Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth (101 page)

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 Journal,
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.

146. H.P.B. to Nadyezhda Fadeyev or Vera Zhelihovsky, fall, 1889,
London Forum,
July, 1935.

147. Sinnett,
The Early Days of Theosophy in Europe,
p. 108.

148. Besant,
Autobiography,
p. 363.

149. H.P.B. to Nadyezhda Fadeyev, July, 1889,
The Path,
November, 1895.

150. In the preface to the published work, H.P.B. stated that the aphorisms belonged to the same series as the
Stanzas of Dzyan,
supposedly written in Senzar, but in a letter to Vera she mentioned having translated them from Telugu, a South Indian dialect. According to William Coleman,
The Voice of the Silence
was compiled from Brahmanical books on yoga, southern Buddhistic works written in Pali and Cingalese, and northern Buddhistic writings in Chinese and Tibetan, all of which were available in convenient English translations. He mentioned the following works: Schlagintweit's
Buddhism in Tibet,
Edkin's
Chinese Buddhism,
Hardy's
Eastern Monachism,
Rhys David's
Buddhism,
Dvivedi's
Raja Yoga
and
Raja Yoga Philosophy,
; also an article, "The Dream of Ravan," published in the
Dublin University Magazine,
January, 1854, extracts from which appeared in the
Theosophist,
January, 1880.

151. Besant,
Autobiography,
p. 353.

152. Blavatsky,
The Voice of the Silence,
pp. 2-3.

153. In all, about nine or ten persons testified to having seen the Mahatmas: Annie Besant, Henry Olcott, Damodar Mavalankar, Isabel Cooper-Oakley, William Brown, Nadyezhda Fadeyev, S. R. Ramaswamier, Justine Glinka and Vsevolod Solovyov. Franz Hartmann said that while he never actually saw them, he felt their presence.

154.
Lucifer,
October, 1891. (Written in 1889.)

155. H.P.B. to Annie Besant, July 26, 1889,
Theosophist,
January, 1932.

156. Ibid.

157. H.P.B. to Annie Besant, August 2, 1889,
Theosophist,
February, 1932.