Theos-Talk Archives (March 2001 Message tt00171)

Dear Daniel,

I said nothing about the books, original or otherwise. I only responded to
Dallas who responded to you, and replied to all of the e-mail addresses. (A
copy of that e-mail of mine is found after this letter.) In the midst of the
debate between the two of you, I simply took the opportunity to present the
reader with the Theosophy as presented on the WisdomWorld.org web site. My
whole mission, as my introductions on the web site show, is to present
Theosophy from THEOSOPHY magazine, which is published by THE THEOSOPHY
COMPANY, the publisher who you mostly were referring to. It is also my
mission, as my introductions clearly show, to try and "Unite" Theosophists
from all of the organizations to work (and write) together in reaching out
to humanity, irregardless of what went on in the past. I wanted to make sure
that all readers, especially newcomers, have a chance to check out a large
sample of the high caliber of Theosophy which has been presented by
THEOSOPHY magazine for the last 89 years -- which clearly shows their
mission and style of pointing to the original teachers, HPB and WQJ. -- and
that they will be part of this "United" group. They bounce everything they
write and collate off of what the original teachers taught -- not later
teachers in the midst of all the controversy and whatever distortions in the
literature may have occurred, except when they talk of all that in many
ways. I presented three series of articles where they skillfully have done
this, and which are found below in the copy of my e-mail message.

As far as answering the question that you laid to me about presenting
original material from the original teachers, yes, I'm all for that. As far
as I can tell, it is THE THEOSOPHY COMPANY who, when in the early days of
the 20th Century the "original" teachings were not much in use, nor were the
main original teachers, HPB and WQJ, featured. Even though you point out to
Dallas some instances in the literature where it is not exactly so, and
which he has responded back to you on, was it or was it not the case that it
was THE THEOSOPHY COMPANY who was responsible for bringing "The Secret
Doctrine", "Isis Unveiled", "The Key to Theosophy", and so on wherever it
may be the case, back on the scene in the middle of all that was going on
back then? I'm not a scholarly type of a person, so I know not all of the
many details a person like you may know. You seem to have originally
studied, as best that I can tell, based on how you point out a few things to
Dallas about where it was not the case, 100%, through the Theosophical
Society, and Dallas, as well as I, mostly studied through the United Lodge
of Theosophists (ULT) system -- which use all the literature published by
THE THEOSOPHY COMPANY.

This is a paragraph from my introduction on my WisdomWorld.org web site,
found on the main page. As you can see I too am concerned with readers
getting to the original material:

"And let it also be known that the primary emphasis here in regards to
Theosophy is on its original, unaltered, and undistorted doctrines as
re-presented to humanity by H. P. Blavatsky and William Q. Judge, who both
worked closely with the world-wide fraternity of Great Adepts from every
land: Those Who Know."

But I am mostly concerned with present-day humanity, besides having access
to the original literature, having access to a "Team" of present-day
"United" Theosophists who can very wisely, knowledgeably, and skillfully
interact with humanity on every important subject under the sun. (Please
carefully read my "Introductions" to both the WisdomWorld.org site itself,
and the book on the site, to see what I mean.) I feel if this kind of coming
together is not done by wise and knowledgeable Theosophists, from all
organizations, and from none, in close association, of course, with the
"ORIGINAL" Theosophical literature, and our Movement stays fractured, and
endlessly arguing and fighting over what went on way back when (even though
all this history has its place), we are unwisely doing the wrong thing,
overall, in general, to the worldwide fraternity of Adepts, to their direct
agents, HPB and WQJ, and to humanity as a whole.

So I sincerely ask you, since I am not very skilled at making my case to
Theosophists, might you, besides doing your fine and very skillful mission
of presenting what you do about all that rare and hard to find material,
consider playing a major roll in helping our Theosophical Movement to come
together in some kind of a major way, as I present it, just for starters, on
the WisdomWorld.org web site in my Introductions (amateurish as I do it!)?
You present many letters and writings of many people from the early days,
who worked hard for the Theosophical Cause, but I'm not sure if you, with
all the original stuff you have gathered and are presenting, have also
pointed out where many of them later went astray, if that be the case, as
presented in many articles and series of article in THEOSOPHY magazine
through the years. If I am wrong, please point that out. If not, and you
have not focused on any of that, you may want to add the three series of
articles about the ins and outs of what went on back in the early days (they
are found below), on to your long list of things for your readers to check
out. This is what THE THEOSOPHY COMPANY has done in the three series, and
many other writings in THEOSOPHY magazine. Of course if they are not
accurate in what they point out, you may want to shed your own light on
where you see they may be in error. But to get back to what I consider most
important:

I humbly suggest that if you and others, so much more skilled and in contact
with so many more Theosophists from many organizations, than I am, one who
has kind of turned into a recluse, could pull together a "United Team", that
presents endless writings dealing with all that affects humanity today, and
on into the future, in a new publication, whatever it may be named (even if
just on the web, for starters), that every web site within the Theosophical
arena should put a link to this same one site, on their own sites. Even
though each group continues doing whatever it does, in whatever
publications, and in whatever ways, same as now, if each also had a link to
this "United" publication, we may, as a Movement, begin to do better among
ourselves and in catching the attention of humanity, and hopefully, the
attention of the Adepts themselves, to a point, after a while, where they
might even begin to be impressed enough with our "United" action to send in
articles and series of articles, because we are finally working together, in
the way they probably hope we would and should.

Sorry for rambling, but I've been wanting to say something like this
publicly to all Theosophists for some time now, but knew not how, other than
what I have written in my introductions to the WisdomWorld.org web site.
Hopefully you and others who read this will pass it along to others within
our overall Movement.

Daniel, please remember that I'm just a Theosophical "generalist", and am
not much on details the way you and people like Dallas are, so I must admit
that I don't have much more to add. I'm just a dummy, you could say, who
happens to have a large vision for our Movement, which I'm weak in
skillfully presenting, as this letter clearly shows. But I have written it
in the hopes of inspiring you and other wise and skilled Theosophists to
maybe come togeter and do something like I have long envisioned for our
somewhat broken and somewhat unfriendly Theosophical groups.

My e-mail that caused you to address me as well as Dallas is below.

Fraternally,

John DeSantis
(Compiler)
-------

Subject: Re: Theos-World RE: Volume III of the Secret Doctrine, etc.
Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2001 18:32:08 -0500
From: Compiler <compiler@wisdomworld.org>
Reply-To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
CC: AA-B-Basic <basic@blavatsky.net>,
Daniel Caldwel <blafoun@azstarnet.com>

For all those interested, the high caliber of the work of THE THEOSOPHY
COMPANY's magazine, entitled "THEOSOPHY", is steadily being presented on the
WisdomWorld.org web site. What is found below are the links to the key
sections on the site -- with links to a paticular section which offers some
important internal history, listed first:

=====================

SOME OF THE HISTORICAL INTERNAL PROBLEMS OF THE
MODERN THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT ITSELF -- SINCE 1875

Compiler's note: The articles presented in this section are offered so that
all present-day Theosophists, from all organizations, and from none, can
understand, along with all of humanity, some of this history -- so as to
learn from it and then put it aside from a practical working-together point
of view. Why? So that the wisest and most knowledgeable members from within
all of the groups can now come together and present a "United" front of
pure, undistorted, and undiluted Theosophy to humanity that can always hold
its own under the welcomed and tough scrutiny and investigation of all
scientists, scholars, teachers, philosophers, thinkers, and religionists of
this world. How? In two new publications, for starters, as proposed in the
right-hand column of the "Main Page" and in the continuing "Introductory
Brochure" link. Both links are found at the bottom of every page on this web
site.

It is highly recommended that you read these three very important series of
articles in the Sequence presented in order to get the best and most
accurate picture of this history as it unfolds chronologically:

The Theosophical Movement (34-part series) (January 1920, to October 1922):
http://www.wisdomworld.org/additional/TheTheosophicalMovement-Series/index.html

The Rising Cycle (13-part series) (October 1926, to October 1927):
http://www.wisdomworld.org/additional/theosophicalmovement/index.html

Aftermath (10-part series) (January 1935, to October 1935):
http://www.wisdomworld.org/additional/AFTERMATH-10-PartSeries/index.html

=====================

The above section about the Theosophical Movement is on this INDEX page,
which contains many other sections and series of articles:
http://www.wisdomworld.org/additional/index.html

John DeSantis
(Compiler)
-------

You may find a great deal of the Truth that you are searching for here:
http://www.wisdomworld.org/index.html

-------

=====================

dalval14@earthlink.net wrote:

[Note: I cut it off here, but all of the messages by Dallas and you were
attached when I originally posted it.]
-------

Blavatsky Archives wrote:

> Dear Dallas and John (Compiler),
>
> Thank you for your emails concerning
> HPB's original writings.
>
> Let me clearly state my view about
> HPB's original books and articles.
>
> When I study HPB's writings I prefer
> to read her original writings as they
> were published during her lifetime.
>
> The main reason for this is that after
> HPB's death various persons have edited
> her writings making various changes, deletions
> and additions. Some of the changes have been
> minor and trivial. But some of the changes
> have been major and some of these changes
> and "corrections" have actually been wrong.
> The changes are usually not noted therefore
> the reader of these new editions has no easy
> way to know what has been changed.
>
> Dallas, I believe you have expressed a similar
> view in the past. John, I don't know your view
> of this subject.
>
> But I ask both of you:
>
> Which would you honestly prefer: (1) a photographic
> facsimile of one of HPB's originals writings as it
> was published during her lifetime or (2) a later
> edition of her book where her text has been edited, either
> by deletions, changes or additions?
>
> For example, take ISIS UNVEILED, I prefer to use the
> photographic facsimile of the original edition
> reprinted by the Theosophy Company. By saying that,
> I don't mean that the editions currently published
> by Theosophical University Press or Theosophical Publishing
> house are worthless. I ALSO use those editions for various
> purposes but I prefer using the photographic facsimile
> of the original for my primary study of that text.
>
> The same applies to THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE. I prefer to
> use as my primary source the photographic facsimile of
> the VOICE published by Kessinger. The other editions of the
> VOICE published by Theosophy Company, Theosophical Publishing
> House and Theosophical University Press also have value but they
> are not photographic facsimiles of the original 1889 edition.
>
> I could go down the whole list of HPB's works.
>
> So if you had your choice, what edition (original) or (later edited)
> (see above) would the two of you choose?
>
> Daniel
>
> ---------------------------------------
> Daniel H. Caldwell
> info@blavatskyarchives.com
> ---------------------------------------
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> http://blavatskyarchives.com
> Publishes rare & hard-to-find source
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> ---------------------------------------
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> ---------------------------------------
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> ---------------------------------------
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> ---------------------------------------
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