Theos-Talk Archives (April 2002 Message tt00188)

Reg. Blavatsky 3 

During the past three years I have made a more or less exhaustive 
analysis of the contents of the writings of 
Madame H. P. Blavatsky; and I have traced the sources whence she 
derived - and mostly without credit being 
given - nearly the whole of their subject-matter. The presentation, 
in detail, of the evidences of this derivation 
would constitute a volume; but the limitations of this paper will 
admit only of a brief summary of the results 
attained by my analysis of these writings. The detailed proofs and 
evidence of every assertion herein are now 
partly in print and partly in manuscript; and they will be embodied 
in full in a work I am preparing for publication, - 
an expose of theosophy as a whole. So far as pertains to Isis 
Unveiled, Madame Blavatsky's first work, the proofs 
of its wholesale plagiarisms have been in print two years, and no 
attempt has been made to deny or discredit any of 
the data therein contained. In that portion of my work which is 
already in print, as well as that as yet in manuscript, 
many parallel passages are given from the two sets of writings, - the 
works of Madame Blavatsky, and the books 
whence she copied the plagiarised passages; they also contain 
complete lists of the passages plagiarised, giving in 
each case the page of Madame Blavatsky's work in which the passage is 
found, and the page and name of the 
book whence she copied it. Any one can, therefore, easily test the 
accuracy of my statements. 

In Isis Unveiled, published in 1877, I discovered some 2000 passages 
copied from other books without proper 
credit. By careful analysis I found that in compiling Isis about 100 
books were used. About 1400 books are quoted 
from and referred to in this work; but, from the 100 books which its 
author possessed, she copied everything in Isis 
taken from and relating to the other 1300. There are in Isis about 
2100 quotations from and references to books 
that were copied, at second-hand, from books other than the 
originals; and of this number only about 140 are 
credited to the books from which Madame Blavatsky copied them at 
second-hand. The others are quoted in such a 
manner as to lead the reader to think that Madame Blavatsky had read 
and utilised the original works, and had 
quoted from them at first-hand, - the truth being that these 
originals had evidently never been read by Madame 
Blavatsky. By this means many readers of Isis, and subsequently those 
of her Secret Doctrine and Theosophical 
Glossary, have been misled into thinking Madame Blavatsky an enormous 
reader, possessed of vast erudition; 
while the fact is her reading was very limited, and her ignorance was 
profound in all branches of knowledge. 

The books utilised in compiling Isis were nearly all current 
nineteenth-century literature. Only one of the old and 
rare books named and quoted from was in Madame Blavatsky's 
possession, - Henry More's Immortality of the 
Soul, published in the seventeenth century. One or two others dated 
from the early part of the present century; and 
all the rest pertained to the middle and later part of this century. 
Our author made great pretensions to Cabbalistic 
learning; but every quotation from and every allusion to the Cabbala, 
in Isis and all her later works, were copied at 
second-hand from certain books containing scattered quotations from 
Cabbalistic writings; among them being 
Mackenzie's Masonic Cyclopaedia, King's Gnostics, and the works of S. 
F. Dunlap, L. Jacolliot, and Eliphas Levi. 
Not a line of the quotations in Isis, from the old-time mystics, 
Paracelsus, Van Helmont, Cardan, Robert Fludd, 
Philalethes, Gaffarel, and others, was taken from the original works; 
the whole of them were copied from other 
books containing scattered quotations from those writers. The same 
thing obtains with her quotations from 
Josephus, Philo, and the Church Fathers, as Justin Martyr, Origen, 
Clement, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Eusebius, and 
all the rest. The same holds good with the classical authors, - 
Homer, Ovid, Horace, Virgil, Plato, Pliny, and many 
others. The quotations from all these were copied at second-hand from 
some of the 100 books which were used by 
the compiler of Isis. 

In a number of instances Madame Blavatsky, in Isis claimed to possess 
or to have read certain books quoted from, 
which it is evident she neither possessed nor had read. In Isis, i., 
369-377, are a number of quotations from a work 
of Figuier's, that she claimed to have taken from the original work, 
which she says (i., 369) now "lies before us". 
As every word from Figuier in Isis was copied from Des Mousseaux's 
Magie au Dix-neuvieme Siecle, pp. 451-457, 
the word "lies" in the sentence used by her is quite a propos. In 
Isis, i., 353, 354, et seq., she professed to quote 
from a work in her possession, whereas all that she quoted was copied 
from Demonologia, pp. 224-259. In ii., 8, she 
claimed that she had read a work by Bellarmin, whereas all that she 
says about him, and all that she quotes from 
him, are copied from Demonologia, pp. 294, 295. In ii., 71, she 
stated that she had a treatise by De Nogen, but all 
that she knows about him or his treatise was taken from Demonologia, 
p. 431. In ii., 74, 75, the reader is led to 
believe that certain quotations from The Golden Legend were copied by 
her from the original; the truth being that 
they were taken from Demonologia, 420-427. In ii., 59, she gave a 
description of a standard of the Inquisition, 
derived, she said, from "a photograph in our possession, from an 
original procured at the Escurial of Madrid"; but 
this description was copied from Demonologia, p. 300. 

In Isis, i., pp. xii, to xxii., is an account of the philosophy of 
Plato and his successors. Nearly the whole of these ten 
pages was copied from two books, - Cocker's Christianity and Greek 
Philosophy, and Zeller's Plato and the Old 
Academy. There are some 25 passages from Cocker and 35 from Zeller; 
and, of all these, credit is given for but 
one citation from Cocker and about a dozen lines from Zeller. In 
Isis, ii., 344, 345, 9 passages are copied from 
Zeller, but one of which is credited. 

Here follows a list of some other of the more extensive plagiarisms 
in Isis. It includes the names of the books 
plagiarised from, and the number of passages in them that were 
plagiarised: - 


Ennemoser's History of Magic, English translation 107 
passages 
Demonologia, 85 passages 
Dunlap's Sod: the Son of the Man, 134 passages 
Dunlap's Sod: the Mysteries of Adoni, 65 passages 
Dunlap's Spirit History of Man, 77 passages 
Salverte's Philosophy of Magic, English translation 68 
passages 
Des Mousseaux's Magic au Dix-neuvieme Siecle, 63 passages 
Des Mousseaux's Hauts Phenomenes de la Magie, 45 passages 
Des Mousseaux's Moeurs et Pratiques des Demons,. 16 passages 
Supernatural Religion, 40 passages 
King's Gnostics, 1st edition, 42 passages 
Mackenzie's Masonic Cyclopaedia, 36 passages 
Jacolliot's Christna et le Christ, 23 passages 
Jacolliot's Bible in India, English translation. 17 passages 
Jacolliot's Le Spiritisme dans le Monde, 19 passages 
Hone's Apocryphal New Testament, 27 passages 
Cory's Ancient Fragments, 20 passages 
Howitt's History of the Supernatural, 20 passages 

Among the other books plagiarised from may be named Eliphas Levi's 
Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, and 
his La Science des Esprits, La Clef des Grands Mysteres, and Histoire 
de la Magie; Amberley's Analysis of 
Religious Belief, Yule's Ser Marco Polo, Max Muller's Chips, vols. i. 
and ii., Lundy's Monumental Christianity, 
Taylor's Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries (1875 ed.), Reber's Christ 
of Paul, Jenning's Rosicrucians, Higgins's 
Anacalypsis, Inman's Ancient Faiths in Ancient Names, Inman's Ancient 
Pagan and Modern Christian 
Symbolism, Inman's Ancient Faiths and Modern, Wright's Sorcery and 
Witchcraft, Bunsen's Egypt, Payne 
Knight's Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology, Westropp 
and Wake's Ancient Symbol Worship, 
Pococke's India in Greece, Findel's History of Freemasonry, The 
Unseen Universe, Elam's A Physician's 
Problems, Emma Hardinge's Modern American Spiritualism, More's 
Immortality of the Soul, Draper's Conflict 
between Religion and Science, Randolph's Pre-Adamite Man, Peebles's 
Jesus: Myth, Man, or God, Peebles's 
Around the World, Principles of the Jesuits (1893), Septenary 
Institutions (1850), Gasparin's Science and 
Spiritualism, Report on Spiritualism of the London Dialectical 
Society (1873), Wallace's Miracles and Modern 
Spiritualism, and Maudsley's Body and Mind. 

Two years ago I published the statement that the whole of Isis was 
compiled from a little over 100 books and 
periodicals. In the Theosophist, April, 1893, pp. 387, 388, Colonel 
Olcott states that when Isis was written the 
library of the author comprised about 100 books, and that during its 
composition various friends lent her a few 
books, - the latter with her own library thus making up a little over 
100, in precise accordance with the 
well-established results of my critical analysis of every quotation 
and plagiarism in Isis. 

The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888, is of a piece with Isis. It 
is permeated with plagiarisms, and is in all its 
parts a rehash of other books. Two books very largely form the basis 
of this work, - Wilson's translation of the 
Vishnu Purana, and Prof. Winchell's World Life. The Secret Doctrine 
is saturated with Hinduism and Sanskrit 
terminology, and the bulk of this was copied from Wilson's Vishnu 
Purana. A large part of the work is devoted to 
the discussion of various points in modern science, and the work most 
largely used by Madame Blavatsky in this 
department of her book was Winchell's World Life. A specimen of the 
wholesale plagiarisms in this book appears 
in vol. ii., pp. 599-603. Nearly the whole of four pages was copied 
from Oliver's Pythagorean Triangle, while only a 
few lines were credited to that work. Considerable other matter in 
Secret Doctrine was copied, uncredited, from 
Oliver's work. Donnelly's Atlantis was largely plagiarised from. 
Madame Blavatsky not only borrowed from this 
writer the general idea of the derivation of Eastern civilisation, 
mythology, etc., from Atlantis; but she coolly 
appropriated from him a number of the alleged detailed evidences of 
this derivation, without crediting him 
therewith. Vol. ii., pp. 790-793, contains a number of facts, 
numbered seriatim, said to prove this Atlantean 
derivation. These facts were almost wholly copied from Donnelly's 
book, ch. iv., where they are also numbered 
seriatim; but there is no intimation in Secret Doctrine that its 
author was indebted to Donnelly's book for this mass 
of matter. In addition to those credited, there are 130 passages from 
Wilson's Vishnu Purana copied uncredited; 
and there are some 70 passages from Winchell's World Life not 
credited. From Dowson's Hindu Classical 
Dictionary, 123 passages were plagiarised. From Decharme's Mythologie 
de la Grece Antique, about 60 passages 
were plagiarised; and from Myer's Qabbala, 34. These are some of the 
other books plagiarised from: Kenealy's 
Book of God, Faber's Cabiri, Wake's Great Pyramid, Gould's Mythical 
Monsters, Joly's Man before Metals, 
Stallo's, Modern Physics, Massey's Natural Genesis, Mackey's 
Mythological Astronomy, Schmidt's Descent and 
Darwinism, Quatrefages's Human Species, Laing's Modern Science and 
Modern Thought, Mather's Cabbala 
Unveiled, Maspero's Musee de Boulaq, Ragon's Maconnerie Occulte, 
Lefevre's Philosophy, and Buchner's Force 
and Matter. 

The Secret Doctrine is ostensibly based upon certain stanzas, claimed 
to have been translated by Madame 
Blavatsky from the Book of Dzyan, - the oldest book in the world, 
written in a language unknown to philology. The 
Book of Dzyan was the work of Madame Blavatsky, - a compilation, in 
her own language, from a variety of 
sources, embracing the general principles of the doctrines and dogmas 
taught in the Secret Doctrine. I find in this 
"oldest book in the world" statements copied from nineteenth-century 
books, and in the usual blundering manner 
of Madame Blavatsky. Letters and other writings of the adepts are 
found in the Secret Doctrine. In these 
Mahatmic productions I have traced various plagiarised passages from 
Wilson's Vishnu Purana and Winchell's 
World Life, - of like character to those in Madame Blavatsky's 
acknowledged writings. Detailed proofs of this will 
be given in my book. I have also traced the source whence she derived 
the word Dzyan. 

The Theosophical Glossary, published in 1892, contains an 
alphabetical arrangement of words and terms pertaining 
to occultism and theosophy, with explanations and definitions 
thereof. The whole of this book, except the garblings, 
distortions and fabrications of Madame Blavatsky scattered through 
it, was copied from other books. The 
explanations and definitions of 425 names and terms were copied from 
Dowson's Hindu Classical Dictionary. 
>From Wilson's Vishnu Purana were taken those of 242 terms; from 
Eitel's Handbook of Chinese Buddhism, 179; 
and from Mackenzie's Masonic Cyclopaedia, 164. A modicum of credit 
was given to these four books in the 
preface. But, inasmuch as, scattered through the Glossary, credit was 
given at intervals to these books for a 
certain few of the passages extracted therefrom, its readers might 
easily be misled, by the remark in the preface 
relative to these four books, into the belief that said remark was 
intended to cover the various passages in the 
Glossary where these books are named as the sources whence they were 
derived and these alone, - that the 
passages duly credited to said books comprised the whole of the 
matter in the volume taken from them, instead of 
being but a small part of the immense collection of matter 
transferred en masse to the Glossary. But the four named 
in the preface are not the only books thus utilised. A glossary of 
Sanskrit and occultic terms was appended to a 
work called Five Years of Theosophy, published by Mohini M. Chatterji 
in 1885. At least 229 of these terms and 
their definitions were copied in Blavatsky's Glossary, nearly 
verbatim in every instance; and no credit whatever 
was given for this wholesale appropriation of another's work. I 
cannot find a single reference to Chatterji's 
glossary in any part of the later Glossary. Nearly all of the matter 
concerning Egyptian mythology, etc., in the 
latter, was copied from Bonwick's Egyptian Belief and Modern Thought. 
A small part of this was credited, but 
over 100 passages from Bonwick were not credited. Nearly every word 
in relation to Norse and Teutonic 
mythology was copied from Wagner's Asgard and the Gods, - a little 
being credited, and some 100 passages not. 
Most of the Thibetan matter was taken from Schlagintweit's Buddhism 
in Thibet, - some credited, but nearly 50 
passages were not. Much of the material anent Southern Buddhism was 
copied from Spence Hardy's Eastern 
Monachism, - nearly 50 passages being uncredited. Most of the 
Babylonian and Chaldean material was extracted 
from Smith's Chaldean Account of Genesis, with nearly 50 passages not 
credited. The Parsi and Zoroastrian 
matter was from Darmesteter's translation of the Zend-Avesta, and 
West's translation of the Bundahish in the 
Sacred Books of the East, - mostly uncredited. Among other books 
levied upon in the compilation of the Glossary, 
principally with no credit given, are these: Sayce's Hibbert Lectures 
Myer's Qabbala, Hartmann's Paracelsus, 
Crawford's translation of the Kalevala, King's Gnostics, Faber's 
Cabiri, Beal's Catena of Buddhist Scriptures, 
Rhys Davids's Buddhism, Edkins's Chinese Buddhism, Maspero's Guide au 
Musee de Boulaq, Subba Row's 
Notes on the Bhagavad Gita, Kenealy's Book of God, Eliphas Levi's 
Works, and various others. 

The Voice of the Silence, published in 1889, purports to be a 
translation by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky from a 
Thibetan work. It is said to belong to the same series as the Book of 
Dzyan, which is true; as, like that work, it is a 
compilation of ideas and terminology from various nineteenth-century 
books, the diction and phraseology being 
those of Madame Blavatsky. I have traced the sources whence it was 
taken, and it is a hotch-potch from 
Brahmanical books on Yoga and other Hindu writings; Southern 
Buddhistic books, from the Pali and Sinhalese; and 
Northern Buddhistic writings, from the Chinese and Thibetan, - the 
whole having been taken by Helena Petrovna 
Blavatsky from translations by, and the writings of, European and 
other Orientalists of to-day. In this work are 
intermingled Sanskrit, Pali, Thibetan, Chinese, and Sinhalese terms, -
a manifest absurdity in a Thibetan work. I 
have traced the books from which each of these terms was taken. I 
find embedded in the text of this alleged 
ancient Thibetan work quotations, phrases, and terms copied from 
current Oriental literature. The books most 
utilised in its compilation are these: Schlagintweit's Buddhism in 
Thibet, Edkins's's Chinese Buddhism, Hardy's 
Eastern Monachism, Rhys Davids's Buddhism, Dvivedi's Raja Yoga, and 
Raja Yoga Philosophy (1888); also an 
article, "The Dream of Ravan," published in the Dublin University 
Magazine, January, 1854, extracts from which 
appeared in the Theosophist of January, 1880. Passages from this 
article, and from the books named above, are 
scattered about in the text of the Voice of the Silence, as well as 
in the annotations thereon, which latter are 
admitted to be the work of Blavatsky. Full proofs of this, including 
the parallel passages, will be given in my work 
on theosophy; including evidence that this old Thibetan book contains 
not only passages from the Hindu books 
quoted in the article in the Dublin Magazine, but also ideas and 
phrases stolen from the nineteenth-century writer 
of said article. One example of the incongruity of the elements 
composing the conglomerate admixture of terms 
and ideas in the Voice of the Silence will be given. On p. 87, it is 
said that the Narjols of the Northern Buddhists 
are "learned in Gotrabhu-gnyana and gnyana-dassana-suddhi". Helena 
Petrovna Blavatsky copied these two 
terms from Hardy's Eastern Monachism, p. 281. The terms used in 
Northern Buddhism are usually Sanskrit, or 
from the Sanskrit; those in Southern Buddhism, Pali, or from the 
Pali. Hardy's work, devoted to Sinhalese 
Buddhism, is composed of translations from Sinhalese books, and its 
terms and phrases are largely Sinhalese 
corruptions of the Pali. Sinhalese terms are unknown in Northern 
Buddhism. The two terms in the Voice of the 
Silence, descriptive of the wisdom of the Narjols, are Sinhalese-Pali 
corruptions, and therefore unknown in Thibet. 
Narjol is a word manufactured by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, from the 
Thibetan Nal-jor, which she found in 
Schlagintweit's work, p. 138, - the r and l being transposed by her. 

Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett, was based upon statements in 
letters received by Mr. Sinnett and Mr. A. O. 
Hume, through Madame Blavatsky, purporting to be written by the 
Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Morya, - 
principally the former. Mr. Richard Hodgson has kindly lent me a 
considerable number of the original letters of the 
Mahatmas leading to the production of Esoteric Buddhism. I find in 
them overwhelming evidence that all of them 
were written by Madame Blavatsky, which evidence will be presented in 
full in my book. In these letters are a 
number of extracts from Buddhist books, alleged to be translations 
from the originals by the Mahatmic writers 
themselves. These letters claim for the adepts a knowledge of 
Sanskrit, Thibetan, Pali and Chinese. I have traced 
to its source each quotation from the Buddhist scriptures in the 
letters, and they were all copied from current 
English translations, including even the notes and explanations of 
the English translators. They were principally 
copied from Beal's Catena of Buddhist Scriptures from the Chinese. In 
other places where the adept (?) is using 
his own language in explanation of Buddhistic terms and ideas, I find 
that his presumed original language was 
copied nearly word for word from Rhys Davids's Buddhism, and other 
books. I have traced every Buddhistic idea 
in these letters and in Esoteric Buddhism, and every Buddhistic term, 
such as Devachan, Avitchi, etc., to the books 
whence Helena Petrovna Blavatsky derived them. Although said to be 
proficient in the knowledge of Thibetan and 
Sanskrit, the words and terms in these languages in the letters of 
the adepts were nearly all used in a ludicrously 
erroneous and absurd manner. The writer of those letters was an 
ignoramus in Sanskrit and Thibetan; and the 
mistakes and blunders in them, in these languages, are in exact 
accordance with the known ignorance of Madame 
Blavatsky thereanent. Esoteric Buddhism, like all of Madame 
Blavatsky's works, was based upon wholesale 
plagiarism and ignorance. 

>From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan, although published, in 
letters to a Russian journal, as a veracious 
narrative of actual experiences of Madame Blavatsky in India, was 
admitted by Colonel Olcott in Theosophist, 
January, 1893, pp. 245, 246, to be largely a work of fiction; and 
this has been even partially conceded in its 
preface. Like her other books it swarms with blunders, misstatements, 
falsehoods and garblings. Full expose of it 
will be included in my work. The Key to Theosophy, by Helena Petrovna 
Blavatsky, being a compendium of 
doctrines, its plagiarism consists in the ideas and teachings which 
it contains, rather than in plagiarised passages 
from other books. 

In addition to wholesale plagiarism, other marked characteristics of 
Madame Blavatsky's writings are these: (1) 
Wholesale garbling, distortion and literary forgery, of which there 
are very many instances in Isis particularly. The 
Koot Hoomi letters to Hume and Sinnett contain garbled and spurious 
quotations from Buddhist sacred books, 
manufactured by the writer to embody her own peculiar ideas, under 
the fictitious guise of genuine Buddhism. (2) 
Wealth of misstatement and error in all branches of knowledge treated 
by her; e.g., in Isis there are over 600 false 
statements in Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Assyriology, 
Egyptology, etc. (3) Mistakes and blunders 
of many varied kinds - in names of books and authors, in words and 
figures and what not; nearly 700 being in Isis 
alone. (4) Great contradiction and inconsistency, both in primary and 
essential points and in minor matters and 
details. There are probably thousands of contradictions in the whole 
circuit of her writings. 

The doctrines, teachings, dogmas, etc., of theosophy, as published by 
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, and affirmed to 
be derived from the quasi-infallible Mahatmas of Thibet, were 
borrowed from the philosophies and religions of the 
past and present, with some admixture of modern science. There is 
nothing original in this "Wisdom of the Gods," 
or "Wisdom Religion," save the work of compilation into a composite 
whole of the heterogeneous mass of 
materials gathered by Madame Blavatsky from so many sources, and the 
garblings, perversions, and fabrications 
indulged in by her in the preparation of the system of thought called 
theosophy. A careful analysis of her teachings 
shows that they were collected from the sources named below. (1) 
Madame Blavatsky was a spiritualistic medium 
many years before she became a theosophist, and in its inception 
theosophy was an off-shoot from spiritualism; 
and from this source was a large part of her theosophy taken. I find 
that its teachings upon some 267 points were 
copied from those of spiritualism. (2) In its later form, Hinduism 
constitutes one of the larger portions of theosophy. 
I have not attempted an exhaustive classification of the numerous 
minor points taken from this source, but I have 
noted 281 of the more important. (3) From Buddhism I have noted 63. 
(4) In the beginnings of theosophy, the basis 
of most of its teachings was derived from the works of Eliphas Levi, 
and I count 102 points therefrom borrowed. (5) 
>From Paracelsus's works were taken 49. (6) From Jacob Bohme, 81. (7) 
>From the Cabbala, 86. (8) From Plato, the 
Platonists, the Neo-Platonists, and Hermes, 80. (9) From Gnosticism, 
61. (10) From modern science and 
philosophy, 75. (11) From Zoroastrianism, 26. (12) From Kingsford and 
Maitland's Perfect Way, 24. (13) From 
general mythology, 20. (14) From Egyptology, 17. (15) From the 
Rosicrucians, 16. (16) From other mediaeval and 
modern mystics, 20. (17) From miscellaneous classical writers, 16. 
(18) From Assyriology, 14. (19) From 
Christianity and the Bible, 10. In addition, doctrines and data, in 
lesser number, have been derived from the 
following-named sources: The writings of Gerald Massey, John Yarker, 
Subba Row, Ragon, J. Ralston Skinner, 
Inman, Keeley, Godfrey Higgins, Jacolliot, Wilford, Oliver, Donnelly, 
Mackenzie, Bulwer-Lytton, Kenealy, and 
various others; also from Chinese, Japanese, Phoenician, and Quiche 
mythologies. 

There is not a single dogma or tenet in theosophy, nor any detail of 
moment in the multiplex and complex 
concatenation of alleged revelations of occult truth in the teachings 
of Madame Blavatsky and the pretended 
adepts, the source of which cannot be pointed out in the world's 
literature. From first to last, their writings are 
dominated by a duplex plagiarism, - plagiarism in idea, and 
plagiarism in language. 

AH