FOTA Newsletter IX

FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER OF THE FRIENDS OF THE THEOSOPHICAL ARCHIVES ISSUE No 9 | 2020 1 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 The Friends of Theosophical Archives Newsletter n 9 o In this Issue 2 05 06 • Editorial 08 • Archives of the Theosophical Society Adyar Tim Boyd 12 • Interview with Leslie Price Erica Georgiades 14 • Copenhagen Centre for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism Tim Rudbøg 18 20 22 23 24 • In Memoriam Gregory Tillett 30 • Reclycled Lives Julie Chajes • Cataloging of Theosophical Archives in India Mriganka Mukhopadhya • In Memoriam Gregory Tillett • Leslie Price on Gregory Tillett • Gregory Tillet’s Archives • The Archives of the Theosophical Society in Slovenia & Yogoslavia Anton Rozman 44 • The Westminster Gazette Unveils Isis Brett Forray 56 • Early Days Membership in The Theosophical Society Debbie Elliott 58 • Early Day Membership TS in Greece Ifigeneia Kastamoniti 63 • ITDc 2019, Athens Debbie Elliott 64 • Controversies about the Dondoukoff-Korsakoff Erica Georgiades William Q. Judge - Photo Colourised by Grupo de Estudios Teosóficos Valencia FOUNDER: Leslie Price | EDITOR: Erica Georgiades Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position FOTA. ABOUT FOTA FOTA (The Friends of Theosophical Archives) is a charitable organisation being formed to promote knowledge of, and support for, the Theosophical archives across the world. For this purpose, “Theosophy”is defined in the same way as in the editorial pages ofTheosophical History, and is not restricted to any one tradition or country. For more information visit this link: http://www.hypatia.gr/fota/ To unsubscribe from FOTA NEWSLETTER send an e-mail to [email protected] 3 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 l a i r o t Edi We finally managed to release a new issue of FOTA Newsletter, featuring a meeting discussion that Mriganka Mukhopadhyay had with the editor of FOTA, Jaishree Kannan (archivist of the Adyar Archive) and others on the possibility of creating a project for cataloguing Theosophical archives across India. Tim Boyd, the International President of the Theosophical Society, honours FOTA Newsletter with an article focusing on Adyar Archives, now named Surendra Narayan Archives, its history, renovation and importance. Tim Rudbøg, writes on the Copenhagen Centre for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism, introducing us to the work of the centre, discussing on the importance of the academic study on Theosophy and saying how some scholars have compared HPB’s socio-cultural influence with the one of Martin Luther or Saint Paul. Erica interviews Leslie Price, focusing on how Vernon Harrison decided to review the Hodgson Report. Leslie became a member of the Society for Psychic Research in 1980 and starts encouraging research on Theosophical phenomena. In 1983, he delivered a lecture at the Society for Psychic Research pointing out inaccuracies in the Hodgson Report and calling for its re-examination. As a result of the work encouraged by Leslie, Vernon Harrison re-examined the Hodgson Report, concluding that the report is not a scientific study and “is flawed and untrustworthy.” It should be read with caution if not disregarded. The Hodgson report affected the image of both HPB and the Theosophical Society, badly. The impact of that report remains. However, if not for Leslie’s work, probably this re-examination would not have been written. He, then, plays a pivotal role in trying to exonerate the name of both Madame Blavatsky and The Theosophical Society. As a result, Leslie Price has given one of the most significant contributions to the Theosophical Movement in the 20th century. Anton Rozman writes a report on the archives of the Theosophical Society in Slovenia and Yugoslavia. Julie Chajes shares with us the introduction to her book “Recycled Lives: A history of Reincarnation in Blavatsky’s Theosophy.” Debbie Elliott comments on the International Theosophical History Conference 2020, Athens, Greece; and, discusses the early days of membership in The Theosophical Society in England. Brett Forray writes on “The Westminster Gazette Unveils Isis,” focusing on The Judge Case, from his book “The Troubled Emissaries.” James Santucci focuses on “The Kenneth R. Small Archive of the Universal Brotherhood and Theosophical Society at Lomaland, 1874–1960;” and Ifigeneia Kastamanoti, compiled and shared with us the early membership list of the Theosophical Society in Greece from 1923-1928. We also reproduced an article written by the editor, focusing on The Controversies about the Dondoukoff-Korsakoff Letters. The drawing with this editorial is entitled “ Do not Hide,” by Erica Georgiades, dedicated to women victim of domestic violence. According to an article published by The New York Times, there is a new COVID-19 crisis, domestic violence as result of lockdowns around the world, women are among the worst victims. The cover of this issue is by the Theosophical Group Valencia, Spain. Finally, we register here our farewell to Ali Ritsema, a Theosophist and friend who passed away in 2019; and to the researcher and scholar Gregory Tillett, who passed away in 2018. May their souls rest in peace. Erica Georgiades Do not Hide - Drawing by Erica Georgiades 4 5 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA PROJECT Cataloging of Theosophical Archives in India Mriganka Mukhopadhya In Varanasi (December 2019/January 2020), Mriganka Mukhopadhyay, Jaishree Kannan, Erica Georgiades and others, had a discussion regarding the future of the archival materials spread all over the Theosophical libraries in India. There are several century-old lodges in the country some of which have great libraries. Such lodges include, for example, Calcutta, Bombay, Varanasi, Bangalore etc., just to name a few. In these libraries, there are several rare documents which are unique and cannot be found anywhere in the world. However, for the scholars located around the world, it is difficult to know about the stock of these libraries unless they visit those 6 particular places. Sometimes, even the visit to the particular Lodge doesn’t become very fruitful as they hardly find the things they were looking for. Even worse, in some cases, the members of the local lodges are not always aware of the contents of their libraries which create greater problems. Therefore, to make things easier, we discussed that there should be an online catalogue which will include all the titles available in those libraries. This will make the life of the scholars and the researchers easier. How to do this?: As we discussed, this project should work very well if it is jointly coordinated by the FOTA (Friends of Theosophical Archives) and the Adyar FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Archives. A specific website could be built up for this purpose containing xml sheets which can be constantly updated. However, the most difficult task, perhaps, would be to create a record and build up the catalogues where there are no existing catalogues. I recall, we discussed that a group of volunteers, from the specific lodge/federation, could be trained through a workshop in Adyar for developing catalogues. This training could be done under the guidance of the Adyar Archives. Once the cataloguing is complete, we can think of digitizing the rare books/documents/paintings available in these libraries. However, that will be an even grander design and require a lot of resources. For the present moment, cataloguing should be easier and a more achievable task. However, this entire process will require further brainstorming. The next International Theosophical History Conference (February 2021) will be in Adyar, will be a perfect occasion to have a roundtable discussion on this. There will be several scholars, also well known and eminent members of the Theosophical Society who might be interested in such discussions. Therefore, it will be nice if a one or two hour session is dedicated during the Conference for this discussion. Moreover, the centenary year of the Adyar Archives will be 2021.1 So if this work begins from 2021, one can aim to complete it by 2022 and thus celebrate the anniversary of the Theosophical archives. 1 - Note from the Editor: due to COVID-19 the Conference is transferred to February 2022. 7 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Archives of the Theosophical Society Adyar - Tim Boyd Tim Boyd is the International President of the Theosophical Society Adyar. Although a mounting number of items were building up at the Adyar headquarters, it was not until forty-seven years after the founding of the TS that a formal Archives was created. The Archives and Adyar Day came into being simultaneously on February 17, 1922 (the fifteenth anniversary of Colonel Olcott’s passing). In a Watchtower note from that date Annie Besant writes, “Mr. C. Jinarajadasa who has become the archive-keeper of the Society ... is burrowing into all the old locked up boxes, and bringing out treasures of the most varied kinds.” In 1928 we again read in the Watchtower, “Mr. C. Jinarajadasa has discovered among the records of the T. S. much interesting material. The first of these is the series of ‘Scrap-Books’ of H. P. B., beginning During its history the Archives has been with that of 1874.” housed in a variety of locations on the Ad- As Jinarajadasa’s role in the TS’s international yar campus. Although the “Custodian” of the work increased in 1925, although still mainArchives has always been the TS President, taining the position of archive-keeper, he apthe title for its chief worker has changed pointed Mary K. Neff to assist him. When her over the years – from “archives-keeper” to appointment was announced at the Sydney “President’s Deputy in the Archives Depart- Convention that year she said, “I felt I had ment” to “Officer in Charge”. A number of received the highest tribute in my life.” For prominent Theosophists have served in this two years she lived at Adyar cataloguing and capacity. One of its most active archivists organizing the thousands of items in the Arwas its first, C. Jinarajadasa, who went on chives. As a result of her archives work she to become the fourth International Presi- went on to author a number of significant dent of the TS. He was known for his expan- books on the history of the TS. In 1944 she sion of existing archival materials and for was awarded the the Subba Row Medal in mining the archives to produce such works recognition of her contribution to Theosophas Letters from the Masters of Wisdom. ical literature. The Adyar Archives, now named the Surendra Narayan Archives in honor of a beloved and long serving Theosophical Society (TS) vice-president, are unique in the theosophical world. The range of materials it houses is extensive - everything from correspondence that spans the globe and modern history, to objects of art, phenomenally produced objects and drawings, the twenty-four volumes of HPB’s scrapbooks, rare manuscripts, photographs, and Colonel Olcott’s personal diaries. From the day the TS’s was founded Colonel Olcott felt that it was a movement of historical significance. So long as he lived he was diligent in gathering and preserving documents and objects that might shed light on the growth of the TS for future generations. 8 9 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Today our Archives have become a resource, not only to TS members, but to the world. In recent years academia has become aware that the influence of the Theosophical movement has been imprinted on virtually all areas of global culture. At any given time we are receiving requests from authors, researchers, and Phd candidates around the world. Whereas in the past we had developed a defensive approach to our archival materials – protecting them from misuse by those who would speak unfavorably about the TS’s history – today we regularly engage and service scholars internationally. Due to climatic conditions and our technical inexperience, over the years many of our documents have been badly affected. There was also a period of five years (2008-2014) when our Archives was unstaffed and not functioning. Even with the best preservation methods documents age. Advances in our digital capacity have made preserving and sharing our materials easier. As an example, although the work took a year to complete, as of 2018 all twenty-four volumes of HPB’s scrapbooks, dating from 1874 to 1888, have been digitized. Currently we are exploring the best way to make them available to students online. Every day we are digitizing the collection. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Initially our intention was to erect a new building connected to our Library, the Adyar Library and Research Centre (ALRC), with a view of combining the two primary research centres on our campus. As our plans evolved we found that we could create an Archives space, larger than our existing Archives, within the ALRC building. As of October 2019 the construction work has been finished. The new Surendra Narayan Archives is fully air conditioned and humidity controlled, and includes both office space and space for visiting researchers. The new storage units and office furniture are on order, and we expect all archival materials to be transported and arranged before the New Year. The new space will be a worthy home for the TS’s historical documents for generations to come. —– For the past three years we have been planning for a new dedicated Archives space. After the historic floods in Chennai in 2015, it became clear that our current location, three metres from the Adyar River, was no longer sustainable. During the flooding the water level reached just inches below floor level in the Archives. As a precaution while the water level continued to rise all of the items on the lower shelves of the Archives were moved upstairs to the President’s office. Adyar Archives. 11 10 Tim Boyd and Jaishree Kannan FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no8 • Autumn-Winter FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 20202017-2018 Copenhagen Centre for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism Dr. Tim Rudbøg is an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen and is in this capacity also director of the Copenhagen Center for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism (CCSTE) as well as head-coordinator of the Scandinavian Network for the Academic Study of Western Esotericism (SNASWE). Dr. Rudbøg completed his Research Master of Arts (MA) in The History of Religions with Philosophy from the University of Copenhagen with his thesis “Constructing Kabbalah: From Mysticism to Western Esotericism” and holds a PhD in History (Western esotericism) from the University of Exeter, UK with his dissertation “H. P. Blavatsky’s Theosophy in Context: The Construction of Meaning in Modern Western Esotericism”. Many of his publications have focused on the academic study of esotericism, Blavatsky, and Theosophy. In recent decades, the study of Theosophy has received renewed stimulation from academic scholarship across a number of disciplines, such as the history of religions, art history, literary studies and global history studies. Clearly, there is a steady rise in the number of publications related to Theosophy in the form of books, articles and in the number of MA theses and PhD dissertations. A part of this revival is undoubtedly, interconnected with the growth of the academic study of esotericism, which in more recent years has been firmly established as an important area of research. In this regard the many Theosophical archives located around the world are of great importance to academic scholarship as they 12 contain the vital, original sources and yet unpublished material on the basis of which much future research will be dependent. The preservation of these archives – a crucially important undertaking –, which the Friends of Theosophical Archives (FOTA) is working towards, is therefore much appreciated also by the academic community. With regard to research and teaching a new academic unit known as the Copenhagen Centre for the Study of Theosophy and Esotericism (CCSTE) was successfully established in the spring of 2017 at the University of Copenhagen. CCSTE is sponsored by the Blavatsky Trust, who also sponsored FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 The Exeter Center for the Study of Esotericism (EXESESO) at the University of Exeter headed by the late Prof. Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, who was also a founding member of both the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism and the Association for the Study of Esotericism (ASE), in America. It is my hope as the director of CCSTE that the academic developments in the study of esotericism, including the activities of CCSTE, which seeks to further stimulate the interest in the academic study of Theosophy, will also kindle a growing interest in the many relevant Theosophical archives as well as cultivate an awareness of the work undertaken by FOTA. At CCSTE we offer a distinct opportunity for students and scholars alike to focus on influential, yet still vastly overlooked, aspects of European and global intellectual, religious and social history often categorized as ‘Western esotericism’. In particular, our center is dedicated to teaching and research related to Theosophy, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) and the history of esotericism. We offer a full course related to esotericism each semester. Courses are taught in English and are internationally available to all academic levels (BA, MA, PhD). It is possible to follow the courses in class, on location, or as distant learning courses as all teaching is recorded and available online via the university. Themes taught include the Theosophical movement, esoteric traditions, hermeticism, Platonism, Kabbalah, the cultural history of magical practices, esoteric knowledge systems, mysticism, Christian theosophy, gnosis, secrecy and secret societies. Specialized supervision is equally available at all academic levels. philosophy in European history”. This course explores Europe’s colorful landscape from antiquity to our present time with a focus on the religious ideas and traditions, which, throughout time, have been categorized as either ‘esoteric’, ‘magical’, ‘occult’, ‘mystical’ ‘irrational’ or as pure ‘superstition’, such as kabbalah, Hermeticism, alchemy, astrology, Platonism, Theosophy, occult philosophy, and ideas and traditions related to various secret societies. Based on current research within the field, this course focuses historically on the pluralistic European religious landscape and on the role of the esoteric traditions in the many exchanges and debates that have taken place between the major religious traditions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. The influence of and influence on the developments in science and philosophy is also discussed, as well as the relationship between orthodoxy and heterodoxy, reuse of ideas from antiquity, and the continued influence of the pagan religions. This course also examines the specific religious beliefs, knowledge types, polemical discourses and practices that have characterized esoteric traditions in their interaction with other traditions. Another core course, often offered during the fall semester, is “The New Spirituality and Modern Religious Crises: Blavatsky’s synthesis of ancient traditions and modern science”, which explores that, as a concept and as a way of life, spirituality has today become widespread and to many people means something fundamentally different from religion. Today it is, for example, not surprising when people say that they believe in some form of higher energy uniting everything, The recurrent core course usually offered reincarnation, karma, human potential, during the spring semester is “Esoteric clairvoyance, communication with spirits, Traditions: across religion, science and or that they have experienced something 13 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTAbody NEWSLETTER 9 • 2020 moving forward in fast pace extraordinary—even out of the and is ncurrently at the same time do not see themselves as examining her ideas and impact. Her work, which combines a number of traditions and religious. How did this come about? forms of knowledge, includes the development This course discusses the meaning of of a comprehensive spiritual cosmology that spirituality as a cultural, social, and historical incorporates the evolution of races, lost phenomenon through a study of the work continents and life on other planets, karma, of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), reincarnation, and the development of occult as most of the characteristics of what many powers. Combining science, Eastern religions, identify as modern spirituality either originate and alternative Western traditions with a directly with her or from contexts related to focus on undiscovered individual potential, her. consciousness evolution, and the unity in all Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was, as is well life, she faces the burgeoning religious crises known, a highly unusual woman of her time. and sets the framework for the emergence of She was of Russian noble decent and already a new form of spirituality—later popularized as a child displayed what was regarded as as New Age Religion in the latter half of the paranormal abilities. After being married, she 20th century. fled and embarked on worldwide travelling Beyond the research undertaken in to India, Egypt, Europe and the Americas connection with the center, which includes in search of authentic spiritual knowledge. the forthcoming book Imagining the East: The In the 1870s she settled in New York and Early Theosophical Society (Oxford: Oxford became a US citizen and a co-founded of University Press) and a detailed study of the the Theosophical Society, a society formed concept of evolution in Blavatsky’s the Secret to investigate spiritualistic phenomena and Doctrine, the center also sponsors a number ancient wisdom. In 1877 she published her of student activities, such as The Not So Secret first comprehensive work in two volumes Club, which facilitates student lectures, social entitled Isis Unveiled dealing with occult activities, movie nights, visiting esoteric knowledge, theology and modern science groups, and a student journal Pan-Sophia – a work which, she claimed, was written representing the best scholarly work done by telepathically in corporation with hidden students in relation to the courses offered by masters residing in Tibet. In 1879 she settled the center. in India and embraced Eastern religions and became one of the first Western Buddhists. A question, which is occasionally asked Blavatsky also attracted both negative and regarding the academic study of Theosophy positive international attention for her many, and esotericism is: Why study all of these so called, paranormal phenomena. In 1888 topics at all? One of the main ideas of CCSTE she published her second major work The is that ideas, thinkers, practices and groups Secret Doctrine as a commentary to the related to terms such as esotericism, esoteric Book of Dzyan and a synthesis of religion, traditions, occultism, theosophy, kabbalah, philosophy and science. In 1891, at age 59, alchemy, astrology, magic, the supernatural, she died as perhaps the first person famous gnosis and secret knowledge are less obscure than they might seem at first sight for being famous. and that they in fact have been significant Scholars have compared her influence to and influential facets of human culture. For Martin Luther or Saint Paul and research o 14 Christmas Humphreys - Picture provided by Muriel Muriel Daw FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 example, it is generally less known: that the great philosophers of antiquity such as Pythagoras, Plato and Aristotle all divided their teachings into a public or exoteric exposition and an esoteric one only available to the initiated; that significant theologians from the Byzantine empire and the Western Middle Ages, such as Michael Psellus and Albertus Magnus were engaged with magic, the study of demons and occult sciences; that so called magicians helped develop the experimental method prominent in modern science; that the collection of texts from late antiquity known as the Corpus Hermeticum influenced the development of humanism, the modern concept of man, Renaissance art and the emergence of modern science; that several courts of Europe had a prominent astrological counselor, such as John Dee at the court of Queen Elizabeth I; that philosophers such as Leibniz and Hegel also studied Kabbalah and hermeticism; that the discoverer of the law of gravitation, Isaac Newton, was preoccupied with alchemy; that H.C. Ørsted, the discoverer of electromagnetism, was a freemason; that many modern scientists such as Alfred Wallace, the co-formulator of the theory of natural selection, and the pioneer chemist and inventor William Crookes believed in communication with spirits; that the Russian Helena P. Blavatsky and the modern Theosophical Society, she co-founded, directly influenced modern abstract art, archeological expeditions and India’s independence. Thus the idea that Theosophy and esotericism are impactful driving forces in European and World history rather than simply discarded knowledge is one that is currently entertained by several scholars of this field. For more information, see https://ccrs.ku.dk/ research/centres-and-projects/ccste/ —– 15 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Interview with Leslie Price Erica Georgiades Q. Could you share your thoughts on the impact The Hodgson Report had on H.P.B., both as a woman and as a leader; also on the Theosophical Society? clarity and ordered exposition of difficult subjects. Far from being worthless, I find that the only other authors who have had comparable effect on my thinking are Swedenborg, William Blake and Carl Jung. As to the material being stolen, H. P. B. expressly states that the beginning of “The Secret Doctrine” that none of it is her own; she has merely provided the string that ties the nosegay together.” A. In 1884, Theosophy was fashionable in Europe. But this was changed by the Coulomb accusations of fraud in summer 1884, and by the Dec. 1885 S.P.R. Report into Theosophical phenomena, much of which was collated by Richard Hodgson. H.P.B. had suffered many traumas in her Could you please share with us how the life, but this was one of the worst, as she correspondence between you and Dr Vernon was deserted by many friends, scorned in Harrison started? the press, and pressed to leave India, to A. When I joined the T.S. in 1980, I was n which she never returned. On the upside, active S.P.R. member, keen to encourage this exile gave her some leisure to work research into Theosophical phenomena, on “The Secret Doctrine”, and also meant For example, with the help of Arthur that a certain dedication was now needed Ellison, a senior Theosophist who was S.P.R. to publicly identify with Theosophy. To be centenary president in 1982, I approached separated from the daily routine of the T.S. Christmas Humphreys about scientific h.q. in Adyar also gave her a space in which analysis of The Mahatma Letters, similar to to attempt more esoteric work. that done on the Turin Shroud. He was not keen as he regarded the Letters as sacred Q. On 6th April 1983 you presented a lecture objects. to the S.P.R. in London entitled “Madame Blavatsky Unveiled? A new discussion of the I encouraged Dr Hugh Gray, the T.S. in most famous investigation of The Society for England general secretary to invite Dr Psychical Research” (http://216.92.243.84/ Vernon Harrison, a leading member of the THC/Mad-Blavatsky-Unveiled.pdf). S.P.R. to lecture at TSE headquarters. Dr You pointed out how the S.P.R. was biased Harrison accepted and chose the 1885 S.P.R. against HPB; some gaps in the Hodgson investigation into Theosophical phenomena Report; and you called for a re-assessment as his subject. Dr Harrison’s paper was of the same. You quoted a later unpublished circulated among interested parties and letter from Dr Vernon Harrison (your own he continued his work in what became his S.P.R. lecture was not published as a booklet historic paper in the S.P.R. Journal April until 1986, and had some additional material) 1986 “J’Accuse”, later expanded into a book from Theosophical University Press, now “I am prepared to defend her writings available free on line. because I have taken the trouble to read some of them carefully. Far from being It may be that there was an element of muddled, I find “The Key to Theosophy” planning from the inner planes, as a number and other minor works to be models of of people were in effect lined up to play a 16 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 part. Dr John Beloff the JSPR editor was actually a Rationalist, but he was open to the reality of psychokinetic phenomena, and after the usual refereeing process, published Dr Harrison’s paper. Dr Harrison himself was superbly qualified -an expert on forgery and on photography, acquainted with H.P.B’s work, but not ever before then a T.S. member. As secretary of the first S.P.R. international conference in 1977, I was also at that time influential, and even more so, was Dr Ellison. I was asked to draft a press release about the Harrison paper which Dr Ellison edited. That was probably the most widely circulated item I ever wrote! A. Col. Olcott feared that H.P.B. would be provoked in court and made to look foolish, and subjected to grave strain; also that the names of the Mahatmas would be further traduced. But appeasement encourages hostile critics. As for the S.P.R. as Dr Harrison pointed out, it mishandled its first and perhaps only attempt to work with a practising occultist of rare gifts. https://www.theosophyforward.com/ theosophy-and-the-society-in-the-publiceye/133-notes-by-the-way-white-lotusday Q. Did you assist Dr Harrison on his research? In case you did, could you please share details? A. I provided a few useful items, such as earlier analyses of handwriting, and switrhothers commented on successive drafts. Q. In your conclusion, you try to show both positive and negative outcomes of the scandal involving the Hodgson Report: “I believe that conclusions were reached prematurely by the 1885 Committee, and that the S.P.R. as a whole has had to suffer consequences for this. But the 1885 debacle also has a long list of Theosophists who shared in the responsibility including (as she said) H.P.B. herself, Theosophists at Adyar, and the Theosophical Society which forbade her to sue the Coulombs, in effect deserting her, and, perhaps, bringing upon itself many problems in later years.” Could you elaborate on this i.e. the consequences the S.P.R. suffered; the reason why H.P.B. was forbidden to sue the Coloumb. —– 17 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 in memoriam LOUIS GEERTMAN, former Vice-General Secretary of the Dutch Section. The Theosophist,vol. 140. 11, August 2019. Ali Ritsema grew up in the northeast of the Netherlands. She was bright and open-minded, married young, and raised two children. Around 1980 she discovered Theosophy and quickly found a friend who shared her interest in the teachings. They both joined the Theosophical Society (TS) and she studied many theosophical handbooks, deciding to devote her life to Theosophy. As soon as her children had fled the nest, she went to live at the Naarden International Theosophical Centre (ITC). She then attended study courses in Adyar, where she met many active members from around the world, became friends with the then international President of the TS, Radha Burnier, and with Joy Mills, and also went to the Krotona Institute of Theosophy in Ojai, California, where she met Roger Price, who later would become her second husband. In 1993 she became General Secretary of the Dutch section of the TS, a post that allowed her to open up the Society to new members, organizing weekendand summer-schools, which were well attended. She also lectured in both national and international Lodges. She wrote articles, translated books, and kept studying on her own. After ten years, she was ready to enter a quieter phase of her life, moving with Roger to Belgium. Radha Burnier then made Ali her representative in Indonesia, so she had to work hard there, going several times, helping to set up Indonesian Lodges and supporting and advising active members. Ali’s great passion was HPB’s The Secret Doctrine and she really wanted to write an abridged and more accessible version of that magnum opus in the Dutch language. That meant she had to prepare herself, so she moved back to the Netherlands, close to The Hague, withdrawing from society and devoting herself to study and writing, keeping her international contacts alive via emails. She lived as a nun, receiving very few people, while focussing on her studies. When cancer struck, she remained optimistic, convinced that the disease eventually would disappear due to her healthy way of life. Unfortunately, a few years later it became painfully clear that the cancer had spread. In August 2019 she was happy to celebrate her 75th birthday with her children and some friends, but her physical condition was rapidly worsening. On 16 December she peacefully passed away. —– 18 19 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 in memoriam FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 passed away on 6/12/2018 by Peregrin Campbell-Osgood (originally published on Gregory Tillett’s facebook page) For those who do not know Fr Gregory Tillett hermit, priest, academic, author and advocate, died last month. It is hard to know where to begin to pay tribute to this amazing human being (and this is just dashed off at lunch). He was always unfailingly kind, supportive, and generous with his time, resources and deep wisdom. I do hope someone writes a good biography soon. His life spanned many spheres, but always at the centre was his deep and rich Christian practice, which he embodied through his love. Greg was one of the early researchers in esoteric, pagan and occult spirituality in Australia, focusing particularly on the Theosophical Society. He earned his doctoral thesis with an expansion of his wonderful biography of C.W. Leadbeater and produced much ground-breaking research in this area. He was a legal advocate for members of the Gay and Lesbian community when homosexuality was still illegal in some states. He was particularly active and instrumental in this field during the awful AIDS panic of the 80s. Greg was also an expert in conflict management, teaching it at an academic level and co-writing one of the standard texts on the subject. In the early 90s Greg was active in the British Orthodox Church, becoming one of its leading priests, archivist and historian. Greg was one of the key people who helped bring the Church into the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate in 1994, where he was ordained. He became the first non-Copt to undergo the traditional Forty Days intensive training program following ordination. As a Coptic priest Greg was an outspoken advocate for those excluded by Orthodoxy and Orthodox superstitions, particularly LGBTIQ people, women and non-Copts. He butted hard against the church hierarchy many times in his defence of the excluded. Upon retirement Greg broke new ground by transforming his home in suburban Sydney into a consecrated Coptic hermitage. There he lived simply but reaching out to help many people through advocacy, sharing of wisdom and the incredible blog, City Desert (https:// citydesert.wordpress.com).I am blessed to count myself as one of those people. There is so much more I could say, but much cannot be, and time prohibits me. This morning as I practiced the form of the Jesus Prayer he taught me I cried and cried – both for loss and for the joy and love this Great Man brought to the world. I will be forever richer for his life and love. I’ll leave off for now by linking to one of his homilies. Eternal rest grant to him, O Lord; and let light perpetual shine upon him. http://www.britishorthodox.org 20 21 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 LESLIE PRICE ON GREGORY TILLETT GREGORY TILLETT ON FOTA NEWSLETTER July 2, 2016. January 10, 2019. The life of Dr Gregory Tillett, who passed away from cancer last month, was irrevocably changed, when about 1979 he obtained from the registrar in London the birth certificate of C.W. Leadbeater, the Theosophical clairvoyant whose biography he was writing. He was surprised to find eventually that from 1890 CWL had falsely claimed to have been born in 1847, the same year as Annie Besant (with whom he began to work about 1890) instead of 1854. The account by Leadbeater, of having been at the Great Exhibition of 1851, was thus impossible. Subsequent examination of other personal details, especially the existence of a brother Gerald who was killed young in Brazil, did not substantiate them. Although there had been many criticisms of Leadbeater over the years, no one had questioned his official biography, not even Arthur Nethercot, who had spent years working on his biography of Annie Besant . The Adyar TS international president John Coats had encouraged Greg’s biography, but he passed away on 26 December 1979. His successor Mrs Radha Burnier, who was also head of the esoteric school, was hostile to the project. In India, she was able to prevent attention to Greg’s 1982 book “The Elder Brother” and to his subequent doctoral thesis, which had more discussion of Leadbeater’s sexual life, as was Dora Kunz in America, an old pupil of CWL, who was president of the TSA. This meant few reviews in Theosophical publications, absence of the book from Theosophical libraries and low book sales. (England was an exception, where Lilian Storey the librarian was a family historian, and indeed had checked Greg’s data on behalf of John Coats.) On the Adyar T.S. international web site, until a year or two ago, Leadbeater continued to be born in 1847. Having joined the T.S. in England in 1980, I realised that free discussion of historical facts was not always possible in the T.S., and this was a factor in my decision to start the independent journal “Theosophical History” in 1985. Many Theosophists were led to believe that Greg was a bad person who had maliciously attacked a noble Theosophist. Even quite senior Theosophists never read his book which was (in retrospect) not unsympathetic to CWL. There is no doubt that the realisation that Leadbeater had fabricated a more impressive curriculm vitae, presented acute problems. He was a close colleague of the revered T.S. second president, Annie Besant. He was head of the esoteric school at his death. He was a pillar of the Liberal Catholic Church. He was an eminent co-mason, and so on. Yet his colleagues, some of them also great occultists, such as Jinarajadasa, Arundale and Mrs Besant herself, do not seem to have suspected that CWL was romancing. “ The Newsletter is imaginative, innovative, stimulating, and a long way from the conventional boring journals in equivalent fields! It gives an immediate sense of “Hey, I want to read this”. Obviously, lots of hard work to make it so. Congratulations and thanks to Erica for showing that archives can be taken beyond the pervasive feel of dust, decay and old men in grubby cardigans!” (Source: https://cwleadbeater.wordpress.com/2016/07/02/fota-newsletter-issue-vi/) ARCHIVES OF GREGORY TILLETT Leslie Price interviewed Gregory Tillett in 2016 (see interview here http://hypatia.gr/fota/images/newsletter/Fota_Newsletter06.pdf). In the interview, Leslie, asked his what he aimed to do with his own personal archive, here what he said: “Following the untimely death of John Cooper in 1998, his family asked me to serve as the literary executor of his estate, and to locate a repository for his extensive library and archives. Stringent conditions were to be imposed on any recipient: the collection must be maintained as a special collection; it must be properly catalogued and preserved; the collection must be accessible to researchers; and nothing from the collection could be dispersed or disposed of which my permission. Various institutions were approached, and the National Library of Australia was chosen as the most appropriate recipient: https://www. nla.gov.au/selectedlibrary-collections/john-cooper-theosophy-collection The National Library dealt with John’s library and archives in such a professional manner, and have met all the conditions imposed, that I plan to donate my Theosophical library and archives to the Library.“ Tillett (2016). “Interview with Dr GregoryTillett by Leslie Price.” FOTA Newsletter n. vi. Although Greg professed not to be upset by the antagonism of some Theosophists, it must have been painful to see his work traduced. Perhaps one day, a future Theosophical leader will say “ Sorry Dr Tillett. We ought to have remembered that there is no religion higher than truth, even if it is a threat to our power.” 22 —– 23 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Archives of the Theosophical Society in Slovenia & Yogoslavia FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Anton Rozman FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Anton Rozman is an independent researcher of esoteric currents, especially the Theosophical Movement, in Slovenia and worldwide. He is member of the Theosophical Society from 1992, member of the Center of the Theosophical Studies in Cervignano, Italy, and editor of the Theosophical website Theosophy in Slovenia. The Theosophical movement in Slovenia and Yugoslavia was influenced mainly by the turbulent twentieth-century history of this Central and Eastern European Region. In the early twentieth century, Slovenians were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire enjoying relative socio-political-economic prosperity and moderate national autonomy, interrupted by World War I. This war brought one the worst bloodshed battlefields on the banks of Soča River. After the WWI, Slovenians joined a newly formed Kingdom of the Serbs, Croatians, and Slovenians - namely Kingdom of Yugoslavia, under the rule of the Serbian aristocratic Karadžordžević family - gaining some national sovereignty but losing one-third of their national territory. After that, the WW II threatened, to a great extent, the Slovenians with the actual risk of extinction of their national identity by dividing their territory between Italy, Germany, and Hungary. This resulted in many nationally aware families exiled to Serbia. The resistance movement, connected with the Allies brought the national independence within the Federative Republic of Yugoslavia under the communist rule. Towards the end of the twentieth century, the Slovenians broke from Yugoslavia and after a short war gained national independence forming the state of the Republic of Slovenia. In Slovenia, at the beginning of the twentieth century, existed two separate, but loosely interconnected, streams of spiritualists and the Theosophical movement. The first stream was headed by, the spiritualist and Theosophist Adelma von Vay (1840 – 1925); a Theosophist named Dr Edvard Šerko (1882 - 1960) led the second stream. In 1900, Šerko met Mr W. B. Fricke (General Secretary of the TS in The Netherlands) at the Arnold Rikli’s famous Healing Spa located in Bled (then known as Veldez). Willem Barend Fricke (1842-1931) was one 24 of the founding fathers of the TS in the Netherlands, already active during the first attempt to establish a TS lodge in 1890. He was also the first General Secretary of the Dutch section, from 1897-1907, and advised Mary van Eeghen when she intended to donate her estate (now ITC Naarden) to the TS. Šerko, influenced and guided by Fricke, established an informal Theosophical group of ten persons in Ljubljana. The group strived to establish a connection with Theosophical circles of Vienna and Graz, part of the Austrian Theosophical Society formed in 1912; unfortunately, WWI interrupted these efforts. Copy of a letter from Mr W. B. Fricke to Dr Edvard Šerko, 1900. 25 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. A copy of the front cover of the Theosophical magazine Teozofija (Theosophy), Vol. I, No 4 / May 1st 1928, published by the Theosophical Society in Yugoslavia. The magazine was launched in 1928 and ended in 1938, around four to six issues every year. Furthermore, the TSY’s archive confiscated by the communist authorities in 1947 was found and, in 2009 transferred to the Hrvatski narodni arhiv (Croatian national archive), in Zagreb. Hopefully, we will be able to access it in the near future and raise funds to digitise the material. In 2012, during an international symposium, a group of researchers was established to explore the work and life of Adelma von Vay. Unfortu- 26 o FOTA NEWSLETTER 9 • 2020 The nEsoteric Letters was a Newsletter, created in nately, this research group didn’t meet proper May 1922, in handwriting, copied and sent out to financial support to publish the symposium’s paper and continue the research. Therefore, the about 50 subscribers. It was an informative on the work of this group continues on an amateur levbasic principles of Theosophy and the initiative to el, depending on available time and resources. establish a Section of the Theosophical Society in Nevertheless, the group is progressing in preYugoslavia. As this initiative failed, the Theosophical Company in Ljubljana continued to issue the paring an extensive digital archive with material Newsletter. The Editors Dr Edvard Šerko and, fiand information on Adelma von Vay, from varnancial inspector, Anton Zajc prepared it monthly, ious newspapers, magazines and publications. except during the period between May and July Elena Fedorovna Pisareva (1855 - 1944), an early 1923, when they were involved in the activities to member and worker of the Theosophical Society establish the Theosophical Company. The Newsletter ceased after the sudden death of Mr Zajc in Russia, reports in her diaries that in 1901 she (1924), as well as the activities of the Theosophicame to know Theosophy while at Bled, where cal Company. she (as did Dr Edvard Šerko) met Mr W. B. Fricke. She mentions a group of around 30/40 Theosophists, from all over Europe, present at the Spa. That suggests that Arnold Rikli’s Healing Spa was a popular holidays’ meeting place for European Theosophists; a place where Theosophical ideas were shared, discussed and spread. [Mrs. Pisareva’s diaries were translated into English by George M. Young and published by Quest Books in 2008 under the title The Light of Russian Soul: A Personal Memoir of Early Russian Theosophy.] There are in the archive five letters from Mr W. B. Fricke to Dr Edvard Šerko, dating from March till November 1900, that suggests that they probably met already during summer 1899. In the letters, Mr Fricke suggests Mr Šerko how to overcome the difficulties with the spreading of the Theosophy, the translation of theosophical texts and establishment of the Theosophical group. A copy of Ezoterična Pisma (Esoteric Letters), May 1922. TSY was very active until WW II. After the war, After the WWI, Šerko revived the FOTATheosophical NEWSLETTER no9The• 2020 the work of the Society was revived, but it managed group and tried to establish the Yugoslav Section to be active only for two years as the communist of the Theosophical Society in connection with authorities prohibited its activities confiscating its Theosophists living in Croatia and Serbia. Without success the Slovenian Theosophists in 1923 archives. However, the Theosophical activities and formed the Theosophical Company in Ljubljana, meetings continued in secret mainly by the lodge acknowledged by Annie Besant as an independent in Ljubljana under the head of Anton Jesse (1911 – lodge linked to the Theosophical Society Adyar. The 2001). In 1966, Jesse also succeeded to revive the work of this lodge soon ceased because of the sudwork of the Theosophical Society in Yugoslavia. Once den death of its administrative force, Anton Zajc. again, the TSY organised extensive Theosophical activities, such as camps for young Theosophists. However, more conservative Theosophists reacted negAs a result, the initiative to create a Section of the atively to events such as youth camps, for example. Theosophical Society was taken over by Croatian That led to tension at the TSY resulting in the cancelTheosophists, who in 1925, founded the Theosophlation of Diplomas and Charters of several members ical Society in Yugoslavia (TSY), headed by Jelisava and lodges (in 1983) by the International President Vavra (1884 – 1946), with its headquarters in Zaof the TS Radha Burnier (1923 – 2013). That meant greb. The TSY formed lodges in Serbia (Beograd, the end of the Theosophical Society in Yugoslavia. 1925), Slovenia (Celje, 1927) and started to publish the Theosophical magazine Teozofija (1926). Following the disruption of the state of Yugoslavia, Slovenian Theosophists, once again under the head of Anton Jesse, founded the Theosophical Society in Slovenia on 25 May 1989. Anton Jesse was a dedicated and very organised Theosophist, who collected documents and correspondence about the history of Theosophical movement in Slovenia and Yugoslavia. He managed to create a vast personal archive. In 2001, after he passed away, his heirs handed the archives, as previously agreed, to Anton Rozman. Rozman donated the archives to the Pokrajinski arhiv v Kopru (Regional Archive in Koper), kept in the file SI PAK KP 916, available to the public and researchers. Moreover, in collaboration with the staff of the Teozofska knjižnica in bralnica Alme M. Karlin (Theosophical library and reading room Alma M. Karlin) in Celje, headed by Mr Domen Kočevar, the archive was also digitised and is now available in digitised form. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. Copy of the Decree of the Police direction in Ljubljana (June 18th 1923) on the establishment of the Teozofska družba (Theosophical Company) in Ljubljana. 27 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Online Material Although articles on the website THEOSOPHY IN SLOVENIA on the history of the Theosophical Movement in Slovenia are outdated, especially in regard to the involvement and role of Adelma and Ödon von Vay, readers can find some additional information: Beginnings of the Theosophical Movement in Slovenia https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Beginnings_ Slovenia.htm Beginnings of the Theosophical Movement in Croatia https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Beginnings_ Croatia.htm The Theosophical Company in Ljubljana https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Theosophical_Company.htm The Yugoslav Theosophical Society https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Jugoslav_ Theosophical_Society.htm The Theosophical Movement in Yugoslavia during the WW II https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/During_ WW_II.htm Renewal of the work of the Theosophical Society in Yugoslavia in 1945 https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Renewal_1945.htm Renewal of the work of the Theosophical Society in Yugoslavia in 1966 https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Renewal_1966.htm Copy of the Charter for the Theosophical Society in Yugoslavia, dated September 1925 and signed by Annie Besant. Anton Jesse (2000) 28 Anton Jesse was born in 1911 and joined the Theosophical Society in 1938 as a member of the Lodge Služenje (Service) in Ljubljana. He secretly led the work of the Lodge, and in 1966 revived the Theosophical Society in Yugoslavia, serving as its General Secretary for one term of office. After the decay of the Theosophical Society in Yugoslavia (1984) Jesse established the Theosophical Society in Slovenia (1989) and served as its Regional Secretary for two terms of office. He passed away on September 10th, 2001. The Seventies https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Seventies. htm The Eighties https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Eighties. htm Two Theosophical Societies in SFR Yugoslavia https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Two_Societies.htm Formal reasons for the decay of the Theosophical Society in SFR Yugoslavia https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Decay.htm The Theosophical Society in Slovenia https://www.teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/TS_Slovenia.htm —– Anton Jesse 29 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Julie Chajes is a cultural historian interested in the ways religion, science, and scholarship intersected in nineteenth-century Britain and America. She is particularly interested in the literature of Spiritualism and occultism and what it reveals about the overlaps between heterodox religiosity and “mainstream” culture. Born in Brazil and raised in the UK, Dr. Chajes teaches at Tel Aviv University. Her articles have dealt with such topics as gender, Orientalism, emergent critical categories and the appropriation of scientific and medical theories in modern forms of religion. Introduction An informal survey of your friends and relatives may reveal that many of them believe in reincarnation and karma in some form, or at least do not dismiss them out of hand. Research shows this to be the case for a sizeable minority (around 20 per cent) of people in the Western world who have no particular connection with Eastern religions.1 In Asian countries, reincarnation as an animal may be considered an undesirable possibility, but in Europe and America, reincarnation is usually thought of as a return to life in a human body for the purpose of spiritual advancement or self- improvement.2 After two millennia of the virtual absence of any such doctrine in the Christian world, how has this particular belief suddenly become so unremarkable? This study explores the seminal contribution of one woman: the notorious Russian occultist and ‘great- grandmother’ of the New Age Movement, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831– 1891). Blavatsky was one of the leading figures of the nineteenth- century ‘occult revival’, a period during which there was a relative surge in popular interest in all things esoteric, mystical, and magical.3 Occultism found distinctive expressions in Britain, mainland Europe, and America, where it interconnected with cur30 rents such as Spiritualism, Mesmerism, and Freemasonry, all of which reached a peak more or less around the middle decades of the century. Blavatsky was the matriarch and primary theorist of the most influential occultist organisation of the late nineteenth and early- twentieth centuries, the Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875. In addition to fourteen volumes of collected writings and several other books, Blavatsky was the author of two Theosophical treatises: Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888). These works had a lasting impact on the occult revival, related twentieth- century developments, and ultimately on the development of the New Age Movement, that loosely organised and diffuse spiritual and political movement that arose from the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s, initially in America.4 The New Age was one of the most far- reaching cultural and religious developments of the late twentieth century, and Blavatsky’s ideas are fundamental to understanding its emergence, as well as the emergence of modern and postmodern forms of religion more generally. Blavatsky instructed her followers in what she claimed was an ancient wisdom tradition, the true, esoteric teachings underlying all religion, philosophy, and science. Sages throughout history had supposedly taught the principles of this doctrine, which had been brought from the conti31 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 into matter, reincarnating many times in different bodies and on different planets. They continually evolved, until they eventually became fully ‘spiritualised’, reuniting with the divine source from which they had come. Each time the spirit incarnated, it was ‘dressed’ in various garments that allowed it to function. These vestments were said to account for the physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual attributes experienced during a particular lifetime. Through accumulating the experiences of more and more lives, human evolution would be inevitable, although it could be faster or slower According to Blavatsky, humans have an im- depending on individual will and effort. mortal soul whose origin lies in an imperson- This was the reincarnation doctrine Blavatal divine absolute, which she simultaneously sky taught from around 1882 onwards. It is identified with the highest neo- Platonic hy- fairly well known. However, the presence in postasis (the One), the Hindu parabrahman, her first major work, Isis Unveiled, of stateand the Buddhist Adi Buddha. This divine ments that seem to deny reincarnation have absolute was said to emanate all creation confused Blavatsky’s readers from her lifetime to the present day. As this study will from itself in a series of levels. Straightforwardly put, emanation is a con- demonstrate, this is because Blavatsky actucept reminiscent of a champagne fountain ally taught two distinct theories of rebirth. in which the champagne cascades from the In The Secret Doctrine, she taught reincarnation,but in Isis Unveiled, she taught a theobottle into ry of post-mortem ascent to higher worlds, the glass at the top and thereafter into the which she called metempsychosis. glasses beneath. In the religious or philosophical theory, the metaphorical champagne bottle never empties; the Divine continually emanates without diminution into the various levels of the cosmos it produces. Prominent in neo-Platonic, Hermetic, Gnostic, and Kabbalistic thought, many different variants of this basic idea have been proposed throughout the centuries. nent of Atlantis before its submersion. Its tenets had been handed down from master to pupil, with initiates taking responsibility for transmitting them from one generation to the next. Blavatsky claimed aspects of the ancient wisdom were still discernible within the world’s religions and mythologies, but only when interpreted correctly. This was because throughout the centuries, they had been corrupted through misunderstanding and deliberate falsification. Reincarnation had been part of the secret tradition, and the ancient Greeks, Egyptians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists had all taught it. In Blavatsky’s version, the human spirit originated in one of the emanated levels of creation, the Universal Soul, from which they were emitted and sent on a journey 32 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Madame Controversy Helena Petrovna von Hahn was of aristocratic Russian and German ancestry. With her stout frame, piercing blue eyes, and wiry blonde hair, she cut a curious figure and made a range of impressions on her contemporaries. At one extreme were those who considered her an initiate, the agent of spiritual masters who had sent her on a mission to save the West from its materialism and nihilism. Alternately, there were those who considered her a dangerous fraud intent on nothing but self- aggrandisement through the deceit of others. Without question, Blavatsky was a complex woman with many facets. Eccentric, opinionated, and out of the ordinary, she did not suffer fools lightly. She was capable of fits of temper and the use of foul language, which, together with her smoking of tobacco and hashish could be quite a shock to polite society.5 Yet she could also be perceived as refined, courteous, and even sensitive, and without a doubt she was intelligent, creative, and extremely well read. Blavatsky’s friend the physician and Platonist Alexander Wilder was among her admirers: She did not resemble in manner or figure what I had been led to expect. She was tall, but not strapping; her countenance bore the marks and exhibited the characteristics of one who had seen much, thought much, travelled much, and experienced much. [. . .] Her appearance was certainly impressive, but in no respect was she coarse, awkward, or ill- bred. On the other hand, she exhibited culture, familiarity with the manners of the most courtly society and genuine courtesy itself. know of any such thing occurring with anyone else. She professed, however, to have communicated with personages whom she called ‘the Brothers’, and intimated that this, at times, was by the agency, or some means analogous to what is termed ‘telepathy’. [. . .] She indulged freely in the smoking of cigarettes, which she made as she had occasion. I never saw any evidence that these things disturbed, or in any way interfered with her mental acuteness or activity.6 The ‘brothers’ Wilder referred to were one the most controversial aspects of Blavatsky’s life and work. She claimed they were advanced spiritual masters whose initiative it had been to establish the Theosophical Society. She asserted she had travelled to Tibet, where she studied for around two years with the masters Morya and Koot Hoomi, who ran a school for adepts there.7 Blavatsky also received letters from these masters, and so did other Theosophists, notably, Alfred Percy Sinnett (1840– 1921) and Allan Octavian Hume (1829– 1912), both of whom wrote important Theosophical works based on these correspondences. Like Blavatsky herself, the masters received a mixed response from the public. Theosophists saw them as advanced spiritual guides, others as a figment of Blavatsky’s imagination. They remain unidentified to this day.8 In 1885, a report was issued by a society established to investigate the claims of Spiritualism, the Society for Psychical Research. It was based on the investigations of Richard 33 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Hodgson (1855– 1905), who concluded Blavatsky was neither ‘the mouthpiece of hidden seers, nor [. . .] a mere vulgar adventuress; we think that she has achieved a title to permanent remembrance as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting imposters in history.’9 The report severely damaged Blavatsky’s reputation. Her standing was further weakened by accusations of plagiarism made by a Spiritualist and opponent of Theosophy, William Emmette Coleman, who claimed Blavatsky had copied passages from the works of others without attribution. Coleman’s accusations and Blavatsky’s response will be discussed further in the following chapter. This study sets aside the issue of Blavatsky’s writing vis- à- vis the category ‘plagiarism’ to focus instead on what her sources were, how she used them, and what this can tell us about nineteenth- century history and culture. Blavatsky engaged with a comprehensive spectrum of writings when discussing her rebirth doctrines. This study will not provide an exhaustive treatment but an illustrative one, one that reveals the most pertinent historical contexts of her work as well as the principles of her hermeneutics. We will concentrate on four areas in particular: Spiritualism, science, Platonism, and Orientalism, showing how Blavatsky’s interpretations of each had a formative influence on her rebirth doctrines. 34 Kabbalah, Egyptology, and Rebirth Although the limitations of space require us to restrict the historical contextualisation to these four main subjects, two omissions deserve special mention, namely, Kabbalah and Egyptology, both of which Blavatsky discussed in relation to her rebirth theories. Kabbalistic sources present diverse and complex theories of reincarnation, the earliest source being the Sefer ha- Bahir (Book of Light) first published around 1176, in which no special term for reincarnation was given.10 With the publication of the Sefer ha- Zohar (Book of Splendour) in early fourteenth-century Spain, the term gilgul came to be used.11 In the sixteenth century, Isaac Luria (1534– 1572), the leading member of the Kabbalistic school of Safed in presentday northern Israel, put forward a theory of reincarnation. His most important student, Chayim Vital (1543– 1620), was the author of Sefer ha- gilgulim (Book of Re- Incarnations), a systematic description of Luria’s teachings. This text became known to the Christian world through the Latin translation in the Kabbalah Denudata (1677–1684), a three- volume anthology of Kabbalistic texts translated by the seventeenth- century Christian Hebraist Christian Knorr von Rosenroth (1631– 1689).12 Blavatsky complained about Rosenroth’s ‘distorted Latin translations’ and quoted a brief Latin passage from him.13 But she did not read Rosenroth in the Latin original. Rather, as I have argued elsewhere, she drew on the works of the American lawyer Samuel Fales Dunlap (1825–1905).14 Another possible source was the abridgement and translation of Rosenroth’s compilation, FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 The Kabbalah Unveiled (1887) by the British occultist Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854– 1918).15 Blavatsky referred to ‘the Hebrew book, The Revolution of the Souls’, certainly a reference to Vital’s text, but she read about it in the writing of the French occultist Eliphas Lévi, which she was translating.16 Blavatsky’s approach to Kabbalah was an occultist one that was indebted to the Christian Kabbalah of the Renaissance and early- modern periods.17 Kabbalists in this Renaissance tradition tended to assert the existence of a perennial philosophy and read Christian doctrines into Jewish Kabbalistic texts.18 Occultists like Mathers and Lévi interpreted Christian Kabbalist ideas in a nineteenthcentury occultist context. Blavatsky did the same, drawing on authors like Lévi and Mathers as well as the studies of Kabbalah that were available in languages she could read, notably, La Kabbale ou la philosophie religieuse des Hébreux by the French- Jewish scholar Adolphe Franck (1809– 1893) and The Kabbalah: Its Doctrine, Development, and Literature (1865) by the Jewish- born Christian scholar Christian David Ginsburg (1831–1914).19 These works were indebted to the academic study of Kabbalah that had emerged at the beginning of the nineteenth century in the context of the German- Jewish ‘science of Judaism’, the Wissenschaft des Judentums.20 Blavatsky also consulted works that dealt with Kabbalah as part of a broader consideration of the history of religion or mythology, such as The Gnostics and Their Remains (1865) by the British classicist, writer, and expert on gemstones Charles William King (1818– 1888), and Sōd: The Son of the Man (1861) by Samuel Fales Dunlap, among many others.21 Blavatsky presented Kabbalah as a universal tradition originally transmitted from Egypt and Chaldea (Babylonia).22 She argued that the Kabbalistic notion of Ain Soph represented the divine absolute and equated the Kabbalistic concept of Adam Kadmon with the Second Logos of the Platonists or the Universal Soul, which was the source of all reincarnating spirits.23 Blavatsky referred to Kabbalistic texts in corroboration first of metempsychosis, and later of reincarnation. Thus, in her first major work, Isis Unveiled, she referred to the central Kabbalistic text, the Zohar, to disprove the commonly understood notion of reincarnation.24 However, in a later text, The Key to Theosophy (1889), Blavatsky referred to the Zohar to argue for reincarnation on Earth in keeping with her new convictions.25 Egypt, supposedly an ancient homeland of Kabbalah, also had its own place in Blavatsky’s writings on rebirth. In the early-modern esoteric currents that were so influential in her thought, Egypt had typically been perceived as a mysterious and exotic source of perennial wisdom.26 One of the figures Blavatsky mentioned from this period was the Jesuit polymath Athanasius Kircher (1602– 1680), whose most famous work, Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1652– 1654), was an account of ancient Egyptian life, culture, and religion.27 From the eighteenth century through the nineteenth, ancient Egypt was depicted in diverse literary and artistic contexts. Notably, Freemasonry was full of Egyptian iconography.28 The development of Egyptology from the early nineteenth century considerably intensified the public’s interest in Egypt. Many discoveries were made in a short period of time, especially during the 1870s and 1880s, when Egyptology came to 35 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 be a major cultural force.29 It is therefore on Earth after death was entwined with the unsurprising that Blavatsky used Egyptolog- literature and concerns of the nineteenth ical findings to corroborate her Theosophi- century. The theory was then bequeathed cal teachings, even though she denounced to Blavatsky’s successors, undergoing varischolarly ‘misunderstanding’ of Egyptian re- ous ‘reincarnations’ of its own as it passed through the doctrinal systems of the many ligion and magic.30 Theosophically inspired spokespersons of The association between ancient Egypt and heterodox thought in the twentieth centureincarnation is longstanding, but early ry. Eventually, Blavatskyan elements found Egyptologists expressed differing opinions their way into the New Age.35 Today, the New on the matter. In 1705, Thomas Greenhill Age is extremely pervasive, its concepts perpublished a seminal treatise on Egyptian meating even the world of business and the civilisation and mummification in which realms of supposedly traditional religions.36 he claimed the Egyptians mummified their It is characterised by elements central to dead because they believed in a type of rein- Blavatsky’s thinking, such as syncretism, an carnation into the same body.31 On the oth- emphasis on Eastern, ‘esoteric’, ‘mystical’, er hand, in 1836, John Davidson conducted and pagan traditions,37 the channelling of a surgical exploration of mummification and entities, and the compatibility of spirituality rejected the idea that the Egyptians em- and science.38 Karma and reincarnation are, balmed mummies because of a belief in re- of course, prominent.39 Blavatsky’s writings incarnation. Instead, he concluded they did are fundamental in understanding how that it as a re-enactment of the myth of Osiris.32 came to be. In The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky affirmed the Egyptians’ reincarnationism. Referring to The Book of the Dead, she argued against Chapter Outline those who denied the Egyptian belief, which she described in terms of the emergence of the solar boat from the realm of Tiaou (the This study approaches a wide variety of isrealm of the cause of life).33 As part of her sues in the history of the nineteenth centudiscussion, she provided a concise state- ry through a detailed reading of two closement of her reincarnation doctrine, in which ly related doctrines, metempsychosis and each of the stages was equated with Egyp- reincarnation. Blavatsky’s works are generally considered quite difficult, and this has tian terms.34 Blavatsky brought these interpretations of sometimes led to their dismissal as obscuKabbalistic and Egyptian teachings togeth- rantist and contradictory. As I will show er with the Spiritualistic, scientific, Platonic, throughout this book, passages in Blavatsky Buddhist, and Hindu themes that will be ex- that may seem convoluted and nonsensical plored in greater detail in the chapters that are often comprehensible once understood follow. Their confluence resulted in a global in the context of the development of her and uniquely hybridic reincarnationism, in thought. Understanding Blavatsky, however, which the idea of a repeated return to life can be difficult, because rather than providing straightforward expositions, she usually 36 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 scattered her ideas piecemeal throughout her writing. This can be frustrating, and it is one reason why a clear guide is needed. In fact, it is high time for a detailed analysis of Blavatsky’s thought as a whole, and this study is a contribution to that larger project. It is hoped that by making Blavatsky more accessible and highlighting her historical importance, it will contribute to a growing appreciation of this significant and influential thinker of the nineteenth century. Following an introduction to Blavatsky and the development of her theories of rebirth in chapter 1, chapters 2 and 3 are internalist in orientation, that is, they focus on elements internal to Blavatsky’s thought. Theosophical principles have usually been treated quite briefly in academic studies to date. Taking a different approach, this study affirms the importance of a detailed reading of Blavatsky’s tenets, demonstrating that the ideas themselves must be understood clearly before they can be situated in the intellectual, social, religious, and political concerns of the times. Due to Blavatsky’s seeming contradictions, there has been no little confusion among scholars about her teachings on rebirth in her first major work, Isis Unveiled (1877). In chapter 2, on the basis of a systematic examination of the text alongside some early letters, I demonstrate that during the first period of her career as an occultist, Blavatsky taught that living humans are composed of three parts: body, soul, and spirit, and that immortality can be achieved by joining the soul with the spirit during life on Earth through occult practice. Blavatsky argued that once immortality had been achieved, after death, the conjoined soul- spirit entity would begin a journey of metempsychosis through higher spheres. If immortality had not been achieved, then annihilation followed. In exceptional circumstances, such as the death of an infant, reincarnation of the spirit together with the same soul provided a ‘second chance’ for the spirit to live on Earth and achieve immortality. Chapter 2 considers these doctrines in detail, including aspects not yet discussed in the scholarly literature. These include the acquisition of a new ‘astral body’ in each sphere during metempsychosis and unusual circumstances involving ‘terrestrial larvae’ and the ‘transfer of a spiritual entity’. The discussion clarifies Blavatsky’s teachings about metempsychosis through mineral, plant, and animal forms, and how these stages are ‘relived’ in utero, a Theosophical interpretation of the contemporary scientific theory of recapitulation. Around 1882, Blavatsky began teaching something different to metempsychosis: the normative, repeated, and karmic return of the human spirit to life on Earth. She called this new doctrine ‘reincarnation’ but denied she had changed her mind. To admit this would be to admit the masters had changed their minds, and this was unacceptable. Blavatsky tried to harmonise her accounts, but contemporaries noted the presence of a new perspective and its difference to the previous one. Indeed, the divergence is exposed from a close reading of the texts. To understand reincarnation as presented in Blavatsky’s magnum opus The Secret Doctrine (1888) and writings of the same period, it is necessary first of all to understand the unique and complex cosmology that forms its basis; indeed, reincarnation is inseparable from this wider doctrinal context. Chapter 3 examines this ‘macrocosmic’ 37 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 aspect of Blavatsky’s reincarnationism in detail, charting the spirit’s ‘pilgrimage’ from its emission from the ‘Universal Soul’ through its journey into matter and back again to its divine source. This spirit was said to travel together with many others through incarnation on six invisible planets, evolving on Earth by passing through seven ‘root races’, of which present humanity was the fifth. Chapter 4 frames Blavatsky’s rebirth doctrines in the development of Spiritualism from the mid- nineteenth century. A central cultural force in America and Europe at the time, Spiritualism tried to mediate between science and religion at the same time as it attempted to establish contact with the dead. In general, British and American Spiritualists denied reincarnation and affirmed progress on higher worlds whereas French Spiritists— the followers of Allan Kardec (1804– 1869)— believed in the repeated reincarnation of the same personality. Through reference to books and Spiritualist periodicals, the chapter situates Blavatsky’s early theory of metempsychosis in relation to anti- reincarnationist currents in AngloAmerican Spiritualism, especially as represented by the British medium Emma Hardinge Britten (1823– 1899), the American magician Paschal Beverly Randolph (1825– 1875), and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, an occultist organisation beginning its public work in 1884. Joscelyn Godwin, Christian Chanel, and John Patrick Deveney were Chapter 3 also considers the ‘microcosmic’ aspects of the reincarnation doctrine: Blavatsky’s teachings about birth, death, and the revival of life on Earth. These processes mirrored the macrocosmic ones, a fact not coincidental in the writings of a thinker influenced by the Hermetic axiom ‘as above, so below’. It describes the death and rebirth process and analyses Blavatsky’s reinterpretation of the ‘second chance’ she believed would be given to those who died in childhood and other exceptional occurrences. Finally, I consider Blavatsky’s claim in The Secret Doctrine that despite the usual acquisition of a new personality in each lifetime, it was possible for an adept to preserve their personal identity throughout repeated in- the first to highlight the similarity between Blavatsky’s early ideas and those of Britten, carnations. With the details of Blavatsky’s theories es- Randolph, and the H. B. of L., but I delve furtablished, the remaining chapters take an ther, revealing some of the differences, as the rebirth externalist approach, that is, they consider well as the similarities, between 41 elements external to the theories in order theories of these individuals. I also broadto situate them more broadly. Chapters 4 en the scope of the discussion, considering through 7 contextualise Blavatsky’s theory the nineteenth- century Spiritualist reincarin four dimensions of nineteenth- century nation debate more widely. Central issues intellectual and cultural life. They draw in- involved whether humans were intrinsicalsights from diverse fields of nineteenth- cen- ly immortal or had to win immortality durtury cultural and intellectual history, consol- ing Earth life, and whether the personality idating and sometimes challenging previous would be retained from life to life. conclusions.40 38 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 As much as it is impossible to understand Blavatsky’s doctrines without understanding their Spiritualist heritage, it is equally impossible to understand them without reference to her continuous and vociferous rejection of the French variant: Spiritism. Already during the 1870s, Blavatsky’s statements about Spiritualism were ambivalent: she sometimes described herself as a Spiritualist and sometimes criticised the movement. Although some of her best friends were French Spiritists, she was particularly critical of their beliefs about reincarnation. Blavatsky found Kardec’s conception of the repeated return of the same person to life on Earth to be unacceptable. As I will show, her eventual embrace of reincarnation during her later period did not indicate acceptance of Kardec’s theory. Chapter 5 considers the relationship between Blavatsky’s rebirth teachings and her constructions of the ancient Greeks. Indeed, her works are an important— and hitherto unacknowledged— site for the intersection of occultist thought with nineteenth- century Classicism. The chapter situates Blavatsky’s engagement with the Classical world in the context of her discussions of rebirth within a far-ranging nineteenth century fascination with the Greeks. This cultural interest is evident in Blavatsky’s source texts as well as more widely. Nineteenth- century authors constructed the Greeks according to their needs, their depictions falling into the broadly defined categories of the more conservative and the more transgressive. Blavatsky’s interpretations had substantial anti- establishment elements. They were influenced by her friend, the American physician Alexander Wilder (1823– 1908), himself a member of an American Platonic tradition with roots in Transcendentalism and the thought of the English neo- Platonist Thomas Taylor (1758–1835). Interpreting these influences, Blavatsky construed the Greeks according to her occultist exegesis to argue that Greek ideas had parallels in Hebraic, Gnostic, and Indian thought and that Hellenism had an Oriental source. First, she argued Pythagoras and Plato were advocates of metempsychosis. Later, she maintained the taught reincarnation. Blavatsky’s conceptualisations of rebirth also owe a considerable debt to the scientific theories under discussion at her time of writing. Chapter 6 demonstrates that she referred to numerous contemporary scientists in justifying aspects of her thought, basically dividing them into two camps, those whose ideas could be interpreted as supporting Theosophy (at least in some way) and those whom she believed understood nothing, usually because of their supposed materialism. Blavatsky framed her theses in opposition to the latter. At the same time, she selectively appropriated elements from the writings of scientists she approved of in a ‘scientism’ that was an essential feature of her thought. In this way, Blavatsky contributed to spreading the ideas of leading scientists, an active agent in the construction of science- related knowledge and of science itself, as a category. Blavatsky’s activities occurred within a cultural world in which the boundaries of ‘legitimate’ science were more contested than they are today. Some believed science should exclude all metaphysical speculation, but others believed some sort of reconciliation might still be found. Among the latter were professional scientists as well as occultists and Spiritualists. The chapter explores Blavatsky’s debt 39 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 to two Scottish physicists, Balfour Stewart (1828– 1887) and Peter Guthrie Tait (1831– 1909), who were criticised for ‘pseudo science’ in their day but on whom Blavatsky drew in her construction of metempsychosis as a sort of ‘recycling’ of spiritual and physical elements. Citing Stewart and Tait, she positioned Theosophy between the perceived extremes of materialism and dogmatic religion, proposing continuity between the natural and the ‘supernatural’, as well as the possibility of transferring from one ‘grade of being’ to another. One of Blavatsky’s chief polemical targets in her discussions of science was the materialist monism of Ernst Haeckel (1834– 1919), which, despite having much in common with Theosophy, she deemed incomplete and misleading. Another was Darwinism. Blavatsky perceived natural selection as materialistic, chance- driven, and anti- spiritual, and offered her depiction of a reincarnationary, teleological ascent through a vitalist ‘great chain of being’ as an alternative. Her concepts were indebted to some of the theories of evolution popularised during the 1880s, such as the idea that higher intelligences assist in evolutionary processes and the notion that the cosmos has an intrinsic tendency to evolve. The latter hypothesis was termed orthogenesis, and Blavatskyquoted teleological versions of it proposed by the Swiss botanist Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli (1817– 1891), the Estonian scientist Karl Ernst von Baer (1792– 1876), and the British biologist Richard Owen (1804– 1892). German Romantic themes were significant here, especially concepts of progress and becoming, as well as Aristotelian and Platonic notions of a hierarchy of fixed types. 40 Chapter 7 describes Blavatsky’s arrival in India and Ceylon, the establishment of branches of the Society there, and her contact with numerous locals, including monks, university scholars, and pandits, many of whom came from the upper echelons of Indian society. Some wrote articles for The Theosophist on topics closely related to reincarnation, such as the nature of the soul, moksha, and nirvana. Blavatsky’s close friend, Henry Olcott, claimed it was in India where she first ‘became absorbed in the problems of the soul’s cyclic progressions and reincarnations’, and it seems reasonable to assume, on the basis of this and other primary sources, that Indian influences contributed to Blavatsky’s eventual acceptance of reincarnation. Blavatsky’s metaphysics had a neoPlatonic basis, but she framed her ideas in Vedantic terms provided, in part, by notable early Indian Theosophists such as Mohini M. Chatterji (1858– 1936) and Tallapragada Subba Row (1856– 1890). In his discussions of Vedanta, Subba Row drew on the social Darwinist Herbert Spencer (1820– 1903), on whom Blavatsky also drew (and sometimes criticised). She also assimilated material from Orientalist scholarship, especially the translation of the Vishnu Purana prepared by H. H. Wilson (1786–1860), although she found fault with that too. The outcome of all these selective borrowings was a modernising depiction of Theosophy as the esoteric essence of Hinduism and Buddhism, in which the neo- Platonic One was equated with parabrahman and Adi Buddha and offered as an alternative to Ernst Haeckel’s monism. The chapter thus reveals Blavatsky’s reincarnationism as involving an entanglement of Western philosophies with FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 the interpretations of Vedanta of Westerneducated Hindu elites alongside academic Orientalism. The result of the interplay of Blavatsky’s Platonism, scientism, Spiritualism, and Orientalism were modern perspectives on rebirth that were inseparable from the interrelated nineteenth- century constructions among which they evolved. Appreciation of the embeddedness of Blavatsky’s rebirth theories in these contexts allows us to better understand Blavatsky and her period. In addition, it reveals some consequential, perhaps unexpected, and evidently under- acknowledged historical roots of the reincarnationism that is so popular in today’s postmodern world. Notes: 01. Perry Schmidt- Leukel, Transformation by Integration: How Inter-Faith Encounter Changes Christianity (London: SCM Press, 2009), 68. The ‘West’ is a problematic category that I use here only for the sake of convenience. For a summary of problems relating to its use, see Kennet Granholm, ‘Locating the West: Problematizing the Western in Western Esotericism and Occultism’, in Occultism in a Global Perspective, ed. Henrik Bogdan and Gordan Djurdjevic (Durham: Acumen, 2013). 02. Tony Walter and Helen Waterhouse, ‘Lives- Long Learning: The Effects of Reincarnation Belief on Everyday Life in England’, Nova Religio 5, no. 1 (October 2001). For a recent exploration of reincarnation belief, see Lee Irwin, Reincarnation in America: An Esoteric History (Lantam, MD, and London: Lexington Books, 2017). For a shorter treatment, see Lee Irwin, ‘Reincarnation in America: A Brief Historical Overview’, Religions 8, no. 10 (October 2017). 03. The term ‘revival’ is problematic, as it implies the reappearance of an occult that existed previously. I use the term here without this implication. 04. On the connection between reincarnation belief in present- day America, New Age, and Theosophy, see Courtney Bender, ‘American Reincarnations: What the Many Lives of Past Lives Tell Us about Contemporary Spiritual Practice’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion 75, no. 3 (September 2007). On the New Age Movement in general, see Paul Heelas’s pioneering study, The New Age Movement: The Celebration of the Self and the Sacralization of Modernity (Oxford: Blackwell, 1996). On the definition of New Age, see George D. Chrysiddes, ‘Defining the New Age’, in Handbook of the New Age, ed. Daren Kemp and James R. Lewis (Leiden: Brill, 2007). See also James R. Lewis, ‘Science and the New Age’, in Handbook of the New Age. 05. On Blavatsky’s defiance of the norms of nineteenthcentury femininity, see Catherine Tumber, American Feminism and the Birth of New Age Spirituality: Searching for the Higher Self 1875– 1915 (Lanham, MD: Rowman, 2002), 142f. 06. Alexander Wilder, ‘How Isis Unveiled Was Written’, The Word 7 (April– September 1908), 80– 82. 07. Nicholas Goodrick- Clarke, Helena Blavatsky (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2004), 4– 5. 08. K. Paul Johnson has argued that Blavatsky’s masters were mythical constructs based on real people whom she knew, such as the Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, whom Johnson proposes was the template for Morya. K. Paul Johnson, In Search of the Masters (South Boston: Self Published, 1990), and The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994). 09. On the Hodgson Report, see J. Barton Scott, ‘Miracle Publics: Theosophy, Christianity, and the Coulomb Affair’, History of Religions 49, no. 2 (November 2009). 10. For an English translation, see The Bahir, trans. Aryeh Kaplan (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1979). 11. For an English translation, see The Zohar: Pritzker Edition, 12 vols. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003– 2017). 12. Christian Knorr von Rosenroth, Kabbala Denudata (Hildesheim and New York: George Olms Verlag, 1974). 13 - H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, 2 vols. (London: The Theosophical Publishing Company, 1888), vol. I, 215 and 391. 14. Julie Chajes, ‘Construction through Appropriation: Kabbalah in Blavatsky’s Early Works’, in Theosophical Appropriations: Esotericism, Kabbalah, and the Transformation of Traditions, ed. Julie Chajes and Boaz Huss (Beer Sheva: BenGurion University Press, 2016). 15. Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers, The Kabbalah Unveiled (London: George Redway, 1887). 41 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 16. See her translation: H. P. Blavatsky, ‘The Magical Evocation of Apollonius of Tyana: A Chapter from Eliphas Lévi’, Spiritual Scientist 3, no. 9 (4 November 1875),104– 105. 17. This tradition was represented by such figures as the Italian nobleman Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463– 1494) and the humanist priest Marsilio Ficino (1433– 1499). Other significant figures were the German humanist Johannes Reuchlin (1455– 1522), the French linguist Guillaume Postel (1510– 1581), and the German polymath and magician Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486– 1535). 18. On Renaissance and early- modern Christian Kabbalah, see Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann, Geschichte der christlichen Kabbala, 4 vols. (Stuttgart- Bad Cannstatt: Frommann Holzboog, 2015). For an English- language introduction, see Peter J. Forshaw, ‘Kabbalah’, in The Occult World, ed. Christopher Partridge (Abingdon: Routledge, 2015). For a longer treatment, see Joseph Dan, The Christian Kabbalah: Jewish Mystical Books & Their Christian Interpreters: A Symposium (Cambridge, MA: Harvard College Library, 1997). On perennialism, see Charles Schmidt, ‘Perennial Philosophy from Agostino Steuco to Leibniz’, Journal of the History of Ideas 27 (1966). On the Jewish adoption of the notion of ‘perennial philosophy’, see Moshe Idel, ‘Kabbalah, Platonism, and Prisca Theologia: The Case of R. Menasseh ben Israel’, in Menasseh ben Israel and His World, ed. Y. Kaplan, H. Méchoulan, and Richard H. Popkin (Leiden: Brill, 1989). 19. Adolphe Franck, La Kabbale ou la philosophie religieuse des Hébreux (Paris: Librairie de L. Hachette, 1843) and David Ginsburg, The Kabbalah: Its Doctrines, Development, and Literature. An Essay (London: Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, 1865). 20l On the Wissenschaft des Judentums, see George Kohler, ‘Judaism Buried or Revitalised? Wissenschaft des Judentums in Nineteenth- Century Germany— Impact, Actuality, and Applicability Today’, in Jewish Thought and Jewish Belief, ed. Daniel J. Lasker (Beer Sheva: Ben- Gurion University Press, 2012). On the relationship between occultist and scholarly approaches to Kabbalah in the nineteenth century, see Wouter J. Hanegraaff, ‘The Beginnings of Occultist Kabbalah: Adolphe Franck and Eliphas Lévi’, in Kabbalah and Modernity: Interpretations, Transformations, Adaptations, ed. Boaz Huss, Marco Pasi, and Kocku von Stuckrad (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2010). See also Chajes, ‘Construction through Appropriation.’ 21. C. W. King, The Gnostics and Their Remains, Ancient and Medieval (London: David Nutt, 1887) and S. F. Dunlap, Sōd: The Son of the Man (London and Edinburgh: Williams and Norgate, 1861). 22. H. P. Blavatsky, ‘Kabalah and Kabalists at the Close of the 42 Nineteenth Century’, Lucifer 10, no. 57 (May 1882), 268. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine I, 352– 353. 23. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine I, 16, 179, 214, and 573. The association between the souls of humanity and Adam Kadmon was not an innovation of Blavatsky’s; it was present in Jewish Kabbalistic sources. Gershom Scholem, On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead (New York: Schocken 1991), 229. 24. H. P. Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled: A Master- Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology, 2 vols. (New York: J. W. Bouton, 1877), vol. I, 259. 25. H. P. Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy (London and New York: The Theosophical Publishing Company, 1889), 110– 113. 26. See Antoine Faivre, ‘Egyptomany’, in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, ed. Wouter Hanegraaff in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek, and Jean- Pierre Brach (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006), 328. 27. Athanasius Kircher, Oedipus Aegyptiacus (Rome: 1652– 1654). Blavatsky mentions Kircher’s work, for example, in Secret Doctrine II, 207. 28. See James Stevens Curl, The Egyptian Revival: Ancient Egypt as the Inspiration for Design Motifs in the West (London and New York: Routledge, 2005), 132 and Frances Yates, The Rosicrucian Enlightenment (London and New York: Ark Paperbacks, 1986), 212– 213. 29. David Gange, Dialogues with the Dead: Egyptology in British Culture and Religion, 1822– 1922 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013). FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 35. On the debt of the New Age Movement to Theosophy, see Wouter Hanegraaff, New Age Religion and Western Culture: Western Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought (Leiden: Brill, 1996). See also Wouter Hanegraaff, ‘The New Age Movement and Western Esotericism’, in Handbook of the New Age, 25– 50; Olav Hammer, Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age (Leiden: Brill, 2004), and Olav Hammer, ‘Jewish Mysticism Meets the Age of Aquarius: Elizabeth Clare Prophet on the Kabbalah’, in Theosophical Appropriations, ed. Julie Chajes and Boaz Huss. 36. See Martin Ramstedt, ‘New Age and Business’, in Handbook of the New Age. On the overlap between New Age ideas and more ‘traditional’ Jewish ideas, see Boaz Huss, ‘The New Age of Kabbalah’, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 6, no. 2 (2007), 107– 125. 37. On the connection between Theosophy and neo- Paganism see Ronald Hutton, Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999). See also Melissa Harrington, ‘Paganism and the New Age’ and Daren Kemp, ‘Christians and New Age’, both in Handbook of the New Age. 38. On ‘spirituality’ as a category, see Boaz Huss, ‘Spirituality: The Emergence of a New Cultural Category and Its Challenge to the Religious and the Secular’, Journal of Contemporary Religion 29, no. 1 (2014). On the notion of ‘spiritual but not religious’ see Robert C. Fuller, Spiritual, but Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), especially 4– 7. 39. On reincarnation in the New Age Movement, see Hanegraaff, New Age Religion, chapter 9. 40. For the foundation of present debates on the category ‘Western esotericism’, see Antoine Faivre, Western Esotericism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2010). For a concise discussion of the meaning of the term ‘esotericism’ and the category ‘Western esotericism’, see Wouter J. Hanegraaff, ‘Esotericism’, in Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism (Leiden, Brill, 2006). On problems relating to the definition of Western esotericism and a cultural-studies argument for the category as an ‘empty signifier’, see Michael Bergunder, ‘What Is Esotericism? Cultural Studies Approaches and the Problems of Definition in Religious Studies’, Method and Theory in the Study of Religions 22, no. 1 (2010). 41. Joscelyn Godwin, Christian Chanel, and John Patrick Deveney, The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor: Initiatic and Historical Documents of an Order of Practical Occultism (York Beach: Samuel Weiser, 1995). —– —– 30. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine I, xix, xxix. 31. John David Wortham, British Egyptology: 1549– 1906 (Newton Abbot: David and Charles, 1971), 10 and 45. 32. Wortham, British Egyptology, 93– 94. 33. Initially believed to be the ‘Egyptian Bible’, The Book of the Dead refers to an Egyptian funerary text called ‘The Spells of Coming or Going Forth by Day’ intended to assist the dead in their journey to the afterlife. Samuel Birch published the first English translation in 1867. Wortham, British Egyptology, 97. This was the translation Blavatsky used, and it could be found at the end of a book she is known to have consulted, volume 5 of C. C. J. Baron Bunsen’s Egypt’s Place in Universal History (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1867). On Blavatsky’s use of this source, see Michael Gomes, Theosophy in the Nineteenth Century: An Annotated Bibliography (New York and London: Garland Publishing, 1994), 150. 34. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine I, 226– 227. 43 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 “Troubled Emissaries is a carefully documented historical narrative detailing the initial split within the Theosophical Society in 1895 after the death of H.P. Blavatsky. Two of her successive leaders, Annie Besant and William Quan Judge, became estranged when Besant brought charges against Judge that he forged letters from Blavatsky’s teachers, the Masters or Mahatmas. Other issues exacerbated these accusations including Besant’s association with certain Brahmans during her lecture tours of India, and Judge’s belief that the Society would inaugurate a Western Occultism, especially in America. The ensuing crisis lead to the splitting of the Society into two competing organizations. Many later fragmentations would follow. This history is written independently of any Theosophical organization. It is intended to be a fresh contribution in a century old debate to promote a dialogue that attempts to reach into the underlying and broader issues concerning “spiritual authority” and “successorships”, loyalties and beliefs. “Any readers of “Letters to the Sage” will find “Troubled Emissaries” a reliable, well-researched, and instructive guide to the 1890s experiences of American Theosophists....” Source, Editorial Reviews Amazon. To buy the book, please visit this link: https://ebay.to/3dDaz5Z Author, Beett Forray; Hardcover: 574 pages. Publisher: Alexandria West; 1st edition (October 1, 2016). [https:// Brett Forray is an independent researcher who has been studying modern Theosophy and its history since 1987. He has been published in Theosophical History and FOTA Newsletter. Brett is a founding Board member of Alexandria West, a California not-for-profit educational organization devoted to the many forms of the perennial philosophy. Brett also works with academically-based community programs at California State University, Stanislaus. The Westminster Gazette Unveils Isis Brett Forray Author’s preface: The following article is adapted from Chapter 5, The Clash of Certainty in Troubled Emissaries: How H.P.Blavatsky’s Successors Transformed the Theosophical Society from 1891 to 1896, a history of the separation of the American Section from the Theosophical Society in 1895. This episode is known popularly as the Judge Case. Additional material has been added to provide context to issues discussed elsewhere in Troubled Emissaries. In July of 1894, Judge attended the European Section’s annual Convention. He was also asked to meet with the Society’s Judicial Committee to address Besant’s accusation that he had forged letters Judge claimed to receive from Blavatsky’s enigmatic teachers, the Mahatmas, and especially from the Mahatma Morya. By the end of the Convention, the Judicial Committee decided on constitutional grounds that the Society could not make a deter44 mination on whether Judge received authentic letters from the Mahatmas. After Judge returned to New York City, Besant departed on July twenty-fifth for a four month lecture tour in Australia and New Zealand that would begin in early September. During her tour, she would also form that continent with New Zealand into a new section of the Society. Besant had been given the authority to act 45 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 as the president’s commissioner to form the new section.1 Besant spent most of October and part of November lecturing in New Zealand. During this portion of her tour, she received a message in the Mahatma’s script from Judge.2 She revealed in a later edition of Lucifer that the Mahatmic message Judge had sent told her they were all near the end of their troubles in the Society after the recent European Convention. Besant noted with irony that this announcement by the Master was “scarcely corroborated by the receipt some weeks later, of the Westminster Gazette articles” criticizing the Society.3 Judge, he asked Garrett if he would publish the papers. Garrett was no sympathizer with Theosophy, but Old felt that after Garrett reviewed the documents, he understood Old’s overriding concern that the Society should address Judge’s case. Acknowledging that Garrett was a “Philistine” to Theosophy, he nonetheless felt Garrett could demonstrate that Judge had deceived his recipients.6 Old was also extending his criticisms to Besant, since he believed these papers would reveal that her early credence in Judge’s Mahatmic letters actually demonstrated her inability to discern true Mahatmic messages. Besant was referring to a serial exposé on the Mahatma letter controversy that appeared in the London newspaper, Westminster Gazette, from October twenty-ninth through the middle of November.4 These articles would re-stoke the simmering desire of certain members who, being unsatisfied with the Judicial Committee’s decision in London that previous summer, still wanted to hear an explanation from Judge about the production of his Mahatmic messages. The journalist who wrote the articles, F. Edmund Garrett, was an acquaintance of the London Theosophist and Astrologer, Walter Old. The two had met some years earlier at a Salvation Army rally in the town of Eastbourne.5 Recalling his friend Garrett, Old thought the Westminster Gazette might be the opportunity he needed to expose what he believed to be the Society’s internal cover up regarding Judge’s Mahatmic letters. Old spoke to Garrett about his dissatisfaction with the outcome of the Society’s Judicial Committee. After mentioning that he had copies of Besant’s documents against As the presses rolled, select contents of Besant’s documents on Judge were transcribed and reproduced in the newspaper with Garrett’s commentary. However, some of Garrett’s evaluations on the character of T.S. officials, were not what Old expected. Garrett wrote a sardonic exposé on the Society and he hurled plenty of accusations and satirical barbs at Judge, Olcott and especially Besant, since she was England’s leading Theosophical personality whom Garrett once defended in her pre-Theosophical career. Most of the newspaper’s readers probably had little understanding of Theosophical concepts outside of the manner they were presented by the press coverage the Society enjoyed in England. Nor was the public familiar with the Society’s policies that Garrett derided in his articles. Garrett based his critiques on the prevailing assumption that Besant was trying to conceal her early acceptance of Judge’s Mahatmic messages, which Old and others were convinced were fake.7 Garrett focused on Mahatma letters Besant claimed to have received, some of which came 46 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 through Judge, after the death of Blavatsky in 1891. She had referred to these letters in her speech at the end of August 1891 when she announced that she was leaving the National Secular Society. She later denied that these letters were real Mahatmic messages, despite their contents. Garrett’s critique was based on Old’s own conviction that Besant had “involved the whole Society in countenancing a systematic attempt to bolster up a delusion by concealment of facts.”8 Old was questioning how Besant’s judgment as an officer could be trusted when her Theosophical work had been, in part, based on contents of Judge’s Mahatmic messages that she now claimed were fabricated. Agreeably, Garrett felt that if the Society conducted an investigation into Judge’s missives, the members could evaluate these concerns more rationally to objectively ascertain the claims of the Society’s leaders. Old hoped Garrett’s series of articles would force Theosophists to do just that. Garrett used the Judicial Committee’s report to demonstrate that Besant was suppressing this potential controversy. He drolly referred to the committee as the “Theosophical Pickwick Club.” Critiquing Judge, he took aim at two objections that Judge made to the committee to persuade them that the Society could not make a determination about his Mahatmic letters: the Society’s neutrality towards the Mahatmas’ existence, and Judge’s claim that he did not produce the messages while acting as the Vice-President. The latter would have been the basis for an official charge against him for abuse of this position. Garrett said he agreed that if Judge produced false messages as a private individual, then an “official tribunal” should not try him. Yet, he construed Judge’s demurrers to be a convenient balm deflecting any serious discussion overall of Mahatmic messages. As a consequence, this tactic also diverted attention away from Besant’s earlier belief in the letters’ authenticity. This prompted Garrett to comment: “Could anything be more delicious than this dilemma?” In his articles, Garrett suggested that the Judicial Committee acquiesced to Judge’s objections based on the Society’s neutrality policy. This became the convenient excuse preventing any members from asking difficult questions. Garrett’s panacea for removing the Judicial Committee’s salve, which he regarded as merely hiding their own self-infliction, was to recognize the ironic consequences that he felt existed as a result of the Committee’s decisions: From (a) [the Society’s neutrality] it follows, as the president pointed out en passant in the course of his Address, that every Theosophist is in future free to circulate Mahatma messages, but no Theosophist to test their genuineness [sic]. From (b) [an officer’s duties] it equally follows that no officer of the society is in future responsible to it for any misdeed whatever, since such misdeed cannot well be among his official duties [sic].9 Garrett made no comment about a private investigation that Judge had also suggested could take place by individuals competent in occultism. Garrett then went on to critique the Society’s occult elements. While he acknowledged the sincerity of members 47 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 studying different philosophical systems of thought sanctioned in the Society’s Second Object, stating that members should study different religions or philosophies, he recognized the tension that arose when members desired to become proficient in the movement’s Third Object which recommended the investigation of the occult side of nature. To make his point, Garrett observed that if occult phenomena was criticized or brought censure to the Society, the practitioner or their defenders would try to minimize its importance by declaring that the study of spiritual concepts was the more important goal. Yet, this reaction was not in itself the issue to Garrett. He pointed out how the history of the Society’s growth had been connected with the investigation of psychical phenomena, whether by Blavatsky who declared it in order to attract the public’s attention, or Besant’s own declaration of receiving Mahatmic letters soon after Blavatsky’s death, which helped create another “boom” in the Society’s popularity and growth. Garrett reminded readers how Blavatsky’s phenomena had been discredited by the S.P.R., and now Besant was invalidating letters from Judge she once felt were genuine. In either case, members had initially bolstered their conviction in phenomena, yet when controversy arose they denounced its importance in the Society’s work. In a nutshell, Garrett believed that Theosophists wanted to have it both ways. The temptation for members to learn occult practices, which Garrett reminded his readers was being labeled by the Society as a natural, if usually hidden, process in nature was too great a lure to ignore. Yet, Garrett believed members reversed their rationale for learning occult phenomena whenever it was scrutinized by the public 48 and found to be suspicious. Once Garrett’s serial critique was published, Old wrote a letter to both the Gazette and Lucifer justifying his actions. While he disagreed with how some of the information was used by the Gazette, he believed, all the same, that it was important to let the public see the ‘facts’ contained in the documents Garrett published. He noted that there had been an agreement to publish these documents, anyway, but his view was in contradiction to the vote of other executive members at the recent European Convention. Old was probably referring to an earlier meeting with Besant in December of 1893, when the possible publication of the documents was discussed. Old expressed no misgivings in letting the papers be published and believed the Society would be able to “outlive all troubles that are honestly faced.”10 This was, after all, his motivation to let Garrett publish the documents in the first place, and show his discontent with the Judicial Committee’s decision. However, Garrett gave Old more than he bargained for, which prompted Old to write another letter to the Gazette on November ninth, airing his disapproval of the tone and manner in which the documents were used by the paper. Garrett’s series of articles were republished as a small book under the title Isis Very Much Unveiled, Being the Story of the Great Mahatma Hoax, which went through several editions. Alongside the original Gazette articles, some later editions contained letters of response from Theosophists, followed by a long rejoinder from Garrett with a postscript. The newspaper, helped by an unknown donor, sent a copy of the book to every Lodge and Center in Great Britain and FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Europe. Though difficult to find today, it was also circulated to lodges in America.11 When Olcott received news about the articles later in the month, the president commented on Old’s tactics in his diary on November 20, 1894. Expressing his disgust for Old’s crassness, Olcott penned: “Foreign mail in. Old has published 8 chapters of a series in which the entire private papers of the Judge Case are included. A caddish act.”12 The Gazette articles had been sent to Olcott by G.R.S. Mead. Besant in Australia would not see these articles until December. Even though the Westminster Gazette was considered to be a minor London newspaper, Garrett’s articles created major ripples within the Society. After his series appeared, both E.S.T. leaders sent their own rebuttals to the paper. Judge’s retort was published in early December in both the Gazette in London and the Sun newspaper in New York City, as well as being issued as a pamphlet.13 Judge recapped Besant’s description of his reception and delivery of Mahatmic messages, and with his lawyerly hat firmly in place, he ignored any notion of a cover up taking place. Instead, he reiterated his ongoing stance on his yet to be explained technique of Mahatmic intercourse: I have never denied that I gave Mrs. Besant messages from the Master. I did so. They were from the Masters. She admits that, but simply takes on herself to say that the Masters did not personally write or precipitate them. According to herself, then, she got from me genuine messages from the Masters; but she says she did not like them to be done or made in some form that she at first thought they were not in. I have not admitted her contention; I have simply said they were from the Master, and that is all I now say, for I will not tell how or by what means they were produced. The objective form in which such a message is [in] is of no consequence.14 It was Judge’s unwillingness to explain how his Mahatmic letters were produced that was irritating his, now, adversarial Theosophical colleagues. Besant responded to the Gazette articles near the end of December with a circular sent to all the branches and unaffiliated members, which was later reprinted in Lucifer. She conceded that she did not mind the documents being published, sans the private E.S.T. material for which she criticized Garrett with unethical journalism. Yet, Besant denied there was a conspiracy to hush up the charges. She especially noted that the Judicial Committee acted in a legal fashion according to the Society’s own rules, which the committee upheld by its decision to protect their constitution and member’s rights. They were not trying to obfuscate the charges against Judge. As a result of the newspaper’s articles, Besant resigned as the president of the Blavatsky Lodge, to set an example that she had previously asked of Judge as the vice-president, to which he declined to do. She adhered to the English custom of separating a person wrapped in controversy from an organization’s reputation when a dispute arose over that person’s conduct; in her case, it was the way she had been described by the Gazette. If her explanation to the newspaper was sufficient to clear her reputation, then the Blavatsky Lodge could re-elect her as their president.15 Indeed, the London Lodge would re-elect her as their president early the following year. 49 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Besant punished Old for handing over private documents to the Gazette by dismissing him from the Eastern School of Theosophy, though she later denied doing so. The previous year, he and Sydney Edge had been suspended from the E.S.T. for their disclosure of confidential E.S.T. information in an article criticizing Judge in The Theosophist. Soon after the Gazette articles appeared, Judge received a letter from G.R.S. Mead asking him to resign as the vice-president, following Besant’s resignation in her own lodge. Judge was also asked to either give a thorough explanation about his Mahatmic letters or give the reasons why he would not tell the Society how he received these messages.16 Judge would respond to Mead later in January and decline to do his bidding.17 Garrett’s exposé fulfilled some of Old’s intended purpose, by motivating unnerved members in Europe to question Judge’s reluctance to explain how he produced Mahatmic messages. Unlike Old, and to some extent Besant, members were concerned about the embarrassment Garrett’s articles would bring to the Society, because intimate details about the controversy had been exposed to the public. Judge was aware of this, and he wrote to The Irish Theosophist in late November to explain both his certainty in, and reason he would not yet discuss, his relationship with the Masters: All I have to say for the present is this: that at the proper time and place I will have to say what I wish and find right and proper. Let us wait until all the innuendos, charges and accusations are fully presented. One who knows, as I do, that he is guided and helped by the Masters, knows also that there is a time and a place for everything, and is 50 able to bide his time. That is what I am doing. When the true moment comes I will be able to speak, and then facts and circumstances will join in speaking for me. William Q. Judge New York, Nov. 20th, 1894.18 If certain members were nervous about the Gazette articles, others reported that they produced little negative consequences on their lodge’s work. Some groups in England said they even increased the public interest in Theosophy.19 Near the end of the Gazette’s series of articles on the Society, Judge also released his controversial E.S.T. Circular, By Master’s Direction, on November 3, 1894, which accused many Brahmins of being manipulated by Black Magicians to destroy the Society. It also accused Besant of being a possible pawn in the Magicians’ scheme. The Gazette articles - and eventually Judge’s E.S.T. Circular that was leaked to non-E.S.T. members and the public - fueled the desire of many in Europe and India, who were not satisfied with the outcome of the Judicial Committee’s decision just 4 months earlier, to continue seeking a response from Judge about his reception and transmission of Mahatmic letters. Prominent Europeans signed a Memorial letter stating they wanted to force Judge to explain how he received his letters from the Mahatmas. During the Adyar Convention in December 1894, Besant introduced a resolution asking (for a second time) for Judge’s resignation as Vice-President with the option to resubmit his name as a candidate. If the Society had confidence in his character and actions, they could reelect him to this position. The Indian Section FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 went further during their convention asking for Judge’s expulsion if he did not explain his Mahatmic letters within the next 6 months. These cascading series of events led to the American Section voting overwhelming to separate itself from the Society in late April 1895 to form their own organization, The Theosophical Society in America. December 8 & 10, 1894, see Garrett, Isis Very Much Unveiled, 121 - 132. 14. Two Replies, 10. 15. Annie Besant, “The Theosophical Society and the Present Troubles,” Lucifer 15, no. 90 (February 15, 1895): 463. 16. G.R.S. Mead, A Letter to the European Section, ([London: np], February 1, 1895), 3; and “A Letter to the European Section. The Clash of Opinion.,” Lucifer 15, no. 90 (February 15, 1895): 502. Notes: 17. “A Letter from Mr. Judge, with a Reply.,” The Vahan 4, no. 8 (March 1, 1895): 1 - 2; “Letter to European General Secretary.,” The Path 9, no. 12 (March 1895): 433 - 434; and Issues in the TS, 26 - 29. 1. H.S. Olcott, “Executive Notice. Supplement to The Theosophist.,” The Theosophist 15, no. 8 (May 1894): xxvi. Also reprinted in The Theosophist 16, no. 4 (January 1895): xiv - xv. 18. “The Charges Against William Q. Judge.,” The Irish Theosophist 3, no. 3 (December 15, 1894): 48; and Issues in the TS, 19. 2. Besant, Annie. The Case Against W.Q. Judge, 20. See Neff, Mary K. How Theosophy Came to Australia and New Zealand, 74, for a quote from a local T.S. journal stating that Besant arrived in New Zealand on October fifth. 19. “Mirror of the Movement. Foreign. England.,” The Path 9, no. 10 (January 1895): 327. —– 3. Annie Besant, “The Theosophical Society and The Present Troubles,” Lucifer 15, no. 90 (February 15, 1895): 442; and Besant, The Case Against W.Q. Judge, 84. 4. Garrett, Edmund. Isis Very Much Unveiled, 74. 5. Farnell, Kim. The Astral Tramp, 59. 6. Garrett, Isis Very Much Unveiled, 67, 86 - 87; Annie Besant, “The Theosophical Society and the Present Troubles.,” Lucifer 15, no. 90 (February 15, 1895): 458; and “Supplement to The Theosophist.,” The Theosophist 16, no. 7 (April 1895): xx. 7. Garrett, Isis Very Much Unveiled, 6-7. 8. “From Mr. W.R. Old, Ex-Official: ‘A Thorough Grip of the Facts.’,” in Garrett, Isis Very Much Unveiled, 86. 9. Garrett, Isis Very Much Unveiled, 62. 10. Walter R. Old, “The Clash of Opinion., To the Editor of Lucifer.,” Lucifer 15, no. 88 (December 15, 1894): 337-338; and Garrett, Isis Very Much Unveiled, 85 - 88. 11. Franz Hartmann, “The Clash of Opinion. To the Editor of Lucifer.,” Lucifer 15, no. 89 (January 15, 1895): 427; and A.B.C. [Abbott B. Clark] “Editorial. Magic – White and Black.,” The Pacific Theosophist 5, no. 6 (January 1895): 91, notes the articles were “mailed to many Branches in America – presumably to all.” 12. Murphet, Howard. Hammer on the Mountain, 268. Olcott wrote another comment on November 26 along similar lines, calling Old’s exposure of the Judge Case as “Beastly caddishness.” See also Spierenburg, H.J. The Inner Group Teachings of H.P. Blavatsky, xv. 13. Two Replies by William Quan Judge, 5 - 16. His letter to the Westminster Gazette was incorporated into his letter to the Sun on December 3, 1894. For his letter to the Gazette on 51 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Early Days Membership in the Theosophical Society FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Debbie Elliott Debbie Elliott has been reading the works of Helena Blavatsky and William Quan Judge for many years. Theosophy influenced her in many ways in her search to understand life and the universe, she continues her study in this great work as well as researching the foundations of the Theosophical Society from a historical perspective. Her latest book is ‘Monkey Mind Robot Body’. For a few years I volunteered one day a week at the England TS HQ, my work was to put the details of members registration from the ledgers onto a spreadsheet. I worked on only a handful of ledgers but they were from the early days and the membership back then was an interesting group of people. Each entry in the ledger consists of date of entry to the TS, date that one’s diploma was sent out, full name and address, along with which lodge (if any) one was signed up to, who was one’s sponsors and any notes that the registrar decided to add. All the books are written in pen and ink with a calligraphic hand, though later some of the ledgers, I found, were hard to read with the cursive style of writing. It was interesting to note who sponsored who. Sometimes we see that Annie Besant sponsored people and there is a handful sponsored by HPB, herself. Henry Olcott also sponsored many folks, usually seconded by Hubbe Schleiden. Two names came up as the ones who sponsored the most people’s entry into the society in the early years; GRS Mead and G Lander. They sponsored people together, and one wonders did they meet in person each candidate beforehand, or were they happy to sponsor anybody who had been recommended or wanted to join the society. Many of the entrances that these two sponsored are to people who joined other sections such as the Swedish and German. 52 For the majority of the Swedish and German entrants their work occupation is also added in the notes, which does not seem to be the case with entrants from other countries including the English section. There is a column in the ledger for the lodge one belongs to. It was interesting to note that some folk come and go through lodges, starting with one, moving to another then another, back in those days there were a number of lodges in the English section, one gentleman starts in the HPB, lodge, movies to the Blavatsky lodge, then leaves that to become an unattached member. The lodges, many of which are now nonactive, have intriguing names for example, Lotus, Ananta 55, Ionian 41, Adelphi, Blue Star and I wonder at the story behind them. It was interesting to see who were presidents and secretaries of which lodges for example in the 1889 ledger there is the entry for Arnould, Arthur Mr, who lived in France and was the president of the LeLotus lodge and was also the editor for review ‘Le Lotus Bleu’, he had also formerly been president of L’Hercules branch. The majority of members were unattached and seemed to have never joined a lodge, even if one was based near their address. On the 30th April 1909 many folks throughout the ledgers before this date transferred to Adyar and when the Scottish lodge was set up many transferred to there on the 3rd March 1910. But one of the most noted comments in the early ledgers is the comment written in under their names which read; ‘WQJudge’, indicating that this member was part of the exodus after the Judge Case. I had not realised the high number that had left the society to follow Judge until I started working on the ledgers. The TS in the early days was made up of all sorts of characters, many from nobility, there are a number of counts and countesses such as the Count and Countess von Brockdorff of Berlin, who were the couple that introduced Rudolf Steiner to the Theosophical Society. I also found Rudolf Steiner’s entry in the ledger, where it is said that his fees were excused, was this because of his financial situation or perhaps because he was always giving talks at the society? It does not actually state why. There are all types from Reverends to Rabbi’s, such as Josef Levi Rev, signing up to be a member. Other names to catch my eye include Baron Spedalieri, who was written in as an old member and in the notes, it reads “one of the first subscribers to ‘Theosophist’, corresponded with H P B & H S O, Disciple of Eliphas Levi.” Then there are the members who would go on to become members of the ‘Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’-Wynn Westcott and S L M Mathers, W B Yeats for example. William Wynn Westcott’s name is in Ledger 1 line 143 and W B Yeats is in Ledger 1, line 144 so they joined the society together. This same ledger states in the comments that Westcott’s membership lapsed 9.12.1903. Westcott and Mathers sponsored some new members into the TS such as Rose Swain, Miss M H of Bushey Harts. I recently came across Maud Gonne, actress and activist, in the ledgers. There is no date for when she started and it erroneously says that she was an OTO member, which I am pretty sure she was not. I may be wrong on that. I wonder if the person who wrote that she was in the OTO actually meant that she was a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. The TS had members, and still does, from all over the world, in one of the early ledgers there is Cornelius Johnson Phelps of the Oudo tribe in the Yorumba country, member of the Lagos lodge and was sponsored into the society by the then general secretary. And in the 1907-8 ledger is the name for Mabel Collins, she must have lapsed her membership at some time because she is readmitted on old diploma in in this ledger stating she re-joined 22.7.1907. Many people’s membership lapses without giving a reason, such as Thos Williams Esq, no date is given for his entry into TS but he is written about in the 1889-91 ledger, in the comments section it is written “30 contributions to Lucifer, private gentleman.” His membership lapsed in the year 1900, no reason is stated. Then there is Minnie Gertrude Turner, whose family may not have agreed with her membership because in the comments it is written; “letter from stepmother asking not to send more papers”. And the same may have happened to Edward Routh Dent who in 1894 because “Great opposition from family who are church people. Hopes to join again later.” Then there is George Herbert, Jnr, who joined in June 1893, but perhaps had too strong an independent streak because it is written in the notes “resignation nothing to do with ‘Judge’ affair still agrees with objects of TS but thinks they can be carried out by a non-member. Gone to America.” As the TS, then and now, still grows and spreads around the world, members are welcomed from all walks of life just as HPB said in ‘The Key to Theosophy’; “No person’s religious opinions are asked upon his joining, nor is interference with them permitted, but every one is required, before admission, to promise to show towards his fellow-members the same tolerance in this respect as he claims for himself.” —– 53 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 The Kenneth R. Small Archive of the Universal Brotherhood FOTA NEWSLETTER n 9 • 2020 and Theosophical Society at Lomaland, 1874–1960 o Prof. James A. Santucci Editor, Theosophical History Theosophical History will add the latest publication to its Occasional Papers series a catalogue to accompany the special exhibit now on display at San Diego State University: “Revisiting Visionary Utopia: Katherine Tingley’s Lomaland: 1898–1942.” Due out in November (2019), the catalogue, bearing the same title, not only accompanies the exhibit but also highlights the contents of the newly assembled archive located in the Special Collections and University Archives at San Diego State University. The importance of the archive is highlighted in the catalogue, a publication of over 230 pages that features chapters on the Raja-Yoga School and education, literature (entries on Kenneth Morris, Talbot Mundy, W.Y. Evans-Wentz, Osvald Sirén, and William Gates), art (Grace Betts, Maurice Braun, Leonard Lester, Marian Plummer Lester, Reginald Machell, Charles J. Ryan, and Edith White), drama (presentations of “The Eumenides,” “The Aroma of Athens,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”), and music. The catalogue also contains documents and objects from the Kenneth R. Small Archive including the letters and notes of W. Q. Judge, letters of Katherine Tingley and Staffan Kronberg, unpublished material of G. de Purucker, letters and documents from the W.Y. Evans-Wentz collection, and excerpts from the autobiography of Boris de Zirkoff. 54 Poster board of the San Diego Point Loma Exhibit. cal Society in America under the Presidency of William Q. Judge after the American Section’s declaration of its independence from the Adyar T.S. Following Judge’s death in 1896, Ernest T. Hargrove (1870–1939) succeeded as President of the newly-formed T. S in America. After only a brief period, however, the true leader—the Outer Head of the Eastern School of Theosophy—assumed control. At first anonymous, the Outer Head was soon revealed to be Katherine Tingley (1847–1929), who was remained in effective control from 1897 until her death in 1929. In the words of Emmett Greenwald (California Utopia: Point Loma 1897–1942), Tingley “envisioned a ‘white city’, an ideal community which would serve also as the Society headquarters and a place where the theosophical way of life could be realized” (18-19). The community grew and maintained an active participant in the cultural life of San Diego during Mrs. Tingley’s leadership. However, her successor, Gottfried de Purucker (1874–1942), had to contend with financial difficulties befalling the community. These difficulties led to the eventual closing of Point Loma, with remnants of the community moving to Covina in Los Angeles County to the site of the former California Preparatory School for Boys (Greenwalt, 205). More details about the fate of the Point Loma property are given by Emmett Small in Theosophical History (VI/7: 239 and 241). The contents of the Kenneth R. Small Archive are a recent addition to San Diego State Uni- Over the next four years, the Theosophical versity, but its origins go back to the 1940s. It community, now in Covina, was governed by is reflective of the history of the Theosophi- a cabinet under the chairmanship of Iverson L. 55 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER • 2020 visits, perhaps 3 or 4 even and Harris. This persisted until the election of a no9 many spread over a couple of years. Scanning new leader, Col. Arthur Conger. Shortly after was not well developed yet, so the files his election, Conger claimed to be in contact were photocopied. This was an enorwith the Masters and declared himself to be mous work and effort. Three copies of Outer Head (Kenneth R. Small, “The Conger this were made and placed in different Papers – 1945–1951: Part 1” in Theosophical locations for safe keeping. Alexandria History VIII/1: 11). This claim resulted in disWest has a copy. April and Jerry’s insent from some of the members, leading to tuition to do this work of preservation their eventual resignation, removal, and oswas rather prescient. tracism from the Society, including Iverson Harris (the Chair of the Cabinet), Emmett Had it not been for Jerry and April’s efforts, Small (the Secretary of the Cabinet), Judith a good portion of the archives would have Tyberg (Director of Studies), Helen Harris been lost. During this same period or slight(the Recording Secretary), and Florence Col- ly later, Emmett Small had mentioned that lisson (the Registrar of Theosophical Univer- he was interested in donating the archive to sity). In the words of Emmett Small (“Later a university or historical society. With that in Point Loma History,” The Eclectic Theoso- mind, I proposed the possibility of California phist, No. 29 [July 15, 1975]: 7): State University, Fullerton housing the col- lection for its Special Collections. Emmett was receptive, so I photographed a portion of the collection in the hope of presenting a proposal to the head of the Cal State Fullerton Library. Unfortunately, the head of the Library at the time was moving in the opposite direction by attempting to eliminate a portion of its archives, most likely for budgAfter a number of years, Point Loma Publi- etary purposes. cations was chartered in 1971 as a non-prof- After Emmett’s death in 2001, the archive it and educational corporation with Iverson remained in place until plans were made Harris (1890–1979) as President. I do not to store a portion of the collection and have the date when the remaining Point the Point Loma Publications at the Madre Loma archives that were to be housed at the Grande Monastery near Dulzura. Ken Small residence of Emmett Small, but they were arranged for the archive’s storage in 2007. established by the 1980s at the latest. Ken This was shortly following the death of CarSmall, the son of Emmett Small, related to men Small, Ken’s mother, so was probably me the recent history of these archives, of the reason for the transferal of the archive. Ken writes: which I was familiar in part. Ken writes: Though for nearly all of them the T.S. Headquarters had been home since childhood, they were forced to leave, all except the President and Vice-President of the University, who were very elderly. The President, Dr. Henry T. Edge, died on September 19th of that year 1946. In the mid 1990’s Jerry and April [Hejka-Ekins] initiated the idea and volunteered to come and copy the entire ‘Point Loma’ archive. There were a few visits to my parents where the files were kept … I don’t remember how 56 The storage I arranged with John Drais and was at Madre Grande Monastery near Dulzura. Then in October 2007 a wildfire broke out southeast of there and in the midst of high winds burned 90,000 acres in two days. Madre Grande FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 had 30 minutes to evacuate. John Drais As work progresses, there will be updates and I were in San Diego, a 45-minute appearing in Theosophical History of this ondrive away. The entire book inventory going project. and original copies of the archive that —– was there burned in that fire. This great loss precipitated Herman and Johanna Vermeulen of the Theosophical Society the Hague to offer to digitally copy the archive that remained that did not burn that was in San Diego (including all the albums now at SCUA) and also scan the photocopies of the material that did burn. This project took nearly seven years or more before it was all returned as well. Regarding the Kenneth R. Small Archive, the current description appears online at https://scua2.sdsu.edu/archon/index.php?p=collections/ findingaid&id=457&q=&rootcontentid=141787#id141787. The current holdings are quite extensive, comprising 59 boxes of various types of documents and materials, including correspondence, diaries, journals, newsletters and newspapers, bulletins and magazine articles, art, photography, and Esoteric Section materials. The number of digital scans in this group amounts to more than 200,000. This digital file has not yet been indexed at SCUA with a “finding aid.” For example, the Katherine Tingley album is digitally scanned, with photos and historical notices and memorabilia, but the two hundred or so items within the album are not indexed. Ken Small remarks that what is noted in the SCUA website is mostly additional material that he located sorting out things that had not gone to the Netherlands to be scanned. Additionally, his sister, Gwen, went through old photos, thus adding a few hundred more from the Lomaland period. These are yet to be scanned. Katherine Augusta Westcott Tingley 57 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Membership Records - Theosophical Society in Greece 1923-1928 Compiled by Ifigeneia Kastamoniti (secretary of the Theosophical Society in Greece) Ifigeneia Kastamoniti has been a member of the TS Greece since 1995. Lecturer and member of the Hellenic Board for 20 years. Secretary for the last 9 years. She has translated many classical Theosophical works to the Greek language and is the editor of TPH Greece and the Theosophical magazine ILISOS. Born in the city of Thessaloniki, Greece, she has travelled to many countries in Europe, Asia, America, Africa and Australia meeting people and getting acquainted with their cultures. She is a part of the Eust organizing team since 2018. Name Year of Admission Lodge Β. D. KRIMBAS GEORGE N. CHARITOS NICOLAOS KARVOUNIS TAKIS MELETOPOULOS 1923 1923 1923 1923 Platon BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT PLATON PLATON MR IOANNIS N. CHARITOS MR GREGORY KATSAREAS MR AGAMEMNON BARONOS MRS EVE KAGIA MRS ROUBINI PASARIDOU MR DIMITRIS PAPAILIAS MR DIMITRIS NOMIKOS MR PANOS HATZIPANOS MR FANI ALEXIOU MR TSITHANIS ANDREAKOS MR KONSTADINOS KLITOPOULOS MISS JOULIA A. DIOMIDOUS MISS EMILIA KARIRI MRS ALEXANDRA MICHAILIDI MISS EKATERINI PSALTOF MRS CHRISANTHI GEORGANTA 1923 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 ATHENA ATHENA ATHENA ATHENA ATHENA MR MR MR MR 58 MRS URANIA LEONARDOU MRS OLGA KYVETOU MRS DESPINA GAITI MR P. SANTAKIS MISS ALEXANDRA NAOUM MRS ANNA VANNELI MRS ANNA KONTOU KOURGI MR P. A. APOSTOLOPOULOS MR G. BOUTOS MR ANTONIS VLASTOS MR NICOLAOS NINNIS MR IOANNIS PEPPAS MR IOANNIS EVLABIOS MR GERASIMOS KOLAFTIS MR ANASTASIOS DZAVARAS MR NICOLAOS DIMOPOULOS MR ANTONIOS GIAVANIDIS MR KIMON PRINARIS MRS XANTHI PAVLIDOU MRS ANNA DIAMANTOPOULOU 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 1924 ATHENA ATHENA ATHENA ATHENA ATHENA ATHENA ATHENA PYTHAGORAS PYTHAGORAS PYTHAGORAS PYTHAGORAS PYTHAGORAS PYTHAGORAS PYTHAGORAS PYTHAGORAS PYTHAGORAS PYTHAGORAS ORPHEUS SOCRATES SOCRATES MR ANTONIOS KALOGEROPOULOS MR GEORGIOS PRAPAS MR THOMAS THEMENAKIS MR GEORGIOS GEORGIADIS MR PLATON SOTIRIOU MISS KALLIOPI KONTOGIANNI MR LEONIDAS P. KIVELEAS MR NICOLAOS KRITIKOS MR NICOLAOS KOURTIS MR PANAGIOTIS THEODOSIADIS MR CONSTADINOS FARMAKIDIS MRS MARIA TAVELOUDI MRS KALLIOPI LEVIDOU MR ZACHARIAS VORNOZIS MRS FRIDA CHARITOU MR DIMITRIOS DIMITRIADIS MR GERASIMOS PEFANIS MR SPIROS ROUSSOPOULOS MR NEOFITOS KEFALAS 1925 PLATON 1925 1925 1925 1925 1925 1925 1925 1925 1925 PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON PLATON BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT 1926 BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT 1926 1926 1926 1926 1926 1926 1926 1926 PLATON PLATON PLATON BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT 59 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 60 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 MR IOANNIS LOUKERIS MRS EMILIA ZIRA MR GEORGIOS POULEAS MRS HELEN TABAKOGLOU MR APOSTOLOS KASDONIS MISS KOULA PAPAZAFIROPOULOU MRS ANNA STEFANIDOU MRS LENA PRIGOU MRS ISMINI NISKOU MR CHARALAMPOS VESKAS MR SPIROS DELAPORTAS MRS KLEONIKI CHARITOU MR ALKIVIADIS PASCHALIDIS MR PYTHAGORAS DRAPANIOTIS MRS HELEN PANTERMARA 1926 1926 1927 1927 1927 1927 UNATTACHED UNATTACHED PLATON ORPHEUS ORPHEUS ORPHEUS 1927 1927 1927 1927 1927 1927 1927 1927 ORPHEUS ORPHEUS ORPHEUS ORPHEUS ORPHEUS BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT ORPHEUS ORPHEUS 1927 ORPHEUS MR NICOLAOS NICOLAIDIS MR DARIO J. MOLBO 1927 1927 ORPHEUS SOCRATES MR KOSTIS MELISSAROPOULOS MR GEORGIOS MANOLAKOS MR ALEXANDROS ECONOMOU MR SESIL DE VIDAS MR PARIS CHADZIPETROU MRS HELEN TOTRENA MR SPIROS NIKOLAIDIS MR STEFANOS SALTSIS 1927 BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT 1927 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 UNATTACHED ORPHEUS MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA MRS IRIS SALTSI MRS ΕRIETTA AXELOU MRS ΑΤΗΑΝΑSSIA DIAKAKOU MRS SAPFO ARONI MR PANAGIOTIS PATRIKIOS MRS ROXANI MANOUSSOU MRS AGELIKI GERONTA MR ARISTOTELIS MENDRINOS MR ZOZEF BROUDO MRS ANNA DIAMANTOPOULOU MRS MARIA SIVORIADI MRS ALEXANDRA PAPAGIANOPOULOU 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA SOCRATES SOCRATES SOCRATES SOCRATES MRS KALLIOPI NAKKA MRS NORA ECONOMOU MRS ZOE KALKANI MR ANTOINE F. CHALAS MR THEODOSIS SAKELLARIOU MR PANOS KOSTOPOULOS MR LEONIDAS EMMANOUILIDIS MR PINDAROS POLYMEROS MRS AFRODITI FRADZESKAKI MR CONSTADINOS DAKARAS MRS GALATIA FILIPPOU MRS ELLI CH. APOSTOLIDOU MR RIGAS PAPADOPOULOS MR AGELOS ALEXIOU MRS ANDRONIKI DILIADOU MR PANTELIS MARGARITIS MR MICHAEL LAZARIDIS MISS MARITA DRAKOULI MR ANASTASSIS P. ZACHAROPOULOS MRS MARIA PETROU MR NICOLAOS ALAGOLEMAS MISS GORGIMAN BEY MR STAVROS KONTOS MR IOANNIS LADAS MR CHRISTOS PAPADOPOULOS MR SPIROS BARBITSIOTIS MR MICHAEL ANTONOPOULOS MRS ANNA BAKER MR DIONISSIS BOURAS MR DIONISSIS ARGYROPOULOS 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 SOCRATES SOCRATES SOCRATES UNATTACHED UNATTACHED UNATTACHED UNATTACHED 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 PLATON PLATON PYTHAGORAS ORPHEUS MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA MAITREYA BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT SOCRATES SOCRATES SOCRATES 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 SOCRATES SOCRATES UNATTACHED UNATTACHED SOCRATES UNATTACHED 1928 1928 1928 1928 1928 BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT UNATTACHED PLATON BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT BLAVATSKY/OLCOTT 61 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Theosophical Society in Greece Membership Record Sample FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 1923-1928 International Theosophical History Conference (ITHCon) 12-13 October 2019 - Athens, Greece Review by Debbie Elliott I attended the ITHC when it was held in London over the last few years and have always enjoyed them, so I did not want to miss it this year, especially as it was to be held in Greece, a place that I had never been to before. The Theosophical Society in Greece were the hosts for the ITHC 2019 and a splendid conference they did put on at their HQ in Athens. The first-floor rooms were filled with Theosophical memorabilia and pictures with connections to the society, and it was interesting to see all the Greek translations of Theosophical works. This was a packed two-day conference with speakers from all around the world. The President of the Greek section, Dr Alexandros Bousoulengas, welcomed us all and then began the first full day. Dr James Santucci told us about the beginnings of the Theosophical History Journal, which was started some years ago by Leslie Price, who was also a speaker at this year’s conference. Dr Santucci reminded us that this is an important journal, and though about Theosophical history, it is a neutral journal, independent of any society, and that it is more a theosophical history rather than a theosophical teaching publication. Our studies in theosophy are important, as HPB reminds us, we must continue the research, yet the history of the TS is an important branch. If Theosophy was a tree, the history of the TS would be its growing trunk, the roots being our founders on that day back in 1875 and the Masters who instigated it all. —– This year’s conference had a Far Eastern touch to it with talks from Dr Chienhui Chuang on the TS in China and about its Saturn Lodge and the challenges its president HP Shastri had in the early 1900s setting up a theosophical group amongst Asian politics. —– Dr Toshio Akai carried on the Far Eastern theme by telling us about the International Lodge in Tokyo and the many attempts to launch a lodge in Japan after Colonel Olcott’s visit. Leslie Price delivered a talk on Stainton Moses – a Theosophist in spite of himself? Dr Tim Rudbog gave us an account of Esoteric Buddhism in the Nineteenth Century and explored the question; what is meant by Esoteric Buddhism? Dr Julie Chajes explored various facets of Blavatsky’s Vedanta: A Case Study in Cultural Entanglement. This conference and the TS Society have a background that is multilayered and multi-cultural, yet theosophy and theosophical history is like a tree with many branches and whose leaves are the archival information and when those leaves drop as the years go by, we need somebody to catch and preserve them. 62 Those people who catch those leaves are the historians and archivists of the TS, such as Jaishree Kannan. She began her talk with a beautiful sloka which she sang in her wonderful voice, then she went on to tell us about her ongoing work in the library and archives of Adyar, work such as preserving HPB’s scrapbooks which are kept in what is known as the treasure house. Also there is the precipitated teapot as well as many other theosophical delights and treasures. There is so much work being archived – but how to make it available to researchers? How do we preserve this for future study? This was one of the many topics discussed at the conference. One person who is working on this is John Knebel, who told us about the continuing work he is doing with HPB’s correspondence, an immense project first started by the late John Algeo. They have been working hard putting together all of HPB’s personal correspondence into book form, a monumental task as HPB wrote a lot of letters, many of them many, many pages long. Bas Jacobs gave us a talk on another set of letters – The Mahatma Letters and how they can be approached within an academic context, which throws up many questions and one must remember that the Masters appeared to a small circle of people, it is really only their letters that we have to read and study. The Theosophical Society has had and continues to have many outstanding characters in it. Two of these were discussed at the conference, Dr William Quinn told us about Ananda Coomaraswamy, whilst Erica Georgiades put on her detective hat to discover who was the real Agardi Metrovich, a very close friend to HPB. The talks were many and varied, from crop circles to Bogolism, and just as a good conference should be, everything was up for discussion. Anna Kaltseva spoke on the Bulgarian contribution to Theosophical history, and Spyros Petritakis gave a fabulous talk on one of my favourite artists – G F Watts. It was a delight to see this artist’s works projected onto the big screen as Spyros discussed aesthetic sequence, geometry and proportion and how harmony, melody and counterpoint can be found in colour. The conference ended with a video talk from Paul Johnson; ‘In Search of Zanoni’. I came away with new knowledge, more questions and ideas and a list of books to read, but going back to the tree analogy, when the TS tree grows, we grow too and hopefully we keep in mind that our roots, where we originated from, must be found in our history. We have to climb down through a lot of branches to find the roots as our tree grows higher and fuller. —– 4363 CONTROVERSIES ABOUT THE DONDOUKOFF-KORSAKOFF LETTERS FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 The Dondoukoff-Korsakoff is a collection of sixteen letters (dated August 1881/ June 1884) written by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) to her friend Prince Alexander Mihailovich Doudoukoff-Korsakoff [Aleksandr Mikhailovich Dondukov-Korsakov] (1820-1893). The letters were edited and published in booklet format by Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa (1875-1953). The booklet containing the letters is the volume II of H.P.B. Speaks (1951). The letters are a very important source of information about the life of HPB. However, there are controversies surrounding them. Jean Overton Fuller (1915-2009), a researcher of Theosophical history, suggested the letters are forged. Other researchers consider the letters originally written by H.P.B. BACKGROUND In the introduction of H.P.B. Speaks (1951, pgs. iii-xvi) Jinarajadasa provided a detailed description about how the letters were found. According to him, a man named Pierre Bolt contacted Annie Besant (18471933) in 1926, trying to sell sixteen letters written by HPB. Bolt was asking a very high price and Besant declined to buy them. In 1931, the treasurer of the TS (A. Schwarz )made a counter-offer to buy the letters but received no answer. In 1932, Bolt attempted to sell the letters to the TS Pasadena. However, the TS Pasadena also declined because of the cost. Eventually, the General Secretary of the Portuguese Section of the TS, Madame Jeanne S. Lefevre, befriended the man in possession of the letters and informed the TS that Bolt was his pseudonym and his real name was Leo Ladislav Semere. Jinarajadasa managed to get the letters in 1947. Some letters were written in Russian and others in French with Russian portions. Jinarajadasa requested Dr. Anna Kamensky to translate the Russian parts of the letters to English, and Mademoiselle Pascaline Mallet to translate the letters from French to English. The original letters are stored at the international archives of the Theosophical Society Adyar. CONTROVERSIES Some of the controversies surrounding the letters are: 1. a facsimile of the letters was never produced; 2. the letters were never scrutinized by a calligraphy expert; 3. Jinarajadasa has been questioned as editor becasue he often omitted information from material he edited – see the case involving the Mahatma’s letter sent to the T.S. Adyar in 1900; 4. the provenance of the letters is unreliable (see Mr. Bolt as narrated by Jinarajadasa in Ibid). The result is that the Dondoukoff-Korsakoff letters are an important but controversial source of information about the life of HPB. Fuller, suggested that the letters are forged (see Blavatsky and Her Teachings, 1988, pgs, 235-238) not only because of the four points previously outlined, but also 64 Erica Georgiades because of the writing style. In other words, she suggested that HPB would never make some statements like the ones found in some of the Dondoukoff-Korsakoff letters. I am not going to explain in detail Fuller’s arguments. However, I can say that all her arguments are based on ‘I don’t believe HPB would say something like that’ and ‘I don’t believe HPB would write something like that’; or ‘why HPB would send a letter to A in lieu of B’ and so forth. Nonetheless, Even though Fuller attempted to back up each and every one of her claims, her position is based on speculation because she never saw the letters. So she cannot know as a matter of fact if the letters are forged, as she claimed them to be. On one side, this sort of speculation is not very helpful, because it is unable to provide concrete evidences to support the notion that the letters are forged. On the other side, this sort of speculation is important because it shows that it is necessary to be sure about the validity of primary sources before considering them as a reliable source of information. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020. FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom The oririnal manuscripts of the Letters from the Masters of Wisdom are now availeable online at Theosophy Wiki. To access it please, use this link https://theosophy.wiki/en/Letters_from_the_Masters_of_the_Wisdom_ Contents My personal opinion about the letters differs from the opinion of Fuller. For me the letters are original. I could outline a series of arguments to explain why I think the letters are not forged, but my intention is not to counter-argue Fuller’s viewpoint nor to engage into a sort of rhetoric speculation. I say so because any argument pro the originality of the letters would be based on speculation as much as Fuller’s pro-forgery arguments are. As a researcher of Theosophical history I am not interested on speculations but facts. Furthermore, I must say that even though I disagree with Fuller’s viewpoint, her questioning is valid. The validity of her questioning is due to the fact that the letters were never scrutinized by a calligraphy expert. Therefore, we do not know, as a matter of fact, if the letters are original. For the researcher this sort of situation is the least frustrating. This is so because the researcher is left in a position which basically depends on speculation. For instance, a researcher (like me for example) may decide for A or B reasons that the letters are original, while another researcher (like Fuller for example) may decide for the A or B reasons that the letters are forged, and the controversy goes on ad infinitum. The Dondoukoff-Korsakoff letters were published in the early 50s. Fuller’s questioning about the veracity of the letters was published in 1988. It is time, perhaps to check the veracity of the Dondoukoff-Korsakoff letters. Meanwhile, it would be important for any researcher, relying on the Dondoukoff-Korsakoff letters to acknowledge in their research that there are doubts about the veracity of the mentioned letters, not only because the provenance of the letters was unreliable, but also due to the fact that the letters were never scrutinized by a calligraphy expert. 65 FOTA NEWSLETTER no9 • 2020 66