H.P. Blavatsky's Occult Status & the Claims of Latter-Day Messengers of

the Masters by Terry Hobbes (original) (raw)

Part 1: H.P. Blavatsky's Occult Status & Mission

"[Modern] Theosophy is no new candidate for the world's attention, but only _the restatemen_t of principles which have been recognised from the very infancy of mankind."
Master K.H., The Mahatma Letters, Letter 8. Italics added.

". . . We have broken the silence of centuries . . . . "
Master K.H., Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Series One, Letter 4. Italics added.

". . . Our [esoteric] doctrine . . . is now being partially taught to Europeans for the first time."
Master K.H., The Mahatma Letters, Letter 18.

"Our [modern] knowledge of this Wisdom called Theosophy sprang from two sources, . . . [_The Mahatma Letters_] and the writings of H.P. Blavatsky. From these Letters A.P. Sinnett wrote The Occult World and Esoteric Buddhism; from the knowledge gained from these Masters, H.P. Blavatsky gave the world Isis Unveiled, The Secret Doctrine, The Key to Theosophy, The Voice of the Silence, and much besides. . . . 'H.P.B.' ... was the Founder of the Theosophical Movement, and the Masters' chosen and beloved pupil, agent and scribe. . . . "
Christmas Humphreys and Elsie Benjamin, The Mahatma Letters (Preface to 3rd Ed.)

H.P. Blavatsky (1831-1891) was the first person in modern times to claim contact with the Theosophical Adepts, especially the Masters Morya and Koot Hoomi. She affirmed that in her writings she was giving out the teachings of the Adept Brotherhood.

In 1877 in Volume I of Isis Unveiled, Madame Blavatsky told her readers about these Adepts and her role in giving out the fundamentals of the Esoteric Science:

". . .we came into contact with certain men, endowed with such mysterious powers and such profound knowledge that we may truly designate them as the sages of the Orient. To their instructions we lent a ready ear." p. vi

"The work now submitted to public judgment is the fruit of a somewhat intimate acquaintance with Eastern adepts and study of their science." p. v

Madame Blavatsky also wrote:

" . . . I was the first in the United States to bring the existence of our Masters into publicity; and . . . exposed the holy names of two members of a Brotherhood hitherto unknown to Europe and America (save to a few mystics and Initiates of every age), yet sacred and revered throughout the East, and especially India . . . . " "The Theosophical Mahatmas." The Path, December, 1886.

She affirmed that in her writings she was giving out the teachings of the Adept Brotherhood. In April, 1891, H.P.B. wrote:

". . . every word of [esoteric] information found in this work [_Isis Unveiled_] or in my later writings, comes from the teachings of our Eastern Masters; and . . . many a passage in these works has been written by me under their dictation. In saying this no supernatural claim is urged, for no miracle is performed by such a dictation. . . . Space and distance do not exist for thought; and if two persons are in perfect mutual psycho-magnetic rapport,and of these two, one is a great Adept in Occult Sciences, then thought-transference and dictation of whole pages, become as easy and as comprehensible at the distance of ten thousand miles as the transference of two words across a room. . . . " "My Books," Lucifer, May, 1891

Concerning H.P.B.'s special position in relation to the Eastern adepts, the following quotes from letters of the Mahatmas K.H. and M. indicate her unique status:

"... imperfect as may be our visible agent — and often most unsatisfactory and imperfect she is — yet she is the best available at present. . . . " The Mahatma Letters, 2nd edition, Letter 2. Italics added.

"This state of hers is [H.P.B.'s] intimately connected with her occult training in Tibet, and due to her being sent out alone into the world to gradually prepare the way for others. After nearly a century of fruitless search, our chiefs had to avail themselves of the only opportunity to send out a European body. . . . " The Mahatma Letters, 2nd edition, Letter 26. Italics added.

"[H.P.B. is] a woman of most exceptional and wonderful endowments. Combined with them she had strong personal defects, but just as she was, there was no second to her living fit for this work. We sent her to America. . . . " The Mahatma Letters, 2nd edition, Letter 45. Italics added.

". . . we employ agents — the best available. Of these for the past thirty years the chief has been the personality known as H.P.B. to the world (but otherwise to us). Imperfect and very troublesome, no doubt, she proves to some, nevertheless, there is no likelihood of our finding a better one for years to come — and your theosophists should be made to understand it. Since 1885 I have not written, nor caused to be written save thro’ her agency, direct and remote, a letter or line to anybody in Europe or America, nor communicated orally with, or thro’ any third party. Theosophists should learn it. You will understand later the significance of this declaration so keep it in mind. Her fidelity to our work being constant, and her sufferings having come upon her thro’ it, neither I nor either of my Brother associates will desert or supplant her. . . . This you must tell to all: — With occult matters she has everything to do. . . . She is our direct agent. . . . " Letters from the Masters of Wisdom, Series 1, Letter 19.Italics added.

One should also considerthe following significant passages from Madame Blavatsky's pen.

H.P.B. wrote to members of her Esoteric School:

"Let every member know . . . that the time for such priceless acquisition is limited. The writer of the present is old; her life is well-nigh worn out, and she may be summoned 'home' any day and almost any hour. And if her place is even filled up, perchance by another worthier and more learned than herself, still_there remain but twelve years_ to the last hour of the term - namely, till December the 31st, 1899. Those who will not have profited by the opportunity (given to the world in every last quarter of a century), those who will not have reached a certain point of psychic and spiritual development, or that point from which begins the cycle of adeptship, by that day - those will advance no further than the knowledge already acquired. No Master of Wisdom from the East will appear or send any one to Europe or America after that period, and the sluggards will have to renounce every chance of advancement in their present incarnation - until the year 1975. Such is the LAW, for we are in Kali Yuga - the Black Age - and the restrictions in this cycle, the first 5,000 years of which will expire in 1897, are great and almost insuperable." HPB's_Collected Writings_, Vol XII, pp. 491-492. Italics added.

H.P.B. in Volume I of The Secret Doctrine told her readers:

"In Century the Twentieth some disciple more informed, and far better fitted [than H.P.B.], may be sent by the Masters of Wisdom to give final and irrefutable proofs that there exists a Science called Gupta-Vidya; and that . . . the source of all religions and philosophies . . . has been for many ages forgotten and lost to men, but is at last found."

". . . the SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories, but contains all that can be given out to the world in this century." The Secret Doctrine, 1888, Vol I, p. xxxviii (original edition) Italics added.

And a few lines above these two paragraphs, one reads:

". . . But it will take centuries before much more is given from it [the Secret Archaic Doctrine]. . . . " Italics added.

Part 2: Confusion and Bogus Claims among some Theosophical and Occult Students

". . . A new and rapidly growing danger. . . is threatening . . . the spread of the pure Esoteric Philosophy and knowledge. . . . I allude to those charlatanesque imitations of Occultism and Theosophy. . . . By pandering to the prejudices of people, and especially by adopting the false ideas of a personal God and a personal, carnalized Saviour, as the groundwork of their teaching, the leaders of this 'swindle' (for such it is) are endeavoring to draw men to them and in particular to turn Theosophists from the true path."

". . . A close examination will assuredly reveal. . . materials largely stolen . . . from Theosophical writings. . . [and] distorted and falsified so as to be palmed off on the unwary as revelations of new and undreamed of truths. But many will neither have the time nor the opportunity for such a thorough investigation; and before they become aware of the imposture they may be led far from the Truth. . . . Nothing is more dangerous to Esoteric Truth than the garbled and distorted versions disfigured to suit the prejudices and tastes of men in general."
H. P. Blavatsky, E.S. Instruction No. I., 1889. Bold added.

In The Key to Theosophy published in 1889, H.P.B. wrote about the confusion among many students of Theosophy, esotericism and occultism:

"Look around you and observe. While two-thirds of civilized society ridicule the mere notion that there is anything in Theosophy, Occultism, Spiritualism, or in the Kabala, the other third is composed of the most heterogeneous and opposite elements. Some believe in the mystical, and even in the supernatural (!), but each believes in his own way. Others will rush single-handed into the study of the Kabala, Psychism, Mesmerism, Spiritualism, or some form or another of Mysticism. Result: no two men think alike, no two are agreed upon any fundamental occult principles, though many are those who claim for themselves the ultima thule of knowledge, and would make outsiders believe that they are full-blown adepts. . . . .Some limit ancient wisdom to the Kabala and the Jewish Zohar. . . . .Others regard Swedenborg or Boehme as the ultimate expressions of the highest wisdom; while others again see in mesmerism the great secret of ancient magic. One and all of those who put their theory in practice are rapidly drifting, through ignorance, into black magic. Happy are those who escape from it, as they have neither test nor criterion by which they can distinguish between the true and the false. . . . A portion of the true [esoteric] sciences is better than a mass of undigested and misunderstood learning. An ounce of gold is worth a ton of dust. . . . " original 1889 edition, pp. 21-22

And elsewhere in the same volume, H.P.B. pointed out that various people had made bogus claims to being in contact with her own Masters K.H. and M.:

"Great are the desecrations to which the names of two of the Masters have been subjected. There is hardly a medium who has not claimed to have seen them. Every bogus swindling Society, for commercial purposes, now claims to be guided and directed by 'Masters' often supposed to be far higher than ours! Many and heavy are the sins of those who advanced these claims, prompted either by desire for lucre, vanity, or irresponsible mediumship . . . . The sacred names of Occultism and the holy keepers thereof have been dragged in this filthy mire, polluted by being associated with sordid motives and immoral practices, while thousands of men and women have been held back from the path of truth and light through the discredit and evil report which such shams, swindles, and frauds have brought upon the whole subject." The Key to Theosophy, p. 301

Part 3: A.P. Sinnett's Mistaken Belief and Confusion

"[Salig Ram is] -- a truly good man -- yet a devotee of another error. Not his guru's voice -- his own. The voice of a pure, unselfish, earnest soul, absorbed in misguided, misdirected mysticism. Add to it a chronic disorder in that portion of the brain which responds to clear vision and the secret is soon told: that disorder was developed by forced visions; by hatha yog and prolonged asceticism. S. Ram is the chief medium and at same time the principal magnetic factor, who spreads his disease by infection -- unconsciously to himself; who innoculates with his vision all the other disciples. There is one general law of vision (physical and mental or spiritual) but there is a qualifying special law proving that all vision must be determined by the quality or grade of man's spirit and soul, and also by the ability to translate divers qualities of waves of astral light into consciousness. There is but one general law of life, but innumerable laws qualify and determine the myriads of forms perceived and of sounds heard. There are those who are willingly and others who are unwillingly -- blind. Mediums belong to the former, sensitives to the latter. Unless regularly initiated and trained -- concerning the spiritual insight of things and the supposed revelations made unto man in all ages from Socrates down to Swedenborg . . . no self-tutored seer or clairaudient ever saw or heard quite correctly."
Master Morya, The Mahatma Letters, 2nd ed., Letter 40

In 1884, the Theosophist A.P. Sinnett, who was the major recipient of The Mahatma Letters, believed he was in contact with the Master K.H., independent of H.P.B. acting as mediator.

Sinnett wrote in his book The Early Days of Theosophy:

"About this time [early July 1884] Mrs. Holloway, a wonderfully gifted American psychic came to stay with us. . . . .She used to get vivid clairvoyant visions of the Master, - could pass on messages to me from K.H. and on one occasion he actually made use of her to speak to me in the first person." p. 27

But the Master K.H. (in a letter received July 18, 1884) pronounced Sinnett's claim false and untrue:

"You ask me if you can tell Miss Arundale what I told you thro' Mrs. H[olloway]. . . . . .[But] I have never . . . communicated with you or any one else thro' her. . . . . She is an excellent but quite undeveloped clairvoyante. . . . ." The Mahatma Letters, 2nd ed., p. 355

During this same summer, Master KH wrote to Mrs. Holloway:

"Your vivid creative fancy [imagination] evokes illusive Gurus and chelas, and puts into their mouths words coined the instant before in the mint of your mind, unknown to yourself. The false appear as real, as the true, and you have no exact method of detection since you are yet prone to force your communications to agree with your preconceptions. . . . " Mrs. Holloway and the Mahatmas, Letter 17 Italics added.

Despite this emphatic denial by K.H., Sinnett persisted in searching for another "channel" to the Master independent of H.P.B. In The Autobiography of Alfred Percy Sinnett, he wrote:

"On the 26th of April 1886. . . we went . . . to the Albemarle Club . . . to meet a lady who was . . . desirous of making my acquaintance . . . . . I will give her a fictitious name and call her Mary. . . . shortly afterwards I tried a mesmeric experiment with her (in accordance with her wish) and obtained remarkable results - she went very easily into a trance in which she became unequivocally clairvoyant. . . .I became convinced that she clairvoyantly saw the mountain region in Tibet where the Master K.H. resided. . . . . It became obvious that Mary might become a link between myself and the Master. . . . . Mary came to stay with us . . . in February 1888 and our regular mesmeric sittings were resumed almost every evening, the Master [KH] talking to me through her in most cases. In this way I gathered a great deal of miscellaneous occult information. . . . . Mary left us to go to her own home in May 1888 having had mesmeric sitting almost every evening while she was with us, at most of which the Master spoke to me, - or rather dictated to her what he wished to say. She would pass into a higher condition in which she could be in touch with him and be enabled to repeat his words to her in reply to my questions or remarks." pp 33 & 38-39

Again Master KH in a letter (dated August 22, 1888) to Colonel Henry S. Olcott denied Sinnett's claim:

"Since1885 I have not written, nor caused to be written save thro' her [HPB's] agency, direct or remote, a letter or line to anybody in Europe or America, nor communicated orally with, or thro' any third party. Theosophists should learn it. You will understand later the significance of this declaration so keep it in mind. Her [HPB's] fidelity to our work being constant, and her sufferings having come upon her thro' it, neither I nor either of my Brother associates will desert or supplant her." Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Series I, 1973, p. 45

Part 4: Wild and Fanciful Speculation among Many Early Theosophists

"I dread the appearance in print of our philosophy as expounded by Mr. H[ume]. I read his three essays or chapters on God (?) cosmogony and glimpses of the origin of things in general, and had to cross out nearly all. He makes of us Agnostics!! We do not believe in God because so far, we have no proof, etc. This is preposterously ridiculous: if he publishes what I read, I will have H.P.B. or Djual Khool deny the whole thing; as I cannot permit our sacred philosophy to be so disfigured. He says that people will not accept the whole truth; that unless we humour them with a hope that there may be a 'loving Father and creator of all in heaven' our philosophy will be rejected a priori. In such a case the less such idiots hear of our doctrines the better for both. If they do not want the whole truth and nothing but the truth, they are welcome. But never will they find us -- (at any rate) -- compromising with, and pandering to public prejudices."
Master Koot Hoomi, The Mahatma Letters, 2nd ed., Letter 54 Bold added.

During the early and mid 1880s, Sinnett and several other Theosophists had written various expositions of the Theosophical teachings. HPB in The Secret Doctrine stated quite forcefully that they had indulged in "wild and fanciful speculation":

"The publication of many of the facts herein stated has been rendered necessary by the wild and fanciful speculation in which many Theosophists and students of mysticism have indulged, during the last few years, in their endeavour to, as they imagined, work out a complete system of thought from the few facts previously communicated to them." S.D., original edition, Vol I, p. viii

And Master K.H. in his August 1888 letter to Olcott had also written on this same subject:

"I have also noted, your thoughts about the 'Secret Doctrine.' Be assured that what she [HPB] has not annotated from scientific and other works, we have given or suggested to her. Every mistake or erroneous notion, corrected and explained by her from the works of other theosophists was corrected by me, or under my instruction. It is a more valuable work than its predecessor, an epitome of occult truths that will make it a source of information and instruction for the earnest student for long years to come. . . ." Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, Series I, p. 47

One of those "corrections" mentioned by Master K.H. can be seen in the following excerpt at: "Mistakes have now to be checked by the original teachings and corrected."

In light of these "wild and fanciful speculations" made during H.P.B.'s own lifetime, how many more "wild and fanciful speculations" about Theosophy have been published since H.P.B.'s death when she was no longer around to correct or refute them?

Part 5: Was Alice Bailey "the New Torch-Bearer of Truth"?

Stainton Moses (a famous English medium and "seer" of the 1870s and 1880s) wrote to A.P. Sinnett about his own "spirit guide" Imperator:

". . . my inner spirit-sense is opened. Only yesterday . . . Imper[ator] . . . was clearly visible and audible to me. . . . "

To this comment by Stainton Moses [S.M.], Master Koot Hoomi wrote to Sinnett:

". . . So is Jesus and John the Baptist [clearly visible and audible] to Edward Maitland; [who is] as true and as honest and sincere as S.M. . . . And does not E. Maitland see Hermes the first and second and Elijah, etc. Finally does not Mrs. [Anna] Kingsford feel as sure as S.M. with regard to . . . [Imperator] that she saw and conversed with God!! . . . And who purer or more truthful than that woman or Maitland! Mystery, mystery will you exclaim. IGNORANCE we answer; the creation of that we believe in and want to see. . . . " The Mahatma Letters, Letter 90. Bold added.

Alice Bailey (6) claimed that "her teachings came from the same Occult Brotherhood that taught HP Blavatsky . . . . Bailey's guide professed to be the same Djual Khool that was one of HPB's teachers. Bailey also declared that her guru was the same Master Koot Hoomi that Blavatsky knew."

Many Bailey students have quoted the following passage from H.P.B.'s pen in supporting the claim that Alice Bailey was the expected new messenger of the Masters in the 20th century:

"In Century the Twentieth some disciple more informed, and far better fitted, may be sent by the Masters of Wisdom to give final and irrefutable proofs that there exists a Science called Gupta-Vidya; and that . . . the source of all religions and philosophies . . . has been for many ages forgotten and lost to men, but is at last found." S.D., 1888, Vol I, p. xxxviii (original edition)

Students should compare this 1888 statement with the following two passages from HPB's pen. The first extract was written in December 1888 and the second one dates from the middle of 1889.

The first passage reads:

"Let every member [of the Esoteric Section] know . . . that the time for such priceless acquisition is limited. The writer of the present is old; her life is well-nigh worn out, and she may be summoned 'home' any day and almost any hour. And if her place is even filled up, perchance by another worthier and more learned than herself, still there remain but twelve years to the last hour of the term - namely, till December the 31st, 1899. Those who will not have profited by the opportunity (given to the world in every last quarter of a century), those who will not have reached a certain point of psychic and spiritual development, or that point from which begins the cycle of adeptship, by that day - those will advance no further than the knowledge already acquired. No Master of Wisdom from the East will appear or send any one to Europe or America after that period, and the sluggards will have to renounce every chance of advancement in their present incarnation - until the year 1975. Such is the LAW, for we are in Kali Yuga - the Black Age - and the restrictions in this cycle, the first 5,000 years of which will expire in 1897, are great and almost insuperable." HPB's_Collected Writings_, Vol XII, pp. 491-492. Italics added.

The second passage is as follows:

". . .during the last quarter of every hundred years an attempt is made by those 'Masters' . . . to help on the spiritual progress of Humanity in a marked and definite way. Towards the close of each century you will invariably find that an outpouring or upheaval of spirituality - or call it mysticism if you prefer - has taken place. Some one or more persons have appeared in the world as their agents, and a greater or less amount of occult knowledge and teaching has been given out . . . . .If the present attempt, in the form of our Society, succeeds better than its predecessors have done, then it will be in existence as an organized, living and healthy body when the time comes for the effort of the XXth century. The general condition of men's minds and hearts will have been improved and purified by the spread of its teachings . . . . but besides a large and accessible literature ready to men's hands, the next impulse will find a numerous and united body of people ready to welcome the new torch-bearer of Truth. He will find the minds of men prepared for his message, a language ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he brings, an organization awaiting his arrival . . . ." The Key to Theosophy, pp. 306-7. Italics added.

The three passages taken together indicate that HPB was referring to an emissary of the Masters coming in 1975 or later. These statements by HPB would seem to rule out the messenger being Alice Bailey (6) or the other claimants listed in Part 6 of this paper.

Part 6: Too Many "Messengers," Too Little Time to Sort Through the Morass

"You cannot acquire psychic power until the causes of psychic debility are removed. . . . You have scarcely learned the elements of self-control in psychism. . . . Your vivid creative fancy [imagination] evokes illusive Gurus and chelas, and puts into their mouths words coined the instant before in the mint of your mind, unknown to yourself. The false appears as real, as the true, and you have no exact method of detection, since you are yet prone to force your communications to agree with your preconceptions."
Master Koot Hoomi, Mrs. Holloway and the Mahatmas, Letter 17 Bold added.

Keeping in mind HPB's three passages on the "new torch-bearer of Truth", we find that after HPB's death in 1891, numerous individuals have claimed to be in contact with her Adept Teachers and have stated that they were new "messengers" of the Masters conveying even more esoteric teachings.

As Dr. Gordon Melton has written:

"A number of individuals have claimed contact with one of the Masters first described by Blavatsky and have begun new organizations based upon the individual revelation imparted."

Here is a partial list of the claimants:

(1) In the 1890s, William Q. Judge said he was in contact with HPB's Master Morya as well as the deceased HPB.(2) Judge claimed he precipitated letters from Master M. and gave out further esoteric teachings.

(2) Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater affirmed that they were in direct communication with HPB's Masters and the deceased HPB. They gave out various Theosophical teachings in their voluminous writings.

(3)

(3) Katherine Tingley, the occult successor of Judge, said she was in contact with HPB's Masters and claimed to have met on at least two occasions the Master Morya in his physical body. (4)

(4) G. de Purucker, Tingley's successor, testified that the Masters M. & K.H. came to visit him in 1929 at Theosophical Society headquarters, Point Loma, San Diego, California. Purucker claimed that he was allowed to give out deeper esoteric teachings than HPB, Judge or Tingley had given.

(5)

(5) Alice Bailey said she was in contact with Masters K.H. and D.K and wrote more than 20 volumes of teachings said to be from D.K. She even gave out further installments of the Stanzas of Dzyan.

(6)

(6) Mrs. Francia A. La Due (of the Temple of the People) gave out messages from the Masters, especially from Hilarion. She also published more Stanzas from the Book of Dzyan.

(7) Guy Ballard (of the "I Am" Movement) claimed to be in communication with the Masters, especially St. Germain.

(8) Helena Roerich (of the Agni Yoga Society) published some 13 volumes of communications supposedly from the Master Morya.

(9) Mark Prophet and his wife Elizabeth Clare (of the Church Universal and Triumphant) claimed to be the emissaries of the Great White Brotherhood and have channeled thousands of messages from El Morya, Kut Humi, the Virgin Mary, Hercules, Chastity and a variety of other Masters and entities.

(10) Earlyne Chaney (of Astara) believed she was in communication with Kut-Hi-Mi and Zoser and other Masters of the Great White Brotherhood. She has given out various so-called esoteric and occult teachings.

(11) Nada-Yolanda (of Mark-Age, Inc) has channeled numerous messages from M., K.H., and others Masters associated with UFOs.

(12) Max Heindel, Rudolf Steiner, Geoffrey Hodson and George King have claimed clairvoyant powers and to be in contact with various Masters - Rosicrucian, Theosophical or otherwise.

(13) Other supposed communications from HPB's Masters have come from Brother Philip in his book titled Secret of the Andes, from Cyril Scott in his series of books starting with The Initiate, and from David Anrias in his book Through the Eyes of the Masters.

And the list could go on. . . .

But who would have the inclination, time and energy to study the hundreds of books put out by these various individuals and to try to sort through the morass of claims, counterclaims and various contradictory teachings given out by these numerous latter-day messengers of the Masters?

How many of their claims would Madame Blavatsky have labeled "bogus" and how many of their teachings would she have described as "wild and fanciful speculation"?

". . . You have heard of and read about a good many Seers, in the past and present centuries, such as Swedenborg, Boehme, and others. Not one among the number but thoroughly honest, sincere, and as intelligent, as well educated; aye, even learned. Each of them in addition to these qualities, has or had . . . a 'Guardian' and a Revelator -- under whatever 'mystery' and 'mystic name' -- whose mission it is -- or has been to spin out to his spiritual ward -- a new system embracing all the details of the world of Spirit. Tell me, my friend, do you know of two that agree? And why, since truth is one, and that putting entirely the question of discrepancies in details aside -- we do not find them agreeing even upon the most vital problems -- those that have either '_to be,_or not to be' -- and of which there can be no two solutions?"
Master Koot Hoomi, The Mahatma Letters, 2nd ed., Letter 48 Bold added.

Part 7: H.P. Blavatsky's Writings & the Letters of the Masters

Instead of trying to wade through even 1/10th of all these latter-day teachings, it is suggested that inquirers and students of Theosophy should turn to HPB's own voluminous writings and seriously study them.

If no other Theosophical writer had ever written a book on Theosophy after HPB died in 1891, we would still have more than twenty volumes of HPB's own writings to read, study, ponder and apply. And we also have The Mahatma Letters and The Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom (Series 1 and Series 2) to read and study.

There is enough metaphysics, occult information, practical advise, ethical counsel, devotional material, spiritual exercises, etc. in HPB's and the Masters' writings to last most of us a lifetime or two!

Furthermore, why did the Masters want HPB to write all of this material if it was to be superseded and supplanted within a relatively short period of time by the writings of Bailey, Judge, de Purucker, Besant, Leadbeater, Ballard, etc.?

In 1884, Master KH wrote that "we have broken the silence of centuries" in giving out the teachings of Theosophy (as found in HPB's writings and the Masters' letters). Yet far too many students of Theosophy down through the decades and even today consider these original writings not important enough to read, let alone to study.

Students of Theosophy can believe or disbelieve in whatever they want; they can read and study whatever they choose. But why not go to the FOUNTAIN SOURCE of the modern Theosophical Movement (i.e., HPB's writings and the letters of the Masters) and study these writings - without having these writings filtered through and interpreted by later claimants?

And if students of Theosophy really believe that HPB was in contact with Adepts and that she gave out genuine and valuable teachings, why not study these teachings instead of those of some latter-day claimant whose claims and teachings may or may not be true?

And with so many individuals claiming to be messengers of the Masters, why not study HPB's writings and use the criteria to be found in her teachings to test whether later claims and teachings are consistent or not, true or false? (7)

"The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system....The facts...have actually occupied countless generations of initiated seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain....The flashing gaze of those seers has penetrated into the very kernel of matter, and recorded the soul of things there...."

"...The [Esoteric] system...is no fancy of one or several isolated individuals....It is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify ...the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity...."

"For long ages, the 'Wise Men' of the Fifth Race...had passed their lives...checking, testing, and verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who have developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree."

"No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the visions — so obtained as to stand as independent evidence — of other adepts, and by centuries of experiences...."

H.P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. I, pp. 272-273

• The Fountain Source of Modern Theosophy

• On Pseudo-Theosophy & Pseudo-Adepts

• Psychic VERSUS Initiate Visions & Knowledge

• Theosophical Claims after HPB's Death

• The Endnotes to this paper

For more information on Madame Blavatsky and the teachings of Theosophy, see

• Homepage of The Blavatsky Study Center

Part 8: Endnotes

(2) On William Q. Judge, see the following sources:

• William Quan Judge: A Biographical Sketch by Kirby Van Mater

• By Master's Direction by William Q. Judge. A controversial document issued in November1894 containing Judge's claims in his own words.

• William Q Judge's 1895 Letter on Messages from the dead Madame Blavatsky by David Green

• W.Q. Judge's Letter to Mrs. Katherine Tingley on Communications from the discarnate Madame Blavatsky by David Green

• Messages to W.Q. Judge from the dead Mme. Blavatsky Praise Katherine Tingley by David Green

• A Letter from E. A. Neresheimer to Alice Cleather: Katherine Tingley Channels the Recently Deceased William Q. Judge by David Green

• William Q. Judge and Katherine A. Tingley: An Analysis of the Controversy Surrounding W.Q. Judge's Diary Entries about "Promise" and the Dead H.P.B. including Material on the Close Relationship between Mr. Judge and Mrs. Tingley by Dr. H. N. Stokes

(3) In regards to C.W. Leadbeater's and Annie Besant's Theosophical teachings, Dr. Alvin Boyd Kuhn in his book Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom (published 1930) wrote the following relevant statement:

"Certain schools of his critics assert flatly that he [C. W. Leadbeater] has only succeeded in vitiating her [H.P. Blavatsky's] original presentation [of Theosophy]. Two years ago [starting in the March 15, 1928 issue] The Canadian Theosophist, a magazine published under the editorship of Mr. Albert Smythe at Toronto, published a series of articles [excerpted from Margaret Thomas' _Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosophy_] in which parallel passages from the writings of Madame Blavatsky and the Mahatma Letters on one side, and from the books of Mrs. Besant, Mr. Leadbeater, Mr. C. Jinarajadasa, on the other, give specific evidence bearing on the claims of perversion of the original theories by those whom they call Neo-Theosophists. The articles indicate wide deviations, in some cases complete reversal, made by the later interpreters [Besant, Leadbeater, Jinarajadasa] from the fundamental statements of the Russian Messenger [Blavatsky] and her Overlords [the Mahatmas]."

"The differences concern such matters as the personality of God, the historicity of Jesus, his identity as an individual or a principle, the desirability of churches, priestcraft and religious ceremonial, the genuineness of an apostolic succession, and a vicarious atonement, the authority of Sacraments, the nature and nomenclature of the seven planes of man's constitution, the planetary chains, the monad, the course of evolution, and many other important phases of Theosophic doctrine. This exhaustive research has made it apparent that the later exponents have allowed themselves to depart in many important points from the teachings of H.P.B." (pp. 330-331)

Dr. James A. Santucci, professor of religious studies at California State University, Fullerton and editor of Theosophical History <http://www.theohistory.org/>, confirms Kuhn's statements:

"The two [Besant and Leadbeater] were largely responsible for the introduction of new teachings that were often in total opposition to the Theosophy of Blavatsky and her Masters. These teachings were designated by their opponents as Neo-Theosophy . . . or less often Pseudo-Theosophy. The differences between Theosophy and Neo-Theosophy are too numerous to mention in the context of this paper. . . . An extensive overview [of the differences] is given in the unpublished booklet, Theosophy or Neo-Theosophy by Margaret Thomas. . . . The booklet was written around 1925." Quoted from: http://www.theohistory.org/aquarian_foundation.pdf

Jerry Hejka-Ekins, a long-time student of Madame Blavatsky's teachings, has also commented:

"The earliest use of the term 'neo-theosophy' was used by F.T. Brooks around 1912 in a book called Neo Theosophy Exposed. . . . Around 1924, Margaret Thomas published a book called _Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosoph_y: Part one compares Blavatsky's teachings to those of Besant and Leadbeater's by juxtaposing quotes from each party on various subjects, so that the thoughtful reader could easily discern the differences and contradictions. Part two published documents concerning the Leadbeater scandal, and part three publishes documents concerning the Judge case. . . . " Italics added. Quoted from "Discussions on the Theosophical Philosophy"