Theos-Talk Archives (June 2006 Message tt00153)

Ken Small on The Value of Solovyoff's Book     

In two separate postings on Theos-Talk, Ken Small
has made comments on Solovyoff's book.

I think Ken hits the nail on the head in his assessment.
I also agree with Ken's assessment and that is why I still
consider the Solovyoff volume as an important source of historical
information although at the same time I believe Solovyoff turned
against HPB and lied about her in the pages of this book.

Certainly one must be cautious in accepting various parts of
Solovyoff's narrative as the gospel truth but to go to the other
extreme and throw it all away seems equally foolish.

The attentive reader of Solovyoff's book needs only go to the
appendix in the book which constitutes Vera's reply and compare what
she wrote with what Solovyoff wrote to see that there is more to the
story than what Solovyoff attempts to tell his readers.

And I would also say that A MODERN PRIESTESS OF ISIS helps one to
understand many of HPB's letters in THE LETTERS OF H.P. BLAVATSKY TO
A.P. SINNETT and vice versa. H.P.B.'s comments help one to
understand better A MODERN PRIESTESS OF ISIS.

So anyway BELOW I post excerpts from Ken's two "commentaries"
on the Solovyoff book:

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

SOLOVYOFF -This past January I noticed Slovyoff's 'Modern Priestess
of Isis' on the bookshelf and realizing that I had never read it or
even looked it over opened it.......and quite honestly I could not
put it down.

Why ? because it is so incredibly interesting - as a critique of
HPB ? No, because so frequently the experiences that Solovyoff
presents overide his own criticisms , so much so that in many ways
not available anywhere else it actually could be considered a kind
of vindication. Certainly it needs much work and critical analysis
AND I would say with that it is a gold mine. By the time I finished
reading it I only wished that Leaf had translated the whole thing
into English. . . .

Read Solovyoff - it was almost an 'accident' that I even picked up "A
Modern Piestess of Isis". I had always understood that it was a
fabricated 'evil slander' of HPB with no merit whatsoever and a
waste of time to read.

I opened the book and in a couple of pages realized that S. had had
genuine experiences of HPB and the Masters ! And had recorded it !
Spectacular and unbelievable....that he rejected it and had to
rationalistically destroy it and also lie and twist and change
things made it even a more interesting study of someone given great
opportunity to awaken to the inner life who could not cross his
inner rationalistic barriers.