Theos-Talk Archives (May 2003 Message tt00215)

Excerpts from Simon: <<I recently read a book by 
Charles W Leadbeater entitled: "How Theosophy 
Came to Me" and found it fascinating. In it, he writes 
about his meetings and travels with HPB. However, I 
have since read elsewhere that a lot of it might have 
been made up and that Blavatsky, during her lifetime, 
said she hardly knew him. I can understand perhaps 
Leadbeater inventing stories about his background in 
order to be more accepted into the kind of circles he 
moved in, but how much else did he fabricate and can 
we believe what he tells us about his encounters with 
the Masters? Christians are often attacking Theosophy 
and blaming it for the rise in the so called New Age 
movement. To what extent did it influence this?>>

I found some commentary about those kinds of 
concerns in "H.P. Blavatsky As I Knew Her" by Alice 
Leighton Cleather. She also wrote "The Great 
Betrayal." They might be available at the library of a 
Theosophical Society near you. ALC was a 
contemporary of HPB, and a member of the Esoteric 
School of Theosophy, admission to which she had to be 
"tested," apparently, by "Master."

Here's some excerpts from "H.P. Blavatsky As I Knew 
Her", between <<>> (watch out for OCR typos, the "--" 
are preresented by ".", and the paragraphs, Chapters 
here are not all consecutive):

<<CHAPTER V.
Causes of Degeneration in the T. S.
IN the spring of 1891 our beloved Teacher contracted a 
* very severe form of influenza, and on May 8 her Soul 
was released from the suffering body. She was 
undoubtedly " recalled," as I see it now, because we 
had all failed her ; even we, her own personal pupils ; I 
do not hesitate to assert it—we could not " watch, even 
for one hour." We failed, too, on the most obvious and 
elementary point—the practice of brotherhood, for there 
were jealousies and dissensions even in the I. G. For H. 
P. B. it must have been heart-breaking. Time and again 
had she striven to form an inner body which would 
provide the one and only essential for the reception of 
the esoteric teachings she was commissioned to give 
out. As she wrote of just such a body as the I. G. : 
Unless the greatest harmony reigns among the learners, 
no success is possible." And we proved quite unable to 
provide that one indispensable condition. The E. S. T. 
came first, then its higher degrees, and finally the I. G. 
But all was of no avail; the material was bad, and so the 
Temple could not be reared; neither could the Corner 
Stone be found.
In the preface to her first great work, Isis Unveiled, H. 
P. B. expressly declares it to be a direct challenge to all 
forms of ecclesiastical dogmatism, and " especially to 
the Vatican ..." Yet, in the face of this, we find Mrs. 
Besant proclaiming a new dispensation on what is 
practically a Roman Catholic basis, and steering the 
whole movement under her control towards Rome, i.e., 
the very antithesis of all that H. P. B. taught and 
worked for. The means used is an anomalous body 
called the Liberal Catholic Church, with Mr. C. W. 
Leadbeater and others as its " Bishops " ; and dogmas 
like the Apostolic Succession are upheld, which H. P. 
B. denounced. The moral character of these " Bishops " 
is so notorious that I need not sully these memories by 
any but the barest mention. I shall deal more fully, later, 
and in a separate publication with this matter,1 which 
constitutes an indelible stain on Mrs. Besant's Society 
in recent years.
Some twenty years ago, or more, I came to the 
conclusion that H. P. B.'s passing sounded also the 
death-knell of the Theosophical Society, as such. But 
from a personal and interior point of view, it was even 
more tragic. For I am absolutely convinced that, WHEN 
H. P. B. LEFT US, THERE WAS NO LONGER ANY 
POSSIBILITY OF DIRECT COMMUNICATION 
WITH THE GREAT LODGE OF MASTERS, except 
of course, for individuals who were capable of rising to 
Their plane by interior effort and aspiration. If this be 
not so, why—after her death—do we find Mr. Judge and 
Mrs. Besant, apparently unable to rely on interior 
guidance, turning to supposed chelas, psychics, and 
clairvoyants in their efforts to re-establish 
communication with the Masters ? The answer is plain 
to anyone who has carefully studied what the Masters 
Themselves have written on the subject. In the long 
letter of rebuke to Colonel Olcott for his attitude 
towards H. P. B., received during his voyage to England 
in 1888, the Master K. H. writes :—" Since 1885, I have 
not written, or caused to be written, save through her 
[H. P. B.'s] agency, direct or remote, a letter or line to 
anybody in Europe or America, nor communicated 
orally with, or through any third party . . . With occult 
matters she has everything to do. We have not 
abandoned her. She is not given over to chelas. 
She is our direct agent." (1 see A GREAT 
BETRAYAL, already mentioned.)
Again, in a letter—evidently to Miss Arundale and 
written in 1884—-the same Master writes :—" I take the 
opportunity, one of the last there are, to write to you 
directly, to say a few words. For you know, of course, 
that once H. P. B.'s aura in the house is exhausted, you 
can have no more letters from me. " (Italics are mine.) 
H. P. B. stayed with the Arundales in June and July of 
that year, when she came over from Paris on a short 
visit to adjust certain troubles in the London Lodge.
But there exists still stronger, direct, evidence as to this. 
In a letter to Mrs. Langford (then Mrs. Laura Holloway, 
one of the " Two Chelas" who wrote Man) the Master 
K. H. writes in 1884. " . . .to help the cause in its 
present very complicated situation, we who are 
forbidden to use our powers with Europeans can act 
but thro' our chelas or one like H. P. B. . . . Where are 
the chelas strong enough to help us without the aid of 
our own powers " ? Incidentally it should be clear 
enough to anyone with a grain of intuition that H. P. B. 
was something much more than " a chela." Finally, H. 
P. B.'s Master Himself writes in relation to instructions 
(for the " Inner Circle " of the London Lodge) which, 
He says, " can pass only through the hands of Mr. 
Sinnett, as hitherto . . . remains the question, what 
means there are to correspond even with Mr. Sinnett ? 
H. P. B. will not undertake the sending on and 
transmission of the letters ; she has shown her 
willingness to self-sacrifice in this direction long 
enough . . . Damodar K. M. has the same and even more 
unwillingness. —— [name of another chela] has not 
reached that stage of physiological development that 
enables a chela to send and receive letters. His 
evolution has been more upon the intellectual plane . . . 
" (Italics are mine throughout.)

So we here see that a certain stage of" 
PHYSIOLOGICAL development" is an essential, and 
that only " one like H. P. B." or the Masters' own 
personal chelas—like Damodar—are capable of being 
intermediaries for " direct communication ": and 
Damodar was, in consequence of his advanced " 
physiological development," able to go to the Masters, 
in Tibet, a year later. It is perfectly clear from these 
extracts, in short, that it was only possible for the 
Masters to communicate direct through H. P. B.'s 
agency, because as Their chosen Messenger she had 
been prepared by several years of training and 
instruction under Their direct personal guidance and 
supervision in Tibet. Through her They could act on 
this plane at any distance from her physical presence.
At that time it would not have been easy, or even 
possible, for those who found themselves left as leaders 
of the Movement—both exoteric and esoteric—to foresee 
all the ruin and confusion that would (and did) result 
from their taking for granted that, because H. P. B. was 
always in direct communication with the Masters, 
therefore the same would hold good in their case, bereft 
as they were of her guidance and, above all, of her 
presence. Mrs. Besant and Mr. Judge were duly 
appointed joint Outer Heads of the E. S. T. by the Inner 
Council, of which I was a member (Colonel Olcott 
never had any connection with the School) ; and as 
such felt themselves bound, in this high occult office, to 
act in the same way as H. P. B.—as " intermediaries " 
between the students and the Masters. Mrs. Besant 
looked to Mr. Judge (as intermediary) at first. He, in his 
turn, presumably feeling the lack of inspiration since H. 
P. B.'s death, committed the fatal error of seeking 
communication through mediums, psychics, and 
clairvoyants, and giving out these communications as if 
they were received direct by himself. This I neither 
knew nor realised until after a long and painful 
experience of the character of Mrs. Tingley, his last 
inspirer, who was clever enough to persuade him to 
appoint her his successor. It was she herself who told 
me, personally, that she dictated the famous E. S. T. 
Circular headed " By Master's Direction," and signed by 
Mr. Judge, deposing Mrs. Besant from her position as 
joint Outer Head.
Mrs. Besant was then in India engaged, inter alia, in 
elaborating the charges against Mr. Judge, under the 
direction of the Brahmin who was her latest adviser and 
guide. Mr. Judge's circular was a characteristic Tingley 
counterstroke, and anyone familiar with her language 
and methods (as I subsequently became) can easily 
recognise it throughout. Mr. Judge's style was totally 
different and quite unmistakable. On the other hand 
Mrs. Besant was guilty of the very same thing of which 
she accused Mr. Judge—viz., of " giving a misleading 
material form to messages from the Master." 
Equivocation of this kind was one of the fundamental 
causes of the catastrophe which overtook the T. S. in 
1895. Working " from within without," the E. S. T.—the 
real heart of the Society—was divided by the separation 
of the two " Outer Heads," and the disruption of the T. 
S. followed as a matter of course.
This evil precedent had been created by Mr. A. P. 
Sinnett during H. P. B.'s lifetime, for he had claimed 
independent communication ever since he had enjoyed 
the great privilege, through her agency, of the long 
correspondence with the Master K. H. which formed 
the material for The Occult World and Esoteric 
Buddhism. Mr. Sinnett's persistence in the claim of the 
continuance of independent, direct communication 
with the Master led to the statement He made to 
Colonel Olcott which I have already quoted, and which 
He reiterated to H. P. B. in 1890. This was in 
consequence of her having received a letter from Mr. 
Sinnett at that time, containing some rather impertinent 
(as from Mr. Sinnett to H. P. B.) statements about this 
Master, and again claiming that he was in direct 
communication with Him. That ever since 1885 all his 
alleged " communications " were received through 
crystal-gazing, mediums, and sensitives was told me by 
a member of his inner circle of students so far back as 
1893. (See post p. 54 et seq.)
This sort of thing maybe perfectly satisfactory to those 
who are able to believe that the Masters would employ 
such agencies ; but it is quite another and, as I think, 
hardly an honest matter to give out information so 
"received" as" direct communications." Such an 
attitude—the possibility of being able to take such a 
point of view —shows a complete ignorance of the laws 
of Occultism governing the training of Adepts and the 
use of Their powers ; also of the vital distinction (so 
often drawn by H. P. B.) between the trained seer and 
the more or less irresponsible medium or clairvoyant.
I had a recent confirmation of the very doubtful sources 
of Mr. Sinnett's so-called " occult " information from an 
English professor of an Indian University. Shortly after 
Mr. Sinnett's death in 1921, one of the sensitives whom 
he was wont to consult told this professor that on one 
occasion he had given Mr. Sinnett some " message " 
which he immediately decided came from the Master K. 
H.—" He was so pathetically pleased, poor old chap, that 
I had not the heart to undeceive him," was the comment 
of the medium himself !
Had it not been for H. P. B., it is just possible that I 
myself might have figured as one of Mr. Sinnett's 
sensitives. I was seeing a good deal of both him and his 
wife, before H. P. B. moved into London from Maycot ; 
and one day Mr. Sinnett suggested that I should allow
him to make the experiment of trying to " release " my 
soul from the body, as I might then have some 
interesting experiences. I thought so, too, although I 
then knew nothing of the dangers of such irresponsible 
practices. As a young girl I had been able to " turn 
tables," and to mesmerise people ; but I never took any 
real interest in this sort of thing, because the natural 
bent of my mind was towards philosophy. However, on 
receiving from Mr. Sinnett the assurance that he would 
be able to bring my soul safely back again, I consented 
to submit to the experiment. His method proved to be 
the usual one. He asked me to lie down and close my 
eyes, and then proceeded to make mesmeric passes. He 
told me that I should soon " go off," and would then 
become conscious on " a higher plane." After what 
seemed to be about ten minutes, and I was beginning to 
wonder when " I " should be " released," Mr. Sinnett 
said in a low voice : " Now you can't move your right 
arm." Naturally I did so at once, and lifted my forearm, 
opening my eyes at the same time to look at him. I have 
rarely seen anyone so taken aback; he had evidently 
thought I was " off." He seemed also quite annoyed by 
the failure of the experiment, but said we would try 
again another day. We never did, however, for soon 
afterwards H. P. B. moved into London, and I 
happened to mention the incident to her. She was really 
angry, and absolutely forbade me to permit Mr. Sinnett, 
or anyone else, to try such experiments again. Later on, 
of course, I came to learn the extreme danger of such 
practices, and that in the wrong hands they are forms of 
Black Magic.1 I relate these few incidents, out of many 
that could be cited, in order to show the very 
questionable basis 1 See Addendum : " Dangerous 
Hypnotic Practices." on which Mr. Sinnett's claim to " 
independent communication " rested. Although he had 
the inestimable privilege of association with H. P. B. in 
India, and she had put him in direct communication 
with the Master K. H., yet when this ceased, rather than 
admit it and be content to play a subordinate part, he 
declined to cooperate with H. P. B. in England, and 
resorted to these methods in a pitiful endeavour to 
maintain the high prestige he had acquired, through 
her. But his later writings are quite sufficient evidence 
that the source of his inspiration had long since ceased. 
Among these later writings must undoubtedly be 
included what he is pleased to call " A note of warning 
against too submissive an acceptance " of H. P. B.'s 
explanation [the true Occult one of course] of 
spiritualistic phenomena, which he quotes in his 
Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky. This " note" 
he added to the Edition dated 1913 (see Chap, viii, p. 
140), and for sheer effrontery, and baseless assertions 
about her, it would be hard to beat. It may seem that 
much of the foregoing is in the nature of a digression, 
not germane to the subject of my memories of H. P. B. 
My answer is that I have to deal with those who—with 
the notable exception of Mr. Judge—drinking from the 
well of her wisdom ; using her name, her powers, and 
gifts, to forward their own ambitions and desires, yet 
think it no shame to spurn " the hand that fed them," 
and " deny " the source of their inspiration. In my view, 
therefore, anything I can do in adducing testimony to 
prove how unfounded, disloyal, and ungrateful are the 
claims of such people, is well done. For they have 
shamefully misrepresented H. P. B. and her teachings ; 
and, inasmuch as they were articulate and conformed to 
certain conventions, they have obtained the hearing 
denied to her by the
world she came to enlighten—and perchance to " save," 
had it not rejected her Message.
I must explain the insertion, here, of a reproduction of 
the Diploma which H. P. B. insisted on having specially 
drawn, by hand, and presenting to Colonel Cleather. 
She always had the highest regard for him (and, 
incidentally, rolled him innumerable cigarettes!) ; while 
he, in his turn, never wavered in his affection for and 
belief in her, in spite of all the slanders which he had 
heard in India about her—though he would never join 
the T. S.
The first time I took him up to Lansdowne Road to 
present him to H. P. B., I shall never forget how, on 
leaving the house—after a wonderful talk—he brought his 
clenched fist down on the open palm of his other hand 
with an emphatic bang, ejaculating :—" Well ! I'll take 
my oath that woman never drank in her life ! " I should 
add that one of the cruellest and most persistent of the 
Simla slanders which he had heard, was that she " 
drank like a fish."
I give this reproduction of the diploma because I 
believe it to be unique and therefore of interest.

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.>>