Theos-Talk Archives (August 2002 Message tt00037)

Aug 4 2002

Re: S D in MSS and in final print in 1888 ( Vols. I & II),
& differences
S D Vol. III MSS and its fate (1897)

Dear Dan:

Thank you for a fine progressive narration -- it as I
remember it. S D MSS, and its progression (writing,
fragmented referral to Adyar, transport to England,
consideration of its organization by the Keightleys, final
arrangement, and P B's agreement thereto) as narrated by
you, is, as I have read it, and was aware of.

But my observation is that while individual descriptions are
made by the writers, the actual Indexed contents of
materials then sent, carried and reviewed, are not given.
We therefore make guesses that the materials referred to,
have a close relation (if not identity) to what we now have
in print. So, finally, we all have to depend on the printed
versions as we now have them, and we assume that the writers
are also referring to the same things, though it is
possible, they may not.

Then, in 1888, we see put into print: Two (2) volumes of
The SECRET DOCTRINE, and then, in 1897 we have the
publication that Annie Besant edited, and which SHE titled
the: THIRD VOLUME of The SECRET DOCTRINE, as it stands in
print before us.

My only observation on Vols. I & II, is that right up to
final proofing, H P B made "corrections and changes." As we
do not have the various MSS and their alterations, we cannot
trace those changes and have to guess at them from what is
written by her and by various witnesses, who summarized
their observations as you narrate and record.

The final arrangement of material for Vols. I and II ( as
published in 1888 ) did not include, except by fragmentary
and scattered references, information about "Great
Occultists." [What actually happened to this MSS, said to
be "ready" as a 3rd volume, and what happened to the partial
MSS of the FOURTH Volume (said to be partly ready), is a
guess for all of us.]

To my knowledge, while some material (MSS, etc., ) kept by H
P B for this 3rd volume had been made ready, no consecutive
MSS for publication was finalized. It is probable that some
portions of this, or as some surmise: "rejected MSS," were
in H P B's drawers. But there again, with reference to the
brief information to be fund in The THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY,
and other articles and letters by H P B, the material to be
found therein (in the printed version of the THIRD Volume)
does not begin to cover what might have been made available.
The consecutive MSS from all accounts, seems to have
vanished, or been destroyed, as my informant told me (second
or third hand, hear-say evidence).

For example: We do not find much concentrated information
given on "Great Occultists" from Europe, the Mid-East
(Zoroastrian, Chaldean, Babylonian, Jewish) and Egypt
(hierophants and adepts), --- historical and pre-historical
(as the significant individuals active as early Christians,
Gnostics and Neo-Platonists).

There were a significant number of predecessors (European)
to H P B (from the 14th Century on) to be included in a
narration of the efforts made by the Great Lodge every
century following his death, under the instructions of
Tsong-ka-pa, to "enlighten the white barbarians." (There is
a tentative list of these made up from some of the
references to them made in Theosophical literature.)

The history of Hindu, Chinese, Tibetan, Mongolian, (the line
and sequence of Avatars, Adepts, Mahatmas, Buddhas and
Bodhisattvas), Iranian ( the Line of Zoroasters, the
Java-Alhim) and American (North, Central and South:
Hiawatha, Manco Capac, Manco Upanaqui, Mama Occello,
etc..) is hardly touched on. One might guess that those
would have received attention if an inclusive historical
account were to be offered.

But what would be most needed, are the connecting links that
the Great Lodge could have provided through her of the
relations between them. In a word, the unity of teaching
would become more apparent. The basis of all religions
would then be clear: a single teaching of the arts,
sciences, and daily conduct, having the immortality of the
Spirit/soul, Karma, reincarnation, and above all, the
perfectibility of all Men, as a base.

The universal similarity of ethics and morals taught would
be clearer. But these, any good student of comparative
religions can secure through a careful study of primary
documents (if available), even now. Much of that has been
mangled by translators and interested historians who provide
their slanted or biased views, and leave us to disentangle
the reasonable and common-sense from the dogmatic, the
divisive, and the sectarian. H P B's MSS of the THIRD
VOLUME as originally described (if it had been published),
would, I think, have largely cleared this up.

(A few years ago there was made a tentative list
(chronology) was made from theosophical literature of
references to such Adepts and/or efforts to bring the wisdom
of Theosophy to the attention of various peoples all over
the world in various eras. It makes interesting reading.)

What Annie Besant drew together seems to be a hodgepodge of
articles, and other materials but none of these completely
add up to the descriptions made by H P B (of the next volume
(3rd) of the SECRET DOCTRINE) as is to be found in either
the S D (vols. I and II) or, in her articles.

That's the best I can make of the matter.

If you do not already have the two chronological lists, I
will try to find a copy and send it to you. I thought I
might have sent you a copy some years ago.

Best wishes,

Dallas.

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

-----Original Message-----
From: danielhcaldwell
[mailto:comments@blavatskyarchives.com]
Sent: Saturday, August 03, 2002 9:19 PM
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Theos-World Contents of SD Volume I in latter part
of 1886 thru mid 1887

Ian and Dallas et al,

I would appreciate your comments on the following material
that I have
compiled to try to elucidate the problem surrounding the
contents of
volume III of the SD.

Daniel

------------------------------------------------------------
--------

In a letter dated September 23, 1886, H.P. Blavatsky in
Ostende wrote
to Colonel Henry S. Olcott in India:

I send you the MSS. of Secret Doctrine.....Now I send only
1st volume
of Introduct. Section.... There are in the 1st Introductory
Vol.
Seven Sections or Chapt. § and 27 Appendices, several App.
attached to every Section from l to 6, etc. Now all this
will make
either more or at any rate one volume and it is not the S.D.
but a
Preface to it.... (The Theosophist, March 1925, p. 789.)

But the manuscript of the first volume was not sent to India
at that
time. The reason for this delay is described in a later
letter from
Blavatsky to Olcott. (See HPB's letter dated Oct. 21, 1886
and
published in the March,1925 issue of The Theosophist on p.
787.)

Finally sometime around Nov. 20th of the same year, Countess
Wachtmeister on a trip to London mailed the manuscript of
volume I to
Henry Olcott in India.

In Olcott's handwritten diary for Friday, Dec. 10, 1886, one
finds the
following excerpt:

"Recd. MSS of Secret Doctrine, Vol. I. . . . "

In his Annual Address delivered to the T.S. Convention at
Adyar,
Madras, India on December 27, 1886, Colonel Olcott mentioned
the
receipt of this Volume I manuscript:

"The MSS. of the first volume has been sent me. . . .It will
gratify
you to learn that it more than maintains her reputation for
learning
and literary ability. . . . " (The Theosophist, Supplement,
January
1887, pp. xx-xxi.)

The next day in another address given at the opening of the
Adyar
Libary, Olcott also spoke of the recently received volume I
manuscript:

". . . the entire MSS. of the first of five volumes that
Madame
Blavatsky is now writing upon the Secret Doctrine, is in my
hands;
and that even a cursory reading has satisfied better critics
than
myself [T. Subba Row] that it will be one of the most
important
contributions ever made to philsophical and scientific
scholarship. . . . " (The Theosophist, Supplement, January
1887, pp. xlvii.

Sometime around December 15, after receiving the manuscript
of Volume
I of the SD, Olcott wrote Madame Blavatsky telling her that
the
manuscript had been received and that Subba Row had been
reading the
manuscript.

On January 4, 1887, H.P.B. wrote replying to Olcott's
letter:

"I am glad Subba Row likes my Proem. But it is only as
Preliminary
Vol. and the real original doctrine is in the volume [two] I
will
send you when Fawcett comes on the 20th and then he will
take it to
England himself --- for I cannot send it or rather insure it
from
here [in Ostende]."

The manuscripts of Volumes I and II as mentioned above are
preserved
in the Adyar Archives. The partial contents of Volume I can
be seen
in the following table:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiitab.htm

Volume II of this manuscript consists of the Seven Stanzas
of Dzyan on
Cosmogony and HPB's Commentaries thereon.

Only a few pages of Volume III is extant in the Adyar
Archives. This
third "volume" deals with the Evolution of Humanity.

So from a careful reading and study of HPB's own letters in
1886 and
1887 as well as from a careful analysis of the contents of
the extant
SD manuscript in the Adyar Archives, one sees that in early
1887 the
SD was divided into the following three volumes:

Volume I: A Historical Overview of Occultism and its
Adepts, etc.

[Note: HPB's letters written in 1886 given several
descriptions of
the contents of this volume. See
http://blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiipt3.htm Compare these
descriptions
with the actual extant contents of the first volume. See
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiitab.htm ]

Volume II: Evolution of Cosmos as found in the Seven
Stanzas of Dzyan

Volume III: Evolution of Man (Humanity) as found in further
Stanzas
of Dzyan

Some months later when H.P. Blavatsky had moved to London,
Bertram
and Archibald Keightley had the privilege of going through
the SD
manuscript. Here are Bertram's relevant comments:

"A day or two after our arrival at Maycot [in May, 1887],
H.P.B.
placed the whole of the so far completed MSS. in the hands
of Dr.
[Archibald] Keightley and myself....We both read the whole
mass of
MSS.--a pile over three feet high--most carefully...and
then, after
prolonged consultation, faced [HPB]...with the solemn
opinion that
the whole of the matter must be rearranged on some definite
plan...."

"Finally we laid before her a plan, ...."

". . . 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. . . .This plan was laid before
H.P.B., and it
was duly sanctioned by her. . . . " [Quoted in Reminiscences
of H. P.
Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine, by Countess Constance
Wachtmeister
et al., Quest edition, 1976, pp. 78-9.]

So as Bertram Keightley tells us, the order of the volumes
of The
Secret Doctrine was rearranged in mid-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 summary, the extant volume I of the SD manuscript
preserved in the
Adyar Archives is concrete evidence as to what was in volume
I as of
late 1886. An outline of that content can be seen in the
table
already given above and which I give again:

http://blavatskyarchives.com/sdiiitab.htm

This is the same material and volumes seen by Bertram
Keighley
several months later in London.

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






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