Theos-Talk Archives (May 2003 Message tt00172)

Just finished reading Alice Leighton Cleather's "H.P. 
Blavatsky As I Knew Her" (published in 1923) and 
thought it a fascinating book. In it, I found some rather 
mind boggling statements from Cleather about A. 
Besant, Sinnet, Leadbeater and others, and how they 
went about distributing karma (as it were, or 
"undermining," if you prefer ... ?) re HPB and her 
version of Theosophy.

Here's some excerpts, between <<>> (watch out for 
OCR typos, and the paragraphs here are not necessarily 
consecutive):

<<.... a posthumous work by Mr. A. P. Sinnett1—who 
died in 1921—was given to the world by the 
Theosophical Publishing House, Ltd., London, which 
is, of course, under the aegis of Mrs. Besant. The nature 
of the book itself makes the fact of its publication by 
this House a surprising and somewhat anomalous one, 
since it obviously aims at destroying entirely the bona 
fides of H. P. Blavatsky, and of holding her up to the 
scorn and reprobation of posterity as nothing more than 
an ordinary medium, and a fraudulent one at that. From 
Mrs. Besant's point of view, however (for we may, I 
think, dismiss the preliminary " Note " as a clumsy 
piece of camouflage), its appearance at this juncture in 
the history of her " Theosophical Church," as Lord 
Ronaldshay has called it, is far from inopportune and, 
from that point of view. explains much. 

The opportunity offered by my friend Mrs. Laura 
Langford (whom we all knew so well in the eighties as 
"Laura Holloway ") to contribute my recollections of
H. P. B. to her forthcoming book was a very welcome 
one. I had always wished to testify publicly to my 
Teacher’s greatness of Soul and her unique and 
wonderful personality. I say "her," but one felt no 
suggestion of the feminine in her, or of the masculine 
either, for that natter. Rather an overwhelming 
realisation that here was one of those rare Souls whose 
grandeur of purpose escapes lesser mortals, and who are 
consequently almost unvariably misunderstood, and 
but too often hated. For of such a poor, mean quality 
is the stuff compounded which we call our "selves," 
being ignorant of what our real " selves" are ; and this 
H. P. B. came to show us. 

It was at this time, about 1887-8, that I lost the 
friendship of Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett, who had from the 
very first treated me with so much courtesy and 
kindness. They would neither of them ever consent to 
listen to my explanation of what had occurred. 
Incidentally, however, it showed me that {neither of 
them really believed in H. P. B., or in the powers she 
possessed. Often I used to go to their house in 
Ladbroke Gardens (London, W.), on Mrs. Sinnett's " 
At Home " day—Tuesday— and take Lansdowne Road on 
my way back to the station, en route for Harrow. On 
one occasion I went to Mrs. Sinnett's rather earlier than 
usual. There was only a sprinkling of people present, 
and I was sitting on a sort of wide ottoman, with some 
one else dos a dos. At the moment I was not talking to 
anyone, but Mr. Sinnett was holding an animated 
conversation with the person behind me. Naturally I 
could hear nearly all he said, but not much of the 
replies made. He was speaking, with evident feeling, 
about the futility of H. P. B. having come to London 
and started another Lodge.

I should mention at this point that, when the Blavatsky 
Lodge was formed, he issued an ingeniously worded 
notice to the members of his " London " Lodge, to the 
effect that any who wished to join the new Lodge could 
leave his! Quite half the members, including myself, 
promptly left. How could we hesitate for a moment 
between H. P. B. and Mr. Sinnett ? The idea was 
grotesque, and only a man completely blinded by his 
own colossal egotism could ever have failed to see it. I 
can remember well, on the afternoon in question, that 
such palpably obvious jealousy of H. P. B. astonished 
me very much ; also it seemed to me not a little ill-bred 
and indiscreet to exhibit it so publicly. It was my first 
lesson in the extraordinary pettiness and 
narrow-mindedness of many of those who in early days 
received exceptional and priceless privileges at H. P. 
B.'s hands.

After I left the " At Home," I went on to Lansdowne 
Road to return a book the Countess had lent me, 
allowing myself time to catch the train for Harrow. H. P. 
B. was then working practically from 6 to 6, with breaks
only for meals. I thought myself safe, as it was only
5.30. Not at all; as I was passing through the hall
on my way up to the Countess's room, I heard H. P. B.'s
voice (the door was slightly ajar) : " Is that you, Alice,
my dear ? " Hardly waiting for any reply, she 
continued : " Come in, come in." Now I had 
been wondering on my way from the Sinnett's exactly 
what might happen if H. P. B. "sensed" where I had 
been. So I was not at all surprised when she turned 
round from her desk and, in her most winning manner, 
said : " And where have you been, my dear ? " Then I 
immediately realised that the fat was indeed in the 
fire ! " To Mrs. Sinnett's At Home, H. P. B." I 
replied. " Ah! and whom did you see there ? . . . " 
proceeding to put me through a long inquisitorial 
process. Had I spoken to Mr. Sinnett ?—"Ah I 
And what did he say ? " etc. My replies became 
more and more larne and confused; but finally, when 
she actually asked me. if her name had, been 
mentioned, I plucked up courage. Here at least
I was sure of niy ground, and, my worldly training
coming to my aid, I boldly said " Yes," but that it
was all too confused for me to be able to recollect 
clearly what had been said, and other similar 
ambiguities. At this she feigned to be quite; angry, 
and dismissed me with " Well, if you won't tell me, I 
shall look in the Astral Light and find out for myself ! " 
I well knew what she would discover there, and that 
she would " see " the replies to Mr. Sinnett's remarks 
which I had failed to catch. I rushed up to the 
Countess and told her what H. P. B. had said, but, 
being in a hurry to catch my train, I did not tell her 
what I had overheard at the Sinnett's " At Home." 
The Countess had only cold comfort to offer me, for 
she declared that H. P. B. would certainly "look," if 
she had said so. And we both knew, too, of her 
power to do what she threatened.

The sequel was somewhat startling. I went up as usual 
on Thursday for our Lodge meeting in good time, for I 
was all agog to find out if anything had happened, or if 
H. P. B. had dismissed the whole thing from her mind. 
Again, on my way upstairs, she called me in, and 
announced triumphantly that she had looked in the 
Astral Light, as she said she would ; and she forthwith " 
read " it all off to me, not only what I had heard, but 
with all the gaps filled in as well. The Countess had a 
very serious face, when I went on up to her room, and 
said : " Yes," H. P. B. had written down the whole thing 
that same evening (Tuesday), and had sent it off at 
once by a messenger to the Sinnetts. Early on 
Wednesday morning they had both come round and 
enquired of the maid who answered the door whether I 
had been there the previous afternoon. Hearing that I 
had, they went off immediately, without seeing, or 
asking to see, anyone. That settled it, in their minds: I 
had of course been round and " reported " (like a 
veritable spy) all I had heard. So, at least, it must have 
appeared to them ; and from that day they practically 
struck me off the list of their acquaintances, without 
even giving me the opportunity of explaining.
The worst part of it all, to me, was the discovery that 
neither of them really believed (a) in the Astral Light 
and its properties ; or (b) in H. P. B.'s power to " read " 
in it. Or, if they believed the former, they clearly 
doubted the latter. It was a great shock; for rather, so it 
seemed to me, did they prefer to think I had 
intentionally made mischief, proving that they credited 
me with bad breeding and ingratitude—if no worse.
The whole incident was in itself a severe blow to my 
belief in human nature and in the value of friendship. 
But I needed the lesson, for at that time I was far too 
credulous and trustful, in an unintelligent and 
undiscriminating way ; particularly where people who 
had been kind to me were concerned. But, as the 
Master K. H. wrote to a correspondent (Miss F. 
Arundale, then Hon. Secretary and Treasurer of the 
London Lodge) in the early eighties :—" Learn then to 
look at men below the surface, and to neither condemn 
nor trust on appearances." (Letters from the Masters of 
Wisdom, No. xx, p. 62.) This I had at least to try and 
learn, even if I could not actually succeed in doing so. 
That splendid impersonality which was, to a 
pre-eminent degree, H. P. B.'s, is a quality of the Soul 
and hard to attain by lesser beings (for women, indeed, 
almost impossible !) inhabiting a world where—as she 
wrote of the West—"Men think that their own likes and 
dislikes of other men and things are guiding principles 
for them to act upon, even when they do not make of 
them the law of their lives and seek to impose them 
upon others." (Practical Occultism, p. 19).
Others have written at such length, and with such a 
wealth of detail, of the marvels they saw H. P. B. 
perform that, even had I anything new to relate on these 
lines (which I have not), merely to chronicle such " 
signs and wonders " is, as I see it, somewhat barren of 
good and lasting results. H. P. B. did not come to 
dazzle our senses with such " feats." She came to show 
us ourselves ; our weaknesses, perhaps. Yes, but above 
and beyond all else, to show us our inherent god-like 
potentialities. And ever she insisted that the only path 
thereto was the practice of Brotherhood, to " live the 
life," which is— and has ever been—the sole condition for 
becoming one with the " God within."
During this period, before the formation of the Esoteric 
School and the publication of The Secret Doctrine, so 
much was always happening, so much emerges from my 
memory, so many, and such varied incidents, 
that it is difficult to know what to select. Many of her 
pupils have written of H. P. B.'s methods of dealing 
with them ; for instance, Countess Wachtmeister writes 
:— " I have no doubt now that the difficulties I 
experienced in getting access to Madame Blavatsky, 
and the delays that occurred before she came to the 
point with me, were calculated, and were of the nature 
of a probation, but I had no suspicion of this at the 
time." Exactly my own case ; and I can here give 
another characteristic instance of such dealings.
An index was of course required, and was being 
prepared for The Secret Doctrine, for which many 
helpers were needed. Naturally I volunteered, and was 
given a number of page-proofs to deal with, as my 
share. I was quite elated, and felt that now I was really 
going to be of some use. I gave up hours a day to the 
work, and declined many otherwise most desirable (at 
that time they were so) engagements. For weeks I toiled 
at this new and somewhat uncongenial task, imagining 
I was acquitting myself quite creditably. I may have 
been ; I never knew. A couple of days after I had sent 
the MS. up to Lansdowne Road I was there myself. H. 
P. B. called me into her room and, pointing to my not 
inconsiderable pile of MS. which lay on her desk, she 
flicked it contemptuously with her beautiful forefinger 
saying " This is not in the least what I wanted, my dear; 
it won't do at all." Thereupon she tore the sheets across 
and flung them into the waste paper basket. I nearly 
wept; but she took no further notice of me. Later I 
discovered that Indexing is an art, and that I knew 
nothing whatever about it. This little experience was, 
however, extremely good for me at that early stage.
The Blavatsky Lodge meetings were generally kept up 
till quite late in the evening, and had it not been
for H. P. B.'s personal kindness I should often have had 
to leave early, in order not to miss the last train back to 
Harrow. She made me stay the night many a time, and 
sleep on the bed-sofa in her sitting-room (the inner 
drawing-room), close to the door leading into her tiny 
bedroom, and up against one of its walls. How often 
did I try to remain awake all night, feeling convinced 
that I should " see " much. But No, when midnight 
approached sleep became imperative, and I always had 
to succumb ; never could I keep myself awake after 
midnight, and H. P. B. would never explain why; 
though, later, she told us once that " Master goes His ' 
rounds' at midnight," which threw some light on the 
reason of my enforced sleep at that hour. She was then 
referring to the students of the newly-formed E.S., who 
had practically pledged themselves to Him, and was 
emphasising the necessity for all of us to be " in bed 
and asleep before midnight." Another thing she once 
said, I remember, was that one hour's sleep before 
midnight was worth four after it; owing to some 
magnetic dumge which takes place in the earth as 
midnight sweeps round its surface.

CHAPTER III.
Formation of the Esoteric School.
PASSING on to the time when the " Esoteric School of 
Theosophy " was formed in the autumn of 1888, I find 
the name of Mrs. Chowne immediately coming into my 
mind ; for she was intimately bound up with the 
circumstances and events attending my admission into 
that body. She and her husband, Colonel Chowne, 
were personal friends of H. P. B., who had stayed with 
them in India, where he was stationed when she was 
there (from '79 to '85) ; and she had no more loyal or 
staunch adherents and supporters. I had met Mrs. 
Chowne when I first joined the T. S., and we became 
friends immediately. Indeed, I stayed with them more 
than once in their London house after Colonel Chowne 
had retired from the service.

In Lucifer for October, 1888, a notice had appeared to 
the effect that an " Esoteric Section of the Theosophical 
Society" was to be formed under H. P. B., and that 
those who wished to join and abide by its Rules should 
send in their names. Mrs. Chowne and I, also Colonel 
Chowne, if I remember rightly, at once responded ; but 
for some time we heard nothing. Then, one day, Mrs. 
Chowne came down to Harrow to see me—I was ill at the 
time—bringing the E. S. T. Pledge from H. P. B. for me to 
write out and sign. She said that H. P. B. had told her 
that, on our sending in our signed Pledges, each one 
would be " tested " (i.e., " examined for fitness ") on 
inner planes, by the Master. Mrs. Chowne's exact words 
were, " taken out and tested. " Our past lives would be 
called up, and upon what was there seen and known of
our real selves, would depend whether or not we were 
accepted as candidates. She told me later that when she 
handed our signed Pledges to H. P. B. she had looked 
very seriously—almost solemnly—at her, and said :— " It is a 
great trust that you have given me."
So we waited ; days, even weeks passed, and nothing 
occurred. I had almost forgotten what Mrs. Chowne had 
warned me might happen, until, one Tuesday night, (it 
was Full Moon, I remember) I had the most wonderful 
experience, save one, that had ever happened to me. I 
knew I was myself, lying half awake, half asleep, in my 
own room at home. Yet I was also in an Egyptian 
Temple of extraordinary grandeur, and going through 
things quite unspeakable and most solemn. This 
experience began soon after 10 P.M., and almost exactly 
as a neighbouring church clock struck midnight I lost 
consciousness in an overpowering and almost terrible 
blaze of light, which seemed completely to envelope 
me. The next morning I recorded all I could remember 
in my diary, and on Thursday went up to Lansdowne 
Road as usual for the Lodge meeting. I was a little early, 
but H. P. B. at work in the inner room must have 
known who had arrived, for she called me in, and 
turning round, said most seriously : " Master told me 
last night that you are accepted." Nothing more; but I at 
once realised vividly that my experience the previous 
Tuesday night had indeed been my " testing." 
Thereupon I related the whole thing to H. P. B., who 
only nodded several times, but made no remark 
whatever about it.

Mrs. Chowne told me afterwards that she and her 
husband had had similar experiences, adding that only 
a few of the first applicants were so " tested "; that it 
did not, in fact, apply generally. Certainly I never heard 
from anyone else that they had been told what Mrs. 
Chowne told me. Members of the E. S. T. were all
known by numbers (the uneven ones), and the 
Chownes and myself, and two others, since dead (as is 
Colonel Chowne also), received the first five single 
numbers. It may or may not have been a " coincidence," 
but it is a curious fact that the school numbers of both 
my boys (one of whom died comparatively young) were 
multiples of the number H. P. B. herself gave me when 
she wrote out and handed me my E. S. certificate.
One of the clauses of the original E. S. T. Pledge ran 
thus:—"I pledge myself to support before the world the 
Theosophical Movement, its leaders and its members 
....." Not long after the School was formed, I made one 
of a number of the House inmates and workers at 
Lansdowne Road who were gathered together one 
evening in the den of the Secretary (then Mr. Bertram 
Keightley) upstairs; there may have been six or eight of 
us. It was late (I was staying the night) and we were 
discussing an attack on H. P. B. in the Westminster 
Gazette, an evening paper, which had just come in. [It 
was this paper which in 1894 published the elaborate 
attack based on information furnished by Mr. W. R. 
Old (a member of the Inner Group) against Mr. Judge 
and his methods, which led to the disruption of the T. 
S. a year later.] Suddenly H. P. B.'s bell rang somewhat 
violently, and Mr. Keightley jumped up with some 
semi-jocular remark and ran downstairs to her room. I 
must confess that it had not occurred to any of us even 
to suggest replying to this attack, which, so far as I 
remember, was a scurrilous one. While Mr. Keightley 
was downstairs we just went on with our desultory talk; 
after a few minutes he returned with a very long face 
and serious manner. He said we were under severe 
reproof by the Master, who (unseen, of course) had 
been in the room while we were so light-heartedly 
discussing the newspaper attack on our " Outer Head." 
He had descended immediately to H. P. B. in great 
displeasure, telling her to inform us that if this was our 
conception of keeping our newly-taken pledge we had 
better all resign at once. We—at least I can speak for 
myself—were terribly ashamed, and all with one accord 
sat down at once and wrote as good a defence and 
indignant protest as in us lay. I do not remember the 
sequel, but certainly one, if not more, of those letters 
were inserted.

This incident was the seed of what later became the 
Press Bureau, formed for the express purpose of keeping 
track of such attacks and criticisms on H. P. B. and the 
work generally, and of seeing that they were promptly 
and suitably dealt with. It became a most successful 
institution, and the various Press Cutting Agencies 
provided ample material and saved an enormous 
amount of search work. Mrs. Cooper-Oakley was in 
charge of the bureau, and sent out the cuttings to 
members most able to deal with them. I was one of the 
staff of writers ; and later, under Mr. Judge, I had entire 
charge of the European Press Bureau. During this work 
I made a valuable collection of cuttings, including all 
the obituary notices of H. P. B.

Many a proof did I have- of H. P. B.'s power of " 
hearing " and " seeing " at a distance ; things mostly too 
personal to relate and usually connected with reproof or 
instruction. Countess Wachtmeister bears witness in 
her Reminiscences to these same powers in H. P. B.
One day, not very long before she moved away from 
Lansdowne Road, Mr. George Mead and I were with 
her in her little sanctum (the inner drawing-room). The 
Voice of the Silence—one of the most wonderful mystical 
works of this or any other time—had just been published, 
and she was looking at one of the first copies. Suddenly 
handing it to us (it may have been one each ; I do not 
remember) she said something to the effect of How did
we like it ? or, What did we think of it ? I forget the 
exact words. She was her most serious self. I opened the 
little book, haphazard, and read one or two verses, and 
the tears started involuntarily to my eyes, such was the 
beauty and pathos of the words I had read. I looked up 
at H. P. B., and was almost certain I saw the glimmer of 
a tear in hers ; but she abruptly changed the subject, 
and jumped down my throat about something or other. 
As I see it now, it was because to allow mere 
sentimental emotionalism to become linked with a 
theme too solemn and too deep for tears was dangerous. 
Too dangerous, I mean, for us Western people, with our 
" sensuous development of brain and nerves " (as she 
once wrote) ; and unworthy of the exalted nature of the 
subject-matter dealt with in the book. But I shall 
always believe I did see tears in her eyes at that 
moment—always.

Almost the last—in fact it was the very last— incident I 
recollect of the Lansdowne Road days is, to me, the 
most touching and tragic of all my memories of H. P. B. 
It was the day before she left for 19, Avenue Road, 
Regent's Park, N.W., and as it was a lovely warm 
afternoon the Countess had taken her for a drive in 
Hyde Park, in the fashionable hour. Never shall I forget 
her return from that drive ; Mrs. Cooper-Oakley and I 
were in the double drawing-room when she entered, 
followed by the Countess, in what seemed to be almost 
a passion ; but it was a passion of grief. She walked up 
and down the room, the tears streaming down her face, 
ejaculating from time to time :—" Not a Soul among 
them—not one! " It was a heart-cry of grief, a poignant 
illustration—and my first sight—of that " helpless pity for 
the men of Karmic sorrow " (of which I had only just 
read in The Voice of the Silence) felt by those Great 
Ones who through countless lives have worked for the 
redemption of humanity.

A trained Occultist, like H. P. B., can see more and far 
deeper than the mere semi-material aura visible to most 
clairvoyants, with its ever-changing colours and 
thought-images. Such an one sees whether the aura 
reveals the presence of a Soul. This is seen and known, 
also by colour—or vibration—but vibration on a far higher 
plane of consciousness than those reachable by 
ordinary psychic vision. We commonly take for 
granted that each person must " have " a soul. Yet our 
Teachers tell us in unmistakable terms that such is not 
the case. " We elbow soulless men and women at 
every step in life," writes H. P. B. in Isis Unveiled (II, p. 
369) ; and her Master tells us that " He who defendetk 
not the persecuted and the helpless, who giveth not of 
his food to the starving, nor draweth water from his well 
for the thirsty, hath been born too soon in human 
shape." This is clear beyond a shadow of 
misunderstanding, and explains the nature of the grief 
felt by H. P. B.--grief called forth by pity and 
compassion for those helpless, soulless beings, " born 
too soon in human shape," whom she had that 
afternoon seen in their hundreds, in Hyde Park. It 
was something entirely above and beyond my 
comprehension; but it was divine--if ever anything 
was. It was Buddha-like. 

BY THE SAME AUTHOR. UNIFORM WITH THIS 
VOLUME.
H. P. Blavatsky : Her Life and Work for Humanity. 
A Vindication, and an Exposition of her Mission and 
Teachings. The main tenets of The Secret Doctrine are 
clearly summarized, the legal unsoundness of the 
charges formulated by the Society for Psychical 
Research in 1885 is conclusively demonstrated, and 
many new and important facts are given concerning the 
Theosophical Movement.

" It is a wonderful record, and I, who have had the 
priceless privilege of knowing most of those who were 
in touch with H. P. B., and are still alive, can find few 
words to express my gratitude for the book. It is written 
with the blood of the heart; it is aflame with the high 
inspiration that was aroused by the Teacher in the 
pupil's heart, and which has never grown less in the 
years and the disappointments that have followed the 
Teacher's passing ... I shall love and prize this volume 
because it has made me new-hearted in my defence of 
H. P. B."--Mr. John M. Prentice, in Dawn.

" This book, like Mrs. Cleather's talks, illuminates, and 
is illuminated by H. P. B., who becomes more than ever 
a "vision splendid," and the chapter which summerizes 
the leading conceptions of The Secret Doctrine can 
only be regarded by students as one of the finest things 
in our Theosophical literature."--From an Editorial 
account of Mrs. Cleather's visit to Australia, in Dawn, 
March, 1923.

H. P. Blavatsky: A Great Betrayal. A Protest against 
the policy of the Theosophical Society, as developed 
since H. P. Blavatsky's death in 1891, giving important 
inside information based on Mrs. Cleather's personal 
knowledge and experience as a pupil of H. P. B. since 
1887, and original documents in her possession. An 
exposure of the methods and doctrines of so-called " 
Neo-Theosophy."

" It is to be hoped that every member of the T. S. 
throughout the world will read Mrs. Cleather's two 
books. The Great Betrayal is for the day only ; it is a 
reformer's manual as much as anything, and on fighting 
lines. H. P. B.--Her Life and, Work for Humanity, 
will take its place as a classic . . . Mrs. Cleather has 
promised to write some introductory books on 
Theosophical subjects, and it is safe to say that these 
will be of great value in the future."--Dawn.

" A notable publication ... It purports to show that the 
present leaders of the ' Theosophical Society ' have 
departed more and more from H. P. Blavatsky's 
teachings, and that they are ' now their direct antithesis, 
particularly on the fundamental question of sex 
morality.' ... It will assuredly create a sensation in 
theosophical circles. . . A note of sincerity--almost 
passionate sincerity--seems to ring through it from cover 
to cover. Assuredly no Theosophist can afford to 
neglect its perusal, which has keenly interested us, 
though a layman where Theosophism is 
concerned."--Bangalore Post.

CALCUTTA and SIMLA : THACKER, SPINK & 
CO. LONDON : W. THACKER & Co., 2, CREED 
LANE, E.C.4, 1923.>>
========snip