Theos-Talk Archives (September 2006 Message tt00342)

Reproductions of Masters' Portraits 
in Pelletier's Book THE JUDGE CASE

Mr. Aveline has said many negative things
about the publication/circulation of the Masters'
portraits and has characterized any
interest in these portraits as
on the level of "personal gossip", lower
mind interest, etc.

Yet in a book that Mr. Aveline has
HIGHLY recommended the portraits
of Masters KH and Master M have
been reproduced!  I am referring
to THE JUDGE CASE by Ernest E. Pelletier.

If you turn to the photographic
plates inserted between pp. 240 and 241
of Part 1 of this book, you will find 16 pages of
photographs of early Theosophists. [more
personal gossip material??]

ONE WHOLE page is devoted to the reproductions
of the Masters' portraits with the following
labels:

39.  Mahatma Koot Hoomi
     "Master KH"

40.  Mahatma Morya
     "Master M"

Smaller reproductions of the Masters' portraits
are ALSO included on the back cover of the above book!!

Now consider the following:

 Carlos Aveline in a posting just the other day on
Theos-Talk, wrote to me in a negative vein as follows:

"...thanks to Adelasie, you are not QUITE ALONE [caps added]
in the abuse and vulgarization of the sacred 
names and Masters' portraits, something which, by
the wat, was rightfully and bitterly denounced 
for EVERYONE TO KNOW by Ms. Helena Blavatsky in 
the final chapters of 'The Key to Theosophy'." 

So will Mr. Aveline ALSO include Mr. Pelletier
and the publisher of his book (Edmonton Theosophical
Society) in the same category as Adelasie and me
and say that they TOO are guilty of "abuse and 
vulgarization of the sacred names and Masters' portraits"???

Seems like the crowd is getting larger....and I may
not be quite alone.  :)

Also consider the following:

When the Pelletier book was first published a year or
so ago, Dallas Tenbroeck posted an announcement of the
book on Theos-Talk and said that copies could be bought
from either the Edmonton Theosophical Society or
the Theosophy Company of Los Angeles.

>From a reliable source I am told that the officials
of the Theosophy Company when they decided that they
would sell copies did NOT know that the portraits of
the Masters were reproduced in the Pelletier volume.

Apparently the Theosophy Company ordered some 50 copies
of this book to sell.  At some point in time, some ULT associate/
Theosophy Company official found out (apparently to their 
dismay/horror!) that the Pelletier volume had the reproductions 
of the Masters' portraits.

I am told that when this was discovered apparently a 
decision was made to still sell the book but remedy the
"situation" by cutting out from each copy of the book the 
photographic plate containing the Masters' portraits.

So it would appear that many of the volumes sold thru the
Theosophy Company had a missing photographic plate!  

One might conclude that the TC officials considered the 
publication of the Masters' portraits in the Pelletier book
as adding to "the abuse and vulgarization of the sacred names and 
Masters' portraits" and took the "editing" step as a means
of avoiding this "abuse and vulgarization."

IF this story is true about the Theosophy Company "cutting" out the
reproductions of the Masters' portraits, at least six questions 
have occurred to me:

(1)  Did the Theosophy Company officials/workers add a note to 
the "edited" book telling the buyer/reader that the copy had a page 
cut out???

(2)  By cutting out a page from the book, does this make the book
"used" instead of new? 

(3)  What happened to all those cut out pages with the Masters' 
faces on them?  Were these pages destroyed or do they remain 
somewhere in the Los Angeles area? 

(4) Was the Edmonton Theosophical Society as publisher of the 
Pelletier book notifed of this "cutting" and "removing"?

(5)  Did those "edited" copies STILL have the smaller reproductions 
of the Masters' faces on the back cover of the book?  

(6)  And if the Masters' faces remained on the back cover of the 
book, does this in and of itself constitute further "abuse and 
vulgarization of the...Masters' portraits"? 

Daniel
http://hpb.cc