Theos-Talk Archives (May 2003 Message tt00025)

Hi, Zach, you wrote:
 
> is there any consenus from the Theosophical community as to 
> which Master, or group of Masters helped Blavatsky write the 
> Secret Doctrine. A link to an old message or an article somewhere
> would be very helpful if there is one. 

Here are two quotes from some primary sources:

In a January 6, 1886 letter, Madame Blavatsky, writing to Henry 
Olcott, informed him :

". . . Countess [Wachtmeister is] here, and she sees I have almost no 
books. Master and Kashmiri [are] dictating in turn [portions of the 
Secret Doctrine manuscript]. . . ." 

(Quoted in Boris de Zirkoff's Rebirth Of The Occult Tradition,
1977, p. 23.) 

Also during this same month (January, 1886), Dr. William Hubbe-
Schleiden received a note from the Master M., which reads in part:

". . .the `Secret Doctrine' is dictated to Upasika [H.P.B.]
partly by myself & partly by my Brother K.H." 

(Quoted in Boris de Zirkoff's Rebirth Of The Occult Tradition,
1977, p. 16.) 

Collating information from these two letters, H.P.B.'s reference 
to "Master" is to "M." (Morya) and her reference to "Kashmiri" is 
to "K.H." (Koot Hoomi).

See the portraits of these 2 Masters at:

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

Also see narrative BELOW about Countess Wachtmeister and the Master 
Morya.

Hope this helps!

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY STUDY CENTER/BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://blavatskyarchives.com

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

Countess Constance Wachtmeister, Oct.–Dec. 1885, Wurzburg,
Germany 
 
In the autumn of 1885, I was making preparations to leave my home in 
Sweden to spend the winter with some friends in Italy, and 
incidentally, en route to pay Madame Gebhard a promised visit at her 
residence in Elberfeld [Germany].

It was while I was engaged in putting my affairs in order, in view of 
my long absence, that an incident occurred, not indeed singular in my 
experience, but out of the normal. I was arranging and laying aside 
the articles I intended to take with me to Italy when I heard a voice 
saying, "Take that book, it will be useful to you on your journey." I 
may as well say at once that I have the faculties of clairvoyance and 
clairaudience rather strongly developed. I turned my eyes on a 
manuscript volume I had placed among the heap of things to be locked 
away until my return. Certainly it seemed a singular inappropriate 
vade mecum for a holiday, being a collection of notes on the Tarot 
and passages in the Kabbalah that had been compiled for me by a 
friend. However, I decided to take it with me, and laid the book in 
the bottom of one of my traveling trunks.

At last the day came for me to leave Sweden, in October 1885, and I 
arrived at Elberfeld, where I met with a cordial and affectionate 
greeting from Madame Gebhard. However, the time was drawing near for 
me to pass on into Italy. My friends never ceased pressing me to join 
them there, and at last the date of my departure was fixed.

When I told Madame Gebhard that I must leave her in a few days, she 
spoke to me of a letter she had received from HPB . . . she was ill 
in body and depressed in mind. Her sole companions were her servant 
and an Indian gentleman. "Go to her," said Madame Gebhard, "she needs 
sympathy, and you can cheer her up."

I thought the matter over. Madame Gebhard was genuinely pleased when 
I made known my decision to her and showed her a letter I had written 
to "the old lady" in Wurzburg suggesting that if she cared to receive 
me I would spend a few weeks with her. The letter was dispatched, and 
we waited eagerly for the reply. When at last it lay upon the 
breakfast table, there was much excitement in regard to its contents, 
but anticipation soon turned into consternation on Madame
Gebhard's 
part and disappointment on mine, when we found nothing more nor less 
than a polite refusal. Madame Blavatsky was sorry, but she had no 
room for me; besides, she was so occupied in writing her Secret 
Doctrine that she had no time to entertain visitors, but hoped we 
might meet on my return from Italy. After the first natural 
disappointment, I set my eyes hopefully southward.

My luggage was soon ready, and a cab was actually waiting for me at 
the door when a telegram was put into my hands containing these 
words, "Come to Wurzburg at once, wanted immediately—Blavatsky."

It may easily be imagined that this message took me by surprise. 
There was no resisting and instead of taking my ticket to Rome I took 
one to Wurzburg.

It was evening when I reached Madame Blavatsky's lodgings, and as
I mounted the stairs my pulse was a little hurried while I speculated 
upon the reception which awaited me.

Madame Blavatsky's welcome was a warm one, and after the first
few 
words of greeting, she remarked, "I have to apologize to you for 
behaving so strangely. I will tell you the truth, which is, that I 
did not want you. I have only one bedroom here, and I thought that 
you might be a fine lady and not care to share it with me. My ways 
are probably not your ways. If you came to me I knew that you would 
have to put up with many things that might seem to you intolerable 
discomforts. That is why I decided to decline your offer, and I wrote 
to you in that sense; but after my letter was posted Master spoke to 
me and said that I was to tell you to come. I never disobey a word 
from Master, and I telegraphed at once. Since then I have been trying 
to make the bedroom more habitable. I have bought a large screen 
which will divide the room, so that you can have one side and I, the 
other, and I hope you will not be too uncomfortable."

I replied that whatever the surroundings to which I had been 
accustomed might have been, I would willingly relinquish them all for 
the pleasure of her companionship.

I remember very well that it was then, on going into the dining room 
together to take some tea, that she said to me abruptly, as of 
something that had been dwelling on her mind.

"Master says you have a book for me of which I am much in need."

"No, indeed," I replied, "I have no books with me."

"Think again," she said, "Master says you were told in Sweden to 
bring a book on the Tarot and the Kabbalah."

Then I recollected the circumstances that I have related before. From 
the time I had placed the volume in the bottom of my box it had been 
out of my sight and out of my mind. Now, when I hurried to the 
bedroom, unlocked the trunk, and dived to the bottom, I found it in 
the same corner I had left it when packing in Sweden, undisturbed 
from that moment to this. But this was not all. When I returned to 
the dining room with it in my hand, Madame Blavatsky made a gesture 
and cried, "Stay, do not open it yet. Now turn to page ten and on the 
sixth line you will find the words . . . ." And she quoted a passage.

I opened the book which, let it be remembered, was no printed volume 
of which there might be a copy in HPB's possession, but a
manuscript album in which had been written notes and excerpts by a 
friend of mine for my own use; yet, on the page and at the line she 
had indicated, I found the very words she had uttered.

When I handed her the book I ventured to ask her why she wanted it.

"Oh," she replied, "for The Secret Doctrine. That is my new work that 
I am so busily engaged in writing. Master is collecting material for 
me. He knew you had the book and told you to bring it that it might 
be at hand for reference."

Quoted from:
Wachtmeister, Countess Constance, and others. Reminiscences of H. P. 
Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine. London, Theosophical Publishing 
Society, 1893; 2d ed. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1976