the future citizens of the great Republic. He wrote himself a ''Manual of Civic Ethics'', and invited others to do the same. His appeal resulted in the creation of a model {{Page aside|56}}library of Primers full of civic morality and scientific revelations. We choose a fragment out of the ''Catéchisme Laïque'' (of 1883), as a sample of the great truths in them (revealed to, and by, Science).

{{Style P-Quote|{{Style S-Small capitals|Question}}. ''What is God''—{{Style S-Small capitals|Answer}}. “I do not know.”

Q. ''Who created the Universe?''—A. “I do not know. ”

Q. ''Whence mankind? Whither does it tend?''—A. “I do not know. ”

Q. ''What have we to expect after death?''—A. “I do not know. ”

Q. ''When and how has man appeared on earth?''—A. “I do not know. ”

Q. ''Do not you feel ashamed of your ignorance?''—A. “No shame to be ignorant of that which no one ever knew.”

Q. ''If you deny all the truths of alleged religion, what are the truths that you do accept?''—A. “I believe in the emancipation of mankind through natural science; I believe in the harmony created by the enactment of all our duties; I believe in the regeneration of my country with the help of democracy; I believe in the conquering genius of our nation which ever was and will be the bearer and promoter of light and freedom.”}}

This is followed by the teaching of other truths of the natural ''religion'' according to the last word of natural science. ''Zoological evolution'' is explained. The descent of the bird from the lizard is taught as follows:—The lizard, we are told, was consumed with gigantic ambition; it wanted to become a bird, and fly sunwards; this was its ''idée fixe''. The dreams and aspirations of that flat-headed quadruped reptile were so decided and intense, its will so strong, that obedient nature had to submit and act accordingly. (''sic'').

{{Style P-Quote|Q. ''Obedient to whom, or what? What is it nature had to submit to?—A''. “To the eternal right, the law of evolutionary life, diffused throughout the universe in such quantity that it overflows every spot of it, ever absorbed and ever renewed.”

Q. ''Go on!''—A. “I say, that once that the ''taste'' for evolution had been developed in the lizard, nature had to undertake the duty of transforming it into a bird. The lizard felt one day the appearance of feathers on its scaly back, and standing on its hind legs, proceeded to move its four paws, rhythmically which it did until these gradually changed into wings.”}}

{{Page aside|57}}
It is interesting to note that the mere uninterrupted action of intense will power and desire, is regarded by Science as a ''magic'' agent calculated to perform that which the occultist call phenomena through ''Kriyaœakti'' (“creative will”) which transforms one object into another, and even ''created men'' out of material on hand, in days of the ''pre''-Adamic mankind. Thus one point is gained. But had these ''Catéchismes Laïques'' prevailed and become popular, what kind of a race would Frenchmen have become, brought up in the sole faith in the “principles of lizard evolution” bereft of even an inkling of metaphysics?

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A very curious study is that of Chiromancy, and one that may well be looked into by the biologist. It is known that at Paris the most infallible way of registering criminals has been by taking the impress of the fingertips. People can change their faces, but their hands never. The shape of the hand, as a whole, undoubtedly shows character and training. To be sure of this, it suffices to set side by side the hand of the artist, the man of administrative ability, and the navvy. Contrast the fingertips of the weaver, the watchmaker, the collier. The relative lengths of palm and fingers are also said to show character, the passional and physical nature showing itself in the undivided part of the hand, the intellectual and psychical in the fingers. The thumb, again, is significant, showing in shape and length the balance of the character—“a capable thumb,” as a novelist said, describing a clever woman. And then the lines: fewer and simpler in the more direct and simple characters, numerous and complex in the more many-sided and sensitive natures. If any of our readers care to look into this queer byway of speculation, they will find Mrs. Louise Cotton, 43, Abington Villas, Kensington, W., a very intelligent expounder of the subject.
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|Adversary.}}

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - Footnotes to The Alchemists

2026-04-14T09:12:17Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Footnotes to “The Alchemists”
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 52-55
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. No. 28, December, 1889 pp. 288-297
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - The Fall of Ideals
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - “Going To and Fro in the Earth” (3)
| alternatives =
| translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/Блаватская_Е.П._-_Примечания_к_«Алхимикам» Russian]
}}

{{Page aside continues|52}}

{{Style P-Title|FOOTNOTES TO “THE ALCHEMISTS”}}
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{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. No. 28, December, 1889 pp. 288-297]}}
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{{Style P-Quote|{{HPB-CW-comment|[John Ransom Bridge, F.T.S., contributes an essay in defence of the Alchemists of the Middle Ages. He quotes from several alchemical writings, and certain symbolical expressions occurring in them call forth various comments from H.P.B.]}}

[Quoting from ''Secrets Revealed: or an open entrance to the Shut Palace of the King'', etc., by Eirenaeus Philaletha, London, 1669, the following sentence is brought forward: “But if thou do proceed warily in this Regimen, thou shalt meet with these notable things: first thou shalt observe a certain citrine sweat to stand upon thy Body; and after that citrine vapour, then shall thy Body below be tinctured of a violet colour, with an obscure purple intermixed. . .”]}}

Would not “thy Body below be tinctured of a violet colour” rather refer to the ''Linga-Sarira'' which corresponds to the violet colour as a compound of red (Kama-rupa) {{Page aside|53}}and indigo dark blue of the upper Manas—the “purple” becoming obscure, meaning simply the beginning of the purification of the lower Quaternary?

{{Style P-Quote|[“. . . thy matter shall convert itself into grains, as fine as the atoms of Sol, and the colour will be the highest red imaginable which for its transcendent redness will show Blackish . . .”]}}

The transcendent red or golden orange of the Sun. This must not be confused with the scarlet Kama-rupan ''redness''. Have in mind the colour of the Yogi-robes, the colour of which is symbolical of the sun of life and of human lifeblood.

{{Style P-Quote|[Referring to the Soul and Body of man, the following words are quoted from the ''Clavis Alchymiae'' of Artephius: “. . . when they arise or ascend, they are born or brought forth in the Air or Spirit, and in the same they are changed, and made Life with Life, so that they can never be separated, but are as water mixed with water. And therefore it is wisely said, that ''the Stone is born of the Spirit'', because it is altogether spiritual.”]}}

That is to say, the “Soul [Manas] and Body of Man” (Body standing for the ''astral'' man) assimilate Spirit (''Buddhi''); are made “Life with Life” (or merge into the {{Style S-Small capitals|one life}}). In other words the mysterious process of the transformation of lead (personality) into gold (pure, homogeneous Spirit) is here meant. Verily the ''Stone'' is born of the Spirit.

{{Style P-Quote|[Later a number of passages are quoted from Eirenaeus Philalethes’ a ''Commentary'' on Sir George Ripley’s ''The Compound of Alhymy''.<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[This is Eirenaeus Philalethes’ work entitled ''A Breviary of Alchemy: or a Commentary upon Ser G. Ripley’s Recapitulation'', 1678, 8vo.—''Compiler''.]}}</ref>]}}

[praises of the Lord] By “Lord” the {{Style S-Small capitals|Higher Self}} is here meant—“that {{Style S-Small capitals|self}} which is the Redeemer of man” whether it be called Christos or Krishna.

[the Quadrangle is reduced to a Circle] the four elements of nature are seen running into each other, so that they constitute a circle.

{{Page aside|54}}
[this Philosophical Vine (thyself still) doth seem to flower, and to bring forth green clusters] This “philosophical Vine” is the ''lower Manas'' merged at last and reunited to its higher Alter Ego, when it begins to bring forth the green clusters of the “true Vine” for the Husbandman, the “Father” or Higher Self (''Atma-Buddhi''); ''vide John, xv''.

[Thy Stone (thyself) hath already passed through many hazards, and yet the danger is not quite over] This “danger” comes from the ''Antaskarana'', the bridge of communication between the Personality and the individuality not being yet destroyed. ''Vide Vâkya Sudhâ'', the Philosophy of Subject and Object, page 3, 1st note, in ''Raja Yoga'', Practical Metaphysics of the Vedanta.

[this green will be overcome with azure; and that by the pale wan colour, which will at length come to a Citrine; which . . . will endure for the space of forty-six days] The green of the ''lower'' Manas, the Animal Soul, will be “overcome with azure” or the reflection of the ''Higher'' (which is ''Indigo''), into their aura which is blue, when pure.

The cycle of the 46 Fires, the period between death and new rebirth, in ''Devachan''. The cycle of the 49 Fires is the period between two manvantaras. The members of the E.S. will understand it better than the F.T.S.

[Then shall the Heavenly Fire descend . . . . . our Sol shall sit in the South, shining with redness incomparable] The {{Style S-Small capitals|Higher Self}} will shed its radiance on the heart (the chamber of Brahma) of even the still living Man.

[our King . . . hath passed from death to Life, and possesseth the keys of both death and hell] From the death in ''matter'' into the Life in ''Spirit''.

Man becomes a {{Style S-Small capitals|Christos}}, the Master and custodian of “death and hell,” ''i.e''., of Earth, Matter and of the physical body of Senses.

[then are the elements joined] All the “Principles” in Man merge into ''one'' “Principle”—Atma-Buddhi, the grosser terrestrial elements of the lower body being of course destroyed.

{{Page aside|55}}
[This is a notable step, from Hell to Heaven] It is hardly necessary to render this more clearly. With the ancient Mystics and even the modern Occultists, the physical body was ever called, “the grave” and the “Hell,” while the Spiritual man was referred to as the Heavenly Power, etc.

[the necessity of alternate action upon natural Bodies . . . . they must be . . . prospered and saddened, in order to be made pliable and yielding . . . . . . all of which must be done with one Fire . . .] Man rises to glory through suffering in order to be made “pliable and yielding,” or impervious to the emotions and feelings of his physical senses.

This “Fire” is that of ''Alaya'', the “World-Soul,” the essence of which is {{Style S-Small capitals|Love}}, ''i.e''., homogeneous Sympathy, which is Harmony, or the “Music of the Spheres.” Vide ''The Voice of the Silence'', IIIrd Treatise, page 69.

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - The Fall of Ideals

2026-04-14T09:00:51Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = The Fall of Ideals
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 33-52
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 28, December, 1889, pp. 261-274
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Footnotes to “My Experiences in Occultism and Occult Development”
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Footnotes to “The Alchemists”
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside|33}}

{{Style P-Title|THE FALL OF IDEALS}}
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{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 28, December, 1889, pp. 261-274]}}
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{{Style P-Epigraph|
Alas! we know that ideals can never be completely embodied in practice. Ideals must ever lie a great way off—and we will thankfully content ourselves with any not intolerable approximation thereto! . . . . And yet, it is never to be forgotten that ideals do exist; that if they be not approximated to at all, the whole matter goes to wreck! Infallibly.
|Carlyle.}}

The approach of a {{Style S-Small capitals|New Year}} of Christendom, and the arrival of another ''birthday'' of the Theosophical Society on which it enters on its fifteenth year,<ref>The complete and final organization of the T.S. took place in New York on November 17th, 1875.</ref> afford us a most fitting opportunity to glance backward and see how far public and private ideals have gained or lost ground, and how much they have been changed for better or for worse. This will show, at the same time, whether the advent of the T.S. was timely, and how far it is true that such a Society was an imperious necessity in our age.

Limited by the exclusion of politics from its field of observation, the only horizon that ''Lucifer'' has to watch and pass judgment upon is that which bounds the realm of man’s moral and spiritual being. What changes then have taken place during the vanishing year in mortal and immortal man? But here again the sphere of our observation is limited. ''Lucifer'' like a mirror of the times, can only reflect that which comes before its own polished surface, and that only in broadest outline; moreover only those passing pictures of the strongest contrast—say of Christian and Heretic life; of the mob of the frivolous and the restricted groups of mystics.

{{Page aside|34}}
Alas, whether we turn East, West, North or South, it is but a contrast of externals; whether one observes life among Christians or Pagans, worldly or religious men, everywhere one finds oneself dealing with man, masked man—only MAN. Though centuries lapse and decades of ages drop out of the lap of time, great reforms take place, empires rise and fall and rise again, and even whole races disappear before the triumphant march of civilization, in his terrific selfishness the “man” that ''was'' is the “man” that ''is''—judged by its representative element the public, and especially society. But have we the right to judge man by the utterly artificial standard of the latter? A century ago we would have answered in the negative. Today, owing to the rapid strides of mankind toward civilization generating selfishness and making it keep pace with it, we answer decidedly, yes. Today everyone, especially in England and America, is that public and that society, and exceptions but prove and reinforce the rule. The progress of mankind cannot be summed up by counting units especially on the basis of internal and not external growth. Therefore, we have the right to judge of that progress by the public standard of morality in the majority; leaving the minority to bewail the fall of its ideals. And what do we find? First of all Society—Church, State and Law—in conventional conspiracy, leagued against the public exposure of the results of the application of such a test. They wish the said minority to take Society and the rest ''en bloc'', in its fine clothes, and not pry into the social rottenness beneath. By common consent, they pretend to worship an {{Style S-Small capitals|Ideal}}, one at any rate, the Founder of their State Christianity; but they also combine to put down and martyrise any unit belonging to the minority who has the audacity, in this time of social abasement and corruption, to live up to it.

Mrs. Eliza Lynn Linton has chastised this hypocrisy as with a whip of scorpions in her magnificent satire, ''The True History of Joshua Davidson''. That is a book that surely every Pagan as well as Christian Theosophist should read. As unhappily many have not, let us say that she makes her hero practically exemplify the principles and imitate the {{Page aside|35}}human virtues of the Founder of the Christian religion. The sketch is neither a caricature nor a malicious perversion of the truth. A truly Christ-like man, whose heart overflows with a tender passionate compassion, tries to raise the ignorant and sin-crushed classes, and awaken their stifled spirituality. By degrees, through an agony of suffering and persecution, he shows the hollow mockery of popular Christianity, thus anticipating but by a few years the very sincere Lord Bishop of Peterborough. Warmed by the spirit of the code of Jesus, poor Joshua Davidson becomes a Socialist, in time a ''Communard'' of Paris; consorts with thieves and prostitutes, to help them; is persecuted and hunted down by the Christian clergy and pious laity on his return to England; and finally, at the instigation of the highly respectable vicar of his parish, is stamped to death on the platform, under the boot-heels of a clamorous mob.

This is, perhaps, but a romance; yet in its moral and gradual development of thrilling psychological evolution ''it is true to life''. Have we not realities of but yesterday, still fresh in the public mind, that match it? Do we not all know such self-devoting men and women in our midst? Have we not all of us followed the career of certain individuals, Christ-like in aspirations and practical charity, though, perhaps, Christ-denying and Church-defying in intellect and words, who were tabooed for years by bigoted society, insolent clergy, and persecuted by both to the last limits of law? How many of such victims have found justice and the recognition they merit? After doing the noblest work among the poor for years, embellishing our cold and conventional age by their altruistic charity, making themselves blessed by old and young, beloved by all who suffer, the reward they found was to hear themselves traduced and denounced, slandered and secretly defamed by those unworthy to unloosen the latchets of their shoes—the Church-going hypocrites and Pharisees, the Sanhedrin of the World of Cant!

Truly Joshua Davidson is a sketch from real life. Thus, out of the many noble ideals trampled practically in the mud by modern society, the one held by the Western World as the highest and grandest of all, is, after all, the most {{Page aside|36}}ill-treated. The life preached in the Sermon on the Mount, and the commandments left to the Church by her MASTER, are precisely those ideals that have fallen the lowest in our day. All these are trampled under the heel of the caitiffs of the canting caste ''de facto''—though ''sub rosa'' of course, cant preventing that they should do so ''de jure''—and shams are substituted in their place.

{{HPB-CW-separator}}

Such an incident as the glove-fight at the “Pelican Club” leaves one in serious doubt. Is modern Society in England consciously hypocritical, or simply, too hopelessly bereft of guiding moral principles to be aware in all cases, of its own sins? Of course the transaction can be criticised easily enough in the light of mere conventional decorum. There is something strangely contemptible about a state of the law which pursues with angry determination the humble bruisers who arrange their honest and straightforward brutalities in the back parlour of a public house, and leaves respectfully untouched the peers and gentlemen who parade their pugilists at a fashionable club. The champion potman who is put up by his admirers to fight a pugnacious bricklayer for a few sovereigns a side, knows that the chance of bringing off his battle lies in the cunning with which he and his friends can keep the arrangements secret from the police. Let them be suspected and they will be promptly hunted down; let them be caught in this defiance of the law and they will be surely sent to prison. On the other hand let an aristocratic association of vicarious prize fighters organise a pugilistic display, behind the thin veil of a pretence that it is a boxing match with gloves; and then, though the gloves themselves may be so thin that the knuckles beneath are capable of inflicting blows quite as severe in their effect as those of the old-fashioned prize ring, the proceedings come within the pale of legality, and the services of the police can be openly retained to keep order in the neighbourhood {{Page aside|37}}and guard the select audience from the too eager curiosity of the envious crowd in the street.

The text is one on which familiar diatribes against the privileges of the rich can be thrown off in any quantity. And in the case before us the time chosen for the costly encounter, emphasizes in an amusing way the cynicism of the whole undertaking. Nominally, the fight took place on Monday morning, but in reality on Sunday night; on that which was just Sunday evening for the late diners of the “Pelican.” The day which a multitude of enactments both legal and unwritten devote themselves to keeping holy— at the expense of all healthy and natural recreation for the people, whether of mind or body—was the day selected by the luxurious fighters of Soho for the brutal display they served themselves with, at the enormous cost we have all heard of: £1,000 was subscribed as the reward of the combatants, whose zeal in punishing each other was guaranteed —or so the aristocratic and Christian promoters of the fight imagine—by assigning £800 to the man who should be victorious and only £200 to the other. The men went into regular training for their fight, as it were to have been conducted on the undisguised system of former days—and in short the whole entertainment was a ''prize fight'' to all intents and purposes, and was expected to be an extremely “well” contested one. That it proved the reverse was a circumstance that need hardly affect any remarks that we have to make on the subject.

We leave the obvious comparisons between the one law which operates in such matters for the poor, and the other law which accommodates itself deferentially to the rich, to be drawn by critics who seek to improve the occasion in the interest of political agitation. There is no particular principle affecting the higher region of morals in the fact that laws are often stupid and unequal. But there are considerations affecting the recent prize fight which impinge on the great purposes of Theosophy. Apart from all questions of law, how is it possible, we ask, that a great body of Englishmen of education and social respectability can find the promotion of a prize fight an amusement for their ''blasé'' leisure, {{Page aside|38}}which even the consciences ''they'' possess can allow them to indulge in? For remember, it is mere senseless abuse of any class or people to say they are without conscience. The members of the “Pelican Club” we may be sure, have all of them codes of honour of some sort or another which they respect in a fashion, which their consciences, however distorted by custom, would forbid them to disregard. If a Sunday evening prize fight comes within the scheme of enjoyments that seem to them permissible, it is due to the fact that the moral principles really rooted in their thinking do not stand in the way of this; nor do we find fault with the day selected but simply with ''such'' an enjoyment on any day. For them, however, sons of Protestant families, there is a fall and disregard of ''two ideals'' implied. With all of them probably, their principles would stand in the way of cheating at cards or hitting a woman. The trouble is not that their principles are weak or their consciences obscured, so far as regards the code of honour of the circles they belong to; but that the whole scheme or moral teaching on which they have been reared is debased, imperfect, and above all materialistic. The so-called religion to which they nominally belong has hardly contributed to the formation of that code at all. It would not indeed look favourably on Sunday prize fights, but it has not sufficient vitality to enforce its ideas on the hearts or lives of its careless adherents. The great scandal of modern religion as a rule of life is, that taking modern Society all round in a broad way, it does not command any attention at all. It has failed not so much to show what ought to be done or left undone—for of course even the maxims of the church as far as words go, cover a great deal of ground—as it has failed to show with any adequate force ''why'' this or that should be a guiding principle. The modern church, in fact, has broken down as a practical agency governing the acts of its followers—''i.e''., of the millions who are content to be called its followers, but who never dream of listening to a word it says.

Fully conscious that a great deal it says is ''very good'', its exponents (blandly ignorant how bad is a great deal of the rest) think it is owing to the perversity of mankind that

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[[File:Hpb_cw_12_38_1.jpg|center|x200px]]
<center>H.P. BLAVATSKY</center>
<center>1831-1891</center>
<center>One of the six portraits taken by Enrico Resta, January 8, 1889, in his studio at 4, Coburg Place, Bayswater, London W., the original glass plate of which is in the Archives of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society in England. Reproduced from an original print from the glass plate.</center>
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{{Page aside|39}}
{{Style P-No indent|people at large are not better than they are. They never realise that they themselves—the Dry Monopole of social wines—are primarily to blame, for having divorced the good codes of morals, bequeathed to them from the religions of all time, from the fundamental sanctions which a correct appreciation of true spiritual science would attach to them. They have converted the divine teaching which is the Theosophy of all ages into a barbarous caricature, and they expect to find their parrot-echoes of preposterous creeds a cry that will draw the worldlings to their fold, an appeal which will stir them up to the sublime task of spiritualizing their own natures. They fail to see that the command to love one another must be ineffective in the care of people whose whole conception of futurity turns upon their chances of drawing a lucky number in the lottery of the elect, or of dodging the punishment that would naturally be their due, at a happy moment when the divine mind may be thrown off its balance by reflecting on the beauty of the Christian sacrifice. The teachers of modern religion, in fact, have lost touch with the wisdom underlying their own perverted doctrines, and the blind followers of these blind leaders have lost touch even with the elementary principles of physical morality which the churches still continue to repeat, without understanding their purpose, and from mere force of habit. The ministers of religion, in short, of the Nineteenth Century, have eaten the sour grapes of ignorance, and the teeth of their unfortunate children are set on edge. Certainly there was a good deal of bad Karma made at the “Pelican Club” on the evening of the celebrated prize fight, but no small share of it will have been carried to the account of the forlorn pastors who idly and ignorantly let slip their golden opportunities all over the town that morning, as on all others, and left their congregations unmoved by any thought that could help them to realise how they would go out of the churches into the world again when service was over, to contribute by every act and example of their lives to the formation of their own destinies and the crystallisation in their own future of the aspirations and desires they might encourage.}}

{{Page aside|40}}
Of all the beautiful ideals of the Past, that true religious feeling that manifests in the worship of the spiritually beautiful alone, and the love of plain truth, are those that have been the most roughly handled in this age of obligatory dissembling We are surrounded on all sides by Hypocrisy, and those of its followers of whom Pollok has said that they were men: —

“Who stole the livery of the court of heaven,
To serve the devil in.”

Oh, the unspeakable hypocrisy of our age! The age when everything under the Sun and Moon is for sale and bought. The age when all that is honest, is just, noble-minded, is held up to the derision of the public, sneered at, and deprecated; when every truth-loving and fearlessly truth-speaking man is hooted out of polite Society, as a transgressor of cultured traditions which demand that every member of it should accept that in which he does not believe, say what he does not think, and lie to his own soul! The age, when the open pursuit of any of the grand ideals of the Past is treated as almost insane eccentricity or fraud; and the rejection of empty form—the dead letter that killeth—and preference for the Spirit “that giveth life”—is called ''infidelity'', and forthwith the cry is started, “Stone him to death!” No sooner is the sacrifice of empty conventionalities, that yield reward and benefit but to self, made for the sake of practically working out some grand humanitarian idea that will help the masses, than a howl of indignation and pious horror is raised the doors of fashionable Society are shut on the transgressor, and the mouths of slanderous gossips opened to dishonour his very name.

Yet, we are daily served with sanctimonious discourses upon the blessings conferred by ''Christian civilization'' and the advantages offered by both, as contrasted with the curses of “heathenism” and the superstitions and horrors of say—the Middle Ages. The Inquisition with its burning of heretics and witches, its tortures at the stake and on the rack, {{Page aside|41}}are contrasted with the great ''freedom of modern thought'', on one hand, and the security of human life and property ''now'', as compared with their insecurity in days of old. “Is it not civilization that abolished the Inquisition and now affords the beggar the same protection of law as the wealthy duke?” we are asked. “We do not know,” we say. History would make us rather think that it was Napoleon the First, the Attila whose iniquitous wars stripped France and Europe of their lustiest manhood, who abolished the Inquisition, and this not at all for the sake of civilization, but rather because he was not prepared to allow the Church to burn and torture those who could serve him as ''chair à canon''. As to the second proposition with regard to the beggar and the duke, we have to qualify it before accepting it as true. The beggar, however right, will hardly find as full justice as the duke will; and if he happens to be unpopular, or an heretic, ten to one he will find the reverse of justice. And this proves that if Church and State ''were un-Christian'' then, they are still ''un-Christian'', if not more so now.

True Christianity and true civilization both ought to be opposed to murder, however legal. And yet we find, in the last half of our departing century more lives sacrificed— because of the improved system and weapons of warfare, ''thanks to the progress of science and civilization''—than there were in its first half. “Christian civilization,” indeed! Civilization, perhaps; but why “Christian”? Did Pope Leo XIII personify it when in an agony of despair he shut himself up on the day when Bruno’s monument was unveiled, and marked it as a ''dies irae'' in Church History? But may we not turn to civilization, pure and simple? “Our manners, our civilization,” says Burke, “and all the good things connected with manners . . . . have in this European world of ours, depended for ages upon two principles . . . . . I mean the spirit of a gentleman and the spirit of religion.” We are quite willing to test the character of the age by these ideals. Only, it has always been hard to say just what definition to give to the term “gentleman”; while as to religion, ninety-nine out of every hundred people one meets would, if asked, reply in such a fashion as to make it plain that they had {{Page aside|42}}confounded religion with theology. The dictionary definition of a gentleman” is that of a man who is wellborn, of “gentle and refined manners, and who bears arms”, a “gentleman farmer” is one who farms his own estate, and a “gentleman usher” an unpaid royal flunkey. But this will hardly do. For how many are there not, in the most aristocratic circle, with a dozen quarterings on their arms, who are vicious and depraved to a degree, for which the parallel must not be sought in Whitechapel but in the Rome of the Caesars. In comparison with the vices of these, the Odyssey at the “Pelican Club” may be viewed as the childish escapade of schoolboys.

Nay, if the truth is to be told, the habits of Royal Sons and Imperial Heirs Apparent are often unspeakably immoral and uncivilized. The fountain of honour, instead of supplying pure water, overruns with moral putridity. With such examples as these, can we wonder at the disrespect shown by lesser stars for minor ideals? Our “Admirable Crichtons” of today, beat their swords into yardsticks, and lend the honour of their arms for a dividend in shady companies juggled upon the Exchange. The modern troubadour sings not under the balcony of his lady-love, nor defends her honour in the lists of chivalry; but when jilted, writes her name on the list of defendants in breach-of-promise cases, and demands of a jury substantial damages in ''£.s.d.'' The marks of “honour” given in days of old for saving human life at one’s own peril, for noble deeds of valour and heroism achieved, are now too often reserved for those who triumph in the bloodless battlefield of commercial strife and advertisement; and grand “gold medals of HONOUR” (!?) are now falling to the lot of the proprietors of matches, pills and soaps. O shades of Leonidas of Sparta, of Solon and Pericles, veil your astral faces! Rejoice, ye ''larvae'' of the too much married Solomon and of the Temple money changers ! And ye, imperial spooks of Caligula, Constantine and the world-conquering Ceasars, look at your caricatures on the Serbian and other thrones. The claws of the royal lions of the XIXth century are clipped, and their teeth extracted; yet they try to emulate your historical vices in their humble way, {{Page aside|43}}suffiently well to have lost long ago all claim to be regarded as the “Lord’s anointed,” to be prayed for, flattered and pandered to by their respective churches. And yet they are. What an unparalleled farce!

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But perhaps we have to look for true Christianity and true civilization and culture in the modern higher courts of Law? Alas, there are modern judges of whom their Lord (our Karma) would say, “Hear what the unjust judge sayeth.” For, in our day, the decree of justice is sometimes uttered in the voice of the bigots who sit in Solomon’s seat and judge as the Inquisitors of old did. In our century of Christian civilization, judges emulating their predecessors of the tribunal of the sons of Loyola, employ the more exquisite instruments of ''moral'' torture, to insult and goad to desperation a helpless plaintiff or defendant. In this they are aided by advocates, often the type of the ancient headsman, who, metaphorically, break the bones of the wretch seeking justice; or worse yet, defile his good name and stab him to the heart with the vilest innuendos, false suppositions concocted for the occasion but which the victim knows will henceforth become ''actual truths'' in the mouth of foul gossip and slander. Between the defunct brutal tortures of the unchristian Inquisition of old, and the more refined mental tortures of its as unchristian but more civilized copy —our Court and truculent cross-examiners, the palm of “gentleness” and charity might almost be given to the former.

Thus we find every ideal of old, moral and spiritual, abased to correspond with the present low moral and unspiritual conceptions of the public. Brutalized by a psychical famine which lasted through generations, they are ready to give every ideal spiritual Regenerator as food for the dogs, while like their debauched prototypes, the Roman populace under Nero, Caligula, and Heliogabalus, they crowd to see bullfights in Paris, where, the wretched horses drag their bleeding bowels around the arena, imported ''Almehs'' dancing their loathsome ''danse du ventre'', black and white pugilists bruising each other’s features into bloody pulp, and “raise the roof” with their cheers when the Samsons and {{Page aside|44}}Sandows burst chains and snap wires by expanding their preternatural muscles. Why keep up the old farce any longer? Why not change the Christmas carol thus:—

<center>''Gladiator natus hodie''.</center>

Or change the well-known anthem after this fashion:—

{{Style P-Poem|poem=“{{Style S-Small capitals|glory to gold in the highest
and on earth strife, ill-will toward men}}.”}}

To transmute the ''god'' of the “uncivilized” age to the ''gold'' of the present cultured age, needs but the addition of an “l”: a trifle to this generation of idolaters who worship the coins of their respective realms, as the concrete embodiment of ''their'' highest ideal.

Avaunt! We are ready to make a free gift to Society with our best compliments, of all those fine European “gentlemen” and Christian champions of our century—the century of mock-civilization and mock-Christianity. As many of the former do not scruple to cheat their hard-working tradesmen out of their dues to pay their gambling debts withal, so many of the latter do not hesitate to receive on false pretences ample “collections” and personal livings, from too-confiding flocks. For who can deny that they entice them to exchange their worldly gear for promissory notes made payable in a ''post-mortem'' state of which they themselves know nothing and in which many of them do not believe? Nothing then would be nicer than for a wall to be built around Mayfair, turned into a modern ''Parc aux Cerfs'' and a ''Camp of Moses'' combined, for the confinement of the modern Bayards, ''preux chevaliers'' without reproach or fear, and the modern Pharisees, both types of the glorious Christian civilization with its divine ideal of cultured and converted Humanity. For then, and then only, would we Theosophists and other decent folk be free to consort unmolested with those who are called “sinners and publicans” by the modern “Synagogue of Jesuits”—with the Joshua Davidsons of Whitechapel. Nor would the masses of truly religious souls be the losers, were they to be left to the sole {{Page aside|45}}care of the few truly Christian priests and clergymen we know of; those who now live in the daily fear of being made to appear on their trial before their bishops and churches for the unpardonable crime of serving their ''ideal'' {{Style S-Small capitals|Master}} in preference to the dead forms of their ecclesiastical superiors.

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{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|Theosophical Views On The Preceding}}}}
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In a world of illusion in which the law of evolution operates, nothing could be more natural than that the ideals of Man—as a unit of the total, or mankind—should be forever shifting. A part of the Nature around him, that Protean, ever-changing Nature, every particle of which is incessantly transformed, while the harmonious body remains as a whole ever the same, like these particles man is continually changing physically, intellectually, morally, spiritually. At one time he is at the topmost point of the circle of development; at another, at the lowest. And, as he thus alternately rises and sinks, and his moral nature responsively expands or contracts, so will his moral code at one time embody the noblest altruistic and aspirational ideals, while at the other, the ruling conscience will be but the reflection of selfishness, brutality and faithlessness. But this, however, is so only on the external, illusionary plane. In their internal, or rather, ''essential'' constitution, both nature and man are at one, as their essence is identical. All grows and develops and strives towards perfection on the former planes of externality, or, as well said by a philosopher is—“ever becoming”; but on the ultimate plane of the spiritual essence all {{Style S-Small capitals|is}}, and remains therefore immutable. It is towards this eternal Esse that everything, as every being, is gravitating, gradually, almost imperceptibly, but as surely as the Universe of stars and worlds moves towards a mysterious point known to, yet still unnamed by, astronomy and called by the Occultists—the ''central Spiritual Sun''.

Hitherto, it was remarked in almost every historical age that a wide interval, almost a chasm, lay between practical {{Page aside|46}}and ideal perfection. Yet, as from time to time certain great characters appeared on earth who taught mankind to look beyond the veil of illusion, man learnt that the gulf was not an impassable one; that it is the province of mankind through its higher and more spiritual races to fill the great gap more and more with every coming cycle; for every man, as a unit, has it in his power to add his mite toward filling it. Yes; there are still men, who, notwithstanding the present chaotic condition of the moral world, and the sorry ''débris'' of the best human ideals, still persist in believing and teaching that the now ''ideal'' human perfection is no dream, but a law of divine nature; and that, had Mankind to wait even millions of years, still it must some day reach it and rebecome ''a race of gods''.

Meanwhile, the periodical rise and fall of human character on the external planes takes place now, as it did before, and the ordinary average perception of man is too weak to see that both processes occur each time on a higher plane than the preceding. But as such changes are not always the work of centuries, for often extreme changes are wrought by swift acting forces—e.g. by wars, speculations, epidemics, the devastation of famines or religious fanaticism—therefore, do the blind masses imagine that man ever was, is, and will be the same. To the eyes of us, moles, mankind is like our globe—seemingly stationary. And yet, both move in space and time with an equal velocity, around themselves and—''onward''.

Moreover, at whatever end of his evolution, from the birth of his consciousness, in fact, man was, and still is, the vehicle of a dual spirit in him—good and evil. Like the twin sisters of Victor Hugo’s grand, posthumous poem, ''La Fin de Satan''—the progeny issued respectively from Light and Darkness—the angel “Liberty” and the angel “Isis-Lilith” have chosen man as their dwelling on earth, and these are at eternal strife in him.

The Churches tell the world that “man is born in sin,” and John (''1st Epistle'' iii. 8) adds that “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” Those who still believe in the rib-and-apple fable and in the {{Page aside|47}}rebellious angel “Satan,” believe, as a matter of course in a personal Devil—as a contrast in a dualistic religion—to a personal God. We, Theosophists of the Eastern school, believe in neither. Yet we go, perhaps, further still than the Biblical dead letter. For we say that while as ''extra-cosmic'' Entities there is neither god nor devil, that both exist, nevertheless. And we add that both dwell on earth in man, being in truth, ''the very man himself'', who is, as a physical being, the devil, the true vehicle of evil, and as a spiritual entity—god, or ''good''. Hence, to say to mankind, “thou hast the devil,” is to utter as metaphysical a truth as when saying to all its men, “Know ye not that god dwelleth in you?” Both statements are true. But, we are at the turning point of the great social cycle, and it is the former fact which has the upper hand at present. Yet—to paraphrase a Pauline text—as “there be devils many . . . . yet there is but one Satan,” so while we have a great variety of devils constituting collectively mankind, of such grandiose Satanic characters as are painted by Milton, Byron and recently by Victor Hugo, there are few, if any. Hence, owing to such mediocrity, are the human ideals falling, to remain unreplaced; a prose-life as spiritually dead as the London November fog, and as alive with brutal materialism and vices, the seven capital sins forming but a portion of these, as that fog is with deadly microbes. Now we rarely find aspirations toward the eternal ideal in the human heart, but instead of it every thought tending toward the one central idea of our century, the great “I,” ''self'' being for each the one mighty centre around which the whole Universe is made to revolve and turn.

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When the Emperor Julian—called the ''Apostate'' because, believing in the grand ideals of his forefathers, the Initiates, he would not accept the human anthropomorphic form thereof—saw for the last time his beloved gods appear to him, he wept. Alas, they were no longer the bright spiritual beings he had worshipped, but only the decrepit, pale and {{Page aside|48}}worn out shades of the gods he had so loved. Perchance they were the prophetic vision of the departing ideals of his age, as also of our own cycle. These “gods” are now regarded by the Church as ''demons'' and called so; while he who has preserved a poetical, lingering love for them, is forthwith branded as an Antichrist and a modern Satan.

Well, Satan is an elastic term, and no one has yet ever given even an approximately logical definition of the symbolical meaning of the name. The first to anthropomorphize it was John Milton; he is his true putative intellectual father, as it is widely conceded that the ''theological'' Satan of the Fall is the “mind-born Son” of the blind poet. Bereft of his theological and-dogmatic attributes Satan is simply an ''adversary'';—not necessarily an “arch fiend” or a “persecutor of men,” but possibly also a foe of evil. He may thus become a Saviour of the oppressed, a champion of the weak and poor, crushed by the minor devils (men), the demons of avarice, selfishness and hypocrisy. Michelet calls him the “Great Disinherited” and takes him to his heart. The giant Satan of poetical concept is, in reality, but the compound of all the dissatisfied and noble intellectuality of the age. But Victor Hugo was the first to intuitively grasp the occult truth. Satan, in his poem of that name, is a truly grandiose Entity, with enough human in him to bring it within the grasp of average intellects. To realise the Satans of Milton and of Byron is like trying to grasp a handful of the morning mist: there is nothing ''human'' in them. Milton’s Satan wars with angels who are a sort of flying puppets, without spontaneity, pulled into the stage of being and of action by the invisible string of theological predestination; Hugo’s Lucifer fights a fearful battle with his own terrible passions and again becomes an Archangel of Light, after the most awful agonies ever conceived by mortal mind and recorded by human pen.

All other Satanic ideals pale before his splendour. The Mephisto of Goethe is a true devil of theology; the Ahriman of Byron’s ''Manfred''—a too super-natural character, and even Manfred has little akin to the human element, great as was the genius of their Creator. All these images pale {{Page aside|49}}before Hugo’s {{Style S-Small capitals|Satan}}, who loves as strongly as he hates. Manfred and Cain are the incarnate ''Protests'' of downtrodden, wronged and persecuted individuality against the “World” and “Society”—those giant fiends and savage monsters of collective injustice. Manfred is the type of an indomitable will, proud, yielding to no influence earthly or divine, valuing his full absolute freedom of action above any personal feeling or social consideration, higher than Nature and all in it. But, with Manfred as with Cain, the Self, the “I” is ever foremost; and there is not a spark of the all-redeeming love in them, no more than of fear. Manfred will not submit even to the universal Spirit of Evil; alone, face to face with the dark opponent of Ahura-Mazda— Universal Light—Ahriman and his countless hosts of Darkness, he still holds his own. These types arouse in one intense wonder, awestruck amazement by their all-defiant daring, but arouse no human feeling: they are ''too supernatural ideals''. Byron never thought of vivifying his Archangel with that undying spark of love which forms—nay, must form the essence of the “First-Born” out of the homogeneous essence of eternal Harmony and Light, and is the element of forgiving reconciliation, even in its (according to our philosophy) last terrestrial offspring—Humanity. Discord is the concomitant of differentiation, and Satan being an evolution, must in that sense, be an adversary, a contrast, being a type of Chaotic matter. The loving essence cannot be extinguished but only perverted. Without this saving redemptive power, embodied in Satan, he simply appears the nonsensical failure of omnipotent and omniscient imbecility which the opponents of theological Christianity sneeringly and very justly make him; with it, he becomes a thinkable Entity, the ''Asuras'' of the Purânic myths, the first ''breaths'' of Brahmâ, who, after fighting the gods and defeating them are finally themselves defeated and then hurled on to the earth where they incarnate in Humanity. Thus Satanic Humanity becomes comprehensible. After moving around his cycle of obstacles he may, with accumulated experiences, after all the throes of Humanity, emerge again into the light—as Eastern philosophy teaches.

{{Page aside|50}}
If Hugo had lived to complete his poem, possibly with strengthened insight, he would have blended his Satanic concept with that of the Aryan races which makes all minor powers, good or evil, born at the beginning and dying at the close of each “Divine Age.” As human nature is ever the same, and sociological, spiritual and intellectual evolution is a question of step by step, it is quite possible that instead of catching one half of the Satanic ideal as Hugo did, the next great poet may get it wholly: thus voicing for his generation the eternal idea of Cosmic equilibrium so nobly emphasized in the Aryan mythology. The first half of that ideal approaches sufficiently to the human ideal to make the moral tortures of Hugo’s Satan entirely comprehensible to the Eastern Theosophist. What is the chief torment of this great Cosmic Anarchist? It is the moral agony caused by such a duality of nature—the tearing asunder of the Spirit of Evil and Opposition from the undying element of primeval love in the Archangel. That spark of divine love for Light and Harmony, that no {{Style S-Small capitals|Hate}} can wholly smother, causes him a torture far more unbearable than his Fall and exile for protest and Rebellion. This bright, heavenly spark shining from Satan in the black darkness of his kingdom of moral night, makes him visible to the intuitive reader. It made Victor Hugo see him sobbing in superhuman despair, each mighty sob shaking the earth from pole to pole; sobs first of baffled rage that he cannot extirpate love for divine Goodness (God) from his nature; then changing into a wail of despair at being cut off from that divine love he so much yearns for. All this is intensely human. This abyss of despair is Satan’s salvation. In his ''Fall'', a feather drops from his white and once immaculate wing, is lighted up by a ray of divine radiance and forthwith transformed into a bright Being, the Angel {{Style S-Small capitals|Liberty}}. Thus, she is Satan’s daughter, the child jointly of God and the Fallen Archangel, the progeny of Good and Evil, of Light and Darkness, and God acknowledges this common and “sublime paternity” that unites them. It is Satan’s daughter who saves him. At the acme of despair at feeling himself hated by {{Style S-Small capitals|Light}}, Satan hears the divine words “No; I hate thee not.” Saith the {{Page aside|51}}Voice, “An angel is between us, and her deeds go to thy credit. Man, bound by thee, by her is now delivered.”

{{Style P-Poem|poem=“O Satan, tu peux dire à présent; je vivrai!
Viens; l’Ange Liberté, c’est ta fille et la mienne
Cette paternité sublime nous unit! . . .”<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Section: “Satan pardonné.”—''Compiler''.]}}</ref>}}

The whole conception is an efflorescence of metaphysical ideality. This white lotus of thought springs now, as in former ages, from the rottenness of the world of matter generating ''Protest'' and {{Style S-Small capitals|Liberty}}. It is springing in our very midst and under our very eyes, from the mire of modern civilization, fecund bed of contrasting virtues. In this foul soil sprouted the germs which ultimately developed into All-denying protestators, Atheists, Nihilists, and Anarchists men of the Terror. Bad, violent, criminal some of them may be, yet no one of them could stand as the copy of Satan; but taking this heartbroken, hopeless, embittered portion of humanity in their collectivity, they are just Satan himself; for he is the ideal synthesis of all discordant forces and each separate human vice or passion is but an atom of his totality. In the very depths of the heart of this {{Style S-Small capitals|Human}} Satanic totality burns the divine spark, all negations notwithstanding. It is called {{Style S-Small capitals|Love For Humanity}}, an ardent aspiration for a universal reign of Justice—hence a latent desire for light, harmony and goodness. Where do we find such a divine spark among the proud and the wealthy? In respectable Society and the correct orthodox, so-called religious portion of the public, one finds but a predominating feeling of selfishness and a desire for wealth at the expense of the weak and the destitute, hence as a parallel, indifference to injustice and evil. Before Satan, the incarnate PROTEST, repents and reunites with his fellow men in one common Brotherhood, all cause for protest must have disappeared from earth. And that can come to pass only when Greed, Bias, and Prejudice shall have disappeared before the elements of Altruism and Justice to all. Freedom, or {{Page aside|52}}Liberty, is but a vain word just now all over the civilized globe; freedom is but a cunning synonym for oppression of the people in the name of the people, and it exists for castes, never for units. To bring about the reign of Freedom as contemplated by Hugo’s Satan, the “Angel Liberty” has to be born simultaneously and by common love and consent of the “higher” wealthy caste, and the “lower” classes— the poor; in other words, to become the progeny of “God” and “Satan,” thereby reconciling the two.

But this is a Utopia—for the present. It cannot take place before the castes of the modern ''Levites'' and their theology—the Dead-sea fruit of Spirituality—shall have disappeared; and the priests of the Future have declared before the whole world in the words of ''their'' “God”—

{{Style P-Poem|poem=“Et j’efface la nuit sinistre, et rien n’en reste.
Satan est mort; renais, ô {{Style S-Small capitals|Lucifer celeste!}}}}
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H.P.B.}}

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - The Fall of Ideals

2026-04-14T08:32:23Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = The Fall of Ideals
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 33-52
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 28, December, 1889, pp. 261-274
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Footnotes to “My Experiences in Occultism and Occult Development”
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Footnotes to “The Alchemists”
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside|33}}

{{Style P-Title|THE FALL OF IDEALS}}
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{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 28, December, 1889, pp. 261-274]}}
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{{Style P-Epigraph|
Alas! we know that ideals can never be completely embodied in practice. Ideals must ever lie a great way off—and we will thankfully content ourselves with any not intolerable approximation thereto! . . . . And yet, it is never to be forgotten that ideals do exist; that if they be not approximated to at all, the whole matter goes to wreck! Infallibly.
|Carlyle.}}

The approach of a {{Style S-Small capitals|New Year}} of Christendom, and the arrival of another ''birthday'' of the Theosophical Society on which it enters on its fifteenth year,<ref>The complete and final organization of the T.S. took place in New York on November 17th, 1875.</ref> afford us a most fitting opportunity to glance backward and see how far public and private ideals have gained or lost ground, and how much they have been changed for better or for worse. This will show, at the same time, whether the advent of the T.S. was timely, and how far it is true that such a Society was an imperious necessity in our age.

Limited by the exclusion of politics from its field of observation, the only horizon that ''Lucifer'' has to watch and pass judgment upon is that which bounds the realm of man’s moral and spiritual being. What changes then have taken place during the vanishing year in mortal and immortal man? But here again the sphere of our observation is limited. ''Lucifer'' like a mirror of the times, can only reflect that which comes before its own polished surface, and that only in broadest outline; moreover only those passing pictures of the strongest contrast—say of Christian and Heretic life; of the mob of the frivolous and the restricted groups of mystics.

{{Page aside|34}}
Alas, whether we turn East, West, North or South, it is but a contrast of externals; whether one observes life among Christians or Pagans, worldly or religious men, everywhere one finds oneself dealing with man, masked man—only MAN. Though centuries lapse and decades of ages drop out of the lap of time, great reforms take place, empires rise and fall and rise again, and even whole races disappear before the triumphant march of civilization, in his terrific selfishness the “man” that was is the “man” that is—judged by its representative element the public, and especially society. But have we the right to judge man by the utterly artificial standard of the latter? A century ago we would have answered in the negative. Today, owing to the rapid strides of mankind toward civilization generating selfishness and making it keep pace with it, we answer decidedly, yes. Today everyone, especially in England and America, is that public and that society, and exceptions but prove and reinforce the rule. The progress of mankind cannot be summed up by counting units especially on the basis of internal and not external growth. Therefore, we have the right to judge of that progress by the public standard of morality in the majority; leaving the minority to bewail the fall of its ideals. And what do we find? First of all Society—Church, State and Law—in conventional conspiracy, leagued against the public exposure of the results of the application of such a test. They wish the said minority to take Society and the rest en bloc, in its fine clothes, and not pry into the social rottenness beneath. By common consent, they pretend to worship an IDEAL, one at any rate, the Founder of their State Christianity; but they also combine to put down and martyrise any unit belonging to the minority who has the audacity, in this time of social abasement and corruption, to live up to it.

Mrs. Eliza Lynn Linton has chastised this hypocrisy as with a whip of scorpions in her magnificent satire, The True History of Joshua Davidson. That is a book that surely every Pagan as well as Christian Theosophist should read. As unhappily many have not, let us say that she makes her hero practically exemplify the principles and imitate the {{Page aside|35}}human virtues of the Founder of the Christian religion. The sketch is neither a caricature nor a malicious perversion of the truth. A truly Christ-like man, whose heart overflows with a tender passionate compassion, tries to raise the ignorant and sin-crushed classes, and awaken their stifled spirituality. By degrees, through an agony of suffering and persecution, he shows the hollow mockery of popular Christianity, thus anticipating but by a few years the very sincere Lord Bishop of Peterborough. Warmed by the spirit of the code of Jesus, poor Joshua Davidson becomes a Socialist, in time a Communard of Paris; consorts with thieves and prostitutes, to help them; is persecuted and hunted down by the Christian clergy and pious laity on his return to England; and finally, at the instigation of the highly respectable vicar of his parish, is stamped to death on the platform, under the boot-heels of a clamorous mob.

This is, perhaps, but a romance; yet in its moral and gradual development of thrilling psychological evolution it is true to life. Have we not realities of but yesterday, still fresh in the public mind, that match it? Do we not all know such self-devoting men and women in our midst? Have we not all of us followed the career of certain individuals, Christ-like in aspirations and practical charity, though, perhaps, Christ-denying and Church-defying in intellect and words, who were tabooed for years by bigoted society, insolent clergy, and persecuted by both to the last limits of law? How many of such victims have found justice and the recognition they merit? After doing the noblest work among the poor for years, embellishing our cold and conventional age by their altruistic charity, making themselves blessed by old and young, beloved by all who suffer, the reward they found was to hear themselves traduced and denounced, slandered and secretly defamed by those unworthy to unloosen the latchets of their shoes—the Church-going hypocrites and Pharisees, the Sanhedrin of the World of Cant!

Truly Joshua Davidson is a sketch from real life. Thus, out of the many noble ideals trampled practically in the mud by modern society, the one held by the Western World as the highest and grandest of all, is, after all, the most {{Page aside|36}}ill-treated. The life preached in the Sermon on the Mount, and the commandments left to the Church by her MASTER, are precisely those ideals that have fallen the lowest in our day. All these are trampled under the heel of the caitiffs of the canting caste de facto—though sub rosa of course, cant preventing that they should do so de jure—and shams are substituted in their place.

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Such an incident as the glove-fight at the “Pelican Club” leaves one in serious doubt. Is modern Society in England consciously hypocritical, or simply, too hopelessly bereft of guiding moral principles to be aware in all cases, of its own sins? Of course the transaction can be criticised easily enough in the light of mere conventional decorum. There is something strangely contemptible about a state of the law which pursues with angry determination the humble bruisers who arrange their honest and straightforward brutalities in the back parlour of a public house, and leaves respectfully untouched the peers and gentlemen who parade their pugilists at a fashionable club. The champion potman who is put up by his admirers to fight a pugnacious bricklayer for a few sovereigns a side, knows that the chance of bringing off his battle lies in the cunning with which he and his friends can keep the arrangements secret from the police. Let them be suspected and they will be promptly hunted down; let them be caught in this defiance of the law and they will be surely sent to prison. On the other hand let an aristocratic association of vicarious prize fighters organise a pugilistic display, behind the thin veil of a pretence that it is a boxing match with gloves; and then, though the gloves themselves may be so thin that the knuckles beneath are capable of inflicting blows quite as severe in their effect as those of the old-fashioned prize ring, the proceedings come within the pale of legality, and the services of the police can be openly retained to keep order in the neighbourhood {{Page aside|37}}and guard the select audience from the too eager curiosity of the envious crowd in the street.

The text is one on which familiar diatribes against the privileges of the rich can be thrown off in any quantity. And in the case before us the time chosen for the costly encounter, emphasizes in an amusing way the cynicism of the whole undertaking. Nominally, the fight took place on Monday morning, but in reality on Sunday night; on that which was just Sunday evening for the late diners of the “Pelican.” The day which a multitude of enactments both legal and unwritten devote themselves to keeping holy— at the expense of all healthy and natural recreation for the people, whether of mind or body—was the day selected by the luxurious fighters of Soho for the brutal display they served themselves with, at the enormous cost we have all heard of: £1,000 was subscribed as the reward of the combatants, whose zeal in punishing each other was guaranteed —or so the aristocratic and Christian promoters of the fight imagine—by assigning £800 to the man who should be victorious and only £200 to the other. The men went into regular training for their fight, as it were to have been conducted on the undisguised system of former days—and in short the whole entertainment was a prize fight to all intents and purposes, and was expected to be an extremely “well” contested one. That it proved the reverse was a circumstance that need hardly affect any remarks that we have to make on the subject.

We leave the obvious comparisons between the one law which operates in such matters for the poor, and the other law which accommodates itself deferentially to the rich, to be drawn by critics who seek to improve the occasion in the interest of political agitation. There is no particular principle affecting the higher region of morals in the fact that laws are often stupid and unequal. But there are considerations affecting the recent prize fight which impinge on the great purposes of Theosophy. Apart from all questions of law, how is it possible, we ask, that a great body of Englishmen of education and social respectability can find the promotion of a prize fight an amusement for their blasé leisure, {{Page aside|38}}which even the consciences they possess can allow them to indulge in? For remember, it is mere senseless abuse of any class or people to say they are without conscience. The members of the “Pelican Club” we may be sure, have all of them codes of honour of some sort or another which they respect in a fashion, which their consciences, however distorted by custom, would forbid them to disregard. If a Sunday evening prize fight comes within the scheme of enjoyments that seem to them permissible, it is due to the fact that the moral principles really rooted in their thinking do not stand in the way of this; nor do we find fault with the day selected but simply with such an enjoyment on any day. For them, however, sons of Protestant families, there is a fall and disregard of two ideals implied. With all of them probably, their principles would stand in the way of cheating at cards or hitting a woman. The trouble is not that their principles are weak or their consciences obscured, so far as regards the code of honour of the circles they belong to; but that the whole scheme or moral teaching on which they have been reared is debased, imperfect, and above all materialistic. The so-called religion to which they nominally belong has hardly contributed to the formation of that code at all. It would not indeed look favourably on Sunday prize fights, but it has not sufficient vitality to enforce its ideas on the hearts or lives of its careless adherents. The great scandal of modern religion as a rule of life is, that taking modern Society all round in a broad way, it does not command any attention at all. It has failed not so much to show what ought to be done or left undone—for of course even the maxims of the church as far as words go, cover a great deal of ground—as it has failed to show with any adequate force why this or that should be a guiding principle. The modern church, in fact, has broken down as a practical agency governing the acts of its followers—i.e., of the millions who are content to be called its followers, but who never dream of listening to a word it says.

Fully conscious that a great deal it says is very good, its exponents (blandly ignorant how bad is a great deal of the rest) think it is owing to the perversity of mankind that

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[[File:Hpb_cw_12_38_1.jpg|center|x200px]]
<center>H.P. BLAVATSKY</center>
<center>1831-1891</center>
<center>One of the six portraits taken by Enrico Resta, January 8, 1889, in</center>
<center>his studio at 4, Coburg Place, Bayswater, London W., the original glass</center>
<center>plate of which is in the Archives of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theo-</center>
<center>sophical Society in England. Reproduced from an original print from</center>
<center>the glass plate.</center>
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{{Page aside|39}}
{{Style P-No indent|people at large are not better than they are. They never realise that they themselves—the Dry Monopole of social wines—are primarily to blame, for having divorced the good codes of morals, bequeathed to them from the religions of all time, from the fundamental sanctions which a correct appreciation of true spiritual science would attach to them. They have converted the divine teaching which is the Theosophy of all ages into a barbarous caricature, and they expect to find their parrot-echoes of preposterous creeds a cry that will draw the worldlings to their fold, an appeal which will stir them up to the sublime task of spiritualizing their own natures. They fail to see that the command to love one another must be ineffective in the care of people whose whole conception of futurity turns upon their chances of drawing a lucky number in the lottery of the elect, or of dodging the punishment that would naturally be their due, at a happy moment when the divine mind may be thrown off its balance by reflecting on the beauty of the Christian sacrifice. The teachers of modern religion, in fact, have lost touch with the wisdom underlying their own perverted doctrines, and the blind followers of these blind leaders have lost touch even with the elementary principles of physical morality which the churches still continue to repeat, without understanding their purpose, and from mere force of habit. The ministers of religion, in short, of the Nineteenth Century, have eaten the sour grapes of ignorance, and the teeth of their unfortunate children are set on edge. Certainly there was a good deal of bad Karma made at the “Pelican Club” on the evening of the celebrated prize fight, but no small share of it will have been carried to the account of the forlorn pastors who idly and ignorantly let slip their golden opportunities all over the town that morning, as on all others, and left their congregations unmoved by any thought that could help them to realise how they would go out of the churches into the world again when service was over, to contribute by every act and example of their lives to the formation of their own destinies and the crystallisation in their own future of the aspirations and desires they might encourage.}}

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Of all the beautiful ideals of the Past, that true religious feeling that manifests in the worship of the spiritually beautiful alone, and the love of plain truth, are those that have been the most roughly handled in this age of obligatory dissembling We are surrounded on all sides by Hypocrisy, and those of its followers of whom Pollok has said that they were men: —

“Who stole the livery of the court of heaven,
To serve the devil in.”

Oh, the unspeakable hypocrisy of our age! The age when everything under the Sun and Moon is for sale and bought. The age when all that is honest, is just, noble-minded, is held up to the derision of the public, sneered at, and deprecated; when every truth-loving and fearlessly truth-speaking man is hooted out of polite Society, as a transgressor of cultured traditions which demand that every member of it should accept that in which he does not believe, say what he does not think, and lie to his own soul! The age, when the open pursuit of any of the grand ideals of the Past is treated as almost insane eccentricity or fraud; and the rejection of empty form—the dead letter that killeth—and preference for the Spirit “that giveth life”—is called infidelity, and forthwith the cry is started, “Stone him to death!” No sooner is the sacrifice of empty conventionalities, that yield reward and benefit but to self, made for the sake of practically working out some grand humanitarian idea that will help the masses, than a howl of indignation and pious horror is raised the doors of fashionable Society are shut on the transgressor, and the mouths of slanderous gossips opened to dishonour his very name.

Yet, we are daily served with sanctimonious discourses upon the blessings conferred by Christian civilization and the advantages offered by both, as contrasted with the curses of “heathenism” and the superstitions and horrors of say—the Middle Ages. The Inquisition with its burning of heretics and witches, its tortures at the stake and on the rack, {{Page aside|41}}are contrasted with the great freedom of modern thought, on one hand, and the security of human life and property now, as compared with their insecurity in days of old. “Is it not civilization that abolished the Inquisition and now affords the beggar the same protection of law as the wealthy duke?” we are asked. “We do not know,” we say. History would make us rather think that it was Napoleon the First, the Attila whose iniquitous wars stripped France and Europe of their lustiest manhood, who abolished the Inquisition, and this not at all for the sake of civilization, but rather because he was not prepared to allow the Church to burn and torture those who could serve him as chair à canon. As to the second proposition with regard to the beggar and the duke, we have to qualify it before accepting it as true. The beggar, however right, will hardly find as full justice as the duke will; and if he happens to be unpopular, or an heretic, ten to one he will find the reverse of justice. And this proves that if Church and State were un-Christian then, they are still un-Christian, if not more so now.

True Christianity and true civilization both ought to be opposed to murder, however legal. And yet we find, in the last half of our departing century more lives sacrificed— because of the improved system and weapons of warfare, thanks to the progress of science and civilization—than there were in its first half. “Christian civilization,” indeed! Civilization, perhaps; but why “Christian”? Did Pope Leo XIII personify it when in an agony of despair he shut himself up on the day when Bruno’s monument was unveiled, and marked it as a dies irae in Church History? But may we not turn to civilization, pure and simple? “Our manners, our civilization,” says Burke, “and all the good things connected with manners . . . . have in this European world of ours, depended for ages upon two principles . . . . . I mean the spirit of a gentleman and the spirit of religion.” We are quite willing to test the character of the age by these ideals. Only, it has always been hard to say just what definition to give to the term “gentleman”; while as to religion, ninety-nine out of every hundred people one meets would, if asked, reply in such a fashion as to make it plain that they had {{Page aside|42}}confounded religion with theology. The dictionary definition of a gentleman” is that of a man who is wellborn, of “gentle and refined manners, and who bears arms”, a “gentleman farmer” is one who farms his own estate, and a “gentleman usher” an unpaid royal flunkey. But this will hardly do. For how many are there not, in the most aristocratic circle, with a dozen quarterings on their arms, who are vicious and depraved to a degree, for which the parallel must not be sought in Whitechapel but in the Rome of the Caesars. In comparison with the vices of these, the Odyssey at the “Pelican Club” may be viewed as the childish escapade of schoolboys.

Nay, if the truth is to be told, the habits of Royal Sons and Imperial Heirs Apparent are often unspeakably immoral and uncivilized. The fountain of honour, instead of supplying pure water, overruns with moral putridity. With such examples as these, can we wonder at the disrespect shown by lesser stars for minor ideals? Our “Admirable Crichtons” of today, beat their swords into yardsticks, and lend the honour of their arms for a dividend in shady companies juggled upon the Exchange. The modern troubadour sings not under the balcony of his lady-love, nor defends her honour in the lists of chivalry; but when jilted, writes her name on the list of defendants in breach-of-promise cases, and demands of a jury substantial damages in £.s.d. The marks of “honour” given in days of old for saving human life at one’s own peril, for noble deeds of valour and heroism achieved, are now too often reserved for those who triumph in the bloodless battlefield of commercial strife and advertisement; and grand “gold medals of HONOUR” (!?) are now falling to the lot of the proprietors of matches, pills and soaps. O shades of Leonidas of Sparta, of Solon and Pericles, veil your astral faces! Rejoice, ye larvae of the too much married Solomon and of the Temple money changers ! And ye, imperial spooks of Caligula, Constantine and the world-conquering Ceasars, look at your caricatures on the Serbian and other thrones. The claws of the royal lions of the XIXth century are clipped, and their teeth extracted; yet they try to emulate your historical vices in their humble way, {{Page aside|43}}suffiently well to have lost long ago all claim to be regarded as the “Lord’s anointed,” to be prayed for, flattered and pandered to by their respective churches. And yet they are. What an unparalleled farce!

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But perhaps we have to look for true Christianity and true civilization and culture in the modern higher courts of Law? Alas, there are modern judges of whom their Lord (our Karma) would say, “Hear what the unjust judge sayeth.” For, in our day, the decree of justice is sometimes uttered in the voice of the bigots who sit in Solomon’s seat and judge as the Inquisitors of old did. In our century of Christian civilization, judges emulating their predecessors of the tribunal of the sons of Loyola, employ the more exquisite instruments of moral torture, to insult and goad to desperation a helpless plaintiff or defendant. In this they are aided by advocates, often the type of the ancient headsman, who, metaphorically, break the bones of the wretch seeking justice; or worse yet, defile his good name and stab him to the heart with the vilest innuendos, false suppositions concocted for the occasion but which the victim knows will henceforth become actual truths in the mouth of foul gossip and slander. Between the defunct brutal tortures of the unchristian Inquisition of old, and the more refined mental tortures of its as unchristian but more civilized copy —our Court and truculent cross-examiners, the palm of “gentleness” and charity might almost be given to the former.

Thus we find every ideal of old, moral and spiritual, abased to correspond with the present low moral and unspiritual conceptions of the public. Brutalized by a psychical famine which lasted through generations, they are ready to give every ideal spiritual Regenerator as food for the dogs, while like their debauched prototypes, the Roman populace under Nero, Caligula, and Heliogabalus, they crowd to see bullfights in Paris, where, the wretched horses drag their bleeding bowels around the arena, imported Almehs dancing their loathsome danse du ventre, black and white pugilists bruising each other’s features into bloody pulp, and “raise the roof” with their cheers when the Samsons and {{Page aside|44}}Sandows burst chains and snap wires by expanding their preternatural muscles. Why keep up the old farce any longer? Why not change the Christmas carol thus:—

<center>Gladiator natus hodie.</center>

Or change the well-known anthem after this fashion:—

“GLORY TO GOLD IN THE HIGHEST

AND ON EARTH STRIFE, ILL-WILL TOWARD MEN.”

To transmute the god of the “uncivilized” age to the gold of the present cultured age, needs but the addition of an “l”: a trifle to this generation of idolaters who worship the coins of their respective realms, as the concrete embodiment of their highest ideal.

Avaunt! We are ready to make a free gift to Society with our best compliments, of all those fine European “gentlemen” and Christian champions of our century—the century of mock-civilization and mock-Christianity. As many of the former do not scruple to cheat their hard-working tradesmen out of their dues to pay their gambling debts withal, so many of the latter do not hesitate to receive on false pretences ample “collections” and personal livings, from too-confiding flocks. For who can deny that they entice them to exchange their worldly gear for promissory notes made payable in a post-mortem state of which they themselves know nothing and in which many of them do not believe? Nothing then would be nicer than for a wall to be built around Mayfair, turned into a modern Parc aux Cerfs and a Camp of Moses combined, for the confinement of the modern Bayards, preux chevaliers without reproach or fear, and the modern Pharisees, both types of the glorious Christian civilization with its divine ideal of cultured and converted Humanity. For then, and then only, would we Theosophists and other decent folk be free to consort unmolested with those who are called “sinners and publicans” by the modern “Synagogue of Jesuits”—with the Joshua Davidsons of Whitechapel. Nor would the masses of truly religious souls be the losers, were they to be left to the sole {{Page aside|45}}care of the few truly Christian priests and clergymen we know of; those who now live in the daily fear of being made to appear on their trial before their bishops and churches for the unpardonable crime of serving their ideal MASTER in preference to the dead forms of their ecclesiastical superiors.

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<center><big>'''THEOSOPHICAL VIEWS ON THE PRECEDING'''</big></center>
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In a world of illusion in which the law of evolution operates, nothing could be more natural than that the ideals of Man—as a unit of the total, or mankind—should be forever shifting. A part of the Nature around him, that Protean, ever-changing Nature, every particle of which is incessantly transformed, while the harmonious body remains as a whole ever the same, like these particles man is continually changing physically, intellectually, morally, spiritually. At one time he is at the topmost point of the circle of development; at another, at the lowest. And, as he thus alternately rises and sinks, and his moral nature responsively expands or contracts, so will his moral code at one time embody the noblest altruistic and aspirational ideals, while at the other, the ruling conscience will be but the reflection of selfishness, brutality and faithlessness. But this, however, is so only on the external, illusionary plane. In their internal, or rather, essential constitution, both nature and man are at one, as their essence is identical. All grows and develops and strives towards perfection on the former planes of externality, or, as well said by a philosopher is—“ever becoming”; but on the ultimate plane of the spiritual essence all IS, and remains therefore immutable. It is towards this eternal Esse that everything, as every being, is gravitating, gradually, almost imperceptibly, but as surely as the Universe of stars and worlds moves towards a mysterious point known to, yet still unnamed by, astronomy and called by the Occultists—the central Spiritual Sun.

Hitherto, it was remarked in almost every historical age that a wide interval, almost a chasm, lay between practical {{Page aside|46}}and ideal perfection. Yet, as from time to time certain great characters appeared on earth who taught mankind to look beyond the veil of illusion, man learnt that the gulf was not an impassable one; that it is the province of mankind through its higher and more spiritual races to fill the great gap more and more with every coming cycle; for every man, as a unit, has it in his power to add his mite toward filling it. Yes; there are still men, who, notwithstanding the present chaotic condition of the moral world, and the sorry débris of the best human ideals, still persist in believing and teaching that the now ideal human perfection is no dream, but a law of divine nature; and that, had Mankind to wait even millions of years, still it must some day reach it and rebecome a race of gods.

Meanwhile, the periodical rise and fall of human character on the external planes takes place now, as it did before, and the ordinary average perception of man is too weak to see that both processes occur each time on a higher plane than the preceding. But as such changes are not always the work of centuries, for often extreme changes are wrought by swift acting forces—e.g. by wars, speculations, epidemics, the devastation of famines or religious fanaticism—therefore, do the blind masses imagine that man ever was, is, and will be the same. To the eyes of us, moles, mankind is like our globe—seemingly stationary. And yet, both move in space and time with an equal velocity, around themselves and—onward.

Moreover, at whatever end of his evolution, from the birth of his consciousness, in fact, man was, and still is, the vehicle of a dual spirit in him—good and evil. Like the twin sisters of Victor Hugo’s grand, posthumous poem, La Fin de Satan—the progeny issued respectively from Light and Darkness—the angel “Liberty” and the angel “Isis-Lilith” have chosen man as their dwelling on earth, and these are at eternal strife in him.

The Churches tell the world that “man is born in sin,” and John (1st Epistle iii. 8) adds that “He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.” Those who still believe in the rib-and-apple fable and in the {{Page aside|47}}rebellious angel “Satan,” believe, as a matter of course in a personal Devil—as a contrast in a dualistic religion—to a personal God. We, Theosophists of the Eastern school, believe in neither. Yet we go, perhaps, further still than the Biblical dead letter. For we say that while as extra-cosmic Entities there is neither god nor devil, that both exist, nevertheless. And we add that both dwell on earth in man, being in truth, the very man himself, who is, as a physical being, the devil, the true vehicle of evil, and as a spiritual entity— god, or good. Hence, to say to mankind, “thou hast the devil,” is to utter as metaphysical a truth as when saying to all its men, “Know ye not that god dwelleth in you?” Both statements are true. But, we are at the turning point of the great social cycle, and it is the former fact which has the upper hand at present. Yet—to paraphrase a Pauline text—as “there be devils many . . . . yet there is but one Satan,” so while we have a great variety of devils constituting collectively mankind, of such grandiose Satanic characters as are painted by Milton, Byron and recently by Victor Hugo, there are few, if any. Hence, owing to such mediocrity, are the human ideals falling, to remain unreplaced; a prose-life as spiritually dead as the London November fog, and as alive with brutal materialism and vices, the seven capital sins forming but a portion of these, as that fog is with deadly microbes. Now we rarely find aspirations toward the eternal ideal in the human heart, but instead of it every thought tending toward the one central idea of our century, the great “I,” self being for each the one mighty centre around which the whole Universe is made to revolve and turn.

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When the Emperor Julian—called the Apostate because, believing in the grand ideals of his forefathers, the Initiates, he would not accept the human anthropomorphic form thereof—saw for the last time his beloved gods appear to him, he wept. Alas, they were no longer the bright spiritual beings he had worshipped, but only the decrepit, pale and {{Page aside|48}}worn out shades of the gods he had so loved. Perchance they were the prophetic vision of the departing ideals of his age, as also of our own cycle. These “gods” are now regarded by the Church as demons and called so; while he who has preserved a poetical, lingering love for them, is forthwith branded as an Antichrist and a modern Satan.

Well, Satan is an elastic term, and no one has yet ever given even an approximately logical definition of the symbolical meaning of the name. The first to anthropomorphize it was John Milton; he is his true putative intellectual father, as it is widely conceded that the theological Satan of the Fall is the “mind-born Son” of the blind poet. Bereft of his theological and-dogmatic attributes Satan is simply an adversary;—not necessarily an “arch fiend” or a “persecutor of men,” but possibly also a foe of evil. He may thus become a Saviour of the oppressed, a champion of the weak and poor, crushed by the minor devils (men), the demons of avarice, selfishness and hypocrisy. Michelet calls him the “Great Disinherited” and takes him to his heart. The giant Satan of poetical concept is, in reality, but the compound of all the dissatisfied and noble intellectuality of the age. But Victor Hugo was the first to intuitively grasp the occult truth. Satan, in his poem of that name, is a truly grandiose Entity, with enough human in him to bring it within the grasp of average intellects. To realise the Satans of Milton and of Byron is like trying to grasp a handful of the morning mist: there is nothing human in them. Milton’s Satan wars with angels who are a sort of flying puppets, without spontaneity, pulled into the stage of being and of action by the invisible string of theological predestination; Hugo’s Lucifer fights a fearful battle with his own terrible passions and again becomes an Archangel of Light, after the most awful agonies ever conceived by mortal mind and recorded by human pen.

All other Satanic ideals pale before his splendour. The Mephisto of Goethe is a true devil of theology; the Ahriman of Byron’s Manfred—a too super-natural character, and even Manfred has little akin to the human element, great as was the genius of their Creator. All these images pale {{Page aside|49}}before Hugo’s SATAN, who loves as strongly as he hates. Manfred and Cain are the incarnate Protests of downtrodden, wronged and persecuted individuality against the “World” and “Society”—those giant fiends and savage monsters of collective injustice. Manfred is the type of an indomitable will, proud, yielding to no influence earthly or divine, valuing his full absolute freedom of action above any personal feeling or social consideration, higher than Nature and all in it. But, with Manfred as with Cain, the Self, the “I” is ever foremost; and there is not a spark of the all-redeeming love in them, no more than of fear. Manfred will not submit even to the universal Spirit of Evil; alone, face to face with the dark opponent of Ahura-Mazda— Universal Light—Ahriman and his countless hosts of Darkness, he still holds his own. These types arouse in one intense wonder, awestruck amazement by their all-defiant daring, but arouse no human feeling: they are too supernatural ideals. Byron never thought of vivifying his Archangel with that undying spark of love which forms—nay, must form the essence of the “First-Born” out of the homogeneous essence of eternal Harmony and Light, and is the element of forgiving reconciliation, even in its (according to our philosophy) last terrestrial offspring—Humanity. Discord is the concomitant of differentiation, and Satan being an evolution, must in that sense, be an adversary, a contrast, being a type of Chaotic matter. The loving essence cannot be extinguished but only perverted. Without this saving redemptive power, embodied in Satan, he simply appears the nonsensical failure of omnipotent and omniscient imbecility which the opponents of theological Christianity sneeringly and very justly make him; with it, he becomes a thinkable Entity, the Asuras of the Purânic myths, the first breaths of Brahmâ, who, after fighting the gods and defeating them are finally themselves defeated and then hurled on to the earth where they incarnate in Humanity. Thus Satanic Humanity becomes comprehensible. After moving around his cycle of obstacles he may, with accumulated experiences, after all the throes of Humanity, emerge again into the light—as Eastern philosophy teaches.

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If Hugo had lived to complete his poem, possibly with strengthened insight, he would have blended his Satanic concept with that of the Aryan races which makes all minor powers, good or evil, born at the beginning and dying at the close of each “Divine Age.” As human nature is ever the same, and sociological, spiritual and intellectual evolution is a question of step by step, it is quite possible that instead of catching one half of the Satanic ideal as Hugo did, the next great poet may get it wholly: thus voicing for his generation the eternal idea of Cosmic equilibrium so nobly emphasized in the Aryan mythology. The first half of that ideal approaches sufficiently to the human ideal to make the moral tortures of Hugo’s Satan entirely comprehensible to the Eastern Theosophist. What is the chief torment of this great Cosmic Anarchist? It is the moral agony caused by such a duality of nature—the tearing asunder of the Spirit of Evil and Opposition from the undying element of primeval love in the Archangel. That spark of divine love for Light and Harmony, that no HATE can wholly smother, causes him a torture far more unbearable than his Fall and exile for protest and Rebellion. This bright, heavenly spark shining from Satan in the black darkness of his kingdom of moral night, makes him visible to the intuitive reader. It made Victor Hugo see him sobbing in superhuman despair, each mighty sob shaking the earth from pole to pole; sobs first of baffled rage that he cannot extirpate love for divine Goodness (God) from his nature; then changing into a wail of despair at being cut off from that divine love he so much yearns for. All this is intensely human. This abyss of despair is Satan’s salvation. In his Fall, a feather drops from his white and once immaculate wing, is lighted up by a ray of divine radiance and forthwith transformed into a bright Being, the Angel LIBERTY. Thus, she is Satan’s daughter, the child jointly of God and the Fallen Archangel, the progeny of Good and Evil, of Light and Darkness, and God acknowledges this common and “sublime paternity” that unites them. It is Satan’s daughter who saves him. At the acme of despair at feeling himself hated by LIGHT, Satan hears the divine words “No; I hate thee not.” Saith the {{Page aside|51}}Voice, “An angel is between us, and her deeds go to thy credit. Man, bound by thee, by her is now delivered.”

{{Style P-Poem|poem=“O Satan, tu peux dire à présent; je vivrai!
Viens; l’Ange Liberté, c’est ta fille et la mienne
Cette paternité sublime nous unit! . . .”<ref>{{HPB-CW-comment|[Section: “Satan pardonné.”—Compiler.]}}</ref>}}

The whole conception is an efflorescence of metaphysical ideality. This white lotus of thought springs now, as in former ages, from the rottenness of the world of matter generating Protest and LIBERTY. It is springing in our very midst and under our very eyes, from the mire of modern civilization, fecund bed of contrasting virtues. In this foul soil sprouted the germs which ultimately developed into All-denying protestators, Atheists, Nihilists, and Anarchists men of the Terror. Bad, violent, criminal some of them may be, yet no one of them could stand as the copy of Satan; but taking this heartbroken, hopeless, embittered portion of humanity in their collectivity, they are just Satan himself; for he is the ideal synthesis of all discordant forces and each separate human vice or passion is but an atom of his totality. In the very depths of the heart of this HUMAN Satanic totality burns the divine spark, all negations notwithstanding. It is called LOVE FOR HUMANITY, an ardent aspiration for a universal reign of Justice—hence a latent desire for light, harmony and goodness. Where do we find such a divine spark among the proud and the wealthy? In respectable Society and the correct orthodox, so-called religious portion of the public, one finds but a predominating feeling of selfishness and a desire for wealth at the expense of the weak and the destitute, hence as a parallel, indifference to injustice and evil. Before Satan, the incarnate PROTEST, repents and reunites with his fellow men in one common Brotherhood, all cause for protest must have disappeared from earth. And that can come to pass only when Greed, Bias, and Prejudice shall have disappeared before the elements of Altruism and Justice to all. Freedom, or {{Page aside|52}}Liberty, is but a vain word just now all over the civilized globe; freedom is but a cunning synonym for oppression of the people in the name of the people, and it exists for castes, never for units. To bring about the reign of Freedom as contemplated by Hugo’s Satan, the “Angel Liberty” has to be born simultaneously and by common love and consent of the “higher” wealthy caste, and the “lower” classes— the poor; in other words, to become the progeny of “God” and “Satan,” thereby reconciling the two.

But this is a Utopia—for the present. It cannot take place before the castes of the modern Levites and their theology—the Dead-sea fruit of Spirituality—shall have disappeared; and the priests of the Future have declared before the whole world in the words of their “God”—

<center>“Et j’efface la nuit sinistre, et rien n’en reste.</center>
<center>Satan est mort; renais, ô LUCIFER CÉLESTE!</center>
{{Style P-Signature|H.P.B.}}

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - Footnotes to My Experiences in Occultism and Occult Development

2026-04-14T08:24:20Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Footnotes to “My Experiences in Occultism and Occult Development”
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 31-32
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 254-259
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - “Going To and Fro in the Earth” (2)
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - The Fall of Ideals
| alternatives =
| translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/Блаватская_Е.П._-_Примечания_к_«Моему_опыту_изучения_оккультизма_и_приобщения_к_нему» Russian]
}}

{{Page aside|31}}

{{Style P-Title|FOOTNOTES TO “MY EXPERIENCES IN
OCCULTISM AND OCCULT DEVELOPMENT”}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 254-259]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{Style P-Quote|{{HPB-CW-comment|[A. F. Tindall, having been an investigator of the occult for some sixteen years, relates some of his experiences in that realm, and the teachings which he has received from various occult agencies. H.P.B. appends a number of footnotes to several of his statements.]}}}}

[I cannot but feel that the Agencies of the Adepts are not confined in their manifestations to the Theosophical Society.] Nor was it ever claimed by us. On the contrary, the hitherto very esoteric doctrine of the ''Nirmanakayas'' was lately brought forward as a proof and explained in the treatise called ''The Voice of the Silence''. These Nirmanakayas are the ''Bodhisattvas'' or late Adepts, who having reached Nirvana and liberation from rebirth, renounce it voluntarily in order to remain invisibly amidst the world to help poor ignorant Humanity within the lines permitted by Karma. These are the ''real'' {{Style S-Small capitals|spirits}} of the disembodied men, and we recognize no others. The rest are either ''Devachanees'' to whose plane the spirit of the living medium must ascend, and who therefore; can never descend to our plane, or ''spooks'' of the first water. But then no Nirmanakaya will influence any man for the benefit of the latter for his own weal, or to save him from anything save death, and that only [if] the man’s life is useful. By the fruit we recognize the tree. Units are as the leaves of that tree for them; and they look forward to benefit and save ''the trunk'', not to concern themselves with its every leaf, whether good, bad, or indifferent. Even living Adepts have no such right.

[Our passions must be burnt out.] Not on the physical plane, as it would come then to a deliberate gratification of all our passions, in order to get rid of them by satiety, and this is an abomination.

{{Page aside|32}}
[The experience must be gained, and the Soul must rise superior to them, by acquiring a love for higher things.] “Experience must be gained” of every evil as good passion ''mentally'', and ''overcome'' in thought, by reflection. Love and longing for higher things on a Spiritual plane will thus leave no room for the lower animal longings.

[. . . certain signs to be used accompanied by a sort of prayer . . . . such Magic must only be exercised when the Soul is wishing for nothing but the Will of the All-good Intelligence to be done . . .] Whether this teaching agrees with Theosophy depends on the meaning given by the mystic to “the All-God Intelligence.” If this is a Being or “Intelligence” ''outside'' of us, then it would point to either a personal God or a spirit, which is no part of the Theosophical teachings. But if it refers to our ''Higher Self'', then we are at one with the writer. Only in this case {{Style S-Small capitals|it}} (Atman) has no Will ''of its own'', as It is no conditioned thing. The expression is faulty.

[I call the Spirits of the Living, and then see a simulacrum of them and hear them speak.] Theosophists would call this ''necromancy'' and ''unconscious black magic''.

[on seeing the form of an Adept prior to receiving a letter] Surely no “Indian” nor any other adept, would go to the trouble of disturbing himself to announce such a trifling event as the one mentioned! Especially when a letter to that effect came “an hour later” and was all that was required. This was simply a case of the writer’s own natural clairvoyance. What would an ''adept'' have to do with this?

[There is a good and loving Intelligence pervading Nature.] Why “loving”? If ''absolute'', it can have no attributes either of love or hatred.

[Thy will be done.] We recognize no Being to whom such a phrase may be addressed.

Blavatsky H.P. - Going To and Fro in the Earth (2)

2026-04-14T08:19:12Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = “Going To and Fro in the Earth”
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 27-30
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 251-254
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Official Notice
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Footnotes to “My Experiences in Occultism and Occult Development”
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside|27}}

{{Style P-Title|“GOING TO AND FRO IN THE EARTH”}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 251-254]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|Evoe!!}}}}
{{Vertical space|}}

In the benevolence of their hearts, the editors of ''Lucifer'' offer their sincere condolences to their equitable neighbours and impartial, generous critics, the English clergy and editors, whose cause has just received a bad stab under the ribs from one of their most learned and distinguished prelates. His Grace the Bishop of Peterborough, presiding at the Diocesan Conference at Leicester, on the 25th of October last, made the following direful admission:—

{{Style P-Quote|The bishop, summing up a discussion on Socialism, said they must be careful, while knowing that many of the advocates of Socialism held doctrines which were very dangerous, that they gave full credit to the nobility of motive and tenderness of sympathy with suffering and wrong which had stirred many of those persons. Christianity, however, made no claim to rearrange the economic relations of men in the State and in Society, and he hoped he would be understood when he said plainly that it was his firm belief that any Christian State carrying out in all its relations the Sermon on the Mount could not exist a week.}}

Henceforth, let editors disposed to hold up to public condemnation the Theosophical Society because of dissensions among members, and to write comic editorials on “Kilkenny Theosophy,” be more reserved, lest this pregnant confession of the Great Anglican Bishop be quoted against them. When Col. Olcott, in his South Place Institute lecture, replying to a carping questioner who sought to confound him by charging ill-temper and uncharitableness on his colleagues, said that the theosophical ideal was so high, that few could fully realize it practically, he spoke a profound truth. If it now be alleged that the Lord Bishop has but placed Christianity and Theosophy on the same level, the natural reply will be that this should make the Christian adversaries of our Society a little more just in their {{Page aside|28}}behaviour towards us. There is one notable difference, however, between the Christian Churches and our Society, and it is this: Whereas every baptised child or adult is called a ''Christian'', we have always drawn a clear and broad line between a ''Theosophist'' and a simple member of the T. S. A Theosophist, with us, ''is one who makes Theosophy a living power in his life''. We have been often accused of ''hating Christianity''. This is as untrue as it is unjust. Some of the teaching ascribed to Christ, teaching which he has in common with other great religious leaders, is admirable. But we would be as untruthful as our accusers, were we to show anything like a friendly feeling or sympathy for dogmas and ritual or that which the late Lawrence Oliphant called ''Churchianity''. For it is this which deserves far more than the T. S. ever has, to be loudly and fearlessly proclaimed—especially after the Bishop of Peterborough’s confession— Kilkenny Christianity. {{Style S-Small capitals|Verb. Sap.}}

{{HPB-CW-separator}}

{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|The Age of Man and the Continents}}}}
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We are happy to find Mr. Grant Allen confessing to ''Esoteric Buddhism'' doctrines, and his agreement with ''The Secret Doctrine''. For this is what he is alleged to have said to a ''Pall Mall'' reporter who interviewed Mr. Grant Allen upon his views.

{{Style P-Quote|“. . . . . All the higher forms of religion even now contain traces of the earlier stages. The human race goes so far back.” Here I intervened. “Yes; where do you cradle its infancy—in far Chaldea or, as the new theory has it, in North West Europe, or do you hold the ‘glacial-period-primeval man’?” “Oh,” was the smiling reply, “in my opinion the human race goes as far back as the Miocene period, so far hack that our existing continents hardly have assumed their present shapes when man first appeared, and as the whole world was then tropical in climate, man may have appeared anywhere.”}}

The reader of the above, is asked at his first leisure to open ''Esoteric Buddhism'', 4th edition, at p. 60, and compare. It is soothing to find that the ''beaux esprits se rencontrent''—at any rate the antediluvian spirit of Dzyan and {{Page aside|29}}the spirit of modern anthropological and geological speculation as represented by Mr. Grant Allen. But there, we believe, all agreement ceases, especially on metaphysical and physical teachings. So much more the pity—for modern science.

{{HPB-CW-separator}}

{{Style S-Small capitals|Amuck! in the Name of Christ!!}}
{{Vertical space|}}

Our friends, the ''Methodist Times'' are at their old tricks again. Finding their own little . . . . . intellectual ''variations on Fiction'' unequal to the occasion, they call in their Madras ally—the ''Christian College Magazine'', the paradoxical organ of the “heathen” College of the never-to-be-converted Hindus, which plays once more its old ''fugue'' in the orchestra of slander. We are told again in the “Patterson Correspondence” that Madame Blavatsky fled from India in 1885, ''leaving'' Madras ''secretly''. Considering (1) that Mrs. Dr. Sharlieb’s ''certificate'' was published more than once in various papers; (2) the fact that a kind friend, then and to this day, one of the Madras magistrates, himself saw Mme. Blavatsky off to the steamer; (3) that he kindly sent an invalid chair and his own police ''peons'' to carry in it the personality now accused of having left the country “secretly”; and that, moreover (4), her departure took place publicly, and in full daylight—the charge is rather risky!

Plain truth and known facts hold good, however, to the present day, and with all men. Therefore it is quite needless to disprove point by point the other dozen or so ''ruses'', all as uncanny as this above-mentioned fabrication. As to the elegant epithets and insulting terms sent by Mr. Patterson to the address of Mme. Blavatsky, they really do not matter. What, or where is she, when compared with the great and eminent men and even ''a god'', who were far worse ill-treated than she is, by the bigots of their respective countries, and this invariably only because the victims ''were in their way?'' No comparison, of course, is here contemplated, as any such would be absurd. Yet the records of history are there to show ''false accusations'' lavished, in every case, on innocent {{Page aside|30}}men and women when the life and reputation of such became a danger to those who envied or feared them. Witness Socrates and Hypatia, Bruno and Joan of Arc, etc., etc. Remember the hundreds of martyrs, the latchet of whose shoes Mme. B. is not worthy of loosening, who suffered tortures and death at the hands of unscrupulous liars, of false witnesses and fanatical murderers. Does not Jesus himself head the hosts of the martyrs for truth in the Christian era? Were the reverend detractors to exhaust the whole vocabulary of Hungerford Market to abuse and vilify her, they would still never approach, let alone surpass, the insults lavished by the Pharisees on the head of Jesus—''their'' Christ. “Thou hast the Devil,” said these dignitaries of the “grandmother” Church, the Synagogue, to the God of the present mother Church—”the Man of Sorrows.” And did they not denounce Christ as “that ''deceiver'' who said . . . . After three days I will arise again”? And for that “deception” was Jesus flogged, and spat upon, and crucified; all of which in no wise prevented Mr. Patterson and a host of Mme. B.’s slanderers from worshipping that same Jesus as their God and Master. Nor does it prevent the descendants of those who put the prophet of Nazareth to death, adding, “His blood be on us, and on our children,” from holding their victim to this day as a “deceiver”; and yet prospering, the curse notwithstanding, having wealth enough to buy into bondage the whole of Christendom, and holding actually in durance vile all the crowned heads of Christian Europe!

All of which proves that fate plays ducks and drakes with gods as with mortals; that all of us are born, live and die under Karmic law, in consequence of which law few of us can know who is who, or what is what, in this world of ''maya''. Our sincere advice to the irrepressible Mr. Patterson is, not to attempt, in the words of Job, to bore leviathan’s “jaw through with a thorn,” lest Karma “put an hook into his (own) nose” for the trouble.
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|Adversary.}}

Blavatsky H.P. - Official Notice

2026-04-14T08:09:47Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Official Notice
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 24-26
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 250-251
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (57)
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - “Going To and Fro in the Earth” (2)
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside continues|24}}

{{Style P-Title|OFFICIAL NOTICE}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 250-251]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

Those who read ''Light'' must have seen in its issue of November 9th the following letter from Washington headed:—

{{Vertical space|}}
{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|The Gnostic Theosophical Society}}}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{Style P-No indent|over the signature of “Elliott Coues, President, etc.” In this document the latter asks to “correct the ''false'' statements” made “to the effect that the above-named organization is extinct.” The writer then continues: “As its founder and President, I am fully informed on the question. The Gnostic Theosophical Society was never stronger nor more active than it is today. Its memberships and ramifications extend into nearly every State in the Union. Since October 1886, when it was formally dissolved, as an association in any way dependent upon another of similar name, and immediately reformed on an independent basis, it has steadily {{Page aside|25}}grown,” etc., etc. The letter closes with the words—“We desire especially to accentuate the fact that we repudiate and disclaim all connection with certain persons whose names have heretofore been identified by the public with the movement commonly called ‘Theosophical.’ ” (Signature follows.)}}

As the Corresponding Secretary for life, and one of the original founders, at New York in 1875, of the Theosophical Society, whose ramifications extend into the five parts of the world—the United States being only one of the five—I hereby declare the above statements to be simply nonsensical. It is a joke, evidently. And these are our proofs and reasons:—

1. There can be no authentic Theosophical Society, or even a branch thereof, outside the jurisdiction of the “Parent” Society so called, now having its Headquarters at Adyar, Madras, India. Its title, the T.S. at large not being a chartered body, may of course have hitherto been pirated, but it cannot be so now, least of all in the District of Columbia, as will be seen later.

2. This applies especially to the “Gnostic” ex-Theosophical Society of Washington, D.C., for reasons which I name below.

(a) The Gnostic branch having been chartered by the President-Founder before 1886, the said ''Gnostic'' branch, if it wished to withdraw from our jurisdiction, had as in honour bound, to drop its title of “Theosophical”; therefore—

(b) If “formally dissolved” in October 1886 and “immediately reformed,” of which no notice was ever given to Adyar, it had to remain simply the GNOSTIC Society, to which title it had, and has a perfect right; but,

(c) As it is now a matter of official record that the Branch of this name was dischartered only in May of the present year, and its President, Dr. Elliott Coues, expelled by the American Section of the General Council of the T. S., it could not, therefore, have remained from 1886 {{Page aside|26}}till the Spring of 1889, an association ''in any way independent'' of the Parent Society. Herein is the joke.

3. As there is at the present moment at Washington, D. C., a ''legally chartered'' Theosophical Society (the Blavatsky T. S.) formed and ''duly incorporated'' in July 1889 by Prof. A. Higgins, its President, and his associates, no other Society calling itself “Theosophical” ''would now be recognized by law in that District''. The “Gnostic” therefore, if it still exists, and adds to its name “Theosophical” is an ''outlaw''.

And this is why the letter of the President of the “Gnostic” Society of Washington, D. C., is a practical joke on the innocence of the readers of ''Light''.

{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H. P. Blavatsky,}}
{{Style P-Align right|Corresponding Secretary of the Theosophical Society.}}
{{Vertical space|}}

P.S. As to the general question of his abusive attacks upon “certain persons” who are Mr. Judge, Gen. Sec. of the American Section of the T.S. and myself, I will say this. I cannot do better than adopt the line of policy recommended by my quondam, egregiously and fulsomely flattering friend, the same Dr. E. Coues, in a letter to myself of date November 22, 1885, a few lines from which I will quote. It answers fully the closing (and would-be) contemptuous sentence of his letter to ''Light'':—

{{Style P-Quote|. . . . . You are a grand and wonderful woman, whom I admire as much as I appreciate . . . . . I admire your fortitude and endurance in bearing burdens enough to kill anybody but ''the Blavatsky'' whose like has not before been seen, nor will be ever . . . . . Never mind your enemies! They will get a spurious and vicarious reputation by attacking you, which you can afford to let them have, though you don’t want to confer upon them the immortality they would get by your condescending to fight them. When History comes to be written they will appear, if at all, hanging on to your skirts. Shake them off, and let them go!

<center>(Signed)</center>
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|Elliott Coues.”}}}}

and so I do.––H.P.B.

Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (57)

2026-04-14T08:02:58Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Miscellaneous Notes
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 22-24
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 179, 226, 249
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Genius
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Official Notice
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside continues|22}}

{{Style P-Title|MISCELLANEOUS NOTES}}
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{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 179, 226, 249]}}
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If the age has its great criminals it has also its martyrs, saints, and heroes, those differentiations of the diviner man from the revolting average of animalism.

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{{Page aside|23}}
{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|Sportiana}}}}
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“‘Theosophist’ on Nov. 9 won the Great Lancashire Handicap, over one mile, in 1 min. 47 2-5th sec. according to Benson’s chronograph, and credited his owner with £450.”

And now the breeze of ''popularity'' has wafted Theosophy upon the race track, good luck follows the name as it appears.

{{HPB-CW-separator}}

It is with the very greatest pleasure that we print the following from the Washington ''People’s Advocate'':

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{{Style P-Subtitle|ARYAN SPIRITUAL SCIENCE}}
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{{Style P-Quote|To a truly religio-scientific society like the “Blavatsky Theosophical Society,” now incorporated in Washington, and whose first object is the formation of a nucleus of a real Brotherhood of Humanity, regardless of sect, sex or colour, and which with rare consistency to its professions has abolished the colour line, which everywhere refuses admission to the intelligent coloured man to societies of white men of a scientific, philosophical, or fraternal nature, we freely give three-quarters of a column or more of space (circumstantially) every week, asked for in order to defend and expound its doctrines.

Because not sufficiently informed on the subject, the editor cannot either affirm or deny these doctrines. We assume no responsibility further than to justly grant the freedom of our paper to a society which grants to the coloured man equality of membership. Besides, as a purveyor, and not a dictator of information to the public, ''The People’s Advocate'', to be consistent with its title, must concede to its readers the right of selection, and the opportunity to investigate all kinds of knowledge, freed alike from ''sectarian'' as well as ''race'' prejudices.}}

The above Branch owes its birth to our energetic brother Prof. Anthony Higgins, and though of recent date bids fair, according to ''The Path'' of October, to become “one of our most powerful Lodges.” But whether the branch is young or old, it is splendidly done; not but that all our Lodges {{Page aside|24}}would give a hearty welcome to a “coloured” brother. But herein lies the merit, that this branch has succeeded in establishing relations with their coloured brethren. This is the most important part of their undertaking, for once a point of contact is established, the current will flow freely. Truly “without distinction of race” has it been done, and such indeed is the work of true Theosophists. Nor is it in this case a small matter, for the race distinction between the negro and the white in America, is perhaps more accentuated than between geographically separated nations of different colours. May the time speedily arrive when in like manner we shall see “coloured” members in all our branches, and thus, “the colour line being abolished,” our dark-hued brethren may mount the first step of the ladder of “admission to societies of white men of a scientific, philosophical, or fraternal nature.”

Blavatsky H.P. - Genius

2026-04-14T07:58:07Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Genius
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 13-22
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 227-233
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - Russian Popular Tracts
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Miscellaneous Notes (57)
| alternatives = [https://universaltheosophy.com/hpb/genius/ UT]
| translations = [https://ru.teopedia.org/lib/Блаватская_Е.П._-_Гений Russian]
}}

{{Page aside continues|13}}

{{Style P-Title|GENIUS}}
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{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 227-233]}}
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{{Style P-Epigraph|
“Genius! thou gift of Heaven! thou light divine!
Amid what dangers art thou doom’d to shine!
Oft will the body’s weakness check thy force,
Oft damp thy vigour, and impede thy course;
And trembling nerves compel thee to restrain
Thy nobler efforts, to contend with pain;
Or Want (sad guest!) . . . . . .”
|Crabbe, ''Tales'', XI, lines 1-7.}}

Among many problems hitherto unsolved in the Mystery of Mind, stands prominent the question of Genius. Whence, and what is genius, its ''raison d’être'', the causes of its excessive rarity? Is it indeed “a gift of Heaven”? And if so, why such gifts to one, and dullness of intellect, or even idiocy, the doom of another? To regard the appearance of {{Page aside|14}}men and women of genius as a mere accident, a prize of blind chance, or, as dependent on physical causes alone, is only thinkable to a materialist. As an author truly says, there remains then only this alternative; to agree with the believer in a ''personal'' god, “to refer the appearance of every single individual to a ''special act of divine will and creative energy'',” or “to recognize, in the whole succession of such individuals, one great act of some will, expressed in an eternal inviolable law.”

Genius, as Coleridge defined it, is certainly—to every outward appearance, at least—“the faculty of growth”; yet to the inward intuition of man, it is a question whether it is genius—an abnormal aptitude of mind—that develops and grows, or the physical brain, ''its vehicle'', which becomes through some mysterious process fitter to receive and manifest ''from within outwardly'' the innate and divine nature of man’s over-soul. Perchance, in their unsophisticated wisdom, the philosophers of old were nearer truth than are our modern wiseacres, when they endowed man with a tutelar deity, a Spirit whom they called ''genius''. The substance of this entity, to say nothing of its ''essence''—observe the distinction, reader,—and the presence of both manifests itself according to the organism of the person it informs. As Shakespeare says of the genius of great men—what we perceive of his substance “is not here”—

{{Style P-Poem|poem=“For what you see is but the smallest part
And least proportion of humanity:
I tell you, madam, were the whole frame here,
It is of such a spacious lofty pitch,
Your roof were not sufficient to contain it.”<ref>[''Henry VI'', Part I, Act ii, Scene 3, lines 52-56.]</ref>}}

This is precisely what the Esoteric philosophy teaches. The flame of genius is lit by no anthropomorphic hand, save that of one’s own Spirit. It is the very nature of the Spiritual Entity itself, of our ''Ego'', which keeps on weaving new life-woofs into the web of reincarnation on the loom of time, from the beginnings to the ends of the great Life-{{Page aside|15}}Cycle.<ref>The period of one full Manvantara composed of Seven Rounds.</ref> This it is that asserts itself stronger than in the average man, through its personality; so that what we call “the manifestations of genius” in a person, are only the more or less successful efforts of that {{Style S-Small capitals|Ego}} to assert itself on the outward plane of its objective form—the man of clay—in the matter-of-fact, daily life of the latter. The {{Style S-Small capitals|Egos}} of a Newton, an Aeschylus, or a Shakespeare are, of the same essence and substance as the Egos of a yokel, an ignoramus, a fool, or even an idiot; and the self-assertion of their informing ''genii'' depends on the physiological and material construction of the physical man. No Ego differs from another Ego, in its primordial or original essence and nature. That which makes one mortal a great man and another a vulgar, silly person is, as said, the quality and makeup of the physical shell or casing, and the adequacy or inadequacy of brain and body to transmit and give expression to the light of the real, ''Inner'' man; and this aptness or inaptness is, in its turn, the result of Karma. Or, to use another simile, physical man is the musical instrument, and the Ego, the performing artist. The potentiality of perfect melody of sound, is in the former—the instrument—and no skill of the latter can awaken a faultless harmony out of a broken or badly made instrument. This harmony depends on the fidelity of transmission, by word or act, to the objective plane, of the unspoken divine thought in the very depths of man’s subjective or inner nature. Physical man may—to follow our simile—be a priceless Stradivarius, or a cheap and cracked fiddle, or again a mediocrity between the two, in the hands of the Paganini who ensouls him.

All ancient nations knew this. But though all had their Mysteries and their Hierophants, not all could be equally taught the great metaphysical doctrine; and while a few elect received such truths at their initiation, the masses were allowed to approach them with the greatest caution and only within the farthest limits of fact. From the DIVINE ALL proceeded Amun, the Divine Wisdom . . . . . give it not to the unworthy,” says a Book of Hermes. Paul, the “wise {{Page aside|16}}Master-Builder,”<ref>A term absolutely theurgic, masonic and occult. Paul, by using it, declares himself an Initiate having the right to initiate others.</ref> (''I Cor''. iii, 10) but echoes Thoth-Hermes when telling the Corinthians “We speak wisdom among them that are perfect [the initiated] . . . . . . the wisdom of God in a {{Style S-Small capitals|mystery}}, even the ''hidden'' Wisdom” (''ibid''., ii, 6-7).

Yet, to this day the Ancients are accused of blasphemy and fetishism for their ‘hero worship.’ But have the modern historians ever fathomed the cause of such ‘worship’! We believe not. Otherwise they would be the first to become aware that that which was ‘worshipped,’ or rather that to which honours were rendered was neither the man of clay, nor the ''personality''—the Hero or Saint So-and-So, which still prevails in the Roman Church, a church which beatifies the body rather than the soul—but the divine imprisoned Spirit, the ''exiled'' “god” ''within'' that personality. Who, in the profane world, is aware that even the majority of the magistrates (the ''Archons'' of Athens, mistranslated in the Bible as ‘Princes’)—whose official duty it was to prepare the city for such processions, were ignorant of the true significance of the alleged “worship”? Verily was Paul right in declaring that “we speak wisdom . . . not the wisdom of this world . . . which none of the ''Archons'' of this [profane] world knew,” but the ''hidden wisdom'' of the {{Style S-Small capitals|mysteries}}. For, as again the Epistle of the apostle implies, the language of the Initiates and their secrets, no ''profane'', not even an ‘Archon’ or ruler ''outside the fane'' of the sacred Mysteries, knoweth; none “save the spirit of man [the Ego] which is ''in him''” (''ibid''., ii, 11).

Were Chapters ii and iii of ''I Corinthians'' ever translated in the Spirit in which they were written—even their dead letter is now disfigured—the world might receive strange revelations. Among other things it would have a key to many, hitherto unexplained rites of ancient Paganism, one of which is the mystery of this same Hero worship. And it would learn that if the streets of the city that honoured one such man, were strewn with roses for the passage of the {{Page aside|17}}Hero of the day; if every citizen was called to bow in reverence to him who was so feasted; and if both priest and poet vied in their zeal to immortalize the hero’s name after his death—occult philosophy tells us the reason why this was done.

“Behold,” it saith, “in every manifestation of genius—''when combined with virtue''—in the warrior or the Bard the great painter, artist, statesman or man of Science, who soars high above the heads of the vulgar herd, the undeniable presence of the celestial exile, the divine ''Ego'' whose jailer thou art, Oh man of matter!” Thus, that which we call ''deification'' applied to the immortal God within, not to the dead walls or the human tabernacle that contained him. And this was done in tacit and silent recognition of the efforts made by the divine captive who, under the most adverse circumstances of incarnation, still succeeded in manifesting himself.

Occultism, therefore, teaches nothing new in asserting the above philosophical axiom. Enlarging upon the broad metaphysical truism, it only gives it a finishing touch by explaining certain details. It teaches, for instance, that the presence in man of various creative powers—called genius in their collectivity—is due to no blind chance, to no innate qualities through hereditary tendencies—though that which is known as atavism may often intensify these faculties— but to an accumulation of individual antecedent experiences of the ''Ego'' in its preceding life, and lives. For, though omniscient in its essence and nature, it still requires experience through its ''personalities'' of the things of earth, earthy on the objective plane, in order to apply the fruition of that abstract omniscience to them. And, adds our philosophy—the cultivation of certain aptitudes throughout a long series of past incarnations must finally culminate in some one life, in a blooming forth as ''genius'', in one or another direction.

Great Genius, therefore, if true and innate, and not merely an abnormal expansion of our human intellect—can never copy or condescend to imitate, but will ever be original, ''sui generis'' in its creative impulses and realizations. Like those gigantic Indian lilies that shoot out from the {{Page aside|18}}clefts and fissures of the cloud-nursing and bare rocks of the highest plateaux of the Nilgiri Hills, true Genius needs but an opportunity to spring forth into existence and blossom in the sight of all on the most arid soil, for its stamp is always unmistakable. To use a popular saying, innate genius, like murder, will out sooner or later, and the more it will have been suppressed and hidden, the greater will be the flood of light thrown by the sudden irruption. On the other hand, artificial genius, so often confused with the former, and which in truth is but the outcome of long studies and training, will never be more than, so to say, the flame of a lamp burning outside the portal of the fane; it may throw a long trail of light across the road, but it leaves the inside of the building in darkness. And, as every faculty and property in Nature is dual—''i.e''., each may be made to serve two ends, evil as well as good—so will artificial genius betray itself. Born out of the chaos of terrestrial sensations of perceptive and retentive faculties, yet of finite memory, it will ever remain the slave of its body; and that body, owing to its unreliability and the natural tendency of matter to confusion, will not fail to lead even the greatest ''genius'', so called, back into its own primordial element, which is chaos again, or ''evil'', or earth.

Thus between the true and the artificial genius, one born from the light of the immortal Ego, the other from the evanescent will-o’-the-wisp of the terrestrial or purely human intellect and the animal soul, there is a chasm, to be spanned only by him who aspires ever onward; who never loses sight, even w hen in the depths of matter, of that guiding star, the Divine Soul and mind, or what we call ''Buddhi-Manas''. The latter does not require, as does the former, cultivation. The words of the poet who asserts that the lamp of genius—

{{Style P-Poem|poem=“If not protected, pruned, and fed with care,
Soon dies, or runs to waste with fitful glare—”}}

{{Style P-No indent|—can apply only to artificial genius, the outcome of culture and of purely intellectual acuteness. It is not the direct light of the ''Manasaputras'', the Sons of Wisdom, for true {{Page aside|19}}genius lit at the flame of our higher nature, or the EGO, cannot die. This is why it is so very rare. Lavater calculated that “the proportion of genius (in general) to the vulgar, is like one to a million; but genius without tyranny, without pretension, that judges the weak with equity, the superior with humanity, and equals with justice, is like one in ten millions.” This is indeed interesting, though not too complimentary to ''human'' nature, if, by “genius,” Lavater had in mind only the higher sort of human intellect, unfolded by cultivation, “protected, pruned, and fed,” and not the genius we speak of. Moreover, such genius is always apt to lead to the extremes of weal or woe, him through whom this artificial light of the terrestrial mind manifests. Like the good and bad genii of old with whom genius is made so appropriately to share the name, it takes its helpless possessor by the hand and leads him, one day to the pinnacles of fame, fortune, and glory, but to plunge him on the following day into an abyss of shame, despair, often of crime.}}

But as, according to the great Physiognomist, there is more of the former than of the latter kind of genius in this our world, because, as Occultism teaches us, it is easier for the personality with its acute physical senses and ''tattvas'' to gravitate toward the lower quaternary than to soar to its triad—modern philosophy, though quite proficient in treating this lower place of genius, knows nothing of its higher spiritual form—the “one in ten millions.” Thus it is only natural that confusing one with the other, the best modern writers should have failed to define true genius. As a consequence, we continually hear and read a good deal of that which to the Occultist seems quite paradoxical. “Genius requires cultivation,” says one; “Genius is vain and self-sufficient,” declares another; while a third will go on defining the ''divine light'' but to dwarf it on the Procrustean bed of his own intellectual narrow-mindedness. He will talk of the great eccentricity of genius, and allying it as a general rule with an “inflammable constitution,” will even show it “a prey to every passion but seldom delicacy of taste!” (Lord Kaimes.) It is useless to argue with such, or tell them that original and great genius puts out the most {{Page aside|20}}dazzling rays of human intellectuality, as the sun quenches the flame-light of a fire in an open field; that it is never eccentric; though always ''sui generis''; and that no man endowed with ''true'' genius can ever give way to his physical animal passions. In the view of an humble Occultist, only such a grand altruistic character as that of Buddha or Jesus, and of their few close imitators, can be regarded, in our historical cycle, as fully developed {{Style S-Small capitals|genius}}.

Hence, true genius has small chance indeed of receiving its clue in our age of conventionalities, hypocrisy and time-serving. As the world grows in civilization, it expands in fierce selfishness, and stones its true prophets and geniuses for the benefit of its apeing shadows. Alone the surging masses of the ignorant millions, the great people’s heart, are capable of sensing intuitionally a true “great soul” full of divine love for mankind, of god-like compassion for suffering man. Hence the populace alone is still capable of recognizing a genius, as without such qualities no man has a right to the name. No genius can be now found in Church or State, and this is proven on their own admission. It seems a long time since in the XIIIth century the “Angelic Doctor” snubbed Pope Innocent IV who, boasting of the millions got by him from the sale of absolutions and indulgences, remarked to Aquinas that “the age of the Church is past in which she said ‘Silver and gold have I none!’” “True,” was the ready reply, “but the age is also past when she could say to a paralytic, ‘Rise up and walk’.” And yet from that time, and far earlier, to our own day the hourly crucifixion of their ideal Master both by Church and State has never ceased. While every Christian State breaks with its laws and customs, with every commandment given in the Sermon on the Mount, the Christian Church justifies and approves of this through her own Bishops who despairingly proclaim “A Christian State ''impossible'' on Christian Principles.”<ref>See “Going to and Fro in the Earth” 1st article [p. 27 of present Volume.]</ref> Hence no Christlike (or “Buddha-like”) way of life is possible in civilized States.

{{Page aside|21}}
The occultist then, to whom “true genius is a synonym of self-existent and infinite mind,” mirrored more or less faithfully by man, fails to find in the modern definitions of the term anything approaching correctness. In its turn the esoteric interpretation of Theosophy is sure to be received with derision. The very idea that every man with a “soul” in him, is the vehicle of (a) genius, will appear supremely absurd, even to believers, while the materialist will fall foul of it as a “crass superstition.” As to the popular feeling—the only approximately correct one because purely intuitional, it will not be even taken into account. The same elastic and convenient epithet “superstition” will, once more, be made to explain why there never was yet a universally recognized genius—whether of one or the other kind—without a certain amount of weird, fantastic and often uncanny tales and legends attaching themselves to so unique a character, dogging and even surviving him. Yet it is the unsophisticated alone, and therefore only the so-called ''uneducated'' masses, just because of that lack of sophistical reasoning in them, who feel, whenever coming in contact with an abnormal, out-of-the-way character, that there is in him something more than the mere mortal man of flesh and intellectual attributes. And feeling themselves in the presence of that which in the enormous majority is ever hidden, of something incomprehensible to their matter-of-fact minds, they experience the same awe that popular masses felt in days of old when their fancy, often more unerring than cultured reason, created of their heroes gods, teaching:

{{Style P-Poem|poem=. . . . . “the weak to bend, the proud to pray
To powers unseen and mightier than they . . .”}}

This is now called {{Style S-Small capitals|Superstition}} . . . . .

But what is Superstition? True, we dread that which we cannot clearly explain to ourselves. Like children in the dark, we are all of us apt, the educated equally with the ignorant, to people that darkness with phantoms of our own creation; but these “phantoms” prove in no wise that that “darkness”—which is only another term for the ''invisible'' and the ''unseen''—is really empty of any ''Presence'' save our {{Page aside|22}}own. So that if in its exaggerated form, “superstition” is a weird incubus, as a belief in things ''above'' and ''beyond'' our physical senses, yet it is also a modest acknowledgement that there are things in the universe, and around us, of which we knew nothing. In this sense “superstition” becomes not an unreasonable feeling of half wonder and half dread, mixed with admiration and reverence, or with fear, according to the dictates of our intuition. And this is far more reasonable than to repeat with the too-learned wiseacres that there is nothing, “nothing whatever, in that darkness”; nor can there be anything since they, the wiseacres, have failed to discern it.

''Eppur si muove!'' Where there is smoke there must be fire; where there is a steamy vapour there must be water. Our claim rests but upon one eternal axiomatic truth: ''nihil sine cause''. Genius and undeserved suffering prove an immortal Ego and Reincarnation in our world. As for the rest, ''i.e''., the obloquy and derision with which such theosophical doctrines are met, Fielding—a sort of Genius in his way, too—has covered our answer over a century ago. Never did he utter a greater truth than on the day he wrote that “''If superstition makes a man a fool'', {{Style S-Small capitals|skepticism makes him mad}}.”
{{Style P-Signature in capitals|H.P.B.}}

{{Footnotes}}

Blavatsky H.P. - Russian Popular Tracts

2026-04-14T07:33:00Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = Russian Popular Tracts
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 9-13
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889. pp. 195-98
| scrapbook =
| previous = Blavatsky H.P. - The Tidal Wave
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Genius
| alternatives =
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside|9}}

{{Style P-Title|RUSSIAN POPULAR TRACTS}}

{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|Selections from Count L. N. Tolstoy’s Tales}}}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889. pp. 195-98]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{Style P-Quote|{{HPB-CW-comment|[It has been thought advisable to include in the present Series this translation by H.P.B. of one of the well-known tales of Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, for reasons given in her own introductory note. However, contrary to her statement, no other stories have been found in the succeeding issues of ''Lucifer''.]}}}}

Since the West has shown such due appreciation of the writings of the greatest novelist and mystic of Russia of today, his best works have all been translated. The Russian, however, recognizes in none of these translations that popular national spirit which pervades the original tales and stories. Pregnant as these are with popular mysticism and the spirit of theosophical altruism, some of them are charming but most difficult to render into a foreign language. Yet, one may try. One thing is certain: no foreign translator, however able, unless born and bred in Russia and acquainted with Russian ''peasant'' life, will be able to do them justice, or even to convey to the reader their full meaning, owing to their absolutely national idiomatic language. If the genius of the Russian literary language is so ''sui generis'' as to be most difficult to render in translation, the Russian of the lower classes—the speech of small tradesmen, peasants and labourers, is ten times more so. Difficult as it may seem to a foreigner, yet a born Russian may attempt it, perhaps, with a little more success. At all events, as said, one may try.

Selecting therefore, from such popular tracts,—allegories and moral stories in the form of popular tales—we have translated some for the readers of ''Lucifer''. The Christmas Numbers, December, January and February, will contain charming little stories, well worthy of a new translation. Two of them, ''Wherein is Love, Therein is God; God is in {{Page aside|10}}Right, and not in Might'', and some others are stamped with the spirit of truly religious mysticism. Each deserves to be read by the admirers of this great Russian author. For this number, however, we have selected one of a less mystical but more satirical spirit; a cap calculated to fit the head of any drinking Christian nation ''ad libitum'', and we only hope its title, translated ''verbatim et literatim'', will not shock still more the susceptibilities of the opponents of the title of this magazine. Russia is afflicted with the demon of drink, as much as, though ''not more'' than, England or any other country; yet it is not so much the Karma of the nation, as that of their respective governments, whose Karmic burden is growing heavier and more terrible with every year. This curse and universal incubus, drink, is the direct and legitimate progeny of the Rulers; it is begotten by their greed for money, and {{Style S-Small capitals|forced}} by them on the unfortunate masses. Why, in Karma’s name, should the latter be made to suffer here, and hereafter?

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{{Style P-Subtitle|HOW A DEVIL’S IMP REDEEMED HIS LOAF; OR THE FIRST DISTILLER}}
{{Vertical space|}}

A poor peasant went out early to plough; and as he was leaving home without breaking his fast, he carried along with him a loaf of bread. Once in the field he turned over his plough, adjusted the ploughtail, put the ropes under a bush, and over them his loaf of black bread, and covered the whole with his ''caftan''. At last, the horse got tired and the ''moojik'' felt hungry. Then he stopped his plough in the furrow, unhitched his horse, and leaving it to graze, moved toward his caftan for his meal. But when he had lifted it up––lo, no loaf was to be seen. Our ''moojik'' searched for it here, and he searched for it there he shook his garment and turned it hither and thither—no loaf! He felt surprised. Marvellous doings! No one around, and yet the loaf is carried away by someone. That someone, in truth, was an Imp, who, while the peasant was ploughing, had stolen his loaf and was now hiding behind a bush, preparing to note down the man’s profanity, when he would begin to swear and take the devil’s name. The peasant felt a little sore. “But, after all,” said he, “this won’t starve me; and he who carried away my bread, perchance needed it. Let him eat it then, and good luck to him.”

{{Page aside|11}}
So, going to the well he drank some water, rested a bit, then catching his horse, he hitched it again to the plough and returned quietly to his work. The Imp felt considerably troubled at such a failure in tempting man to sin and forthwith proceeding home to hell, he narrated to his Elder—the Chief Devil—how he had robbed the ''moojik'' of his loaf, who instead of cursing, had only said “to his good luck!” Satan felt very angry at this. “If,” he argued, “the ''moojik'' had the best of thee, in this business, then it must be thine own fault; thou didst not know how to bring the thing about. It would be a bad job for us,” he added, “if the peasants, and after them their women, were to take such tricks: no life would become possible for us after this, and such an event cannot be left disregarded. “Go,” continued Satan, “and make up for the failure of the loaf. And if at the end of three years thou shalt not have the best of that man, I will bathe thee in holy water.”

The Imp got terribly frightened at this threat, and running up to earth again, he set himself to thinking how to atone for his guilt. Thus he thought, thought still, and thought more, and went on thinking until he had found what he had to do. Assuming the appearance of a good fellow, he offered himself as a labourer to the poor peasant; and as it happened to be a drought, he advised him to sow his seed in a swamp. Hence, while the fields of all the other peasants were parched, and their harvests burnt by the sun, the crop of the poor peasant grew high and thick, full and grainy. His household had bread to their heart’s content up to the next harvest, and the surplus proved considerable. The following year, the summer being wet, the imp taught the peasant to sow his seed on the mountains. While his neighbours’ corn was blasted, fell down and got rotten, the peasant’s field on the hills brought forth the richest harvest. The ''moojik'' stored still more of the corn; and did not know what to do with it.

Then his labouring man taught him to press the corn and distill it into spirit. Having distilled plenty of it, the ''moojik'' took to drinking and making others drink thereof. One day the Imp returned to the Elder boasting that he had redeemed his loaf. The Chief went up to see for himself.

Then came the Elder to the ''moojik'', and found that having invited the richest and wealthiest of his neighbours, he was entertaining them with whiskey. There was the mistress carrying the glasses to her guests. Hardly had she begun her round when stumbling over the table, she upset the drink. Out at her flew the ''moojik'' abusing his wife to his fill.

“Behold,” he cried, “the ''devil’s fool''. Takest thou good drink for slops? Thou, heavy-handed stupid, to spill on the earth such treasure!”

{{Page aside|12}}
Here the Imp poked the Elder in the ribs, “Observe,” said he, “and see, if he won’t grudge a loaf ''now''.”

Having abused his wife, the ''moojik'' began offering the drink himself. Just then a poor labourer returning from work happened to drop in, unasked, and wishing a merry day to all, he took a seat. Seeing the company drinking, he too, craved to have a drop after his hard day’s work. There he sat, smacking his lips time after time, but the host would offer him nought, only keeping on grumbling: “Who can afford to furnish with whiskey all of you!”

This pleased the chief Devil immensely; as to the Imp, he boasted more than ever: “You wait and see what will come next!” he whispered.

Thus drank the rich peasants, thus drank the host, pandering to each other, and flattering each other, with sweet words, making honeyed and false speeches. Listened the Elder to these, and praised the Imp for this, also. “Without all peradventure,” said he, “this drink making them turn into such foxes, they will take to cheating each other next; and at this rate they will soon fall, everyone of them, into our hands.”

“Wait and see,” said the Imp, “what will come next, when each has one glass more. Now they are only like unto cunning foxes; given time, and they will get transformed into ferocious wolves.”

The peasants had each one glass more, and forthwith their talk became louder and more brutal. Instead of honeyed speeches, they proceeded to abuse each other, and turning gradually fiercer, they ended by getting into a free fight and damaging each other’s noses badly. Then the host took also a turn and got soundly thrashed.

As the Elder looked on, he felt much pleased with this too. “ ‘Tis good,” saith he, “very, very good.”

“Wait and see,” said the Imp, “something still better is in store, as soon as they will have emptied their third glass. Now they are fighting like hungry wolves, at the third glass they will have become like swine.”

The peasants had their third round, and quite lost their reason. Grumbling and hiccupping, shouting at each other, and knowing not what they said, they rushed out, some alone, some in couples, and some in triplets, and scattered in the streets. The host trying to see his guests off, fell with his nose in a mud-puddle, rolled in it and unable to rise, lay there grunting like a hog . . . . This pleased the Elder Devil most of all.

“Well,” saith he, “thou hast invented a fine drink, indeed, and redeemed thy loaf! Tell me,” he added, “how hast thou managed to compound it? Surely thou must have fermented it first, with the blood {{Page aside|13}}of the fox; thence the craft of the drunken peasant, who becomes forthwith a fox himself. Then thou hast distilled it with wolf’s blood, which makes him as wicked as a wolf? Finally, thou hast mixed the whole with the blood of the swine; therefore has the peasant become like a hog.”

“Not so,” quoth the Imp. “I only helped him to get some extra cereals. The wild beast’s blood is ever present in man, but it remains latent and finds no issue so long as he has no more bread then he needs for his food, and then it is that he does not grudge to another his last morsel of bread. But no sooner did man get more corn than he needed, than he took to inventing things wherewith to gratify his passions. Then it was that I taught him the enjoyment—of intoxicating drink. And no sooner had he commenced to distill the gift of God into spirit, for his gratification, than his original foxish, wolfish and swinish blood arose in him. Let him now only go on drinking wine and liquor, and he will remain for ever a beast.”

For which invention the Elder Devil freely praised his Devil’s Imp, forgave him his failure with the stolen loaf, and promoted him in Hell.

Blavatsky H.P. - The Tidal Wave

2026-04-14T07:20:46Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-CW-header
| item title = The Tidal Wave
| item author = Blavatsky H.P.
| volume = 12
| pages = 1-8
| publications = Lucifer, Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 173-178
| scrapbook =
| previous = Zirkoff B. - Chronological Survey & Key to Abbrev (BCW vol.12)
| next = Blavatsky H.P. - Russian Popular Tracts
| alternatives = [https://theosophytrust.org/571-tidal-wave TT]
| translations =
}}

{{Page aside|1}}

{{Style P-Title|THE TIDAL WAVE}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{HPB-CW-comment|view=center|[''Lucifer'', Vol. V, No. 27, November, 1889, pp. 173-178]}}
{{Vertical space|}}

{{Style P-Epigraph|
{{Style P-Poem|poem=“''The tidal wave of deeper souls''
''Into our inmost being rolls'',
''And lifts us unawares''
''Out of all meaner cares''.”}}
|Longfellow, Santa Filomena.}}

The great psychic and spiritual change now taking place in the realm of the human Soul, is quite remarkable. It began towards the very commencement of the now slowly vanishing last quarter of our century, and will end—so says a mystic prophecy — either for the weal or the woe of civilized humanity with the present cycle which will close in 1897. But the great change is not effected in solemn silence, nor is it perceived only by the few. On the contrary, it asserts itself amid a loud din of busy, boisterous tongues, a clash of public opinion, in comparison to which the incessant, ever increasing roar even of the noisiest political agitation seems like the rustling of the young forest foliage, on a warm spring day.

Verily the Spirit in man, so long hidden out of public sight, so carefully concealed and so far exiled from the arena of modern learning, has at last awakened. It now asserts itself and is loudly re-demanding its unrecognized yet ever legitimate rights. It refuses to be any longer trampled under the brutal foot of Materialism, speculated upon by the Churches, and made a fathomless source of income by those who have self-constituted themselves its universal {{Page aside|2}}custodians. The former would deny the Divine Presence any right to existence; the latter would accentuate and prove it through their Sidesmen and Church Wardens armed with moneybags and collection boxes. But the Spirit in man—the direct, though now but broken ray and emanation of the Universal Spirit—has at last awakened. Hitherto, while so often reviled, persecuted and abased through ignorance, ambition and greed; while so frequently turned by insane ''Pride'' “into a blind wanderer, like unto a buffoon mocked by a host of buffoons,” in the realm of Delusion, it remained unheard and unheeded. Today, the Spirit in man has returned like King Lear, from seeming insanity to its senses; and, raising its voice, it now speaks in those authoritative tones to which the men of old have listened in reverential silence through incalculable ages, until deafened by the din and roar of civilization and culture, they could hear it no longer . . . .

Look around you and behold! Think of what you see and hear, and draw therefrom your conclusions. The age of crass materialism, of Soul insanity and blindness, is swiftly passing away. A death struggle between Mysticism and Materialism is no longer at hand, but is already raging. And the party which will win the day at this supreme hour will become the master of the situation and of the future; ''i.e''., it will become the autocrat and soul disposer of the ''millions'' of men already born and to be born, up to the latter end of the XXth century. If the signs of the times can be trusted it is not the ''Animalists'' who will remain conquerors. This is warranted us by the many brave and prolific authors and writers who have arisen of late to defend the rights of Spirit to reign over matter. Many are the honest, aspiring Souls now raising themselves like a dead wall against the torrent of the muddy waters of Materialism. And facing the hitherto domineering flood which is still steadily carrying off into unknown abysses the fragments from the wreck of the dethroned, cast down Human Spirit, they now command: “So far hast thou come; but thou shalt go no further!”

Amid all this external discord and disorganization of social harmony; amid confusion and the weak and cowardly {{Page aside|3}}hesitation of the masses, tied down to the narrow frames of routine, propriety and cant; amid that late dead calm of public thought that had exiled from literature every reference to Soul and Spirit and their divine working during the whole of the middle period of our century—we hear a sound arising. Like a clear, definite, far-reaching note of promise, the voice of the great human Soul proclaims, in no longer timid tones, the rise and almost the resurrection of the human Spirit in the masses. It is now awakening in the foremost representatives of thought and learning; it speaks in the lowest as in the highest, and stimulates them all to action. The renovated, life-giving Spirit in man is boldly freeing itself from the dark fetters of the hitherto all-capturing animal life and matter. Behold it, saith the poet, as, ascending on its broad white wings, it soars into the regions of real life and light; whence, calm and godlike, it contemplates with unfeigned pity those golden idols of the modern material cult with their feet of clay, which have hitherto screened from the purblind masses their true and living gods . . . . . .

Literature—once wrote a critic—is the confession of social life, reflecting all its sins, and all its acts of baseness as of heroism. In this sense a book is of a far greater importance than any man. Books do not represent one man, but they are the mirror of a host of men. Hence the great English poet-philosopher said of books, that he knew that they were as hard to kill and as prolific as the teeth of the fabulous dragon; sow them hither and thither and armed warriors will grow out of them. To kill a good book, is equal to killing a man.

The “poet-philosopher” is right.

A new era has begun in literature, this is certain. New thoughts and new interests have created new intellectual needs; hence a new race of authors is springing up. And this new species will gradually and imperceptibly shut out the old one, those fogies of yore who, though they still reign nominally, are allowed to do so rather by force of habit than predilection. It is not he who repeats obstinately and parrotlike the old literary formulae and holds desperately {{Page aside|4}}to publishers’ traditions, who will find himself answering to the new needs; not the man who prefers his narrow party discipline to the search for the long-exiled Spirit of man and the now lost {{Style S-Small capitals|Truths}}; not these, but verily he who, parting company with his beloved “authority,” lifts boldly and carries on unflinchingly the standard of the ''Future Man''. It is finally those who, amidst the present wholesale dominion of the worship of matter, material interests and {{Style S-Small capitals|Selfishness}}, will have bravely fought for human rights and ''man’s divine nature'', who will become, if they only win, the teachers of the masses in the coming century, and so their benefactors.

But woe to the XXth century if the now reigning school of thought prevails, for Spirit would once more be made captive and silenced till the end of the now coming age. It is not the fanatics of the dead letter in general, nor the iconoclasts and Vandals who fight the new Spirit of thought, nor yet the modern Roundheads, supporters of the old Puritan religious and social traditions, who will ever become the protectors and Saviours of the now resurrecting human thought and Spirit. It is not these too willing supporters of the old cult, and the mediaeval heresies of those who guard like a relic every error of their sect or party, who jealously watch over their own thought lest it should, growing out of its teens, assimilate some fresher and more beneficent idea—not these who are the wise men of the future. It is not for them that the hour of the new historical era will have struck, but for those who will have learnt to express and put into practice the aspirations as well as the physical needs of the rising generations and of the now trampled-down masses. In order that one should fully comprehend ''individual'' life with its physiological, psychic and spiritual mysteries, he has to devote himself with all the fervour of unselfish philanthropy and love for his brother men, to studying and knowing ''collective'' life, or Mankind. Without preconceptions or prejudice, as also without the least fear of possible results in one or another direction, he has to decipher, understand and ''remember'' the deep and innermost feelings and the aspirations of the poor people’s great and suffering {{Page aside|5}}heart. To do this he has first “to attune his soul with that of Humanity,” as the old philosophy teaches; to thoroughly master the correct meaning of every line and word in the rapidly turning pages of the Book of Life of {{Style S-Small capitals|Mankind}} and to be thoroughly saturated with the truism that the latter is a whole inseparable from his own SELF.

How many of such profound readers of life may be found in our boasted age of sciences and culture? Of course we do not mean authors alone, but rather the practical and still unrecognized, though well known, philanthropists and altruists of our age; the people’s friends, the unselfish lovers of man, and the defenders of human right to the freedom of Spirit. Few indeed are such; for they are the rare blossoms of the age, and generally the martyrs to prejudiced mobs and timeservers. Like those wonderful “Snow Flowers” of Northern Siberia, which, in order to shoot forth from the cold frozen soil, have to pierce through a thick layer of hard, icy snow, so these rare characters have to fight their battles all their life with cold indifference and human harshness, and with the selfish ever-mocking world of wealth. Yet, it is only they who can carry out the task of perseverance. To them alone is given the mission of turning the “Upper Ten” of social circles from the broad and easy highway of wealth, vanity and empty pleasures into the arduous and thorny path of higher moral problems, and the perception of loftier moral duties than they are now pursuing. It is also those who, already themselves awakened to a higher Soul activity, are being endowed at the same time with literary talent, whose duty it is to undertake the part of awakening the sleeping Beauty and the Beast, in their enchanted Castle of Frivolity, to real life and light. Let all those who can proceed fearlessly with this idea uppermost in their mind, and they will succeed. It is the rich who have first to be regenerated, if we would do good to the poor; for it is in the former that lies the root of evil of which the “disinherited” classes are but the too luxuriant growth. This may seem at first sight paradoxical, yet it is true, as may be shown.

In the face of the present degradation of every ideal, as also of the noblest aspirations of the human heart, becoming {{Page aside|6}}each day more prominent in the higher classes, what can be expected from the “great unwashed”? It is the head that has to guide the feet, and the latter are to be hardly held responsible for their actions. Work, therefore, to bring about the moral regeneration of the cultured but far more immoral classes before you attempt to do the same for our ignorant younger Brethren. The latter was undertaken years ago, and is carried on to this day, yet with no perceptible good results. Is it not evident that the reason for this lies in the fact that for a few earnest, sincere and all-sacrificing workers in that field, the great majority of the volunteers consists of those same frivolous, ''ultra''-selfish classes, who “play at charity” and whose ideas of the amelioration of the physical and moral status of the poor are confined to the hobby that money and the Bible alone can do it. We say that neither of these can accomplish any good; for dead-letter preaching and forced Bible-reading develop irritation and later atheism, and money as a temporary help finds its way into the tills of public houses rather than serves to buy bread with. The root of evil lies, therefore, in a moral, not in a physical cause.

If asked, what is it then that will help, we answer boldly:—Theosophical literature; hastening to add that under this term, neither books concerning adepts and phenomena, nor the Theosophical Society publications are meant.

Take advantage of, and profit by, the “tidal wave” which is now happily overpowering half of Humanity. Speak to the awakening Spirit of Humanity, to the human Spirit and the Spirit in man, these three in One and the One in All. Dickens and Thackeray both born a century too late or a century too early—came between two tidal waves of human spiritual thought, and though they have done yoeman service individually and induced certain partial reforms, yet they failed to touch Society and the masses at large. What the European world now needs is a dozen writers such as Dostoyevsky, the Russian author, whose works, though ''terra incognita'' for most, are still well known on the Continent, as also in England and America among the cultured classes. And what the Russian novelist has done is this:—he spoke {{Page aside|7}}boldly and fearlessly the most unwelcome truths to the higher and ''even to the official classes''—the latter a far more dangerous proceeding than the former. And yet, behold, most of the administrative reforms during the last twenty years are due to the silent and ''unwelcome'' influence of his pen. As one of his critics remarks, the great truths uttered by him were felt by all classes so vividly and so strongly that people whose views were most diametrically opposed to his own could not but feel the warmest sympathy for this bold writer and even expressed it to him.

{{Style P-Quote|In the eyes of all, friends or foes, he became the mouthpiece of the irrepressible no longer to be delayed need felt by Society, to look with absolute sincerity into the innermost depths of its own soul, to become the impartial judge of its own actions and its own aspirations.

Every new current of thought, every new tendency of the age had and ever will have, its rivals, as its enemies, some counteracting it boldly but unsuccessfully, others with great ability. But such, are always made of the same paste, so to say, common to all. They are goaded to resistance and objections by the same external, selfish and worldly objects, the same material ends and calculations as those that guided their opponents. while pointing out other problems and advocating other methods, in truth, they cease not for one moment to live with their foes in a world of the same and common interests, as also to continue in the same fundamental identical views on life.

That which then became necessary was a man, who, standing outside of any partisanship or struggle for supremacy, would bring his past life as a guarantee of the sincerity and honesty of his views and purposes; one whose personal suffering would be an ''imprimatur'' to the firmness of his convictions, a writer finally, of undeniable literary genius:—for such a man alone, could pronounce words capable of awakening the true spirit in a Society which had drifted away in a wrong direction.

Just such a man was Dostoyevsky—the patriot-convict, the galley-slave, returned from Siberia; that writer, far-famed in Europe and Russia, the pauper buried by voluntary subscription, the soul-stirring hard, of everything poor, insulted, injured, humiliated; he who unveiled with such merciless cruelty the plagues and sores of his age. . .}}

It is writers of this kind that are needed in our day of reawakening; not authors writing for wealth or fame, but fearless apostles of the living Word of Truth, moral healers {{Page aside|8}}of the pustulous sores of our century. France has her Zola who points out, brutally enough, yet still true to life—the degradation and moral leprosy of his people. But Zola, while castigating the vices of the lower classes, has never dared to lash higher with his pen than the ''petite bourgeoisie'', the immorality of the higher classes being ignored by him. Result: the peasants who do not read novels have not been in the least affected by his writings, and the ''bourgeoisie'' caring little for the ''plebs'', took such notice of ''Pot-Bouille'' as to make the French realist lose all desire of burning his fingers again at their family pots. From the first then, Zola has pursued a path which though bringing him to fame and fortune has led him nowhere in so far as salutary effects are concerned.

Whether Theosophists, in the present or future, will ever work out a practical application of the suggestion is doubtful. To write novels with a moral sense in them deep enough to stir Society, requires a great literary talent and a ''born'' theosophist as was Dostoyevsky—Zola standing outside of any comparison with him. But such talents are rare in all countries. Yet, even in the absence of such great gifts one may do good in a smaller and humbler way by taking note and exposing in impersonal narratives the crying vices and evils of the day, by word and deed, by publications and practical example. Let the force of that example impress others to follow it; and then instead of deriding our doctrines and aspirations the men of the XXth, if not the XIXth century, will see clearer, and judge with knowledge and according to facts, instead of prejudging agreeably to rooted misconceptions. Then and not till then will the world find itself forced to acknowledge that it was wrong, and that Theosophy alone can gradually create a mankind as harmonious and as simple-souled as Kosmos itself; but to effect this theosophists have to act as such. Having helped to awaken the spirit in many a man—we say this boldly challenging contradiction—shall we now stop instead of swimming with the {{Style S-Small capitals|Tidal Wave}}?

Zirkoff B. - Chronological Survey & Key to Abbrev (BCW vol.12)

2026-04-13T16:28:03Z

Sergey:

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{{Page aside|xxiii}}

{{Style P-Title|CHRONOLOGICAL SURVEY}}

{{Style P-Subtitle|{{Style S-Small capitals|Of the Chief Events in the Life of H. P. Blavatsky and Col. Henry S. Olcott, from November, 1889, through December, 1890.}}
<center>(The period to which the material in the present volume belongs)</center>}}
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{{Style P-Subtitle|1889}}
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November 21—Annie Besant takes the chair at the Blavatsky Lodge, London, for the first time (''Minutes'').

November 30—Col. Olcott lectures at Edinburgh (''ODL'', IV, 205-06; ''Lucifer'', V, 341).

Fall—C. W. Leadbeater leaves Ceylon and goes to England to become resident tutor of A. P. Sinnett's son Denny; accompanied by the 13-year-old Singhalese boy, C. Jinarâjadâsa (''Ransom'', 259).

December—The Aryan Press is announced as being established in New York (''Path'', IV, Dec., 1889, pp. 290, 328).

December 16—Death of Dr. Seth Pancoast, famous Kabalist and VicePresident of the T.S. at its foundation (''Path'', IV, Jan., 1890, p. 328).

December 17—Col. Olcott lectures at Newcastle; back in London next day, to preside over meeting of British Section (''ODL'', IV, 207; ''Lucifer'', V, 341-42) .

December 19—Col. Olcott is present at the meeting of the Blavatsky Lodge (''Lucifer'', V, Jan., 1890, pp. 432-35).

December 22-Pandit N. Bhâshyâchârya, Director of the Adyar Library, dies (''ODL'', IV, 203; ''Theos''., XI, Suppl. Jan., 1890, p. lxi).

December 25—H.P.B. appoints Col. Olcott her confidential agent for the E.S. in Asiatic countries (''Lucifer'', V, Jan., 1890, p. 437; ''Theos''., XI, Suppl. March, 1890, p. cv; ''ODL'', IV, 184).

December 25—Col. Olcott issues Executive Order appointing H.P.B. Chairman, and Annie Besant, Wm. Kingsland and Herbert Burrows members, of an Appelate Board, to be known as “the President's Commissioners” for Great Britain and Ireland (''ODL'', IV, 182-83; ''Theos''., XI, Suppl. Feb., 1890, p. lxxxvii; ''Ransom'', 262).

{{Page aside|xxiv}}
December 26—Col. Olcott leaves London for Colombo, Ceylon, via Marseilles; sails on the ''SS Oxus'', Dec. 29, accompanied by Edward Douglas Fawcett (Theos., XI, Suppl. Feb., 1890, p. Ixxxviii; ''ODL'', IV, 207).

{{Style P-Subtitle|1890}}
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January 2—Blavatsky Lodge elects Annie Besant as President (''Lucifer'', V, Jan., 1890, p. 436).

January 16—Col. Olcott and E. D. Fawcett reach Colombo, Ceylon (''ODL'', IV, 209; ''Theos''., XI, Suppl. Feb., 1890, p. lxxxviii).

February 5—Col. Olcott reaches Adyar (''Theos''., XI, Suppl. Feb., 1890, p. lxxxviii).

February-March—H.P.B. spends some weeks at Brighton to recuperate from a spell of sickness; improves a good deal (''Path'', IV, March, 1890, p. 389) .

May-June—H.P.B. in rather poor health; has spells of prostration (''Theos''., XI, June, 1890, p. 532).

June 24—Death of T. Subba Row; cremated at 9:00 the following morning (''ODL'', IV, 234; ''Theos''., XI, July, 1890, pp. 576-78).

June—“Department of Branch Work” organized by W. Q. Judge in U.S.A. (''Path'', V. June, 1890, pp. 102-03).

June—Approximate time when H.P.B.'s ''Gems from the East'' (a birthday book) is published (''Path'', V, June, 1890, p. 104).

July—Col. Olcott goes to lecture at Trichinopoly (''ODL'', IV, 238-39; ''Ransom'', 265).

July 3—The premises at 19 Avenue Road, St. John's Wood, London, being ready, the new center is inaugurated (''Lucifer'', VI, July, 1890, pp. 431-36; ''Path'', V, Aug., 1890, pp. 166, 197-98; ''Ransom'', 267; ''Theos''., XI, p. 662).

July 9—Col. Olcott issues Executive Order in regard to the formation of an European Section of the T.S. with H.P.B. as the responsible head thereof (''ODL'', IV, 239; ''Ransom'', 269; ''Theos''., XI, Suppl. Aug., 1890, p. c1ii; and XII, Suppl. Oct., 1890, p. i; ''Lucifer'', VI, p. 520).

{{Page aside|xxv}}

July 20—Mendacious letter from Dr. Elliott Coues in the New York ''Sun''. W. Q. Judge brings suit against both Coues and the ''Sun'' (''ODL'', I, 162; ''Ransom'', 274; ''Lucifer'', VI, Aug., 1890, pp. 523-24; ''Path'', V, Aug., 1890, pp. 153 ''et seq''.).

July—Law suit of Mabel Collins against H.P.B. is taken out of court by plaintiff's Counsel and is not pursued (''Path'', V, Aug., 1890, p. 154).

August 16—H.P.B., with the help of other people, founds “The Working Women's Club” at 193 Bow Road, East End, London; it is opened on that date in the presence of H.P.B. Laura Cooper and Annie Besant placed in charge; it was closed in 1894, as costs became too heavy ''Ransom'', 266; ''Lucifer'', VII, Sept., 1890, pp. 79-80; ''Vahan'', I, No. 2, Dec. 14, 1890, pp. 5-6).

August 25—H.P.B. issues Executive Order to the Theosophists of Europe concerning her assumption of the position of President of the European Section T.S. (''Lucifer'', VII, Sept., 1890, pp. 77-78).

September—The “H.P.B. Printing Press” is about to be installed at the new Headquarters in London, and funds have been supplied. Claude Falls Wright in charge. James M. Pryse has just come from the U.S.A. and has taken up his permanent residence there as printer (Mrs. A. L. Cleather in her “London Letter,” ''Theos''., XII, Nov., 7 890, p. 127) .

September—W. Q. Judge's ''Echoes from the Orient'' published (''Path'', V, Sept., 1890, advert.).

September 21—Death of Megittuwatte, the great Ceylonese Buddhist priest-orator (''ODL'', IV, 248).

October 9-Col. Olcott leaves for Ceylon to open the Sanghamitta Buddhist Girls School, first of its kind on the Island (''ODL'', IV, 250; ''Ransom'', 266).

October 7—Col. Olcott, feeling rather discouraged and sick, writes to H.P.B., before leaving Ceylon, that he wishes to retire from the Presidency of the T.S. and leave the sole headship to her. (Nov. 12 -asks her to take the Office of President.) H.P.B. flatly refuses to do so (''ODL'', IV, 251-52; ''Ransom'', 271; ''Theos''., XII, General Report, as Suppl. to January, 1891, pp. 11-13).

Oct. 27—Col. Olcott leaves Ceylon; goes to Tinnevelly where he is met by Bertram Keightley; they make a tour of Southern India together; return to Adyar Nov. 10th (''Theos''., XII, Dec., 1890, pp. 186-87 ; ''ODL'', IV, 252-53).

{{Page aside|xxvi}}
Nov. 17—Col. Olcott issues Executive Order regarding the formation of the Indian Section T.S., with Bertram Keightley as Inspector-General of Indian Branches (''Theos''., XII, Suppl. Dec., 1890, p. xiii).

December 1—First issue of The Vahan published in London (''Path'', V, Dec., 1890, p. 295; ''Lucifer'', VII, Nov., 1890, p. 253) .

December—Col. Olcott, owing to bad health and fatigue, places the Presidency “in Commission”; appoints Tookarâm Tatya, Norendro Nath Sen, N. D. Khandalavala, W. Q. Judge, as President's Commissioners (''Ransom'', 272; ''Path'', V, March, 1891, p. 393).

{{Style P-Subtitle|KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS}}
{{Vertical space|}}
''Lucifer''—A Theosophical Magazine, designed to “Bring to Light the Hidden Things of Darkness.” London, 1887, etc.

''Minutes''—Minutes of the Blavatsky Lodge in London. Original in the Archives of that Lodge at present.

''ODL—Old Diary Leaves'', by Col. Henry Steel Olcott. Fourth Series,1887-1892. London: Theos. Publ. Society; Adyar: Office of ''The Theosophist'', 1910.

''Path—The Path''. Published and Edited at New York by William Q. Judge. Vol. I, April, 1886, etc.

''Ransom—A Short History of The Theosophical Society''. Compiled by Josephine Ransom. Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1938.

''Theos.—The Theosophist''. Founded by H.P.B. and Col. Olcott in October, 1879. In progress.

''Vahan—The Vahan''. A Vehicle for the Interchange of Theosophical News and Opinions. Issued by the Council of the British Section T.S. Vol. 1, No. 1, December 1, 1890, etc.

Zirkoff B. - Foreword (BCW vol.12)

2026-04-13T16:02:08Z

Sergey:

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{{Page aside|xxi}}

{{Style P-Title|FOREWORD TO VOLUME XII}}
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The material in the present Volume is in direct chronological sequence to the writings in Volume Eleven, and includes some very important essays from H.P.B.’s pen.

In addition to that, the student will find in its pages the complete, unaltered and unedited text of H.P.B.’s ''Esoteric Instructions''.

The continued interest and helpful assistance of our collaborators and friends is gratefully acknowledged. Special mention should be made of Dara Eklund, Nicholas Curtis Weeks, Shelley von Strunckel and Peter S. Ryan, who read the proofs in various stages of production. We also appreciate the careful work done by Dara Eklund in preparing the Index. Our grateful recognition is extended to Grace F. Knoche and Kirby van Mater for special help and serious interest they exhibited in connection with the text of the ''Esoteric Instructions''. We also wish to acknowledge the expert technical work performed by Jim Burgener in the reproduction of the Colored Plates in the Instructions, which add considerably to the value of the Volume as a whole.

{{Style P-Signature in capitals|Boris de Zirkoff,}}
{{Style P-Align right|''Compiler''.}}

{{Style P-No indent|{{Style S-Small capitals|Los Angeles, California,}}}}
{{Style P-No indent|May 23, 1980}}

Zirkoff B. - Foreword (BCW vol.12)

2026-04-13T16:00:57Z

Sergey:

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| item author = Zirkoff B.
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| pages = xxii
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| next = Zirkoff B. - Chronological Survey & Key to Abbrev (BCW vol.12)
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{{Page aside|xxii}}

{{Style P-Title|FOREWORD TO VOLUME XII}}
{{Vertical space|}}

The material in the present Volume is in direct chronological sequence to the writings in Volume Eleven, and includes some very important essays from H.P.B.’s pen.

In addition to that, the student will find in its pages the complete, unaltered and unedited text of H.P.B.’s ''Esoteric Instructions''.

The continued interest and helpful assistance of our collaborators and friends is gratefully acknowledged. Special mention should be made of Dara Eklund, Nicholas Curtis Weeks, Shelley von Strunckel and Peter S. Ryan, who read the proofs in various stages of production. We also appreciate the careful work done by Dara Eklund in preparing the Index. Our grateful recognition is extended to Grace F. Knoche and Kirby van Mater for special help and serious interest they exhibited in connection with the text of the ''Esoteric Instructions''. We also wish to acknowledge the expert technical work performed by Jim Burgener in the reproduction of the Colored Plates in the Instructions, which add considerably to the value of the Volume as a whole.

{{Style P-Signature in capitals|Boris de Zirkoff,}}
{{Style P-Align right|''Compiler''.}}

{{Style P-No indent|{{Style S-Small capitals|Los Angeles, California,}}}}
{{Style P-No indent|May 23, 1980}}

Zirkoff B. - Preface (BCW vol.12)

2026-04-13T09:33:00Z

Sergey:

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{{Style P-Title|PREFACE}}
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[This Preface applies to the entire Edition of H. P. Blavatsky’s ''Collected Writings'', and not to the present volume only.]

{{Style P-Title|I}}
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The writings of H. P. Blavatsky, the chief Founder of the modern Theosophical Movement, are becoming with every day more widely known.

They constitute in their totality one of the most astounding products of the creative human mind. Considering their unequalled erudition, their prophetic nature, and their spiritual depth, they must be classed, by friend and foe alike, as being among the inexplicable phenomena of the age. Even a cursory survey of these writings discloses their monumental character.

The best known among them are of course those which appeared in book form and have gone through several editions: ''Isis Unveiled'' (New York, 1877), ''The Secret Doctrine'' (London and New York, 1888), ''The Key to Theosophy'' (London, 1889), ''The Voice of the Silence'' (London and New York, 1889), ''Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge'' (London and New York, 1890 and 1891), ''Gems from the East'' (London, 1890), and the posthumously published ''Theosophical Glossary'' (London and New York, 1892), ''Nightmare Tales'' (London and New York, 1892) and ''From the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan'' (London, New York and Madras, 1892).

Yet the general public, as well as a great many later theosophical students, are hardly aware of the fact that from 1874 to the end of her life, H. P. Blavatsky wrote incessantly, for a wide range of journals and magazines, and that the combined bulk of these scattered writings exceeds even her voluminous output in book form.

{{Page aside|vi}}
The first articles written by H. P. B. were polemical in nature and trenchant in style. They were published in the best known Spiritualistic journals of the day, such as the ''Banner of Light'' (Boston, Mass.), the ''Spiritual Scientist'' (Boston, Mass.), the ''Religio-Philosophical Journal'' (Chicago, Ill.), ''The Spiritualist'' (London), ''La Revue Spirite'' (Paris). Simultaneously, she wrote fascinating occult stories for some of the leading American newspapers, including ''The World, The Sun'' and the ''Daily Graphic'', all of New York.

After she went to India, in 1879, she contributed to the ''Indian Spectator'', ''The Deccan Star'', the ''Bombay Gazette'', ''The Pioneer'', the ''Amrita Bazaar Pâtrika'', and other newspapers.

For over seven years, namely during the period of 1879-1886, she wrote serial stories for the well-known Russian newspaper, ''Moskovskiya Vedomosty'' (Moscow), and the celebrated periodical, ''Russkiy Vestnik'' (Moscow), as well as for lesser newspapers, such as ''Pravda'' (Odessa), ''Tiflisskiy Vestnik'' (Tiflis), ''Rebus'' (St. Petersburg), and others.

After founding her first theosophical magazine, ''The Theosophist'' (Bombay and Madras), in October, 1879, she poured into its pages an enormous amount of invaluable teaching, which she continued to give forth at a later date in the pages of her London magazine, ''Lucifer'', the shortlived ''Revue Théosophique'' of Paris, and ''The Path'' of New York.

While carrying on this tremendous literary output, she found time to engage in polemical discussions with a number of writers and scholars in the pages of other periodicals, especially the ''Bulletin Mensuel'' of the Société d’Études Psychologiques of Paris, and ''Le Lotus'' (Paris). In addition to all this, she wrote a number of small pamphlets and Open Letters, which were published separately, on various occasions.

In this general survey no more than mere mention can be made of her voluminous correspondence, many portions of which contain valuable teachings, and of her {{Page aside|vii}}private ''Instructions'' which she issued after 1888 to the members of the Esoteric Section.

After 25 years of unremitting research, the individual articles written by H. P. B. in English, French, Russian and Italian, may be estimated at close to ''one thousand''. Of special interest to readers is the fact that a considerable number of her French and Russian essays, containing in some cases teachings not stated anywhere else, and never before fully translated into any other language, are now for the first time made available in English.

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For many years students of the Esoteric Philosophy have been looking forward to the ultimate publication of the writings of H. P. Blavatsky in a collected and convenient form. It is now hoped that this desire may be realized in the publication of the present series of volumes. They constitute a uniform edition of the entire literary output of the Great Theosophist, as far as can be ascertained after years of painstaking research all over the world. These writings are arranged in strictly chronological order according to the date of their original publication in the various magazines, journals, newspapers and other periodicals, or their appearance in book or pamphlet form. Students are thus in a position to trace the progressive unfoldment of H. P. B.’s mission, and to see the method which she used in the gradual presentation of the teachings of the Ancient Wisdom, beginning with her first article in 1874. In a very few instances an article or two appears out of chronological sequence, because there exists convincing evidence that it was written at a much earlier date, and must have been held unprinted for a rather long time. Such articles belong to an earlier date than the date of their actual publication, and have been placed accordingly.

Unless otherwise stated, all writings have been copied ''verbatim et literatim'' direct from the original sources. In a very few cases, when such source was either unknown, {{Page aside|viii}}or, if known, was entirely unprocurable, articles have been copied from other publications where they had been reprinted, apparently from original sources, many years ago.

There has been no editing whatsoever of H. P. B.’s literary style, grammar or spelling. Obvious typographical errors, however, have been corrected throughout. Her own spelling of Sanskrit technical terms and proper names has been preserved. No attempt has been made to introduce any uniformity or consistency in these particulars. However, the correct systemic spelling of all Oriental technical terms and proper names, according to present-day scholastic standards, is used in the English translations of original French and Russian material, as well as in the Index wherein it appears within square brackets immediately following such terms or names.<ref>See explanatory Note on page 716</ref>

A systematic effort has been made to verify the many quotations introduced by H. P. B. from various works, and all references have been carefully checked. In every case original sources have been consulted for this verification, and if any departures from the original text were found, these were corrected. Many of the writings quoted could be consulted only in such large Institutions as the British Museum of London, the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris, the Library of Congress, Washington, D. C., and the Lenin State Library of Moscow. In some cases works quoted remained untraceable. No attempt was made to check quotations from current newspapers, as the transitory nature of the material used did not seem to justify the effort.

Throughout the text, there are to be found many footnotes signed “Ed.,” “Editor,” "Ed., ''Theos''.,” or “Editor, ''The Theosophist''”; also footnotes which are unsigned. It should be distinctly remembered that all these footnotes are H. P. B.’s own, and are ''not'' by the Compiler of the present volumes.

All material added by the Compiler—either as footnotes or as explanatory comments appended to certain articles—{{Page aside|ix}}is enclosed within square brackets and signed “Compiler.” Obvious editorial explanations or summaries preceding articles or introducing H. P. B.’s comments are merely placed within square brackets.

Occasionally brief sentences appear which are within square brackets, even in the main body of the text or in H. P. B.’s own footnotes. These bracketed remarks are evidently by H. P. B. herself, although the reason for such usage is not readily apparent.

In a very few instances, which are self-evident, the Compiler has added within square brackets an obviously missing word or digit, to complete the meaning of the sentence.

H.P. B.’s text is followed by an Appendix which consists of three sections:

(a) Bibliography of Oriental Works which provides concise information regarding the best known editions of the Sacred Scriptures and other Oriental writings quoted from or referred to by H. P. B.

(b) General Bibliography wherein can be found, apart from the customary particulars regarding all works quoted or referred to, succinct biographical data concerning the less known writers, scholars, and public figures mentioned by H. P. B. in the text, or from whose writings she quotes. It has been thought of value to the student to have this collected information which is not otherwise easily obtainable.

(c) Index of subject matter.

Following the Preface, a brief historical survey will be found in the form of a Chronological Table embodying fully documented data regarding the whereabouts of H. P. B. and Col. Henry S. Olcott, as well as the chief events in the history of the Theosophical Movement, within the period covered by the material contained in any one volume of the Series.

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The majority of articles written by H. P. Blavatsky, for both magazines and newspapers, are signed by her, either with her own name or with one of her rather infrequent pseudonyms, such as Hadji Mora, Râddha-Bai, Sañjñâ, “Adversary,” and others.

There are however, a great many unsigned articles, both in Theosophical journals and elsewhere. Some of these have been included because a most careful study by a number of students thoroughly familiar with H. P. B.’s characteristic literary style, her well-known idiosyncrasies of expression, and her frequent usage of foreign idiom, has shown them to be from H. P. B.’s pen, even though no ''irrefutable'' proof of this can be advanced. Other unsigned articles are mentioned in early Theosophical books, memoirs and pamphlets, as having been written by H. P. B. In still other cases, clippings of such articles were pasted by H. P. B. in her many ''Scrapbooks'' (now in the Adyar Archives), with pen-and-ink notations establishing her authorship. Several articles are known to have been produced by other writers, yet were almost certainly corrected by H. P. B. or added to by her, or possibly written by them under her own more or less direct inspiration. These have been included with appropriate comments.

A perplexing problem presents itself in connection with H. P. B.’s writings of which the casual reader is probably unaware. It is the fact that H. P. B. often acted as an amanuensis for her own Superiors in the Occult Hierarchy. At times whole passages were dictated to her by her own Teacher or other Adepts and advanced Chelas. These passages are nevertheless tinged throughout with the very obvious peculiarities of her own inimitable style, and are sometimes interspersed with remarks definitely emanating from her own mind. This entire subject involves rather recondite mysteries connected with the transmission of occult communications from Teacher to disciple.

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At the time of his first contact with the Masters, through the intermediation of H. P. B., A. P. Sinnett sought for an explanation of the process mentioned above and elicited the following reply from Master K. H.:

{{Style P-Quote|“. . . Besides, bear in mind that these my letters are not written, but ''impressed'', or precipitated, and then all mistakes corrected....

“. . . I have to think it over, to photograph every word and sentence carefully in my brain, before it can be repeated by precipitation. As the fixing on chemically prepared surfaces of the images formed by the camera requires a previous arrangement within the focus of the object to be represented, for otherwise—as often found in bad photographs—the legs of the sitter might appear out of all proportion with the head, and so on—so we have to first arrange our sentences and impress every letter to appear on paper in our minds before it becomes fit to be read. For the present it is ''all'' I can tell you. When science will have learned more about the mystery of the lithophyl (or litho-biblion), and how the impress of leaves comes originally to take place on stones, then 1 will be able to make you better understand the process. But you must know and remember one thing—we but follow and servilely copy Nature in her works.”<ref>A. P. Sinnett. ''The Occult World'' (orig. ed. London: Trübner and Co., 1881), pp. 143-44. Also ''Mah. Ltrs''., No VI, with small variations.</ref>}}

In an article entitled “Precipitation”, H. P. B., referring directly to the passage quoted above, writes as follows:

{{Style P-Quote|“Since the above was written, the Masters have been pleased to permit the veil to be drawn aside a little more, and the ''modus operandi'' can thus be explained now more fully to the outsider . . . .}}

{{Style P-Quote|“. . . The work of writing the letters in question is carried on by a sort of psychological telegraphy; the Mahatmas very rarely write their letters in the ordinary way. An electro-magnetic connection, so to say, exists on the psychological plane between a Mahatma and his chelas, one of whom acts as his amanuensis. When the Master wants a letter to be written in this way, he draws the attention of the chela, whom he selects for the task, by causing an astral bell (heard by so many of our Fellows and others) to be rung near him just as the despatching telegraph office signals to the receiving office before wiring the message. The thoughts arising in the mind of the Mahatma are then clothed in words, pronounced mentally, and forced along the astral currents he sends towards the pupil to impinge on the brain of the latter. {{Page aside|xii}}Thence they are borne by the nerve-currents to the palms of his hand and the tips of his fingers which rest on a piece of magnetically prepared paper. As the thought-waves are thus impressed on the tissue, materials are drawn to it from the ocean of ''âkas'' (permeating every atom of the sensuous universe), by an occult process, out of place here to describe, and permanent marks are left.}}

{{Style P-Quote|“From this it is abundantly clear that the success of such writings as above described depends chiefly upon these things: — (1) The force and the clearness with which the thoughts are propelled, and (2) the freedom of the receiving brain from disturbance of every description. The case with the ordinary electric telegraph is exactly the same. If, for some reason or other the battery supplying the electric power falls below the requisite strength on any telegraph line or there is some derangement in the receiving apparatus, the message transmitted becomes either mutilated or otherwise imperfectly legible. . . . Such inaccuracies, in fact, do very often arise as may be gathered from what the Mahatma says in the above extract. Bear in mind,’ says He, 'that these my letters are not written, but ''impressed'', or precipitated, and ''then all mistakes corrected''.’ To turn to the sources of error in the precipitation. Remembering the circumstances under which blunders arise in telegrams, we see that if a Mahatma somehow becomes exhausted or allows his thoughts to wander off during the process or fails to command the requisite intensity in the astral currents along which his thoughts are projected, or the distracted attention of the pupil produces disturbances in his brain and nerve-centres, the success of the process is very much interfered with.”<ref>''The Theosophist'', Vol. V, Nos. 3-4 (51-52), Dec.-Jan., 1883-84, p. 64.</ref>}}

To this excerpt may be added H. P. B.’s words which occur in her unique article entitled “My Books,” published in ''Lucifer'' the very month of her passing.

{{Style P-Quote|“. . . Space and distance do not exist for thought; and if two persons are in perfect mutual psycho-magnetic ''rapport'', and of these two, one is a great Adept in Occult Sciences, then thought-transference and dictation of whole pages become as easy and as comprehensible at the distance of ten thousand miles as the transference of two words across a room.”<ref>''Lucifer'', London, Vol. VIII, No. 45, May 15, 1891, p. 243.</ref>}}

It is of course self-evident that if such dictated passages, long or short, were to be excluded from her ''Collected Writings'', it would be necessary to exclude also very large {{Page aside|xiii}}portions of both ''The Secret Doctrine'' and ''Isis Unveiled'', as being either the result of direct dictation to H. P. B. by one or more Adepts, or even actual material precipitated by occult means for her to use, if she chose to do so. Such an attitude towards H. P. B.’s writings would hardly be consistent with either common sense or her own view of things, as she most certainly did not hesitate to append her name to most of the material which had been dictated to her by various high Occultists.

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A historical survey of the various steps in the compiling of H. P. B.’s voluminous writings should now be given.

Soon after H. P. B.’s death, an early attempt was made to gather and to publish at least some of her scattered writings. In 1891, resolutions were passed by all the Sections of The Theosophical Society that an “H.P.B. Memorial Fund” be instituted for the purpose of publishing such writings from her pen as would promote “that intimate union between the life and thought of the Orient and the Occident to the bringing about of which her life was devoted.”

In 1895, there appeared in print Volume I of “The H.P.B. Memorial Fund Series,” under the title of ''A Modern Panarion: A Collection of Fugitive Fragments from the pen of H. P. Blavatsky'' (London, New York and Madras, 1895, 504 pp.), containing a selection from H. P. B.’s articles in the Spiritualistic journals and a number of her early contributions to ''The Theosophist''. It was printed on the H. P. B. Press, 42 Henry Street, Regent’s Park, London, N.W., Printers to The Theosophical Society. No further volumes are known to have been published, although it would appear that other volumes in this series were contemplated.

The compiling of material for a uniform edition of H. P. Blavatsky’s writings was begun by the undersigned in {{Page aside|xiv}}1924, while residing at the Headquarters of the Point Loma Theosophical Society, during the administration of Katherine Tingley. For about six years it remained a private project of the Compiler. Some 1,500 pages of typewritten material were collected, copied, and tentatively classified. Many foreign sources of information were consulted for correct data, and a great deal of preliminary work was done.

It was soon discovered in the formative stage of the plan that an analytical study of the early years of the modern Theosophical Movement was essential, not only as a means of discovering what publications had actually published articles from the pen of H. P. B., but also as providing data for running down every available clue as to dates of publication which often had been wrongly quoted.

It was at this particular time that a far-flung international correspondence was started with individuals and Institutions in the hope of eliciting the necessary information. By the end of the summer of 1929, most of this work had been completed in so far as it concerned the initial period of 1874-79.

In August, 1929, Dr. Gottfried de Purucker, then Head of the Point Loma Theosophical Society, was approached regarding the plan of publishing a uniform edition of H. P. B.’s writings. This idea was immediately accepted, and a small Committee was formed to help with the preparation of the material. It was intended from the outset to start publication in 1931, as a tribute to H. P. B. on the Centennial Anniversary of her birth, provided a suitable publisher could be found.

After several possible publishers had been considered, it was suggested by the late Dr. Henry T. Edge—a personal pupil of H. P. Blavatsky from the London days—to approach Rider and Co., in London.

On February 27, 1930, A. Trevor Barker, of London, Transcriber and Compiler of ''The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett'', wrote to Dr. G. de Purucker and among {{Page aside|xv}}other things advised that he and his friend, Ronald A. V. Morris, had been for some time past working upon a plan of collecting H. P. B.’s magazine articles for a possible series of volumes to be published in the near future. Close contact was immediately established between these gentlemen and the Committee at Point Loma. They first sent a complete list of their material, and in July, 1930, the collected material itself, which consisted mainly of articles from ''The Theosophist'' and ''Lucifer''. While duplicating to a very great extent what had already been collected from these journals, their material contained also a number of valuable items from other sources. In May, 1930, A. Trevor Barker also suggested Rider and Co., of London, as a possible publisher.

In the meantime, namely, on April 1, 1930, the suggestion had been made by the Compiler that this entire work become an Inter-Organizational Theosophical project in which all Theosophical Societies would collaborate. Since this idea dovetailed with the Fraternization Movement inaugurated by Dr. G. de Purucker at the time, it was accepted at once and steps were taken to secure the cooperation of other Theosophical Societies.

On April 24, 1930, a letter was written to Dr. Annie Besant, President, The Theosophical Society (Adyar), asking for collaboration in the compilation of the forthcoming Series. Her endorsement was secured, through the intermediation of Lars Eek, at the Theosophical Convention held in Geneva, Switzerland, June 28—July 1, 1930, at which she presided.

After a period of preliminary correspondence, constructive and fruitful literary teamwork was established with the officials at the Adyar Headquarters. The gracious permission of Dr. Annie Besant to utilize material in the Archives of The Theosophical Society at Adyar, and the wholehearted collaboration of C. Jinarâjadâsa, A. J. Hamerster, Mary K. Neff, N. Sri Ram, and others, extending over a number of years, have been factors of primary importance in the success of this entire venture.

{{Page aside|xvi}}
The help of a number of other individuals in different parts of the world was accepted and the work of the compilation took on the more permanent form of an Inter-Organizational Theosophical project, in which many people of various nationalities and Theosophical affiliations cooperated.

While work proceeded on various portions of the mass of material already available, the main effort was directed towards completing Volume I of the Series, which was to cover the period of 1874-1879. This volume proved, in some respects, to be the most difficult to produce, owing to the fact that material for it was scattered over several continents and often in almost unprocurable periodicals and newspapers of that era.

Volume I was ready for the printer in the summer of 1931, and was then sent to Rider and Co., of London, with whom a contract had been signed. Owing to various delays over which the Compiler had no control, it did not go to press until August, 1932, and was finally published in the early part of 1933, under the title of ''The Complete Works of H. P. Blavatsky''.

A stipulation was made by the publisher that the name of A. Trevor Barker should appear on the title page of the Volume, as the responsible Editor, owing to his reputation as the Editor of ''The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett'' and ''The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett''. This stipulation was agreed to as a technical point intended for business purposes only.

Volume II of the Series was also published in 1933; Volume III appeared in 1935, and Volume IV in 1936. The same year Rider and Co. published a facsimile edition of ''Isis Unveiled'', with both volumes under one cover, and uniform with the preceding first four volumes of the ''Complete Works''.

Further unexpected delays occurred in 1937, and then came the world crisis resulting in World War II which stopped the continuation of the Series. During the London “blitz,” the Offices of Rider and Co. and other {{Page aside|xvii}}Publishing Houses in Paternoster Row, were destroyed. The plates of the four volumes already published were ruined (as were also the plates of ''The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett'' and other works), and, as the edition was only a small one, these volumes were no longer available and have remained so for the last fourteen years.

During the World War period, research work and preparation of material for future publication went on uninterruptedly however, and much new material was discovered. Very rare articles written by H. P. B. in French were unexpectedly found and promptly translated. A complete survey was made of all known writings in her native Russian, and new items were brought to light. This Russian literary output was secured in its entirety, direct from the original sources, the most rare articles being furnished free of charge by the Lenin State Library of Moscow.

The hardships of the economic situation in England, both during and after World War II, made it impossible for Rider and Co. to resume work on the original Series. In the meantime the demand for the writings of H. P. Blavatsky has been steadily growing, and an ever increasing number of people have been looking forward to the publication of an American Edition of her Collected Works. To satisfy this growing demand, the present edition is being launched. Its publication in the seventy-fifth year of the modern Theosophical Movement fills a long-felt need on the American Continent, where the cornerstone of the original Theosophical Society was laid in 1875.

The writings of H. P. Blavatsky are unique. They speak louder than any human commentary, and the ultimate proof of the teachings they contain rests with the disciple himself—when his heart is attuned to the cosmic harmony they unveil before his mind’s eye. Like all mystic writings throughout the ages, they conceal vastly more than they reveal, and the intuitive student discovers in them just what he is able to grasp—neither more nor less.

Unchanged by time, unmoved by the phantasmagoria of the world’s pageant, unhurt by scathing criticism, {{Page aside|xviii}}unsoiled by the vituperations of trivial and dogmatic minds, these writings stand today, as they did on the day of their first appearance, like a majestic rock amidst the foaming crests of an unruly sea. Their clarion call resounds as of yore, and thousands of heart-hungry, confused and disillusioned men and women, seekers after truth and knowledge, find the entrance to a greater life in the enduring principles of thought contained in H. P. B.’s literary heritage.

She flung down the gauntlet to the religious sectarianism of her day, with its gaudy ritualism and the dead letter of orthodox worship. She challenged entrenched scientific dogmas evolved from minds which saw in Nature but a fortuitous aggregate of lifeless atoms driven by mere chance. The regenerative power of her Message broke the constricting shell of a moribund theology, swept away the empty wranglings of phrase weavers, and checkmated the progress of scientific fallacies.

Today this Message, like the Spring flood of some mighty river, is spreading far and wide over the earth. The greatest thinkers of the day are voicing at times genuine theosophical ideas, often couched in the very language used by H. P. B. herself, and we witness daily the turning of men’s minds towards those treasure chambers of the Trans-Himâlayan Esoteric Knowledge which she unlocked for us.

We commend her writings to the weary pilgrim, and to the seeker of enduring spiritual realities. They contain the answer to many a perplexing problem. They open wide portals undreamt of before, revealing vistas of cosmic splendor and lasting inspiration. They bring new hope and courage to the fainthearted but sincere student. They are a comfort and a staff, as well as a Guide and Teacher, to those who are already travelling along the age-old Path. As for those few who are in the vanguard of mankind, valiantly scaling the solitary passes leading to the Gates of Gold, these writings give the clue to the secret knowledge enabling one to lift the heavy bar that must be raised before the Gates admit the pilgrim into the land of Eternal Dawn.

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In the course of this literary undertaking, a great deal of volunteer help has been received from many individuals and several distinguished Institutions. Contacts established with them have been the cause of many pleasant associations and friendships of a lasting nature. The Compiler wishes to express his indebtedness to each and every one of them. In particular, a debt of gratitude is due to the following friends and associates:

Gottfried de Purucker, late Leader of the Point Loma Theosophical Society, for his constant encouragement, his invaluable hints concerning H. P. B.’s writings, and the opportunity to share his profound learning on subjects pertaining to Occultism; Henry T. Edge and Charles J. Ryan, for assistance in determining the authorship of many unsigned articles; Bertram Keightley, who, in the closing years of his life, provided valuable information regarding certain articles in the volumes of ''Lucifer'', on whose editorial staff he served in H. P. B.’s time; E. T. Sturdy, member of H. P. B.’s Inner Group, for suggestive data and information; C. Jinarajadasa, President of The Theosophical Society (Adyar), for his many years of collaboration and his moral and material support; A. J. Hamerster and Mary K. Neff, for their meticulous care in the transcription of material from the Adyar Archives; Marjorie M. Tyberg, whose trained editorial abilities were an important factor in the production of the earlier volumes; Joseph H. Fussell, Sec’y-Gen. of the Point Loma Theosophical Society, for his co-operation in connection with the Society's Archives; A. Trevor Barker and Virginia Barker, London, and Ronald A. V. Morris, Hove, Sussex, for editorial work on portions of the MSS and their role in the business transactions with Rider and Co.; Sven Eek, onetime Manager of the Publications Department, Point Loma, Calif., for valuable assistance in the sale of earlier volumes; Judith Tyberg, for helpful suggestions in connection with Sanskrit technical terms; Helen Morris Koerting, New York; Ernest Cunningham, Philadelphia; Philip Malpas, London; Margaret Guild Conger, Washington, D. C.; Charles E. Ball, London; J. Hugo Tatsch, President, McCoy Publishing Company, New York; J. Emory Clapp, Boston; Ture Dahlin, Paris; T. W. Willans, Australia; W. Emmett Small, Geoffrey Barborka, Mrs. Grace Knoche, Miss Grace Frances Knoche, Solomon Hecht, Eunice M. Ingraham, and others, for research work, checking of references, copying of the MSS and assistance with various technical points connected with the earlier volumes; Mary L. Stanley, London, for painstaking and most able research work at the British Museum; Alexander Petrovich Leino, Helsingfors, Finland, for invaluable assistance in securing original Russian material at the Helsingfors University Library; {{Page aside|xx}}William L. Biersach, Jr., and Walter A. Carrithers, Jr., whose thorough knowledge of the historical documents connected with the Theosophical Movement has been of very great assistance; and Mrs. Mary V. Langford, whose most careful and intelligent translation of Russian material provided a major contribution to the entire Series.

The Compiler is also indebted to the following Institutions, and their officials who have contributed information essential to the production of this Series: Stanford University, and the Hoover Institute, Palo Alto, Calif.; British Museum, London; The American-Russian Institute, New York; Avrahm Yarmolinsky, Chief of the Slavonic Division and Paul North Rice, Chief of the Reference Department, New York Public Library; University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif.; Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.; Mary E. Holmes, Librarian, Franklin Library, Franklin, Mass.; Foster M. Palmer, Reference Librarian, Harvard College Library, Cambridge, Mass.; University of Pennsylvania Library, Philadelphia, Pa.; Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris; Lenin State Library, Moscow, U.S.S.R.; Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm; Universitetsbiblioteket, Upsala; Boston Public Library; Columbia University Library, New York; Yale University Library, New Haven, Conn.; Grand Lodge Library and Museum, London; American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Mass.: Public Library, Colombo, Ceylon; The Commonwealth of Massachusetts State Library, Boston, Mass.; The Boston Athenaeum; Imperial Library, Calcutta, India; London Spiritualist Alliance; Massachusetts State Association of Spiritualists, Boston, Mass.; California State Library, Sacramento, Calif.; Library of the Philosophical Research Society, Inc., Los Angeles, Calif.

Other individuals from time to time have contributed in various ways to the success of this literary work. To all of these a debt of appreciation is due, even if their names are not individually mentioned.

{{Style P-Signature in capitals|Boris de Zirkoff.}}
{{Style P-Align right|''Compiler''.}}

{{Style P-No indent|{{Style S-Small capitals|Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.}}}}
{{Style P-No indent|September 8th, 1950.}}
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{{Footnotes}}

HPB-SB-10-571

2026-04-11T09:16:39Z

Sergey:

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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-570}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Restored}}
the voices spoke in four languages of which the medium knew not a word. Of the Eddy phenomena, I will speak anon.

One of the prettiest—I would say the most charming of all—but for the recollection of the fairy-like music—of mediumistic phenomena is the bringing of fresh, dew-begemmed flowers, plants and vines, and of living creatures such as birds, gold-fish and butterflies, into closed rooms while the medium was in no state to bring them herself. I have myself, in friends’ houses, held the hands of a medium, whom I had first put into a bag that was fastened about her neck with a sealed drawing-string, and with no confederate in the house, have had the whole table covered with flowers and plants, and birds come fluttering into my lap from, goodness knows where. And this with every door and window fastened, and sealed with strips of paper so that no one could enter from the outside. These phenomena happened mostly in the dark, but once I saw a tree-branch brought in the day-light. I was present once at a séance in America when a gentleman asked that the ‘spirits’ might bring him a heather plant from the Scottish moors, and suddenly one, pulled up by the roots and with the fresh soil clinging to them, was dropped on the table directly in front of him.

A highly interesting example of the non-intelligent class of phenomena came under my notice in the course of our search after a medium to send to Russia. A lady medium, named Mrs. Youngs, had a reputation for causing a pianoforte to rise from the floor and sway in time to her playing upon the instrument. Madame Blavatsky and I went one evening to see her, and what happened was reported in the New York papers of the following day. As she sat at the piano playing, it certainly did tilt on the two outer legs—those farthest from her—and, with the other two, raised six or eight inches from the ground, move in time to the music. Mrs. Youngs then went to one end of the piano and, laying a single finger against the under side of the case, lifted the tremendous weight with the greatest ease. If any of you care to compute the volume of psychic force exerted, try to lift one end of a 7⅛ octave piano six inches from the floor. To test the reality of this phenomenon I had brought with me a raw egg which I held in the palm of my hand and pressed it lightly against the under side of the piano-case at one end. I then caused the medium to lay the palm of one of her hands against the back of mine that held the egg, and told her to command the piano to rise. A moment’s pause only ensued when, to my surprise, one end of the piano did rise without so much pressure upon the egg as to break the shell. I think that this, as a test of the actuality of a psychic force, was almost as conclusive an experiment as the water-basin and spring-balance of Mr. Crookes. At least it was to myself, for I can affirm that the medium did not press as much as an ounce weight against the back of my hand, and it is quite certain that but very few ounces of pressure would have broken the thin shell of the egg.

One of the most undeniable manifestations of independent force is the raising and moving of heavy weight without human contact. This I, in common with many other investigators, have witnessed. Sitting at a table in the centre of my own lighted drawing-room, I have seen the piano raised and moved a foot away from the wall, and a heavy leather armchair run from a distant corner towards, and touch, us, when no one was within a dozen feet of either of them. On another occasion my late friend and chemical teacher, Professor Mapes, who was a very corpulent person, and two other men, equally stout, were requested to seat themselves on a mahogany dining-table and all were raised from the ground, the medium merely laying one hand on the top of the table. At Mrs. Youngs’ house, on the evening before noticed, as many persons as could sit on the top of the piano were raised with the instrument while she was playing a waltz. The records are full of instances where rooms or even whole houses were caused by the occult force to shake and tremble as though a hurricane were blowing, though the air was quite still. And you have the testimony of Lords Lindsay, Adare, Dunraven, and other unimpeachable witnesses to the fact of a medium’s body having floated around the room and sailed out of a window, seventy feet from the ground and into another window. This was in an obscure light, but I have seen in the twilight a person raised out of her chair until her head was as high as the globes of the chandelier, and then gently lowered down again.
{{Close div}}

{{Style S-HPB SB. Restored|You see I am telling you stories so wonderful that it is quite impossible for any one to fully credit them without the corroboration of their own personal experience. Believe me, I would not tell them at all—for no man desires to have his word doubted—unless I knew perfectly well that such phenomena have been}} seen hundreds of times in nearly every land under the sun, and can be seen by any one who will give time to the investigation. Despite my disclaimer, you may think that I am taking it for granted that you are quite as well satisfied as myself of the reality of the mediumistic phenomena, but I assure you I do not. I am always keeping in mind that, no matter what respect an auditor may have for my integrity and cleverness, no matter how plainly he may see that I can have no ulterior motive to deceive him—yet he ''cannot'' believe without himself having had the same demonstrative evidence as I have had. He will—because he must—reflect that such things as these are outside the usual experience of men, and that, as Hume puts it, it is more reasonable to believe any man a liar than that the even course of natural law should be disturbed. True, that assumes the absurd premises that the average man knows what are the limitations of natural law, but we never consider our own opinions absurd, no matter how others may regard them. So, knowing, as I have just remarked, that what I describe has been seen by thousands, and may be seen by thousands more at any time, I proceed with my narrative as one who tells the truth and fears no impeachment. It is a great wonder that we are having shown us in our days, and apart from the solemn interest which attaches to the problem whether or not the dead are communing with us, the scientific importance of these facts cannot be undervalued. From the first—that is to say, throughout my twenty-eight years of observations—I have pursued my inquiry in this spirit, believing that it was of prime importance to mankind to ascertain all that could be learnt about man’s powers and the forces of nature about him.

What I shall now relate about my adventures at the Eddy Homestead, in Vermont, America, will tax your indulgence more than all that has preceded. For some years previous to 1874 I had taken no active interest in the mediumistic phenomena. Nothing surpassingly novel had been reported as occurring, and the intelligence communicated through mediums was not usually instructive enough to induce one to leave his books and the company of their great authors. But in that year it was rumoured that at a remote village in the valley of the Green Mountains an illiterate farmer and his equally ignorant brother were being visited daily by the “materialised” souls of the departed, who could be seen, heard and, in cases, touched by any visitor. This tempting novelty I determined to witness, for it certainly transcended in interest and importance everything that had ever been heard of in any age. Accordingly, in August of that year, I went to Chittender, the village in question, and, with a single brief intermission of ten days, remained there till the latter part of October. I hope you will believe that I adopted every possible precaution against being befooled by village trickery.

<center>(''To be Continued'')</center>

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HPB-SB-10-571

2026-04-11T09:04:17Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 571
| image = SB-10-571.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-570}}
{{Style P-HPB SB. Restored}}
the voices spoke in four languages of which the medium knew not a word. Of the Eddy phenomena, I will speak anon.

One of the prettiest—I would say the most charming of all—but for the recollection of the fairy-like music—of mediumistic phenomena is the bringing of fresh, dew-begemmed flowers, plants and vines, and of living creatures such as birds, gold-fish and butterflies, into closed rooms while the medium was in no state to bring them herself. I have myself, in friends’ houses, held the hands of a medium, whom I had first put into a bag that was fastened about her neck with a sealed drawing-string, and with no confederate in the house, have had the whole table covered with flowers and plants, and birds come fluttering into my lap from, goodness knows where. And this with every door and window fastened, and sealed with strips of paper so that no one could enter from the outside. These phenomena happened mostly in the dark, but once I saw a tree-branch brought in the day-light. I was present once at a séance in America when a gentleman asked that the ‘spirits’ might bring him a heather plant from the Scottish moors, and suddenly one, pulled up by the roots and with the fresh soil clinging to them, was dropped on the table directly in front of him.

A highly interesting example of the non-intelligent class of phenomena came under my notice in the course of our search after a medium to send to Russia. A lady medium, named Mrs. Youngs, had a reputation for causing a pianoforte to rise from the floor and sway in time to her playing upon the instrument. Madame Blavatsky and I went one evening to see her, and what happened was reported in the New York papers of the following day. As she sat at the piano playing, it certainly did tilt on the two outer legs—those farthest from her—and, with the other two, raised six or eight inches from the ground, move in time to the music. Mrs. Youngs then went to one end of the piano and, laying a single finger against the under side of the case, lifted the tremendous weight with the greatest ease. If any of you care to compute the volume of psychic force exerted, try to lift one end of a 7⅛ octave piano six inches from the floor. To test the reality of this phenomenon I had brought with me a raw egg which I held in the palm of my hand and pressed it lightly against the under side of the piano-case at one end. I then caused the medium to lay the palm of one of her hands against the back of mine that held the egg, and told her to command the piano to rise. A moment’s pause only ensued when, to my surprise, one end of the piano did rise without so much pressure upon the egg as to break the shell. I think that this, as a test of the actuality of a psychic force, was almost as conclusive an experiment as the water-basin and spring-balance of Mr. Crookes. At least it was to myself, for I can affirm that the medium did not press as much as an ounce weight against the back of my hand, and it is quite certain that but very few ounces of pressure would have broken the thin shell of the egg.

One of the most undeniable manifestations of independent force is the raising and moving of heavy weight without human contact. This I, in common with many other investigators, have witnessed. Sitting at a table in the centre of my own lighted drawing-room, I have seen the piano raised and moved a foot away from the wall, and a heavy leather armchair run from a distant corner towards, and touch, us, when no one was within a dozen feet of either of them. On another occasion my late friend and chemical teacher, Professor Mapes, who was a very corpulent person, and two other men, equally stout, were requested to seat themselves on a mahogany dining-table and all were raised from the ground, the medium merely laying one hand on the top of the table. At Mrs. Youngs’ house, on the evening before noticed, as many persons as could sit on the top of the piano were raised with the instrument while she was playing a waltz. The records are full of instances where rooms or even whole houses were caused by the occult force to shake and tremble as though a hurricane were blowing, though the air was quite still. And you have the testimony of Lords Lindsay, Adare, Dunraven, and other unimpeachable witnesses to the fact of a medium’s body having floated around the room and sailed out of a window, seventy feet from the ground and into another window. This was in an obscure light, but I have seen in the twilight a person raised out of her chair until her head was as high as the globes of the chandelier, and then gently lowered down again.
{{Close div}}

{{Style S-HPB SB. Restored|You see I am telling you stories so wonderful that it is quite impossible for any one to fully credit them without the corroboration of their own personal experience. Believe me, I would not tell them at all—for no man desires to have his word doubted—unless I knew perfectly well that such phenomena have been}} seen hundreds of times in nearly every land under the sun, and can be seen by any one who will give time to the investigation. Despite my disclaimer, you may think that I am taking it for granted that you are quite as well satisfied as myself of the reality of the mediumistic phenomena, but I assure you I do not. I am always keeping in mind that, no matter what respect an auditor may have for my integrity and cleverness, no matter how plainly he may see that I can have no ulterior motive to deceive him—yet he ''cannot'' believe without himself having had the same demonstrative evidence as I have had. He will—because he must—reflect that such things as these are outside the usual experience of men, and that, as Hume puts it, it is more reasonable to believe any man a liar than that the even course of natural law should be disturbed. True, that assumes the absurd premises that the average man knows what are the limitations of natural law, but we never consider our own opinions absurd, no matter how others may regard them. So, knowing, as I have just remarked, that what I describe has been seen by thousands, and may be seen by thousands more at any time, I proceed with my narrative as one who tells the truth and fears no impeachment. It is a great wonder that we are having shown us in our days, and apart from the solemn interest which attaches to the problem whether or not the dead are communing with us, the scientific importance of these facts cannot be undervalued. From the first—that is to say, throughout my twenty-eight years of observations—I have pursued my inquiry in this spirit, believing that it was of prime importance to mankind to ascertain all that could be learnt about man’s powers and the forces of nature about him.

What I shall now relate about my adventures at the Eddy Homestead, in Vermont, America, will tax your indulgence more than all that has preceded. For some years previous to 1874 I had taken no active interest in the mediumistic phenomena. Nothing surpassingly novel had been reported as occurring, and the intelligence communicated through mediums was not usually instructive enough to induce one to leave his books and the company of their great authors. But in that year it was rumoured that at a remote village in the valley of the Green Mountains an illiterate farmer and his equally ignorant brother were being visited daily by the “materialised” souls of the departed, who could be seen, heard and, in cases, touched by any visitor. This tempting novelty I determined to witness, for it certainly transcended in interest and importance everything that had ever been heard of in any age. Accordingly, in August of that year, I went to Chittender, the village in question, and, with a single brief intermission of ten days, remained there till the latter part of October. I hope you will believe that I adopted every possible precaution against being befooled by village trickery.

<center>(''To be Continued'')</center>

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HPB-SB-10-571

2026-04-11T09:03:26Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 571
| image = SB-10-571.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-570}}
{{Style P-HPB SB. Restored}}
the voices spoke in four languages of which the medium knew not a word. Of the Eddy phenomena, I will speak anon.

One of the prettiest—I would say the most charming of all—but for the recollection of the fairy-like music—of mediumistic phenomena is the bringing of fresh, dew-begemmed flowers, plants and vines, and of living creatures such as birds, gold-fish and butterflies, into closed rooms while the medium was in no state to bring them herself. I have myself, in friends’ houses, held the hands of a medium, whom I had first put into a bag that was fastened about her neck with a sealed drawing-string, and with no confederate in the house, have had the whole table covered with flowers and plants, and birds come fluttering into my lap from, goodness knows where. And this with every door and window fastened, and sealed with strips of paper so that no one could enter from the outside. These phenomena happened mostly in the dark, but once I saw a tree-branch brought in the day-light. I was present once at a séance in America when a gentleman asked that the ‘spirits’ might bring him a heather plant from the Scottish moors, and suddenly one, pulled up by the roots and with the fresh soil clinging to them, was dropped on the table directly in front of him.

A highly interesting example of the non-intelligent class of phenomena came under my notice in the course of our search after a medium to send to Russia. A lady medium, named Mrs. Youngs, had a reputation for causing a pianoforte to rise from the floor and sway in time to her playing upon the instrument. Madame Blavatsky and I went one evening to see her, and what happened was reported in the New York papers of the following day. As she sat at the piano playing, it certainly did tilt on the two outer legs—those farthest from her—and, with the other two, raised six or eight inches from the ground, move in time to the music. Mrs. Youngs then went to one end of the piano and, laying a single finger against the under side of the case, lifted the tremendous weight with the greatest ease. If any of you care to compute the volume of psychic force exerted, try to lift one end of a 7⅛ octave piano six inches from the floor. To test the reality of this phenomenon I had brought with me a raw egg which I held in the palm of my hand and pressed it lightly against the under side of the piano-case at one end. I then caused the medium to lay the palm of one of her hands against the back of mine that held the egg, and told her to command the piano to rise. A moment’s pause only ensued when, to my surprise, one end of the piano did rise without so much pressure upon the egg as to break the shell. I think that this, as a test of the actuality of a psychic force, was almost as conclusive an experiment as the water-basin and spring-balance of Mr. Crookes. At least it was to myself, for I can affirm that the medium did not press as much as an ounce weight against the back of my hand, and it is quite certain that but very few ounces of pressure would have broken the thin shell of the egg.

One of the most undeniable manifestations of independent force is the raising and moving of heavy weight without human contact. This I, in common with many other investigators, have witnessed. Sitting at a table in the centre of my own lighted drawing-room, I have seen the piano raised and moved a foot away from the wall, and a heavy leather armchair run from a distant corner towards, and touch, us, when no one was within a dozen feet of either of them. On another occasion my late friend and chemical teacher, Professor Mapes, who was a very corpulent person, and two other men, equally stout, were requested to seat themselves on a mahogany dining-table and all were raised from the ground, the medium merely laying one hand on the top of the table. At Mrs. Youngs’ house, on the evening before noticed, as many persons as could sit on the top of the piano were raised with the instrument while she was playing a waltz. The records are full of instances where rooms or even whole houses were caused by the occult force to shake and tremble as though a hurricane were blowing, though the air was quite still. And you have the testimony of Lords Lindsay, Adare, Dunraven, and other unimpeachable witnesses to the fact of a medium’s body having floated around the room and sailed out of a window, seventy feet from the ground and into another window. This was in an obscure light, but I have seen in the twilight a person raised out of her chair until her head was as high as the globes of the chandelier, and then gently lowered down again.
{{Close div}}

{{Style S-HPB SB. Restored|You see I am telling you stories so wonderful that it is quite impossible for any one to fully credit them without the corroboration of their own personal experience. Believe me, I would not tell them at all—for no man desires to have his word doubted—unless I knew perfectly well that such phenomena have been}} seen hundreds of times in nearly every land under the sun, and can be seen by any one who will give time to the investigation. Despite my disclaimer, you may think that I am taking it for granted that you are quite as well satisfied as myself of the reality of the mediumistic phenomena, but I assure you I do not. I am always keeping in mind that, no matter what respect an auditor may have for my integrity and cleverness, no matter how plainly he may see that I can have no ulterior motive to deceive him—yet he ''cannot'' believe without himself having had the same demonstrative evidence as I have had. He will—because he must—reflect that such things as these are outside the usual experience of men, and that, as Hume puts it, it is more reasonable to believe any man a liar than that the even course of natural law should be disturbed. True, that assumes the absurd premises that the average man knows what are the limitations of natural law, but we never consider our own opinions absurd, no matter how others may regard them. So, knowing, as I have just remarked, that what I describe has been seen by thousands, and may be seen by thousands more at any time, I proceed with my narrative as one who tells the truth and fears no impeachment. It is a great wonder that we are having shown us in our days, and apart from the solemn interest which attaches to the problem whether or not the dead are communing with us, the scientific importance of these facts cannot be undervalued. From the first—that is to say, throughout my twenty-eight years of observations—I have pursued my inquiry in this spirit, believing that it was of prime importance to mankind to ascertain all that could be learnt about man’s powers and the forces of nature about him.

What I shall now relate about my adventures at the Eddy Homestead, in Vermont, America, will tax your indulgence more than all that has preceded. For some years previous to 1871 I had taken no active interest in the mediumistic phenomena. Nothing surpassingly novel had been reported as occurring, and the intelligence communicated through mediums was not usually instructive enough to induce one to leave his books and the company of their great authors. But in that year it was rumoured that at a remote village in the valley of the Green Mountains an illiterate farmer and his equally ignorant brother were being visited daily by the “materialised” souls of the departed, who could be seen, heard and, in cases, touched by any visitor. This tempting novelty I determined to witness, for it certainly transcended in interest and importance everything that had ever been heard of in any age. Accordingly, in August of that year, I went to Chittenden, the village in question, and, with a single brief intermission of ten days, remained there till the latter part of October. I hope you will believe that I adopted every possible precaution against being befooled by village trickery.

<center>(''To be Continued'')</center>

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HPB-SB-10-570

2026-04-11T08:57:15Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
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}}

{{HPB-SB-item
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| title = Spiritualism in Bombay:..
| subtitle =
| untitled =yes
| source title = London Spiritualist, The
| source details = No. 436, December 31, 1880, p. 323
| publication date = 1880-12-31
| original date =
| notes =
| categories =
}}

{{Style S-Small capitals|Spiritualism in Bombay}}:—Under the title of the ''Theosophist'', a spiritualistic journal, edited by H. P. Blavatsky, made its appearance in October, 1879. It is devoted to Oriental Philosophy, Art, Literature, and Occultism:—embracing Mesmerism, Spiritualism, and, as the title expresses it, “Other Secret Sciences.” No. 4, for January, 1880, gives an account of the fourth anniversary of the Theosophical Society of Bombay, on November the 29th. Colonel H. S. Olcott, the President of the Society, delivered an address, in which he said, “They had not only founded a journal to serve as an organ for the dissemination of Hindu Scholarship, but also a workshop with machines of various kinds, in which to manufacture Indian goods for export. The invitation card of the evening, whose equal could not be turned out from any existing lithographic press in Bombay, Calcutta, or Madras, had been mainly executed by a young Parsee, taught by his colleague, Mr. Edward Wimbridge, within the past six weeks. Adopting, as he (Col. Olcott) had, India as his country, and her people as his people, it was his sacred duty to do all that lay in his power to promote the physical welfare of the teeming millions of this peninsula, no less than to humbly second the efforts of that great Aryan of our times, Swami Dyanund Paraswati for the revival of Vedic Monotheism and the study of Yoga.”—''Trübners’ Literary Record''.

{{HPB-SB-item
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| title = The Occult Powers of Savages
| subtitle =
| untitled =
| source title = London Spiritualist, The
| source details = No. 436, December 31, 1880, p. 318
| publication date = 1880-12-31
| original date =
| notes =
| categories =
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A correspondent writes from Simla:—

“There are some points in Spiritualism on which I have been pondering for some time. One is the question whether there is any resemblance between the way in which, at ''séances'', spirits build up the bodies in which they appear, and that in which spirits build ordinary human bodies before birth. I first thought of this from reading that materialised spirits have a distinct pulse. They must therefore have a heart or something corresponding to it to drive the blood and make a pulse; but one would think that nothing more could be necessary than an outward shell resembling our bodies. Possibly the reason why they fade away so quickly is that they build their bodies rapidly and therefore imperfectly, instead of taking time to do the work like ordinary human beings.

“Another question is connected with the fact that among uncivilised or (so-called) uneducated natives, visions, prophetic dreams and the general perceptions of what modern Europeans call supernaturalism are far more common than with ourselves. Are these people liars or mere dreamers, or is it not very probable that they have certain powers of perception which have become atrophied among educated Europeans through the excessive development of their reasoning faculties.

“The curious power possessed by the lower animals and by savages of finding their way in a straight line across an unknown tract of country is a case in point. It is certainly absent in white men of ordinary education, though apparently known sometimes in those who have been brought up by savages without having a chance of acquiring book learning.

“In the account of the ‘Northwest Passage by Land,’ written by Lord Milton and Dr. Cheadle, they say:—‘The unerring fidelity with which our guide followed a straight course in one direction in the dense forest where no landmarks could be seen, on days when the sun was not visible nor a breath of air stirring, seemed to us almost incomprehensible. La Ronde was unable to explain the power which he possessed and considered it as quite a natural faculty. Cheadle, on the other hand, found it quite impossible to preserve a straight course and invariably began to describe a circle by bearing continually towards the left; and this weakness was quite incomprehensible to La Ronde, who looked upon it as the most arrant stupidity.’”

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued|Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-569}}

<center>(''Continued'')</center>

{{Style P-No indent|the under surface of the table top, or held in a Committeeman’s hand without the medium touching it. We also saw detached hands—that is, hands that floated or darted through the air and had no arm or body attached to them. These hands would clutch at our watch-chains, grasp our limbs, touch our hands, take the slates or other objects from us under the table, remove our handkerchiefs from our coat pockets, &c. And all this, mind you, in the light, where every movement of the medium could be as plainly seen as any that either of my present hearers might make now.}}

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|the variety of the manifestations.}}</center>

Another form of signalling is the compulsory writing of messages by a medium whose arm and hand are controlled against his volition by some invisible power. Not only thousands, but lakhs of pages have been written in this way; some of the subject-matter being worth keeping, but the greater part trash. Another method is the impression by the unseen intelligence upon the sensitive brain of a medium of ideas and words outside his own knowledge, such as foreign languages, names of the deceased persons, the circumstances of their deaths, requests as to the disposal of property, directions for the recovery of lost documents or valuables, information about murders, or about distant tragedies of which they were the victims, diagnoses of hidden diseases and suggestions for remedies, &c. You will find many examples of each of these groups of phenomena on record and well attested.

A very interesting anecdote is related in Mr. Dale Owen’s ''Debatable Land'', about the identification of an old spinet that was purchased at a Paris bric-à-brac shop by the grandson of the famous composer, Bach. The details are very curious and you will do well to read them, lack of time preventing my entering more at length into the subject at this time.

But of all the forms of intelligent communication from the other world to ours, of course, none is to be compared for startling realism with that of the direct voice. I have heard these voices of every volume from the faintest whisper close to the ear, sounding like the sigh of a zephyr through the trees, to the stentorian roar that would almost shake the room and might almost have been heard rods away from the house. I have heard them speak to me through paper tubes, through metal trumpets, and through empty space. And in the case of the world-famous medium, William Eddy, {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|10-571}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-sources}}
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.436_1880-12-31.pdf|page=13|London Spiritualist, No. 436, December 31, 1880, p. 323
london_spiritualist_n.436_1880-12-31.pdf|page=8|London Spiritualist, No. 436, December 31, 1880, p. 318
london_spiritualist_n.436_1880-12-31.pdf|page=11|London Spiritualist, No. 436, December 31, 1880, pp. 321-23
</gallery>

HPB-SB-10-569

2026-04-11T08:48:19Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 569
| image = SB-10-569.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-568}}

{{Style P-No indent|Nichol and a Mr. Humphrey to prevent any vibration. Mr. Wallace tells us that, “after a short interval of silence an exquisitely delicate sound as of tapping a glass was heard, which increased to clear silvery notes like the tinkling of a glass bell. These continued in varying degrees for some minutes, &c.” Again, Mr. Wallace says that when a German lady sang some of her national songs “most delicate music like a fairy music box, accompanied her throughout. . . . This was in the dark, but hands were joined all the time.” Several of the persons in this present audience have been permitted by Madame Blavatsky to hear these dulcet fairy-bells tinkle since she came to Simla. But they have heard them in full light, without any joining of hands, and in whatsoever place she chose to order them. The phenomenon is the same as that of Miss Nichol, but the conditions very different; and of that I will have something to say further on.}}

Mr. Crookes found the force-current to be extremely variable in the same medium on different days, and in the medium from minute to minute its flow was highly erratic. In his book he gives a number of cuts to illustrate these variations as well as of the ingenious apparatus he employed to detect them.

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|spirit messages.}}</center>

Among many thousands of communications from the alleged spirits that have been given to the public, and which for the most part contain only trivial messages about family or other personal affairs the details of which were at least known to the enquirers to whom addressed, and which might be attributed to thought-reading, we occasionally come across some that require some other explanation. I refer to those the details mentioned in which are unknown to any one present at the sitting. Mr. Stainton Moses records one such—a case in which a message was given in London, purporting to come from an old man who had been a soldier in America in the war of 1812 and to have died there. No one in London had ever heard of such a person, but upon causing a search to be made in the records of the American War Department, at Washington, the man’s name was found and full corroborative proofs of the London message were obtained. Not having access to books here, I am obliged to quote from memory, but I think you will find my facts essentially correct. In another case, for which Mr. J. M. Peebles vouches, that gentleman received, either in America, or somewhere else far away from England, a message from an alleged spirit who said he lived and died at York, and that if Mr. Peebles would search the records of that ancient city the spirit’s statement would be found strictly true. In process of time he did visit York and search old birth and burial registers, and there, sure enough he found just the data he had been promised.

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|henry slade’s mediumship.}}</center>

Besides communicating by the raps, the alleged spirits have employed many other devices to impart intelligence to the living. Such among others, are the independent writing of messages upon paper laid on the floor under a table or in a closed drawer, between the leaves of a closed book, or on the ceiling or walls, or one’s linen; in neither of these cases there being any human hand near by when the writing has been done. All these phenomena I have seen occurred in full light and under circumstances where trickery or deception was impossible. I have also had satisfactory experience of the rare mediumistic powers of Dr. Henry Slade, who, you recollect, was arrested on a trumped-up charge of dishonesty in London, but afterwards gave Zöllner and his brother ''savants'', of Leipzig, Aksakof, Boutlerof and Wagner, of St. Petersburg, and the Grand Duke Constantine, a series of most complete tests. It was Madame Blavatsky and I who sent Slade from America to Europe in 1876. A very high personage having ordered a scientific investigation of Spiritualism, the professors of the Imperial University of St. Petersburg organised an experimental committee and we two were specially requested by this Committee to select out of the best American mediums one whom we could recommend for the tests. After much investigation we chose Dr. Slade, and the necessary funds for his expenses having been remitted to me, he was in due time sent abroad. Before I would recommend him I exacted the condition that he should place himself in the hands of a committee of the Theosophical Society for testing. I purposely selected as members of that Committee men who were either pronounced sceptics or quite unacquainted with spiritualistic phenomena. Slade was tested thoroughly for several weeks, and when the Committee’s report was finally made, the following facts were certified to as having occurred. Messages were written inside double slates, sometimes tied and sealed together, while they either lay upon the table in full view of all, or were laid upon the heads of members of the Committee, or held flat against

<center>(''Continued on page'' 322.)</center>

{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|10-570}}

HPB-SB-10-570

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Sergey:

HPB-SB-10-565

2026-04-11T08:45:12Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 565
| image = SB-10-565.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{HPB-SB-item
| volume =10
| page =565
| item =1
| type =article
| status = proofread
| continues = 566, 567, 568, 569, 570, 571
| author =
| title = Spiritualism and Theosophy*
| subtitle =
| untitled =
| source title = London Spiritualist, The
| source details = No. 436, December 31, 1880, pp. 313-17
| publication date = 1880-12-31
| original date =
| notes =
| categories =
}}

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|by colonel henry s. olcott, president of the theosophical society.}}</center>

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|scientific investigators of spiritualism.}}</center>

''Ladies and Gentlemen'':—Thirteen years ago, one of the most eminent of modern American jurists, John W. Edmonds, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, declared in a London magazine that there were then at least ten millions of Spiritualists in the United States of America. No man was so well qualified at the time as he to express an opinion upon this subject, for not only was he in correspondence with persons in all parts of the country, but the noble virtue of the man as well as his learning, his judicial impartiality and conservatism, made him a most competent and convincing witness. And another authority, a publicist of equally unblemished private and public reputation, the Hon. Robert Dale Owen, while endorsing Judge Edmonds’ estimate, adds† that there are at least an equal number in the rest of Christendom. To “avoid chance of exaggeration” he, however, deducts one-fourth from both amounts and (in 1874) writes the sum-total of the so-called spiritualists at fifteen millions. But whatever the aggregate of believers in the alleged present open intercourse between our worlds of substance and shadow, it is a known fact that the number embraces some of the most acute intellects of our day. It is no question now of the self-deceptions of boors and hysterical {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|10-566}}

{{Footnotes start}}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> A lecture delivered, upon invitation, at the rooms of the United Service Institution of India, at Simla, October 7th, 1880. The European audience which gathered to hear Colonel Olcott discourse upon the mediumistic phenomena and their relationship to Theosophical Science, is said to have been the largest ever seen at Simla upon any such occasion. Even Sir Samuel Baker’s was smaller, though he had His Excellency the Viceroy as Chairman. Among many others of note, there were present Lieut.-General Sir Donald Stewart, Major-General Napier Campbell, Lieut.-General W. Olpheits, Mr. C. Lindsay, C.S., Mr. A. O. Hume, C.S., Major-General J. Hills, Lieut.-Colonel E. R. C. Bradford, C.S.I., Colonels A. H. Murray, R. Murray, Maisey and Bampfield, Major P. D. Henderson, of the Foreign Department, Captain P. J. Maitland, Depty. Asst. Q.M.-General. A large number of ladies also attended. The room and lobbies were over-crowded and many had to stand. The lecture occupied somewhat more than an hour in the delivery, including the explanation of the diagrams drawn on the black board, and the interest excited may be inferred from the fact that no one left before the conclusion. Col. Olcott was introduced by Captain A. D. Anderson, R.A., Honorary Secretary of the United Service Institution.

† ''The Debatable Land between this world and the next'', p. 174, London, Ed. 1874.
{{Footnotes end}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-sources}}
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.436_1880-12-31.pdf|page=3|London Spiritualist, No. 436, December 31, 1880, pp. 313-17
</gallery>

HPB-SB-10-569

2026-04-10T10:09:24Z

Sergey:

HPB-SB-10-568

2026-04-10T10:08:48Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 568
| image = SB-10-568.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-567}}

{{Style P-No indent|around the medium, and by doing away with test-conditions, invite to the perpetration of gross frauds. Mediums actually caught red-handed in trickery, with their paraphernalia of traps, false panels, wigs and puppets about them, have been able to make their dupes regard them as martyrs to the rage of sceptics, and the damning proofs of their guilt as having been secretly supplied by the unbelievers themselves to strike a blow at their holy cause! The voracious credulity of a large body of Spiritualists has begotten nine-tenths of the dishonest tricks of mediums. As Mr. Crookes truly observed in his preliminary article in the ''Quarterly Journal of Science''.– “In the countless number of recorded observations I have read, there appear to be few instances of meetings held for the express purpose of getting the phenomena under test conditions.”}}

Though this is true, it is also most certain that within the past thirty-two years, enquirers into the phenomena have been vouchsafed thousands upon thousands of proofs, that they occur under conditions quite independent of the physical agency of the persons present, and that intelligence, sometimes of a striking character, is displayed in the control of the occult force or forces producing the phenomena. It is this great reserve of test facts upon which rests, like a rock upon its base, the invincible faith of the millions of Spiritualists. This body of individual experiences is the rampart behind which they entrench themselves whenever the outside world of sceptics looks to see the whole ‘delusion’ crumbling under the assault of some new ''buna'' critic, or the shame of the latest exposure of false mediumship or tricking mediums. It ought by this time to have been discovered that it is worse than useless to try to ridicule away the actual evidence of one’s senses; or to make a man who has seen a heavy weight self-lifted and suspended in the air, or writing done without contact, or a human form melt before his eyes, believe any theory that all mediumistic phenomena are due to ‘muscular contraction,’ ‘expectant attention,’ or ‘unconscious cerebration.’ It is because of their attempts to do this that men of science, as a body, are regarded with such compassionate scorn by the experienced psychologist. Mr. Wallace tells us that after making careful inquiry he has never found one man who, after having acquired a good personal knowledge of the chief phases of the phenomena, has afterwards come to disbelieve in their reality. And this is my own experience also. Some have ceased to be “Spiritualists” and turned Catholics, but they have never doubted the phenomena being real. It will be a happy day, one to be hailed with joy by every lover of true science, when our modern professors shall rid themselves of the conceited idea that knowledge was born in our days, and question in an humble spirit the records of archaic science.

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|the nature of the phenomena.}}</center>

We have seen that the existence of a force-current has been proven by the experiments of Dr. Hare and Mr. Crookes, so we need trouble ourselves no more with the many crude conjectures about table-moving, chair-lifting, and the raps, being the result of muscular energy of the medium or the visitor, but pass on to notice some of the forms in which this force has displayed its dynamic energies. These may be separated into phenomena indicating intelligence and conveying information, and purely physical manifestations of energy. Of the first class the one demanding first place is the so-called “spirit-rap.” By these simple signals the whole modern movement called Spiritualism is ushered in. These audible concussions vary in degree from the sound of a pin-head ticking to that of blows by a hammer or bludgeon powerful enough to shatter a mahogany table. The current of psychic-force producing them seems to depend upon the state of the medium’s system, in combination with the electric and hygrometric condition of the atmosphere. With either unpropitious, the raps, if heard at all, are faint; with both in harmony, they are loudest and most persistent. Of themselves these rapping phenomena are sufficiently wonderful, but they become a hundred-fold more so when we find that through them communications can be obtained from intelligences claiming to be our dead friends; communications which often disclose secrets known only to the enquirer and no other person present; and even, in rare cases, giving out facts which no one then in the room was aware of, and which had to be verified later by consulting old records or distant witnesses. A more beautiful form of the rap is the sound of music, as of a cut-glass vessel struck, or a silver bell, heard either under the medium’s hand or in the air. Such a phenomenon has been often noticed by the Rev. Stainton Moses, of University College, London, in his own house, and Mr. Alfred R. Wallace describes it as occurring in the presence of Miss Nichol, now Mrs. Volckmann, at Mr. Wallace’s own house. An empty wine-glass was put upon a table and held by Miss {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |10-569}}

HPB-SB-10-568

2026-04-10T10:08:34Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 568
| image = SB-10-568.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-567}}

around the medium, and by doing away with test-conditions, invite to the perpetration of gross frauds. Mediums actually caught red-handed in trickery, with their paraphernalia of traps, false panels, wigs and puppets about them, have been able to make their dupes regard them as martyrs to the rage of sceptics, and the damning proofs of their guilt as having been secretly supplied by the unbelievers themselves to strike a blow at their holy cause! The voracious credulity of a large body of Spiritualists has begotten nine-tenths of the dishonest tricks of mediums. As Mr. Crookes truly observed in his preliminary article in the ''Quarterly Journal of Science''.– “In the countless number of recorded observations I have read, there appear to be few instances of meetings held for the express purpose of getting the phenomena under test conditions.”

Though this is true, it is also most certain that within the past thirty-two years, enquirers into the phenomena have been vouchsafed thousands upon thousands of proofs, that they occur under conditions quite independent of the physical agency of the persons present, and that intelligence, sometimes of a striking character, is displayed in the control of the occult force or forces producing the phenomena. It is this great reserve of test facts upon which rests, like a rock upon its base, the invincible faith of the millions of Spiritualists. This body of individual experiences is the rampart behind which they entrench themselves whenever the outside world of sceptics looks to see the whole ‘delusion’ crumbling under the assault of some new ''buna'' critic, or the shame of the latest exposure of false mediumship or tricking mediums. It ought by this time to have been discovered that it is worse than useless to try to ridicule away the actual evidence of one’s senses; or to make a man who has seen a heavy weight self-lifted and suspended in the air, or writing done without contact, or a human form melt before his eyes, believe any theory that all mediumistic phenomena are due to ‘muscular contraction,’ ‘expectant attention,’ or ‘unconscious cerebration.’ It is because of their attempts to do this that men of science, as a body, are regarded with such compassionate scorn by the experienced psychologist. Mr. Wallace tells us that after making careful inquiry he has never found one man who, after having acquired a good personal knowledge of the chief phases of the phenomena, has afterwards come to disbelieve in their reality. And this is my own experience also. Some have ceased to be “Spiritualists” and turned Catholics, but they have never doubted the phenomena being real. It will be a happy day, one to be hailed with joy by every lover of true science, when our modern professors shall rid themselves of the conceited idea that knowledge was born in our days, and question in an humble spirit the records of archaic science.

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|the nature of the phenomena.}}</center>

We have seen that the existence of a force-current has been proven by the experiments of Dr. Hare and Mr. Crookes, so we need trouble ourselves no more with the many crude conjectures about table-moving, chair-lifting, and the raps, being the result of muscular energy of the medium or the visitor, but pass on to notice some of the forms in which this force has displayed its dynamic energies. These may be separated into phenomena indicating intelligence and conveying information, and purely physical manifestations of energy. Of the first class the one demanding first place is the so-called “spirit-rap.” By these simple signals the whole modern movement called Spiritualism is ushered in. These audible concussions vary in degree from the sound of a pin-head ticking to that of blows by a hammer or bludgeon powerful enough to shatter a mahogany table. The current of psychic-force producing them seems to depend upon the state of the medium’s system, in combination with the electric and hygrometric condition of the atmosphere. With either unpropitious, the raps, if heard at all, are faint; with both in harmony, they are loudest and most persistent. Of themselves these rapping phenomena are sufficiently wonderful, but they become a hundred-fold more so when we find that through them communications can be obtained from intelligences claiming to be our dead friends; communications which often disclose secrets known only to the enquirer and no other person present; and even, in rare cases, giving out facts which no one then in the room was aware of, and which had to be verified later by consulting old records or distant witnesses. A more beautiful form of the rap is the sound of music, as of a cut-glass vessel struck, or a silver bell, heard either under the medium’s hand or in the air. Such a phenomenon has been often noticed by the Rev. Stainton Moses, of University College, London, in his own house, and Mr. Alfred R. Wallace describes it as occurring in the presence of Miss Nichol, now Mrs. Volckmann, at Mr. Wallace’s own house. An empty wine-glass was put upon a table and held by Miss {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |10-569}}

HPB-SB-10-567

2026-04-10T10:07:07Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 567
| image = SB-10-567.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-566}}

{{Style P-No indent|ists to guard against the possibility of fraud in the course of their experiments. If ever there was a fact of science proved, it is that a new and most mysterious force of ''some'' kind has been manifesting itself since March, 1848, when this mighty modern epiphany was ushered in with a shower of raps, at an obscure hamlet in New York State. Beginning with these percussive sounds, it has since displayed its energy in a hundred different phenomena, each inexplicable upon any known hypothesis of science, and in almost, if not quite, every country of our globe. To advocate its study, expound its laws, and disseminate its intelligent manifestations, hundreds of journals and books have from time to time been published in different languages; the movement has its schools and churches, or meeting halls, its preachers and teachers; and a body of men and women numbering thousands at the least, are devoting their whole time and vital strength to the profession of mediumship. These sensitives, or “psychics,” are to be found in every walk of life, in the palaces of royalty as well as the labourer’s cottage, and their psychical, or mediumistic, gifts are as various as their individualities.}}

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|why spiritualism spreads so rapidly.}}</center>

What has caused this world-wide expansion of the new movement, and reconciled the public to such a vast sacrifice of comfort, time, money, and social consequence? What has spurred on so many of the most intelligent people in all lands, of all sects and races, to continue investigating? What has kept the faith alive in so many millions, despite a multitude of sickening exposures of rascality of mediums, of the demoralizing tendency of ill-regulated mediumship, and the average puerility and frequent mendaciousness of the communications received? This, that a hope has sprung up in the human breast that at last man may have experimental proof of his survival after bodily death, and a glimpse, if not a full revelation, of his future destiny. All these millions cling, like the drowning man to his plank, to the one hope that the old, old questions of the What? the Whence? the Whither? will now be solved, once and for all time. Glance through the literature of Spiritualism and you shall see what joy, what consolation, and what perfect rest and courage these weird, often-exasperating phenomena of the seance-room have imparted. Tears have ceased to flow from myriad eyes when the dead are laid away out of sight, and broken ties of love and friendship are no longer regarded by these believers as snapped for ever.

The tempest no longer affrights as it did, and the terrors of battle and pestilence have lost their greatest power for the modern spiritualist. The supposed intercourse with the dead and their messages have sapped the infallible authority of dogmatic theology. The Spiritualist with the eye of his new faith now sees the dim outlines of a Summer Land where we live and are occupied much as upon Earth. The tomb, instead of seeming the mouth of a void of darkness, has come to look merely like a sombre gateway to a country of sun-light brightness and never-ending progression towards the crowning state of perfectibility.

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|absurdities.}}</center>

Nay, so definite have become the fancy pictures of this Summer Land, one constantly reads of baby children growing in spirit life to be adults; of colleges and academies for mortal guidance, presided over by the world’s departed sages; and even of nuptial unions between living men or women and the denizens of the spirit-world! A case in point is that of the Rev. Thomas Lake Harris, founder of the socialistic community on Lake Erie, which Laurence Oliphant and his mother have joined—who gives out that he is duly married to a female spirit and that a child has blessed their union! Another case is that of the marriage of two spirits in presence of mortal witnesses, by a living clergyman, which was reported last year in the Spiritualistic papers. A Mr. Pierce, son of an ex-President of the United States and long since dead, is said to have ‘materialised,’ that is, made for himself a visible, tangible body, at the house of a certain American medium, and been married by a minister summoned for the occasion, to a lady spirit who died at the very tender age of seven months, and who, now grown into a blooming lass, was also materialised for the ceremony! The vows exchanged and the blessing given, the happy couple sat at table with invited friends, and, after drinking a toast or two, vanished—dress-coat, white gloves, satin, lace and all—into thin air! This you will call the tomfoolery of Spiritualism, and you will be right; but, nevertheless, it serves to show how clear and definite, not to say brutally materialistic, are the views of the other-world order which have replaced the old, vague dread that weighed us down with gloomy doubts. Up to a certain point this state of mind is a decided gain, but I am sorry to say Spiritualists have passed that, and become dogmatists. Little by little a body of enthusiasts is forming, who would throw a halo of sanctity {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |10-568}}

HPB-SB-10-566

2026-04-10T10:06:18Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 566
| image = SB-10-566.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-565}}

{{Style P-No indent|chambermaids with which we have to deal. Those who would deny the reality of these contemporaneous phenomena, must confront a multitude of our most capable men of science, who have exhausted the resources of their profession to determine the nature of the force at work, and been baffled in seeking any other explanation than the one of trans-sepulchral agency of the same kind or other. Beginning with Robert Hare, the inventor of the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe and Nestor of American Chemistry, and ending with Fr. Zöllner, Professor of Physical Astronomy in Leipzig University, the list of these converted experimentalists includes a succession of adepts of Physical Science of the highest professional rank. Each of them—except, perhaps, Zöllner, who wished to verify his theory of a fourth dimension of space—began the task of investigation with the avowed purpose of exposing the alleged fraud, in the interests of public morals; and each was transformed into an avowed believer in the reality of mediumistic phenomena by the irresistible logic of facts.}}

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|the experimental method of investigation.}}</center>

The apparatuses devised by these men of science to test the mediumistic power have been in the highest degree ingenious. They have been of four different kinds—(''a'') machines to determine whether electrical or magnetic currents were operating; (''b'') whether the movement of heavy articles, such as tables touched by the medium, was caused by either conscious or unconscious muscular contraction; (''c'') whether intelligent communications may be received by a sitter under circumstances precluding any possible trickery by the medium; and (''d'') what are the conditions for the manifestation of this new form of energy and the extreme limitations of its action. Of course, in an hour’s lecture I could not describe a tenth part of these machines, but I may take two as illustrating two of the above-enumerated branches of research. The first is to be found described in Professor Hare’s work. The medium and enquirer sit facing each other, the medium’s hands resting upon a bit of board so hung and adjusted that whether he presses on the board or not he merely moves that and nothing else. In front of the visitor is a dial, like a clock-face, around which are arranged the letters of the alphabet, the ten numerals, the words “Yes,” “No,” “Doubtful,” and perhaps others. A pointer or hand, that is connected with a lever, the other end of which is so placed as to receive any current flowing through the medium’s system, but not to be affected by any mechanical pressure he may exert upon the hand-rest, travels around the dial and indicates the letters or words the communicating intelligence wishes noted down. The back of the dial being towards the medium, he, of course, cannot see what the pointer is doing, and if the enquirer conceals from him the paper on which he is noting down the communication, he cannot have even a suspicion of what is being said.

The other contrivance is described and illustrated in the monograph entitled ''Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism'', by Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., Editor of the ''Quarterly Journal of Science'', and one of the most successful experimental chemists of our day. A mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9½ inches wide, and 1 inch thick, rests at one end upon a table upon a strip cut to a knife edge; at the other end it is suspended by a spring balance, fitted with an automatic registering apparatus, and hung from a firm tripod. On the table end of the board, and directly over the fulcrum is placed a large vessel filled with water. In this water dips, to the depth of 1½ inches from the surface, a copper vessel, with bottom perforated so as to let the water enter it; which copper vessel is supported by a fixed iron ring, attached to an iron stand that rests on the floor. The medium is to dip his hands in the water in the copper vessel, and as this is solidly supported by its own stand and ring, and nowhere touches the glass vessel holding the water, you see that should there occur any depression of the pointer on the spring-balance at the extreme end of the board, it unmistakably indicates that a current of force weighable in foot-pounds is passing through the medium’s body. (The speaker here explained by diagrams upon the black board the apparatus of Mr. Crookes and Professor Hare.) Well, both Dr. Hare with his apparatus, and Mr. Crookes, with his, obtained the desired proof that certain phenomena of mediumship do occur without the interference, either honest or dishonest, of the medium. To the power thus manifested, Mr. Crookes, upon the suggestion of the late Mr. Serjeant Cox, gave the appropriate name of Psychic Force, and as such it will hereafter be designated by me in this lecture.

I mention these two mechanical contrivances merely to show those who perhaps have never enquired into the matter, but have nevertheless fallen into the common error of thinking the phenomena to be all deceptions, that the utmost pains have been taken by the cleverest scient{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |10-567}}

HPB-SB-10-566

2026-04-10T10:04:54Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 566
| image = SB-10-566.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Spiritualism and Theosophy|10-565}}

{{Style P-No indent|chambermaids with which we have to deal. Those who would deny the reality of these contemporaneous phenomena, must confront a multitude of our most capable men of science, who have exhausted the resources of their profession to determine the nature of the force at work, and been baffled in seeking any other explanation than the one of trans-sepulchral agency of the same kind or other. Beginning with Robert Hare, the inventor of the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe and Nestor of American Chemistry, and ending with Fr. Zöllner, Professor of Physical Astronomy in Leipzig University, the list of these converted experimentalists includes a succession of adepts of Physical Science of the highest professional rank. Each of them—except, perhaps, Zöllner, who wished to verify his theory of a fourth dimension of space—began the task of investigation with the avowed purpose of exposing the alleged fraud, in the interests of public morals; and each was transformed into an avowed believer in the reality of mediumistic phenomena by the irresistible logic of facts.}}

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|the experimental method of investigation.}}</center>

The apparatuses devised by these men of science to test the mediumistic power have been in the highest degree ingenious. They have been of four different kinds—(''a'') machines to determine whether electrical or magnetic currents were operating; (''b'') whether the movement of heavy articles, such as tables touched by the medium, was caused by either conscious or unconscious muscular contraction; (''c'') whether intelligent communications may be received by a sitter under circumstances precluding any possible trickery by the medium; and (''d'') what are the conditions for the manifestation of this new form of energy and the extreme limitations of its action. Of course, in an hour’s lecture I could not describe a tenth part of these machines, but I may take two as illustrating two of the above-enumerated branches of research. The first is to be found described in Professor Hare’s work. The medium and enquirer sit facing each other, the medium’s hands resting upon a bit of board so hung and adjusted that whether he presses on the board or not he merely moves that and nothing else. In front of the visitor is a dial, like a clock-face, around which are arranged the letters of the alphabet, the ten numerals, the words “Yes,” “No,” “Doubtful,” and perhaps others. A pointer or hand, that is connected with a lever, the other end of which is so placed as to receive any current flowing through the medium’s system, but not to be affected by any mechanical pressure he may exert upon the hand-rest, travels around the dial and indicates the letters or words the communicating intelligence wishes noted down. The back of the dial being towards the medium, he, of course, cannot see what the pointer is doing, and if the enquirer conceals from him the paper on which he is noting down the communication, he cannot have even a suspicion of what is being said.

The other contrivance is described and illustrated in the monograph entitled {{Emphasis|Researches in the Phenomena of Spiritualism}}, by Mr. William Crookes, F.R.S., Editor of the {{Emphasis|Quarterly Journal of Science}}, and one of the most successful experimental chemists of our day. A mahogany board, 36 inches long by 9½ inches wide, and 1 inch thick, rests at one end upon a table upon a strip cut to a knife edge; at the other end it is suspended by a spring balance, fitted with an automatic registering apparatus, and hung from a firm tripod. On the table end of the board, and directly over the fulcrum is placed a large vessel filled with water. In this water dips, to the depth of 1½ inches from the surface, a copper vessel, with bottom perforated so as to let the water enter it; which copper vessel is supported by a fixed iron ring, attached to an iron stand that rests on the floor. The medium is to dip his hands in the water in the copper vessel, and as this is solidly supported by its own stand and ring, and nowhere touches the glass vessel holding the water, you see that should there occur any depression of the pointer on the spring-balance at the extreme end of the board, it unmistakably indicates that a current of force weighable in foot-pounds is passing through the medium’s body. (The speaker here explained by diagrams upon the black board the apparatus of Mr. Crookes and Professor Hare.) Well, both Dr. Hare with his apparatus, and Mr. Crookes, with his, obtained the desired proof that certain phenomena of mediumship do occur without the interference, either honest or dishonest, of the medium. To the power thus manifested, Mr. Crookes, upon the suggestion of the late Mr. Serjeant Cox, gave the appropriate name of Psychic Force, and as such it will hereafter be designated by me in this lecture.

I mention these two mechanical contrivances merely to show those who perhaps have never enquired into the matter, but have nevertheless fallen into the common error of thinking the phenomena to be all deceptions, that the utmost pains have been taken by the cleverest scient{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |10-567}}

HPB-SB-10-565

2026-04-10T10:03:54Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 565
| image = SB-10-565.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{HPB-SB-item
| volume =10
| page =565
| item =1
| type =article
| status = proofread
| continues = 566, 567, 568, 569
| author =
| title = Spiritualism and Theosophy*
| subtitle =
| untitled =
| source title = London Spiritualist, The
| source details = No. 436, December 31, 1880, pp. 313-17
| publication date = 1880-12-31
| original date =
| notes =
| categories =
}}

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|by colonel henry s. olcott, president of the theosophical society.}}</center>

<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|scientific investigators of spiritualism.}}</center>

''Ladies and Gentlemen'':—Thirteen years ago, one of the most eminent of modern American jurists, John W. Edmonds, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, declared in a London magazine that there were then at least ten millions of Spiritualists in the United States of America. No man was so well qualified at the time as he to express an opinion upon this subject, for not only was he in correspondence with persons in all parts of the country, but the noble virtue of the man as well as his learning, his judicial impartiality and conservatism, made him a most competent and convincing witness. And another authority, a publicist of equally unblemished private and public reputation, the Hon. Robert Dale Owen, while endorsing Judge Edmonds’ estimate, adds† that there are at least an equal number in the rest of Christendom. To “avoid chance of exaggeration” he, however, deducts one-fourth from both amounts and (in 1874) writes the sum-total of the so-called spiritualists at fifteen millions. But whatever the aggregate of believers in the alleged present open intercourse between our worlds of substance and shadow, it is a known fact that the number embraces some of the most acute intellects of our day. It is no question now of the self-deceptions of boors and hysterical {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|10-566}}

{{Footnotes start}}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> A lecture delivered, upon invitation, at the rooms of the United Service Institution of India, at Simla, October 7th, 1880. The European audience which gathered to hear Colonel Olcott discourse upon the mediumistic phenomena and their relationship to Theosophical Science, is said to have been the largest ever seen at Simla upon any such occasion. Even Sir Samuel Baker’s was smaller, though he had His Excellency the Viceroy as Chairman. Among many others of note, there were present Lieut.-General Sir Donald Stewart, Major-General Napier Campbell, Lieut.-General W. Olpheits, Mr. C. Lindsay, C.S., Mr. A. O. Hume, C.S., Major-General J. Hills, Lieut.-Colonel E. R. C. Bradford, C.S.I., Colonels A. H. Murray, R. Murray, Maisey and Bampfield, Major P. D. Henderson, of the Foreign Department, Captain P. J. Maitland, Depty. Asst. Q.M.-General. A large number of ladies also attended. The room and lobbies were over-crowded and many had to stand. The lecture occupied somewhat more than an hour in the delivery, including the explanation of the diagrams drawn on the black board, and the interest excited may be inferred from the fact that no one left before the conclusion. Col. Olcott was introduced by Captain A. D. Anderson, R.A., Honorary Secretary of the United Service Institution.

† ''The Debatable Land between this world and the next'', p. 174, London, Ed. 1874.
{{Footnotes end}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-sources}}
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.436_1880-12-31.pdf|page=3|London Spiritualist, No. 436, December 31, 1880, pp. 313-17
</gallery>

HPB-SB-10-558

2026-04-10T09:34:55Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 558
| image = SB-10-558.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued|Miracles and the Broad Church|10-557}}

{{Style P-No indent|Any one listening to the simple and powerful explanation given in his first sermon, of his reason for leaving the Church, wide and elastic as his place was believed to be, must have felt that his retirement could not be an event by itself. It must form the first of a series, probably a long one, of similar occurrences, for many a good man will doubtless ask himself whether the arguments used by Mr. Brooke are not equally cogent in inducing others to follow in his steps. For he has quitted the ''Broad'' Church, a part of the establishment supposed to admit of such indefiniteness of belief and elasticity of doctrine, that many clergymen belong to it whose whole belief might be comprised in the first four words of the Apostle’s Creed; while many others, with perhaps less of honesty than of desire to do good, cannot trustfully say they believe anything at all.}}

Mr. Stopford Brooke’s declaration in his first sermon will touch this class of men and probably these alone. The Broad Churchman, admitting that discrepancies and contradictions and things impossible to believe as they are usually held, exist in the Articles and Creeds of the Church and the dogmas of Christianity, still believes that a clergyman can be more useful by using, as many a one has done most admirably, the means of helping the suffering and ignorant poor, and promoting the good works which come in their way, than by consulting his own conscience and following out the immediate details. Accordingly he “sets aside those questions which he cannot answer, speaking of Christianity as a beautiful moral system, not really founded on miracles or dogmas, but on the life and religion of the heart.” It is never wise or right to impute motives, and we cannot attribute to these good men the unworthy motive of a wish to retain worldly wealth and position. Many of them evidently trouble themselves little enough about the latter, and many have little enough of emolument to make it a question whether their continuance in the Church is not financial imprudence. But while making the compromise described, all Broad Churchmen are supposed to believe that they are governed by conscience, or a principle which will not permit them to affirm a lie.

This is the situation formerly held by Mr. Stopford Brooke, and from which he has set himself free. Among his arguments for so doing, is the following. He was convinced that the whole of religion was suffering from this state of compromise, not those already religious, but the chances of religion on the great mass. The High Church and the Low Church did not compromise at all, but the liberal party compromised the matter by putting aside the question; speaking of Christianity as a beautiful moral system, not really founded on miracles or on dogmas, but on the life and religion of the heart. This was a clear position but he thought it might be carried too far for the advantage of religious life in this nation. To say nothing about miracles, when the question was leaping into the mind of every one, to say that Christianity did not rest on them, was to act as it was said the ostrich acted.

In his remarks on the position of the Broad Church, Mr. Stopford Brooke carefully guarded against the supposition that they were directed against those individual members of it who have not yet felt impelled to the course he has taken. But it is very probable that, after his clear statement of the circumstances in which he was, and they are, these good men may take a different view of their position; and, if they believe in a superintending Providence and His powers to govern His creatures aright, may find that the end they aim at will be better attained by resisting falsehood in any form, however tempting, than by yielding up God’s first requisition, “Truths in the inward facts,” in order to help Him to do His own work.

Mr. Stopford Brooke’s own future course will be watched with interest, for it cannot be denied that there is some ambiguity in his present position with regard to Christianity.—''Daily News'' Report of Rev. Stopford Brooke’s Sermon, October 17th, 1880. He has said or implied that Christianity is founded on miracle and dogma, or, to be quite accurate, he has said that, “To say nothing about miracles when the question was leaping into the mind of every one, to say that Christianity did not rest on them, was to act as it was said the ostrich acted.” But what does Mr. Brooke mean by ''Christianity'' here? Is it the belief derived from the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, or something independent of His history as we have it, but embodying the essence of His teaching? As far as can be gathered of Mr. Brooke’s meaning, the Christianity which the Broad Churchmen tacitly hold, and which he now openly professes, is the substance of the teachings of Jesus Christ, the morality inculcated by them; that which is left after the claim to, and evidences of, miraculous power, by which the teaching was strengthened and accompanied, is set aside.

{{Style P-HPB SB. Restored}}
It is an easy thing to profess belief in any phenomenon of which we ignore or deny the cause; but in the case of Christianity, and the actions of Jesus Christ, there is unusual difficulty. Let us take the idea Mr. Brooke has of the character and work of Jesus as expressed in his recent sermon.

“He should now be able to declare that, while he frankly accepted the proved conclusions of science and criticism, there remained untouched and clear the great spiritual truths of the soul, the eternal revelation of God, ''the deep life of Christianity''.” . . . “He should speak of God as revealed in the best way by Jesus Christ, of the true life of man which He had disclosed in His life. . . . of God incarnate in all men in the same manner, though not in the same degree as in Christ. . . . He asked his congregation to pray . . . that humbly and faithfully he might follow the steps of God his Father, in the footsteps of his Master Christ.”

Jesus Christ then is the great exemplar and divine teacher whose moral perfections Mr. Stopford Brooke acknowledges, and in whose footsteps he desires to follow. But Jesus Christ’s own express declaration is that through Him, “The blind see, the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed, and the devils (or demons) cast out.” He speaks of “The works that ye see me do.” He says, “I can of my ownself do nothing, the Father that is in me, He doeth the works,” &c., &c., &c.

It would be vain to attempt to multiply instances of the claim made by Jesus to the performance of the miracles. Exegesis and criticism may try to prove that the insertion of the narratives of the miracles in the Gospels was an afterthought—an interpolation; but let any one take from all the Gospel narratives these interpolations, with all the words of Jesus referring to and explaining them, and what will be left? Certainly some fine moral teaching, perhaps half a step in advance of Buddha or Confucius, but no distinct promise of a future state, and no appearance after death to confirm it?

Why should it not be said, with Strauss, that the whole history is a mythological embodiment of some philosophical truth—equally valuable, whether Jesus Christ existed on earth or not?

But let us look at the question as it is. Jesus Christ, the founder of a system which is to regenerate the world, the Being in whom God had revealed Himself in the best way, the promulgator of the highest morality made known, claims distinctly and repeatedly that he did these things which the proved conclusion of science and criticism have declared he did not and could not do. Surely such a claim on the part of Christ was a false one, and if the conclusion of science and criticism are correct, He was an impostor, whose criminality can only be measured by the amount and magnitude of His deception.

Yet this impostor is, according to recent exegesis and criticism, the One in whom God revealed Himself most fully.

“Do men gather grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles?”

It is for these reasons that I think Mr. Stopford Brooke’s present relation to Christianity an ambiguous one.

C. D.
{{Close div}}

HPB-SB-10-557

2026-04-10T09:32:46Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 557
| image = SB-10-557.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Religious Tolerance Advanced by Spiritualism|10-556}}

But the honour I have alluded to was not confined to meeting the above favoured lady only. I had the true pleasure also of an introduction on the same day to another of that eminent family, to her sister, a contemporary primal partaker of the new influx. And when I heard from the lips of these gentle ladies of the cruel persecutions that they, as innocent, defenceless children, underwent, I then realised how much we owe to these first sufferers, almost martyrs to the cause of truth.

It is not my place to enter into details. I do trust that we shall one day ere long read of them from their proper source. But this I will say, that there is not a word in the celebrated “First Proposition” of Paley’S Evidences of Christianity, that was not equally applicable in early days, to these persecuted children, our first pioneers. These are Paley’s words: “There is satisfactory evidence that they passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts that they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief in those accounts.”

And what is the message that they delivered in return for all the intolerance to which they were subjected? Simply good for evil; light for darkness; tolerance, even in religion, in return for intolerance.

I am forced again to turn to self. In return for the tale of trial and self-sacrifice of these honoured sisters, I was telling of my own shortcomings. It was on a bright summer’s day, at a morning visit, no sitting for a ''seance''. I mentioned that I found it expedient, some years back, to leave a country town in which I then lived, because my Spiritualism proved detrimental to my family who were not Spiritualists. So I added that for their sakes, in the place where I now lived, I did not mention Spiritualism. Immediately upon my making the above remark, what was my surprise at hearing three very loud raps. It was explained to me that the spirits who were present approved of this reticence on my part, for the reason that: “''Family concord was above all things precious''.” If this be not tolerance, the novel unselfish tolerance of our new influx and isolated teaching in the history of religion, I know not what is.

I have one word more to say respecting the tolerance of our new influx. We read ''The Pioneer'' of May 25th, 1880, said to be the official journal of the Indian government, of an almost unprecedented success of Madame Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott and other members of the Theosophical Society on a missionary journey through the island of Ceylon, they being received publicly by the Buddhist people and priesthood with every mark of respect, hospitality, and welcome. At one of the meetings where it is said not only the Cingalese, but that all the English colony were present, Colonel Olcott is reported to have thus spoken; he spoke in English but every sentence was interpreted also at the time, into Cingalese. These were his words: “The object of the visit of the delegation, was to organise at Ceylon a branch of the Theosophical Society, a society which is the representation of the principles of ''an universal tolerance''.”

I would also further ask: Where did Colonel Olcott gain the initiative which led him on the road towards the adoption of this noble programme? And I would further ask: Would he be now preaching anything or anywhere, least of all universal tolerance in India and Ceylon, were it not for the blessings brought about first through that famous and favoured family so entirely unobtrusive withal, yet so great, to whom it has been my present privilege to allude.

{{Style P-Signature in capitals|An Old Spiritualist.}}

{{HPB-SB-item
| volume =10
| page =557
| item =1
| type =article
| status = proofread
| continues = 558
| author =
| title = Miracles and the Broad Church
| subtitle =
| untitled =
| source title = London Spiritualist, The
| source details = No. 429, November 12, 1880, p. 231-33
| publication date = 1880-11-12
| original date =
| notes =
| categories =
}}

The following remarks of mine point only to one or two phases of this subject. Mr. Stopford Brooke’s recent sermon on the Broad Church will doubtless be published, and its wide bearing on vital questions, with the many issues to which it leads, will then be laid clearly before the thinking world.

Mr. Stopford Brooke’s secession from the Church, followed by his powerful explanation of his reason for the step he has taken, marks an era in the religious history of our time. It is not that there have not been seceders, intellectually as honest and fearless as himself, but the circumstances of their secession, when they have been men of any note, have differed from his. They were, as far as worldly prospects were concerned, martyrs to principle, and their resignation of church preferment involved worldly ruin. Times are now happily changed. The martyr of the last century is the hero of this, and Mr. Brooke will, I sincerely hope, find no more difference in his position than that caused by the change of a very few pew-holders, the new comers probably helping to form a more receptive audience than the departing ones. But his work, if not that of the martyr, will be followed by results quite as important to the welfare of the Church of England as any secession of former times. {{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|10-558}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-sources}}
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.429_1880-11-12.pdf|page=5|London Spiritualist, No. 429, November 12, 1880, p. 231-33
</gallery>

HPB-SB-10-557

2026-04-10T08:58:13Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 557
| image = SB-10-557.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Religious Tolerance Advanced by Spiritualism|10-556}}

But the honour I have alluded to was not confined to meeting the above favoured lady only. I had the true pleasure also of an introduction on the same day to another of that eminent family, to her sister, a contemporary primal partaker of the new influx. And when I heard from the lips of these gentle ladies of the cruel persecutions that they, as innocent, defenceless children, underwent, I then realised how much we owe to these first sufferers, almost martyrs to the cause of truth.

It is not my place to enter into details. I do trust that we shall one day ere long read of them from their proper source. But this I will say, that there is not a word in the celebrated “First Proposition” of Paley’S Evidences of Christianity, that was not equally applicable in early days, to these persecuted children, our first pioneers. These are Paley’s words: “There is satisfactory evidence that they passed their lives in labours, dangers, and sufferings, voluntarily undergone in attestation of the accounts that they delivered, and solely in consequence of their belief in those accounts.”

And what is the message that they delivered in return for all the intolerance to which they were subjected? Simply good for evil; light for darkness; tolerance, even in religion, in return for intolerance.

I am forced again to turn to self. In return for the tale of trial and self-sacrifice of these honoured sisters, I was telling of my own shortcomings. It was on a bright summer’s day, at a morning visit, no sitting for a ''seance''. I mentioned that I found it expedient, some years back, to leave a country town in which I then lived, because my Spiritualism proved detrimental to my family who were not Spiritualists. So I added that for their sakes, in the place where I now lived, I did not mention Spiritualism. Immediately upon my making the above remark, what was my surprise at hearing three very loud raps. It was explained to me that the spirits who were present approved of this reticence on my part, for the reason that: “''Family concord was above all things precious''.” If this be not tolerance, the novel unselfish tolerance of our new influx and isolated teaching in the history of religion, I know not what is.

I have one word more to say respecting the tolerance of our new influx. We read ''The Pioneer'' of May 25th, 1880, said to be the official journal of the Indian government, of an almost unprecedented success of Madame Blavatsky, Colonel Olcott and other members of the Theosophical Society on a missionary journey through the island of Ceylon, they being received publicly by the Buddhist people and priesthood with every mark of respect, hospitality, and welcome. At one of the meetings where it is said not only the Cingalese, but that all the English colony were present, Colonel Olcott is reported to have thus spoken; he spoke in English but every sentence was interpreted also at the time, into Cingalese. These were his words: “The object of the visit of the delegation, was to organise at Ceylon a branch of the Theosophical Society, a society which is the representation of the principles of ''an universal tolerance''.”

I would also further ask: Where did Colonel Olcott gain the initiative which led him on the road towards the adoption of this noble programme? And I would further ask: Would he be now preaching anything or anywhere, least of all universal tolerance in India and Ceylon, were it not for the blessings brought about first through that famous and favoured family so entirely unobtrusive withal, yet so great, to whom it has been my present privilege to allude.

{{Style P-Signature in capitals|An Old Spiritualist.}}

{{HPB-SB-item
| volume =10
| page =557
| item =1
| type =article
| status = wanted
| continues = 558
| author =
| title = Miracles and the Broad Church
| subtitle =
| untitled =
| source title = London Spiritualist, The
| source details = No. 429, November 12, 1880, p. 231-33
| publication date = 1880-11-12
| original date =
| notes =
| categories =
}}

...

{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|10-558}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-footnotes}}

{{HPB-SB-footer-sources}}
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.429_1880-11-12.pdf|page=5|London Spiritualist, No. 429, November 12, 1880, p. 231-33
</gallery>

HPB-SB-10-556

2026-04-10T08:57:47Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 556
| image = SB-10-556.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |Religious Tolerance Advanced by Spiritualism|10-555}}

And if we turn back to ancient times, even to ancient Spiritualism, where is tolerance to be found? I mean tolerance in religious questions. We all remember, as an example in a contrary sense, how Elijah, after an immense spiritualistic success, that would probably have made him generous under ordinary circumstances, turned on those whom he had worsted in a purely spiritualistic conflict, and slew them all—four hundred and fifty of them. But how, all red handed as he was, he forthwith escaped and hid himself, when he heard that a like punishment awaited himself through the natural vengeance of an indignant woman. If it be true that his Spirit and John the Baptist’s was the same, and that there exists a ''lex talionis'', an eternal law of requital, who can wonder that, in his new earth life he also should be slaughtered at last, notwithstanding his former escape, through the vengeance of a woman. Is it not also written: “They that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

Under a greater and later dispensation, a higher moral standard was erected. On its generous banner was displayed the new and self-sacrificing motto: “Love your enemies.” Nevertheless, in theological questions, and in these alone, perhaps, the old teaching was retained, fully retained. Difference of religious opinion still admitted of no compromise, and was still taught as sufficient cause, not only for the separation of individuals, but as a stringent motive for ''the severance of the dearest family ties''. Nor need I point to the calamities which the ''odium theologicum'' has ever since brought upon a suffering world, calamities national, social, and domestic; nor how that, up to a late date, it has been mixed up with, if not the source of, almost every war.

As a contrast to all this I gave in my paper of July, a fine example of modern tolerance on religious questions as taught by a spirit. And I would here add another, and this, indeed, from the very fountain of our practical, rational, and, in this matter, entirely original faith.

It would be impossible for me to give due weight to the object of this article without alluding—and my object must be the excuse for alluding—to a great privilege that has been accorded to me. It has been my good fortune to have lately acquired the personal acquaintance of one whom all good Spiritualists must of necessity honour, of that most estimable lady to whom a good Providence gave back in modern times to Christian people, the lost key of communion between the two worlds, which had been forfeited by men’s unworthiness, or cast aside by the prejudices and materialism of professed civilisation; a gift rendered far more important since the knowledge of the Copernican system; for the present is the first especial spiritual influx since that great discovery which opened our eyes to so many new secrets of nature, and to the infinity of the Universe, together with infinite possibilities to mankind. Personally, I know of no event of my life that I regard more thankfully than the honour of having been brought face to face with one so highly favoured.

What had civilisation lost until thirty-two years back? Go where we will—East, West, North or South—communion between the two worlds, through mediums, is the normal status of mankind, not only among the aborigines of America, but of Africa, Australia, and New Zealand; while the Hindoos and four or five hundred million Buddhists are all Spiritualists. Our own Scriptures, that civilisation professes to believe, are Spiritualism from the beginning to the end. The Old Testament commences with accounts of special communion between the two worlds, so does the New. Moses, one of the most powerful of mediums, seems to have put down mediumship in others in order, by good policy, to keep it in his own strong hands. But Spiritualism was always a part of the Jewish religion. Saul only went to the Witch of Endor, because on this occasion his orthodox mediums answered him “Neither by dreams, nor by Urim, nor by prophets,” as they had hitherto been accustomed to answer him.

The invocation of Moses himself, (who had put down mediumship) at the transfiguration by Jesus, their exemplar, surely makes mediumship the right of all Christian people. Well, was it, then, that in due time, mediumship exercised by the Apostles, but which was hidden from such wisdom as is found in immature science, and such prudence as is characteristic of suppressive theology, should be again revealed to one who, if not a babe, was of that very same mystic age of early adolescence in which Jesus himself first entered the Temple to teach neglected truths which filled the world with wonders, although the world itself had suppressed them. No, the Revelation through a babe by medial handwriting, was reserved six years ago, for her first born infant son, now and then so worthy of the deeply earnest maternal love and solicitude of which he and his brother are the fortunate recipients.

{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on |10-557}}

HPB-SB-10-555

2026-04-10T08:57:07Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 555
| image = SB-10-555.jpg
| notes =
}}

{{HPB-SB-item
| volume =10
| page =555
| item =1
| type =article
| status = proofread
| continues = 556, 557
| author =
| title =Religious Tolerance Advanced by Spiritualism
| subtitle =
| untitled =
| source title = London Spiritualist, The
| source details = No. 429, November 12, 1880, pp. 229-31
| publication date = 1880-11-12
| original date =
| notes =
| categories =
}}

''The Spiritualist'' of April 30th, of the current year, I ventured to make the following remark: “At the present period men have inherited, unwittingly, so much of a tolerant kindly spirit, brought about by the unseen leaven of Spiritualism running through the whole present generation, that they sometimes write and think in the pure spiritualistic groove even when least aware of it.”

That teaching in this direction is coming up in unexpected places, we lately received a tolerable example of, at the Leicester Church Congress, of September last, at which the president, the Bishop of Peterborough, made use of these words: “One supposed great object and result of Church Congresses is the promoting of tolerance and charity amongst churchmen.”

Whether the full measure of this object has been attained, or even feebly understood, even in the somewhat limited area of churchmen among themselves, seems problematical, and the object is mentioned hesitatingly, as but a “supposed great object,” as though the conclusion had scarcely been arrived at as to whether it were really a great object, or only a supposed great object. Still, the above proves a seeking for tolerance, and is a great contrast to the general ''animus'' of twenty years ago.

It is now just twenty years since some of the bishops so sharply prosecuted the writers of ''Essays and Reviews''—those early exponents of tolerance, charity and breadth of thought; those unaccustomed teachers in the Temple, so to speak, at the very period when the stripling, Spiritualism, the very high priest of tolerance, was but twelve years old.

My object here is to give further evidence from most legitimate sources that modern Spiritualism has good right to regard itself as having been the leader and example of all the real tolerance in religion that exists in the present day; for we may look in vain for its having ever existed before at any epoch, or in any degree, throughout Europe’s history of “civilisation.”

{{Style S-HPB SB. Continues on|10-556}}

== Back ==

[[File:SB-10-555.1.jpg|200px|thumb|right|SB, v. 10, p. 555, back]]

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{{HPB-SB-footer-sources}}
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.429_1880-11-12.pdf|page=1|London Spiritualist, No. 429, November 12, 1880, pp. 229-31
</gallery>

HPB-SB-10-542

2026-04-10T08:31:22Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
| volume = 10
| page = 542
| image = SB-10-542.jpg
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}}

{{HPB-SB-item
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| title = The Promotion of Tolerance in Religion by Spiritualism
| subtitle =
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| source title = London Spiritualist, The
| source details = No. 433, December 10, 1880, pp. 286-7
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The new Gospel of Tolerance in Religion, the great “''modern ideal'',” appears now to be in the ascendancy among Spiritualists. Its immense value in behalf of the well-being of mankind cannot be over estimated; and from its very novelty, as well as its abounding excellence, one is prompted to the opinion that it can be actually nothing less than the index of the first positive dawn of the “Greater Things” which have been promised to us. And this same religious tolerance, as I lately remarked, is the outcome of modern Spiritualism and of that alone. And if, at present, it can but effect a mitigation of those two awful scourges of humanity, war and the ''odium theologicum'', alone it will prove itself an unspeakable blessing, such as we could only have deemed utopian, if happily, we did not find it already ostensibly at work among the different orders of Spiritualists.

We rejoice, then, to see the Theosophists in Hindostan, and our fellow Spiritualists in France, both really labouring towards this same goal. For this reason, an extract from a letter of Madame Blavatsky to M. Fauvety, President of the Society for Psychological Studies in Paris, and an extract from M. Fauvety’s letter in reply, both of which are contained in the ''Revue Spirite'' for November, may be acceptable to the readers of the ''Spiritualist''.

In Madame Blavatsky’s interesting epistle, she says: “With the exception of the entirely special branch for esoteric studies, our society, as its name indicates, is nothing else but Universal Fraternity; the Brotherhood of Humanity. But new lights force to new conclusions. The teachers of this present phase of theosophy seem to think that the idea of universal fraternity is scarcely logical, is inconsistent, and inconsequent, nay, even impossible if unaccompanied by Religious Tolerance, when they take into consideration the different views that men have of religion in different countries; and, indeed, the different cast of thought with which different men clothe that which is alleged as the self same religion. At least, the above is the conclusion I have come to from reading the letters from which the following very remarkable, cheering and liberal sentiments are extracted.

Madame Blavatsky thus writes:—“Our Society is entirely the opposite of all others in existence. We do not permit the shadow of dogmatism either in religion or in science. Every one in his own branch does and acts as he pleases, but no one thinks of imposing his ideas upon others at our general meetings. A member who should say to his ‘Brother’ of another religion: ‘Think as I think, or you are damned,’ or who should try to persuade another that he alone is in possession of the truth, or should insult the beliefs of another, would be immediately excluded from the Society. The central Society protects every faith and every private opinion as it would protect the purse of one of its members. No one is allowed to touch that which is held sacred, or is the property of any of his Brethren, otherwise than with respect, and with the authority of the latter. This is why our Society works in harmony, and why, only lately, a delegation composed of nine members, two of whom were Buddhists, two Free-thinkers, one Christian, two Sun-worshippers (Parsees), and two Brahmins, were sent on a mission to Ceylon to defend the rights of Buddhists (formerly their bitter enemies, they hating each other mutually) and to found Buddhist Theosophical Societies, and also to hold conferences and to discourse in favour of the religion of the latter.”

Here is an extract from the answer of M. Fauvety:—“The object of our Society is, then, above all others, that of scientific research, and at the same time, and as a logical consequence, a work for common use, propaganda and apostleship of a religious and philosophical character.

In such a position, all co-operation that brings us new light is most welcome, and every work that has the same ends we are in entire sympathy with. The Theosophical Society of Bombay can aid us, then, with its lights. We accept thankfully all co-operation, and we offer in exchange, the results of our own work, which will be constantly remitted to that society by the care of our committee, or by private letters, or by our monthly publications. But we feel ourselves bound to the members of the Theosophical Society by a bond more stringent than that which could result from a reciprocal exchange of scientific research: it is that of ''the religious ideal common to us both''. I would speak of that great project of human fraternity which we follow as you do, but which you propose to realise by means peculiar to yourselves, and which constitute the grandest and noblest tentative that has been essayed on the road to universal conciliation.

“By repudiating the divisions of classes, castes and races, and by taking the ground of common humanity, you only affirm the ''modern ideal'' by resting it, as we all do, on the eternal principles of liberty, equality, fraternity and justice; but you are doing something that is as ''novel as it is admirable'', by joining practice to theory, by organising on a grand scale the binding together (''solidarity'') of all classes of men, and by calling on those men of light and progress who are already associated partially for humanitarian purposes, to meet together on common ground.”}}

{{Style P-Signature in capitals|An Old Spiritualist.}}

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<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.433_1880-12-10.pdf|page=12|London Spiritualist, No. 433, December 10, 1880, pp. 286-7
</gallery>

HPB-SB-10-541

2026-04-10T08:16:06Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
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...

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...

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<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|by g. s. khaparde.}}</center>

When setting out last from my native place for Bombay I observed to my friends and relations, who had come to the station to see me off, that as it was very hot, I was likely to be very thirsty on the way. Immediately one who will form the subject of this memorandum, stooped down and picking up a few pebbles from the gravelled platform, and holding them a moment in his closed hand, changed them into four large balls of sugar of two different kinds—one, used by us to satisfy hunger, the other, to quench thirst. This startled some, but not many, for he is well known in those parts to be a great Yogi or “magician”—in the better and revived sense of the word.

I have known him upwards of five years, with exceptionally good opportunities of observing him night and day. He made a stay of a few months with us, hence my knowledge and the confidence and certainty with which I can afford to speak of him. Many stories are current about him, and are universally believed. I will, however, content myself with giving a few of them, the instances having mostly happened under my personal observation. They also admit of easy verification. One has but to go to Umrawati, in the Berars, and see my father, Mr. Srikrishna Narahara, or Mr. Devidaspant Bhow, and he will be enabled to converse personally with the Yogi.

Once he was standing near a large well at Elichpur with some few friends, including myself. One of them had two nice silver boxes (tavits) of curious workmanship, and he produced them to be shown to Maroti Baba (this is the ascetic’s name) and asked him to take care lest they fall into water. Thereupon the Baba told him to throw them into the water. He hesitated, but was finally prevailed upon to do so; and apparently had no reason to repent, for within a few seconds, the Baba asked him to feel for them in his (the owner’s) own pocket, which he did, and found the identical boxes.

The Extra Assistant Commissioner at Karanja, nearly forty miles away from Umrawati, was anxious to see the Baba, and wrote many pressing letters of invitation to him, but all in vain. It, however, happened that one of the parties in a civil case before him, mentioned the Baba as one of the witnesses. The Munsiff was highly pleased at this unexpected chance of obtaining his attendance. A legal summons was issued and duly served, but the Baba refused to go. He was now at Umrawati. His friends represented to him the dangers of disobeying a summons, but despite these repeated representations and remonstrances, he put off going from day to day, until at last the very day appointed for the hearing of the case arrived. Even then he was inexorable, and his friends gave up the matter in despair, with an inward trembling for the consequences. On the appointed day, the Baba, as usual, breakfasted at 8 a.m., with his friends, and then sat down to his wonted work of meditation, with great ease and composure. Upon this the friends remarked that it would have been infinitely better for him to have gone, but as it could not now be helped, they would seek out a legal practitioner to see if the consequences might be avoided. On hearing this the Baba roused himself, took his turban and said that he would go. The distance was mentioned to him, and the impossibility of crossing it urged, but to no purpose. He was seen to go out of the front door, but further on, none could trace him. A few days after they heard that the Baba duly attended the Court on the same day, and at the same hour, at Karanja.

Once he happened to meet the Deputy Commissioner of Nagpur, who having previously heard of his “supernatural” doings, begged him to favour him with an exhibition. Upon being answered in the affirmative, and asked what he wished to see, he said that he would like to pluck mangoes from the Nim tree before which he was standing. The Baba said “certainly; this is not difficult. Pluck as many as you like!” and straightway everybody saw that in an instant the tree in question had become thickly laden with nice, eatable mangoes. This Deputy Commissioner was an English gentleman.

Once the Baba was asked to cause to appear some edible substance that should be in such a condition as to show that it must have been instantly brought from a great distance. The questioner mentioned a peculiar sweetmeat that is made in Surat and nowhere else, and asked that he might have some hot from the cooking pan. At once the wonder-worker put his hand under his garment and handed the thing demanded and hot, as had been asked. This respected and extraordinary man appears to be not more than 25 or 30 years old, but he is known to be far older, and his oldest friends have remarked no change in his face or person since they have known him. His father before him was a Yogi, and the son in his youth showed no signs of his subsequent pious self-abnegation; but just before the father’s death, he called his son to his side and conversed with him in strict privacy. When the parent had breathed his last and the rites enjoined by religion had been observed, the present Baba left home and was seen by no one for above twelve years. When he returned he had become an ascetic and began showing the marvellous psychic powers above indicated. How he learned the secret or from whom, no one knows, for upon his experiences during the period of his absence from his home and friends he has ever maintained strict silence.

Parel Hill, Bombay, August, 1880.

{{Footnotes start}}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> From ''The Theosophist'' (Bombay), October 1st, 1880.
{{Footnotes end}}

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<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.426_1880-10-22.pdf|page=12|London Spiritualist, No. 426, October 22, 1880, pp. 202-3
</gallery>

HPB-SB-10-541

2026-04-10T08:15:46Z

Sergey:

{{HPB-SB-header
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...

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...

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...

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<center>{{Style S-Small capitals|by g. s. khaparde.}}</center>

When setting out last from my native place for Bombay I observed to my friends and relations, who had come to the station to see me off, that as it was very hot, I was likely to be very thirsty on the way. Immediately one who will form the subject of this memorandum, stooped down and picking up a few pebbles from the gravelled platform, and holding them a moment in his closed hand, changed them into four large balls of sugar of two different kinds—one, used by us to satisfy hunger, the other, to quench thirst. This startled some, but not many, for he is well known in those parts to be a great Yogi or “magician”—in the better and revived sense of the word.

I have known him upwards of five years, with exceptionally good opportunities of observing him night and day. He made a stay of a few months with us, hence my knowledge and the confidence and certainty with which I can afford to speak of him. Many stories are current about him, and are universally believed. I will, however, content myself with giving a few of them, the instances having mostly happened under my personal observation. They also admit of easy verification. One has but to go to Umrawati, in the Berars, and see my father, Mr. Srikrishna Narahara, or Mr. Devidaspant Bhow, and he will be enabled to converse personally with the Yogi.

Once he was standing near a large well at Elichpur with some few friends, including myself. One of them had two nice silver boxes (tavits) of curious workmanship, and he produced them to be shown to Maroti Baba (this is the ascetic’s name) and asked him to take care lest they fall into water. Thereupon the Baba told him to throw them into the water. He hesitated, but was finally prevailed upon to do so; and apparently had no reason to repent, for within a few seconds, the Baba asked him to feel for them in his (the owner’s) own pocket, which he did, and found the identical boxes.

The Extra Assistant Commissioner at Karanja, nearly forty miles away from Umrawati, was anxious to see the Baba, and wrote many pressing letters of invitation to him, but all in vain. It, however, happened that one of the parties in a civil case before him, mentioned the Baba as one of the witnesses. The Munsiff was highly pleased at this unexpected chance of obtaining his attendance. A legal summons was issued and duly served, but the Baba refused to go. He was now at Umrawati. His friends represented to him the dangers of disobeying a summons, but despite these repeated representations and remonstrances, he put off going from day to day, until at last the very day appointed for the hearing of the case arrived. Even then he was inexorable, and his friends gave up the matter in despair, with an inward trembling for the consequences. On the appointed day, the Baba, as usual, breakfasted at 8 a.m., with his friends, and then sat down to his wonted work of meditation, with great ease and composure. Upon this the friends remarked that it would have been infinitely better for him to have gone, but as it could not now be helped, they would seek out a legal practitioner to see if the consequences might be avoided. On hearing this the Baba roused himself, took his turban and said that he would go. The distance was mentioned to him, and the impossibility of crossing it urged, but to no purpose. He was seen to go out of the front door, but further on, none could trace him. A few days after they heard that the Baba duly attended the Court on the same day, and at the same hour, at Karanja.

Once he happened to meet the Deputy Commissioner of Nagpur, who having previously heard of his “supernatural” doings, begged him to favour him with an exhibition. Upon being answered in the affirmative, and asked what he wished to see, he said that he would like to pluck mangoes from the Nim tree before which he was standing. The Baba said “certainly; this is not difficult. Pluck as many as you like!” and straightway everybody saw that in an instant the tree in question had become thickly laden with nice, eatable mangoes. This Deputy Commissioner was an English gentleman.

Once the Baba was asked to cause to appear some edible substance that should be in such a condition as to show that it must have been instantly brought from a great distance. The questioner mentioned a peculiar sweetmeat that is made in Surat and nowhere else, and asked that he might have some hot from the cooking pan. At once the wonder-worker put his hand under his garment and handed the thing demanded and hot, as had been asked. This respected and extraordinary man appears to be not more than 25 or 30 years old, but he is known to be far older, and his oldest friends have remarked no change in his face or person since they have known him. His father before him was a Yogi, and the son in his youth showed no signs of his subsequent pious self-abnegation; but just before the father’s death, he called his son to his side and conversed with him in strict privacy. When the parent had breathed his last and the rites enjoined by religion had been observed, the present Baba left home and was seen by no one for above twelve years. When he returned he had become an ascetic and began showing the marvellous psychic powers above indicated. How he learned the secret or from whom, no one knows, for upon his experiences during the period of his absence from his home and friends he has ever maintained strict silence.

Parel Hill, Bombay, August, 1880.

{{Footnotes start}}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> * From ''The Theosophist'' (Bombay), October 1st, 1880.
{{Footnotes end}}

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<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.426_1880-10-22.pdf|page=12|London Spiritualist, No. 426, October 22, 1880, pp. 202-3
</gallery>

HPB-SB-10-540

2026-04-10T07:54:22Z

Sergey:

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| page = 540
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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |A few experiences of a veteran|10-539}}

{{Style P-No indent|waken, now by gentle whispering, now by violent apparent vibrations on the drum of the ear, as though I were close to the firing of a cannon, and yet by sound entirely unheard by one sleeping at my side; and as if to show that it were really ''hearing'' by a sixth sense—is something uncommon but real.}}

Let me add that at the few ''seances'' I attended in London at that time, John King would allude to these visits. For instance, at my first ''seance'' with Mr. Williams, a private one, on May 4th, 1871, this is partly what passed. I copy consecutively from my note book of that time: “John King said, ‘I was with you when you wrote that.’ I said, ‘I know your voice, it is stronger than others.’ I said, ‘I sometimes wish my time was up.’ He said, ‘You are not going yet, you have a deal more work to do before you go.’ I said, ‘Have I the power to be a medium for the audible voice?’ He answered, ‘You are not strong enough.’” These answers were certainly not in my own brain, nor, I think, in that of the medium. Here is another reason why John King should have visited me, besides his implied promise at my own request, given at my first ''seance'' with him. I had written more than once, in very sceptical days, of my undoubted belief in his identity and in the ''bona fides'' of his mediums. I had written, too, in sympathy with his sufferings at that time, sometimes expressed by himself, as testified by Mr. Coleman and by my own observation, sufferings through having to return to earth for our instruction, and as a probation for former failings of his own on earth. I had written in a spiritual periodical, long since discontinued, under the heading of ''Voices at Mrs. Marshall’s'', the following: “I had read so often of spirits speaking audibly in the scriptures, that when I heard of a recurrence of such prodigies in our days, instead of being shocked I praised God. I thought, here is something to convince sceptics if nothing else will.” But I was mistaken, strange though it still appears to me; I wrote the above after my first ''seance'' with the direct voice on December 17th, 1867; and after describing the ''seance'', I wrote: “It must be no slight penance, one would imagine, for these spirits day after day to submit to the curiosity, the weaknesses and impertinences of spirits in the flesh for a long time together. It must be done, one must suppose, for their own advantage, or for the good of humanity, or for both combined.” Moreover, I think that John King knew that I had suffered on his account, especially at a later period, after I had early in 1871 described in a publication another ''seance'' with him through a then new medium, giving also specimens of my own clairaudience, that occurred during the night after the ''seance'', and when, in consequence of that article, open attacks upon myself, which had been going on for some time, culminated.

Years have passed away, and much that I had hoped for has not yet been realised, but these identical voices and idiosyncrasies of the same spirits, heard through different mediums, are among the most convincing and encouraging proofs still, to my mind, of spirit identity, and of the fact of the dead once living upon earth coming back to assure us that we too shall live on after death. On this point, which would be of inestimable value, in these sceptical, materialistic days, to the clergy, if they would utilise it, as St. Paul did the resurrection of Jesus, my opinions are not a whit changed.*

{{Style P-Signature in capitals| An old Spiritualist.}}

{{Footnotes start}}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The general tendency of this article seems to be slightly in favour of the personal individuality of John King, and not of his identity as a person who once lived on this earth. The similarity of the powerful voice of John King, through the mediumship of Mr. Williams and Mr. Husk, is very striking.— {{Style S-Small capitals| Ed.}}
{{Footnotes end}}

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The last American mail brings us the ''Banner of Light'' (Boston) of August 28th, in which some unbelievable physiological assertions are made by a trance medium in New York. Mr. J. L. O’Sullivan writes:—“As soon as she had closed her address, a short, middle-aged man rose from one of the rear seats in the hall, in whose strongly-marked features, still exhibiting the evidences of his marvellous forty days of fasting, though his subsequent week of not less astonishing feasting had restored some healthy color to his cheeks, I recognised the hero of the day, Dr. Tanner . . . . He said that he could not but understand the speaker’s reference to his recent severe trial in this city, and that though he remained still too weak to desire to say much, he must remark that his former similar experience (for forty-''two'' days) did not seem to him to support her theory of his having absorbed nutrition from the atmosphere charged with the elements furnished by a great population. It was in the wilds of the west, and much of his time was spent out on an open prairie, where he used to lay a great part of the day, basking in the sun and inhaling the fine, pure electric atmosphere of Minnesota, which he had often longed for here. He thought that he had been sustained by electric {{Style S-HPB SB. Restored|forces; nor did he think he would have lived twenty days under his recent trial if it had not been for the refreshment of his daily drives in the Central Park and on the Riverside Avenue, which had cost him six dollars a day. Air, fresh air, was what he was always wanting, and he often suffered for the want of it in Clarendon Hall. He should be disposed to think that the impure emanations exhaled from the population of a great city would do him more harm than any benefit to be derived in the way of nutrition from its other emanations.”}}

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<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.420_1880-09-10.pdf|page=6|London Spiritualist, No. 420, September 10, 1880, pp. 124-25
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2026-04-09T09:52:03Z

Sergey:

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{{Style P-HPB SB. Title continued |A few experiences of a veteran|10-539}}

{{Style P-No indent|waken, now by gentle whispering, now by violent apparent vibrations on the drum of the ear, as though I were close to the firing of a cannon, and yet by sound entirely unheard by one sleeping at my side; and as if to show that it were really ''hearing'' by a sixth sense—is something uncommon but real.}}

Let me add that at the few ''seances'' I attended in London at that time, John King would allude to these visits. For instance, at my first ''seance'' with Mr. Williams, a private one, on May 4th, 1871, this is partly what passed. I copy consecutively from my note book of that time: “John King said, ‘I was with you when you wrote that.’ I said, ‘I know your voice, it is stronger than others.’ I said, ‘I sometimes wish my time was up.’ He said, ‘You are not going yet, you have a deal more work to do before you go.’ I said, ‘Have I the power to be a medium for the audible voice?’ He answered, ‘You are not strong enough.’” These answers were certainly not in my own brain, nor, I think, in that of the medium. Here is another reason why John King should have visited me, besides his implied promise at my own request, given at my first ''seance'' with him. I had written more than once, in very sceptical days, of my undoubted belief in his identity and in the ''bona fides'' of his mediums. I had written, too, in sympathy with his sufferings at that time, sometimes expressed by himself, as testified by Mr. Coleman and by my own observation, sufferings through having to return to earth for our instruction, and as a probation for former failings of his own on earth. I had written in a spiritual periodical, long since discontinued, under the heading of ''Voices at Mrs. Marshall’s'', the following: “I had read so often of spirits speaking audibly in the scriptures, that when I heard of a recurrence of such prodigies in our days, instead of being shocked I praised God. I thought, here is something to convince sceptics if nothing else will.” But I was mistaken, strange though it still appears to me; I wrote the above after my first ''seance'' with the direct voice on December 17th, 1867; and after describing the ''seance'', I wrote: “It must be no slight penance, one would imagine, for these spirits day after day to submit to the curiosity, the weaknesses and impertinences of spirits in the flesh for a long time together. It must be done, one must suppose, for their own advantage, or for the good of humanity, or for both combined.” Moreover, I think that John King knew that I had suffered on his account, especially at a later period, after I had early in 1871 described in a publication another ''seance'' with him through a then new medium, giving also specimens of my own clairaudience, that occurred during the night after the ''seance'', and when, in consequence of that article, open attacks upon myself, which had been going on for some time, culminated.

Years have passed away, and much that I had hoped for has not yet been realised, but these identical voices and idiosyncrasies of the same spirits, heard through different mediums, are among the most convincing and encouraging proofs still, to my mind, of spirit identity, and of the fact of the dead once living upon earth coming back to assure us that we too shall live on after death. On this point, which would be of inestimable value, in these sceptical, materialistic days, to the clergy, if they would utilise it, as St. Paul did the resurrection of Jesus, my opinions are not a whit changed.*

{{Style P-Signature in capitals| An old Spiritualist.}}

{{Footnotes start}}
<nowiki>*</nowiki> The general tendency of this article seems to be slightly in favour of the personal individuality of John King, and not of his identity as a person who once lived on this earth. The similarity of the powerful voice of John King, through the mediumship of Mr. Williams and Mr. Husk, is very striking.— {{Style S-Small capitals| Ed.}}
{{Footnotes end}}

{{HPB-SB-item
| volume = 10
| page = 540
| item = 1
| type = article
| status = wanted
| continues =
| author =
| title = Dr. Tanner at a spiritualistic meeting
| subtitle =
| untitled =
| source title = london Spiritualist
| source details = No. 420, September 10, 1880, pp. 124-25
| publication date = 1880-10-10
| original date =
| notes =
| categories =
}}

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{{HPB-SB-footer-sources}}
<gallery widths=300px heights=300px>
london_spiritualist_n.420_1880-09-10.pdf|page=6|London Spiritualist, No. 420, September 10, 1880, pp. 124-25
</gallery>