Theos-Talk Archives (April 2003 Message tt00129)

Thursday, April 24, 2003

this article H P B at ENGHIEN was written by Mr. Judge and
printed in LUCIFER for July 1891 after her death.

It relates to an earlier visit by H P B to Europe in 1884, and
some of the preparatory work for writing and publishing The
SECRET DOCTRINE

Some of the powers H P B possessed were witnessed by several
persons and are here described.

Best wishes,

Dallas

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


[PARA]H.P.B. AT ENGHIEN[PARA]IN the spring of 1884, H.P.B. was
staying in Rue Notre Dame des Champs, Paris, and in the house
were living Col. Olcott, Mohini M. Chatterji and the writer. Part
of the time Bertram Keightley was also there. As always since I
have know H.P.B. during the past seventeen years, she was there
as elsewhere engaged daily with her writing, save for an
occasional drive or visit. Many visitors from all classes were
constantly calling, and among the rest came the Countess
d'Adhémar, who at once professed a profound admiration for H.P.B.
and invited her to come to the Château owned by the Count at
Enghien, just outside the city, including in her invitation
myself and Mohini Chatterji. Bertram Keightley was also invited
for a few days. The invitation was accepted and we all went out
to Enghien, where H.P.B. was given two large rooms downstairs and
the others slept in rooms on the upper floors. Every convenience
was given to our beloved friend, and there she continued her
writing, while I at her request carefully read over, sitting in
the same room, Isis Unveiled, making indices at the foot of each
page, as she intended to use it in preparing the Secret
Doctrine.[PARA]A lake was at one side of the house and extensive
grounds covered with fine timber hid the building from the road,
part being a well kept fruit and flower garden. A slight
description of the rooms is necessary. Wide stairs led up to the
hall; on one side, which we may call the road front, was the
billiard room, the high window of which opened upon the leaden
roof of the porch; the dining room looked out at the back over
the edge of the lake, and the drawing room opened from it on the
other side at right angles to the side of the billiard room. This
drawing room had windows opening on three sides, so that both
garden and lake could be seen from it. In it was the grand piano
at the end and side opposite the dining room door, and between
the two side windows was s marble slab holding ornaments; between
the windows at the end near the piano, was the fireplace, and at
that corner was one of the windows giving a view of the lake,
Every evening it was the custom to spend some time in the drawing
room in conversation, and there, as well as in the dining room,
took place some phenomena which indeed were no more interesting
than the words of H.P.B., whether those were witty, grave or gay.
Very often Countess d'Adhémar's sister played the piano in a
manner to delight even H.P.B., who was no mean judge. I remember
well one melody, just then brought out in the world of Paris,
which pleased her immensely, so that she often asked for its
repetition. It was one suggestive of high aspiration and
grandiose conceptions of nature. Many lively discussions with the
Count on one side and H.P.B. on the other had place there, and
often in the very midst of these she would suddenly turn to
Mohini and myself, who were sitting listening, to repeat to us
the very thoughts then passing in our brains.[PARA]Count
d'Adhémar did not ask for the production of phenomena, but often
said that could he and a few of his friends be convinced about
Theosophy perhaps much good would result in France. Some of us
desired in our hearts that in the home of such kind friends
phenomena might occur, but none suggested it to H.P.B. But one
day at dinner, when there were present the Count and Countess,
their son Raoul, H.P.B., Mohini, the Countess' sister, myself,
and one other, the strong and never-to-be-forgotten perfume which
intimate friends of H.P.B. knew so well as often accompanying
phenomena or coming of itself, floated round and round the table,
plainly perceptible to several and not perceived either before or
afterwards. Of course many skeptics will see nothing in this, but
the writer and others well know that this of itself is a
phenomenon, and that the perfume has been sent for many miles
through the air as a message from H.P.B. or from those hidden
persons who often aided in phenomena or in teachings. At this
dinner, or at some other during the visit, we had all just come
in from the flower garden. I had plucked a small rosebud and
placed it upon the edge of the tumbler between myself and the
Countess' sister who was on my left, H.P.B. being seated on my
right. This lady began to talk of phenomena, wondering if H.P.B.
could do as related of the Indian yogis. I replied that she could
if she would, but did not ask her, and added that she could make
even that small rosebud bloom at once. Just then H.P.B. stretched
her hand out towards the rose, not touching it, and said nothing,
continuing at once her conversation and the dinner. We watched
the bud until the end of the meal and saw that it grew in that
space of time much larger and bloomed out into a rose nearly full
grown.[PARA]On another evening after we had all been in the
drawing room for some time, sitting without lights, the moon
shining over the lake and all nature being hushed, H.P.B. fell
into a thought state. Shortly she rose and stood at the corner
window looking over the water, and in a moment a flash of soft
light shot into the room and she quietly smiled. Reminding me of
this evening the Countess d'Adhémar writes in this month of
June:-[PARA]H.P.B. seemed wrapped in thought, when suddenly she
rose from her chair, advanced to the open window, and raising her
arm with a commanding gesture, faint music was heard in the
distance, which advancing nearer and nearer broke into lovely
strains and filled the drawing room where we were all sitting.
Mohini threw himself at H.P.B.'s feet and kissed the hem of her
robe, which action seemed the appropriate outcoming of the
profound admiration and respect we all felt toward the wonderful
being whose loss we will never cease to mourn.[PARA]This astral
music was very plain to us all, and the Count especially remarked
upon its beauty and the faintness of it as it sank away into the
unknown distance. The whole house was full of these bell sounds
at night when I was awake very late and others had retired, They
were like signals going and coming to H.P.B.'s room downstairs.
And on more than one occasion as we walked in the grounds under
the magnificent trees, have they shot past us, sometimes audible
to all and again only heard by one or two. [PARA]The lead roof of
the portico was a place where after dinner we sometimes sat, and
there on some of those delightful evenings we were joined by the
Countess Wachtmeister, who afterwards did so much for the comfort
of H.P.B. at Würzburg and other places. Many chats were held
there about occultism. In one of these we were speaking of images
in the Astral Light and H.P.B. said: "Well, you know that it
moves as other things in Kosmos do, and that the time comes when
it floats off, as it were, letting another mass of the same
'light' take its place."[PARA]It was with a feeling of some
regret that we left this delightful place where such quiet
reigned and where H.P.B. was able to work amid the beauty and the
stillness of nature. It cannot be blotted from the memory,
because there our friend and teacher was untroubled by the
presence of curiosity seekers, and thus was free to present to us
who believed in her a side of her many-sided nature which
pleased, instructed and elevated us all.[PARA]One incident
remains to be told for which we must depend on others. I took
away with me a book which could not be finished there, and just
before leaving France went out to Enghien to return it. There I
met the Countess d'Adhémar, who said that the peculiar and
unmistakable perfume of which I spoke above had come in the house
after we had all left. It was one evening about two days after
H.P.B.'s departure and the d'Adhémars had some friends to dinner.
After dinner they all went into the drawing room and soon noticed
the perfume. It came, as they said to me, in rushes, and at once
they began to hunt it out in the room, coming at last to the
marble slab described, where, from one spot in the stone, they
found the perfume rushing out in volumes. Such was the quantity
of it that, as the Countess said to me, they were compelled to
open the windows, since the odor was overpowering in larger
masses. In returning to Paris I told H.P.B. of this and she only
said: "It sometimes happens."[PARA]William Q. Judge[PARA]Lucifer,
July, 1891[PARA][PARA]