Madame Blavatsky
Page 73
16. S.P.R., Proceedings, p. 311.
17. S.P.R., Proceedings, vol. ix, p. 159.
18. LBS, p. 94.
19. ODL, vol. 3, p. 217.
20. S.P.R., Proceedings, vol. ix, p. 135.
21. Henry Olcott to Francesca Arundale, July 8, 1885, Theosophist, October, 1932.
22. ODL, vol. 3, p. 221.
23. Henry Olcott to Francesca Arundale, July 8, 1885, Theosophist, October, 1932.
24. ODL, vol. 3, p. 222.
25. Ibid.
26. Soon after H.P.B.'s departure, Emma withdrew her legal action against Maj.-Gen. Henry Rhodes Morgan. Little is known of her subsequent life, except that she and her husband soon separated and Alexis returned to Egypt. By 1886, she was said to be living in Bombay in poverty. According to Sven Eek (Damodar and the Pioneers of the Theosophical Movement): "It has been presumed that she ended her days in some evangelical home for the aged."
27. H.P.B. quoting Olcott in a letter to A. P. Sinnett, August 19, 1885, LBS, p. 115.
28. Henry Olcott to Francesca Arundale, April 1, 1885, Theosophist, October, 1932.
29. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, August 19, 1885, LBS, p. 111.
30. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, September 2, 1885, LBS, p. 119.
31. CW, vol. 11, p. 388.
32. Solovyov, p. 123.
33. H.P.B. to V. Solovyov, April 29, 1885, Solovyov, p. 119.
34. Ibid.
35. H.P.B. to Patience Sinnett, July 23, 1885, LBS, p. 104.
36. H.P.B. to Mohini Chatterji, May 17, 1885, LBS, p. 97.
37. Solovyov, p. 18.
38. H.P.B. to V. Solovyov, May 23, 1885, Solovyov, p. 124.
39. Ibid., p. 122.
40. H.P.B. to Patience Sinnett, July 23, 1885, LBS, p. 105.
41. H.P.B. to Mohini Chatterji, May 17, 1885, LBS, p. 97.
42. Ibid.
43. Quoted in H.P.B. letter to Patience Sinnett, July 23, 1885, LBS, p. 102.
44. Ibid., p. 103.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Ibid.
48. H.P.B. to Mary and Francesca Arundale, June 16, 1885, LBS, p. 95.
49. Ibid.
50. Solovyov, p. 133.
51. Ibid., p. 134.
52. Ibid., p. 135.
53. Ibid., pp. 135-136.
54. Ibid., p. 136.
55. H.P.B. to Francesca Arundale, August 29, 1885, Arundale, p. 60.
56. ML, p. 130.
57. Theosophist, January, 1884.
58. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, January 6, 1886, LBS, p. 480.
59. Ibid.
60. In Modern Priestess of Isis, Solovyov gives the impression that he was alone at Wttrz- burg, but from other sources it is known that he was accompanied by Glinka.
61. Solovyov, p. 150.
62. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, September, 1885, The Path, August, 1895.
63. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, October 10, 1885, LBS, p. 134.
64. Wachtmeister, p. 98.
65. H.P.B. to Henry Olcott, November 25, 1885, De Zirkoff, Rebirth of the Occult Tradition, p. 10.
66. Neff, p. 187.
67. Ibid.
68. Ibid.
69. ODL, vol. 3, pp. 319-320.
70. Neff, p. 187.
71. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, January 4-6, 1886, LBS, p. 177.
72. Dr. Gideon G. Panter, New York Hospital—Cornell Medical Center. Interview with author.
73. Neff, p. 187.
74. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, January 4-6, 1886, LBS, p. 177.
75. Wachtmeister, p. 11.
76. Ibid., p. 4.
77. Ibid., p. 7.
78. Ibid., p. 9.
79. Ibid., p. 12.
80. Russell, Herald of the Star, May 11, 1916.
81. H.P.B. to Franz Hartmann, April 3, 1886, The Path, March, 1896.
82. Wachtmeister, p. 12.
83. Ibid., p. 14.
84. Ibid., p. 33.
85. Ibid., p. 18.
86. Ibid.
87. C. Wachtmeister to A. P. Sinnett, January 1,1886, LBS, p. 270.
88. S.P.R., Proceedings, pp. 313- 317.
89. H.P.B. to Henry Olcott, January 6,1886, Theosophist, August, 1931.
90. S.P.R., Proceedings, p. 207.
91. H .P.B. to Henry Olcott, January 6, 1886, Theosophist, August, 1931.
92. Wachtmeister, p. 19.
93. H.P.B. to Henry Olcott, January 6, 1886, Theosophist, August, 1931.
94. Ibid.
95. C. Wachtmeister to A. P. Sinnett, January 4,1886, LBS, p. 272.
96. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, January 1, 1886, LBS, p. 135.
97. C. Wachtmeister to A. P. Sinnett, January 26, 1886, LBS, p. 279.
98. Ibid., p. 282.
99. Ibid., p. 281.
100. Henry Olcott to C. Wachtmeister, March 2, 1886, LBS, p. 331.
101. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, April 6, 1886, LBS, p. 199.
102. H.P.B. to F. Hartmann, undated, 1886, The Path, February, 1896.
103. Ibid.
104. Five years earlier, Walther Gebhard's identical-twin brother had also taken his own life with a pistol.
105. De Steiger, p. 260.
106. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, October 9, 1885, LBS, p. 123.
107. Ibid.
108. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, March 3, 1886, LBS, p. 192.
109. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, circa October 12, 1885, LBS, p. 127.
110. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, March 13, 1886, LBS, p. 189.
111. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, January 29, 1886, LBS, p. 178.
112. Ibid.
113. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, February 7, 1886, LBS, p. 181.
114. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, March 28, 1886, Solovyov, p. 315.
115. Ibid.
116. Ibid., p. 193.
117. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, February 7, 1886, quoting V. Solovyov, LBS, p. 180.
118. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, February 2-7, 1886, LBS, p. 175.
119. Ibid.
120. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, February 7, 1886, LBS, p. 179.
121. Solovyov, pp. 176-181.
122. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, January 15, 1886, LBS, p. 150.
123. Ibid.
124. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, April, 1886, LBS, p. 148.
125. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, January 15, 1886, LBS, p. 154.
126. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, April 3, 1886, LBS, p. 142.
127. Ibid.
128. Ibid., p. 145.
129. Ibid.
130. C. Wachtmeister to A. P. Sinnett, March 9, 1886, LBS, p. 293.
131. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, March 3, 1886, LBS, p. 194.
132. Henry Olcott to H.P.B., March 17, 1886, LBS, p. 133.
133. H.P.B. to Franz Hartmann, April 3, 1886, The Path, February, 1896.
134. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, March 17-18, 1886, LBS, p. 201.
135. Ibid., p. 200.
136. Wachtmeister, p. 48.
137. Ibid.
138. Ibid., p. 49.
139. Ibid., p. 93.
140. Ibid., p. 50.
141. Ibid.
142. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, August 18, 1886, LBS, p. 216.
143. Ibid.
144. Wachtmeister, p. 51.
145. H.P.B. to William Judge, August 22, 1886, Theosophical Forum, November, 1933.
146. Wachtmeister, p. 50.
147. H.P.B. to William Judge, October 3, 1886, CW, vol. 7, p. 136.
148. Ibid., p. 137.
149. Maitland, vol. 2, pp. 253, 274.
150. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, 1928 edition, Theosophical Press, vol. 1, p. 31.
151. Ibid., p. 22.
152. Ibid., p. xxi.
153. Ibid., p. 28.
154. Ibid., p. 29.
155. Solovyov, p. 359.
156. Scholem, pp. 388-389.
157. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, January 6, 1886, ML, p. 481.
158. H.P.B. to Henry Olcott, January 6, 1886, De Zirkoff, Rebirth of the Occult Tradition, p. 23.
159.
Ibid.
160. C. Wachtmeister to A. P. Sinnett, December 13, 1885, LBS, p. 266.
161. H.P.B. to Henry Olcott, October 21, 1886, Theosophist, March, 1925.
162. H.P.B. to Henry Olcott, January 5,1887, Theosophist, August, 1931.
163. Wachtmeister, p. 56.
164. H.P.B. to A. P. Sinnett, February 16, 1887, LBS, p. 205.
165. Wachtmeister, p. 78.
166. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, undated 1887, The Path, September, 1895.
167. Wachtmeister, pp. 59-64, H.P.B. must have destroyed the will because it was not found among her papers at her death.
168. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, April, 1887, The Path, October, 1895.
169. H.P.B. to Nadyezhda Fadeyev, Easter Sunday, 1887, The Path, September, 1895.
170. Wachtmeister, p. 78.
171. Ibid.
LONDON
1. Religio-Philosophical Journal, September 21, 1890.
2. Wachtmeister, p. 65.
3. Ibid.
4. CW, vol. 8, pp. 427- 429.
5. Ibid., p. 430.
6. De Steiger, p. 241.
7. Maskelyne, p. 62.
8. Ibid., pp. 62-63.
9. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, May, 1887, The Path, October, 1895.
10. B. Keightley, Theosophist, September, 1931.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Cleather, As I Knew Her, p. 3.
14. Theosophical Forum, April-July, 1900.
15. B. Keightley, Theosophist, September, 1931.
16. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, May, 1887, The Path, October 1895.
17. Cleather, As I Knew Her, p. 9.
18. He left the Society in 1888 and died two years later of blood poisoning.
19. ODL, vol. 4, p. 22.
20. Wachtmeister, p. 79.
21. A. Keightley, Theosophical Quarterly, October, 1910.
22. According to an H.P.B. letter to Countess Wachtmeister, the company was formed specifically to publish Lucifer and The Secret Doctrine. However, Bertram Keightley stated that George Redway published the first issues of Lucifer and was due to do Secret Doctrine as well, but they dropped him after a dispute over financial terms. It was only later, probably in November, 1887, that the Theosophical Publishing Society took over the publication of both book and magazine and rented an office in Duke Street.
23. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, May 1887, The Path, October, 1895.
24. Ibid.
25. Wachtmeister, p. 67.
26. Ibid., p. 85.
27. Cleather, As I Knew Her, p. 14.
28. Lucifer, January, 1889.
29. Cleather, As I Knew Her, p. 8.
30. Ibid., p. 13.
31. B. Keightley, Theosophist, September, 1931.
32. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, May, 1887, The Path, October, 1895.
33. Wachtmeister, p. 72.
34. Ibid.
35. Maitland, vol. 2, p. 315.
36. Russell, Herald of the Star, May 11, 1916.
37. Ibid.
38. Ellmann, p. 40.
39. Yeats would remember that Mohini was asked if one should say prayers at bedtime, to which he replied, "No, one should say before sleeping: 'I have lived many lives, I have been a slave and prince. Many a beloved has sat upon my knees and I have sat upon the knees of many a beloved. Everything that has been shall be again.'" Forty years later, Yeats would turn those words into verse:
I asked if I should pray,
But the Brahmin said,
"Pray for nothing, say
Every night in bed,
'I have been a king,
I have been a slave,
Nor is there anything,
Fool, rascal, knave,
That I have not been,
And yet upon my breast
A myriad heads have lain."
"Mohini Chatterjee," Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, p. 242.
Mohini, on a visit to London shortly before his death in 1936, had his daughter read the poem to him, since he was almost blind from cataracts.
40. Yeats, Letters to the New Island, p. 21.
41. Moore, p. 23.
42. Ibid.
43. Yeats, Memoirs, p. 24.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid., p. 25.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid., p. 26.
49. Ibid.
50. Ibid., p. 25.
51. Ibid., p. 26.
52. W. B. Yeats to Katharine Tynan, February 12, 1888, Yeats, Letters of W. B. Yeats to Katharine Tynan, p. 45.
53. V. Moore, p. 24.
54. MacBride, pp. 246-247.
55. Rhys, pp. 105-106.
56. G. Moore, p. 26.
57. "/C" to H.P.B., November 6, 1888, Russell, Letters from /4E, p. 6.
58. Ibid., p. 8.
59. AE to H.P.B., December, 1888, ibid., p. 9.
60. Eglinton, p. 164.
61. "Anashuya and Vijaya," Yeats, The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, p. 12.
62. Yeats, Memoirs, p. 282.
63. Besant, Autobiography, p. 362.
64. Asquith, vol. 1, p. 142.
65. B. Keightley, Theosophist, September, 1931.
66. It is not uncommon that those who receive mediumistic communications through automatic writing write backwards, transpose letters, or write mirror script. According to William James (William James on Psychical Research, p. 55), "All these are symptoms of agraphic disease."
67. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, undated, 1887, The Path, October, 1895.
68. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, undated, 1887 or 1888, The Path, November, 1895.
69. Ibid.
70. H.P.B. to Edward Maitland, August, 1887, Maitland, vol. 2, p. 316.
71. It is unclear which son died. According to the genealogical table in H.P.B.'s Collected Writings, vol. 1, Feodor Ya- hontov died in 1920, Rostislav in 1922. Obviously the table is in error.
72. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, May, 1888, The Path, November, 1895.
73. LMW, vol. l,p. 101.
74. According to H.P.B. (CW, vol. 11, p. 428), celibacy and vegetarianism were optional both for members of the Society as well as the Esoteric Section. "A large proportion of the members are married people, and some eat meat, and, when sick, drink wine even in the inner circle." Technically, this may have been true, but from writings of E.S. members, one cannot avoid the impression that these habits, while not expressly prohibited, were strongly disapproved of.
75. ODL, vol. 4, p. 53.
76. Ibid., p. 55.
77. Religio-Philosophical Journal, July 27, 1888.
78. William Judge to Henry Olcott, May 21, 1888, The Theosophical Movement, p. 231.
79. LMW, vol. 1, pp. 45-46.
80. A. P. Sinnett to C. W. Leadbeater, October 23, 1888, Jinarajadasa, The "K.H." Letters to C. W. Leadbeater, p. 75.
81. Yeats, Letters to the New Island, p. 84.
82. Yeats, Letters to Katharine Tynan, p. 68.
83. Ibid., p. 70.
84. Rohmer, p. 183, quoting E. J. Dunn, The Vahan.
85. Yeats, Letters to Katharine Tynan, p. 70.
86. Russell, Letters from p. 48.
87. ODL, vol. 4, p. 65.
88. Ibid., p. 68.
89. Religio-Philosophical Journal, July 27, 1889.
90. ODL, vol. 1, p. 463.
91. Russell, Herald of the Star, May 11, 1916.
92. The Path, July-August, 1892.
93. CW, vol. 10, p. 157.
94. Wachtmeister, p. 72.
95. Most recently, The Secret Doctrine received publicity in 1968 when Sirhan Sirhan, convicted assassin of Robert Kennedy, asked for and received a copy of the work.
96. She was violently opposed to Darwin's ideas of evolution, especially the hypothesis that humans descended from apes, and called them "wild theories."
97. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. 2, p. 464.
98. New York Times, July 8, 1889.
99. Religio-Philosophical Journa
l, August 10, 17, 24, 31, September 24, 1889.
100. Miiller, Nineteenth Century Magazine, May, 1893.
101. Maeterlinck, pp. 201-203.
102. H.P.B. to William Judge, December 1, 1888, The Path, July, 1892.
103. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, fall, 1888, The Path, November, 1895.
104. CW, vol. 10, p. 159.
105. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, fall, 1888, The Path, November, 1895.
106. Ibid.
107. H.P.B. to William Judge, December 1, 1888, The Path, July 1892.
108. ODL, vol. 4, p. 73.
109. Theosophist, September, 1889.
110. The Path, July, 1892.
111. Richard Harte to H.P.B., August 26, 1889, Theosophical Forum, January, 1934.
112. Elliott Coues to H.P.B., March 20, 1886, LBS, p. 357.
113. Henry Olcott to Elliott Coues, undated, New York Sun, July 20, 1890.
114. The Theosophical Movement, p. 189.
115. Ibid.
116. Religio-Philosophical Journal, May 11, 1889.
117. Yeats, Letters to Katharine Tynan, p. 95.
118. Yeats, Four Years, p. 74.
119. LMW, vol. 1, pp. 96-97.
120. When the case came up for trial in July, 1890, H.P.B.'s counsel showed Mabel's counsel a letter that Mabel had written libeling Madame Blavatsky. Collins' attorney then asked the court to dismiss the case.
121. Quoted in Nethercot, The First Five Lives of Annie Besant, p. 30.
122. Tingley, p. 55.
123. Weintraub, p. 140.
124. Quoted in Nethercot, The First Five Lives of Annie Besant, p. 106.
125. Ibid.
126. Besant, Autobiography, p. 339.
127. Annie Besant to J. Williams Ashman, February 14, 1889, Nethercot, The First Five Lives of Annie Besant, p. 400.
128. Besant, Autobiography, p. 340.
129. Ibid.
130. Nethercot, The First Five Lives of Annie Besant, p. 285.
131. Pall Mall Gazette, April 25, 1889.
132. H.P.B. to Annie Besant, March 15, 1889, Theosophist, January, 1932.
133. Nethercot, The First Five Lives of Annie Besant, pp. 198, 288.
134. ML, p. 405.
135. Ibid., p. 245.
136. Nethercot, The First Five Lives of Annie Besant, pp. 288-289.
137. Besant, Autobiography, p. 341
138. Ibid., p. 343.
139. Annie Besant to J. Williams Ashman, March 22, 1889, Nethercot, The First Five Lives of Annie Besant, p. 401.
140. Besant, Autobiography, pp. 342-343.
141. Weintraub, p. 142.
142. CW, vol. 11, p. 333; Nethercot, p. 298.
143. Weintraub, p. 142.
144. CW, vol. 11, p. 421.
145. H.P.B. to Annie Besant, August, 1889, Theosophist, February, 1932.