Theos-Talk Archives (April 2001 Message tt00002)

Dear John DeSantis,

Thanks for your very interesting email below. I will try to find time in
the next day or so to answer some of your points.

Daniel


-- Original Message --

>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
>> ---------------------------------------
>> BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
>> http://blavatskyarchives.com
>> Publishes rare & hard-to-find source
>> documents on Madame H.P. Blavatsky.
>> ---------------------------------------
>> SELECTED THEOSOPHICAL BOOKS FOR SALE
>> http://blavatsky.cc
>> ---------------------------------------
>> ESOTERIC WORLD OF MADAME BLAVATSKY
>> http://blavatskyarchives.com/esotericworld.htm
>> This new book contains a unique collection of
>> rare reminiscences of H.P. Blavatsky's life.
>> ---------------------------------------
>> Theosophyonthe.NET
>> http://theosophyonthe.net
>> Easy Net Access to the Classics of Theosophy
>> ---------------------------------------
>> You can always access our main site
>> BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES by simply typing
>> into the URL address bar the following
>> 6 characters: hpb.cc
>>
>>
>>
>> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>
>---
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>http://www.blavatsky.net/talk/bnbasic/basicSyllabus.htm
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---------------------------------------
Daniel H. Caldwell
info@blavatskyarchives.com
---------------------------------------
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://blavatskyarchives.com
Publishes rare & hard-to-find source 
documents on Madame H.P. Blavatsky.
---------------------------------------
SELECTED THEOSOPHICAL BOOKS FOR SALE
http://blavatsky.cc
---------------------------------------
ESOTERIC WORLD OF MADAME BLAVATSKY
http://blavatskyarchives.com/esotericworld.htm
This new book contains a unique collection of 
rare reminiscences of H.P. Blavatsky's life.
---------------------------------------
Theosophyonthe.NET
http://theosophyonthe.net
Easy Net Access to the Classics of Theosophy
---------------------------------------
You can always access our main site 
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES by simply typing 
into the URL address bar the following 
6 characters: hpb.cc