Theos-Talk Archives (July 2002 Message tt00301)

July 31 2002

Re: SECRET DOCTRINE the THIRD VOLUME

Dear Daniel:

Well, I don't recall your asking me about this. And I do
appreciate your putting these statements down in sequence.
For a historian they are most interesting.

They show how the plans for The SECRET DOCTRINE were
changed as time and need altered..

If the 3rd Volume was to contain the" history of certain
great adepts," then, as published it can, in my esteem,
hardly qualify to do that. I find far more sketched in the
THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY, under various names, and imagine that
H P B could have expanded that information. But that is
only a speculation of mine.

Scattered through the pages of ISIS UNVEILED, The SECRET
DOCTRINE and her articles we can catch glimpses of certain
great personages, historical and pre-historical -- and even,
we might attempt to string those together.

But that does not seem to be what H P B did, or intended,
does it ?

I assume that in presenting The SECRET DOCTRINE (the 2
volumes published in 1888) she was following the scheme that
the Masters finally laid out : Cosmogenesis, and then
Anthropogenesis.

I would also say in my observation, she expressed her
modesty -- and, she called it a theory or a hypothesis
relating to the generation of the Universe, our Solar System
and Earth. She did this, saying that it (the Theosophical
statement -- which she claimed was condensed HISTORY taken
from the pages of books and records in the libraries and
repositories of the secret Lodges of the Adepts) had as
much right to the public's consideration, as did the
various scientific hypotheses and theories that existed at
her time, and some of which survive into the present. The
modern Scientific theories are based on a speculative study
during the past 3 or 4 centuries of physical relicts and
fragments of monuments that have survived organized attempts
at their obliteration. One wonders why. The Theosophical
statements are based on a study over thousands of years by
the Adepts and their pupils (see S D I 272-3). They have
a far greater antiquity than those of our Science.

She claimed the Theosophical scheme was entirely under Law
(Karma). It was based on the immutability of the one
spiritual principle which is everywhere. It therefore
related to the reincarnation of worlds. Thereafter, under
the same law, whereby the "spiritual" always stands as the
"progenitor" of the material, our own humanity was
produced -- reincarnated from its earlier evolutionary
vehicle on to our Earth. Here it proceeds under the same
immutable evolutionary laws that take into account three
factors, broadly stated on p. 181 of SECRET DOCTRINE, Vol.
I: 1. the Spiritual, 2. the Intellectual, and, 3. the
physical.

I also assume that the 3rd Volume was held back, destroyed,
reconfigured, etc.... for some good reason known to the
Masters and to H P B. But, I am unable to say more. I do n
to know why. I observe again (concerning this 3rd Volume of
the S D) : she did not edit it, nor did she prepare it for
final publication. I would therefore say it is guess-work
for anyone to say what it would have been like. The
materials may have been collected, in part, read by some,
reported on, but we will never know if they are complete, or
only partial, or only stray MSS available and possibly
rejected by H P B earlier, for some reasons she alone knew..

Annie Besant took responsibility for producing the book
(that she named the 3rd volume of The SECRET DOCTRINE) and
to her we have to look for a final word -- but, again, she
is no longer with us. Her Introduction says what she
desired to place before us. Annie Besant released this book
in 1997 (6 years after the death of H P B's body) and
assumed full responsibility for it. I have compared the
contents with what H P B says will be issued, as described
in her first 2 volumes, to me, they are different.

The "Wurzburg MSS" (copied by Countess Wachmeister, and sent
to Adyar for Subba Row to review, comment on and edit) shows
differences from the book as finally published (S D Vols. I
& II). I believe that H P B says somewhere that the whole
scheme was modified as Mr. S. Rao refused to assist as
originally expected.

In any case, with me, I do not know enough to speculate. I
have the S D Vols I & II and even after some 60, or more
years of study, I cannot say I have in any way "mastered
them." I also agree that it would be very useful to some to
have the next 2 volumes, but apparently we will have to
"wait a while."

I am sure that others in the scientific world have read them
(the first 2 volumes), and interestingly enough, as time
passes in the past 114 years, a number of corroborative
discoveries tend to show that the statements she made then,
are, in part, verifications of the facts she wrote of, and,
that further investigation is uncovering more, almost daily.
In itself that is significant.

As I look at Theosophy, there are aspects that lend
dimensions of understanding to the discoveries and
speculations of Science. [You may say this has no place in
the present exchange, but, I think differently, so please
bear with me.]

It seems to me these might be: 1. the "astral light" (or
plane of electro-magnetic forces that form the lattice work
on which the physical atoms and molecules arrange themselves
to make up material forms. 2. Further, the concept of
Karma as a universal law of cause-effect-cause...
universally and endlessly proceeding; 3. following that,
the concept that there is for every being a "spiritual"
something that remains constant, invariable, undying -- and
is in fact the base for any concept on individuality. The
4th, is the concept of reincarnation -- that every "life"
on Earth is like a day in School for the undying
consciousness of every individual. 5th, there is a
purpose -- a goal -- for evolution which can be partially
expressed as "perfection." The material forms and minds
meld eventually with the spiritual "everything." But in
doing so, they do not lose their identity. This is what I
"get" out of The SECRET DOCTRINE and it appeals to me from
its logic and perceived operation. Science on the other
hand does not seem to be able to extend its purview beyond
this present life we are living in this body. Its cause for
existence is unknown, its fate after death is equally
unknown. The reason for living is unclear. The reason for
variations in human character are searched for, but theories
that relate brain to mind are also variable. The puzzle
deepens instead of being relieved.

Frankly I do not agree with your conclusion concerning the
3rd Volume. I see therein some of H P B's posthumously
published articles ( from "Lucifer" and elsewhere), but I am
also keenly aware that I am not equipped to provide you with
the kind of proofs you seem to want. I think I have said as
much as I can on this subject. I hope it is of help, even
if it appears to be a statement in an area different from
what you may have in mind.

Best wishes, as always,

Dallas





-----Original Message-----
From: danielhcaldwell
[mailto:comments@blavatskyarchives.com]
Sent:	Tuesday, July 30, 2002 10:12 PM
To:	theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject:	Theos-World Ariadne's thread and a particular KEY
concerning SD Vol. III

In 1998, I wrote Dallas:

"Read my timeline [about the writing of Volume III of the
SD] and
look for Ariadne's thread. *It is there* from 1885 through
1897."

Furthermore, I would suggest that the KEY to understanding
SD Volume
III as published in 1897 is found in Bertram Keightley's
words about
what happened to the SD manuscripts when HPB came to London
in 1887.
He wrote:

". . . instead of making the first volume to consist, as she
had
intended, of the history of some great Occultists, we
advised her to
follow the natural order of exposition, and begin with the
Evolution
of Cosmos, to pass from that to the Evolution of Man, then
to deal
with the historical part in a third volume treating of the
lives of
some great Occultists; and finally, to speak of Practical
Occultism
in a fourth volume should she ever be able to write it."

"This plan was laid before H.P.B., and it was duly
sanctioned by her."

Please note that BEFORE this rearrangement was done in 1887,
the
three existing volumes consisted of the following:

Volume I: History of Some Great Occultists
Volume II: Evolution of Cosmos
Volume III: Evolution of Man

This initial arrangement is FULLY CONFIRMED in the extant
Wurzburg
Manuscript preserved in the Adyar Archives. See a listing
of what is
in Volume I of the Wurzburg Manuscript of the SD at:

http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiitab.htm

So as Bertram Keightley tells us, the order of the volumes
of The
Secret Doctrine was rearranged in 1887. Volume I became
Volume III.

AFTER the rearrangement in 1887, the volumes would have been
listed
as follows:

Volume I: Evolution of Cosmos
Volume II: Evolution of Man
Volume III: History of Some Great Occultists

In 1888 Volumes I and II were published.

Bertram's above account is fully confirmed in the
Theosophist, July
1891, pp. 586-7 where Bertram's 1890 lecture at TS Adyar was
reported
on as follows:

"H.P.B. handed over to him [B. Keightley] the manuscript of
the "Secret Doctrine," with a request that he should read it
through.
He read through the substance of the two volumes published
[in 1888],
and the third still unpublished [in 1890] .... what would
now be the
3rd volume of the history of Occultism was to have been the
first
volume, while the treatises on Cosmogony and the Genesis of
Man were
to form a later series.... He then drafted a scheme with the
natural
and obvious order, namely. the Evolution of the Universe and
the
Evolution of man, &c. &c. The next thing...was to
REARRANGE...the
manuscript according to the [new] scheme." Bold added.

Now COMPARE the above with what Archibald Keightley said in
an
interview in the New York Times, April 29, 1889, p. 5:

"The third volume of 'The Secret Doctrine' is in manuscript
ready to
be given to the printers. It will consist mainly of a series
of
sketches of the great occultists of all ages, and is a most
wonderful
and fascinating work. The fourth volume, which is to be
largely hints
on the subject of practical occultism, has been outlined,
but not yet
written...."

Now COMPARE the material as found in Volume I (1886) of the
Wurzburg
Manuscript of the SD with the material in Volume III of the
SD as
published in 1897. See the following table for a comparison
of this
material:

http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiitab.htm

In summary, most of the material in this extant Volume I of
the
Wurzburg Manuscript is ALSO to be found in Volume III of
1897. Please
consider this observation IN LIGHT OF what Bertram wrote
about the
rearrangement of the volumes in 1887.

I have asked Dallas for years to comment on this PARTICULAR
POINT &
KEY but AFAIK he has never made any specific comments on
this issue.

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://blavatskyarchives.com/introduction.htm