Theos-Talk Archives (September 2006 Message tt00493)

Below is an abbreviated account of Julia
W. Keightley's relationship with H.P. Blavatsky.

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Julia W. Keightley (the wife of Archibald Keightley)
1886–1891 
Pennsylvania 

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Living some thousand miles from England, I never met Madame 
Blavatsky in person. Like others of my acquaintance, I first heard 
of [HPB] by coming across the S.P.R. pamphlet denouncing her as an 
impostor and asserting the Hodgson-Coulomb slander as a true fact.

Soon, however, I began to realize, through my own experience, that 
she was not what she seemed to be. The evidence I had caused me to 
ask HPB to teach me; and that fact that I fully trusted in and 
believed her is precisely what gained for me the fulfillment of my 
wish. The mental attitude of belief sets up, in our aura and in our 
inner bodies, magnetic and attractive conditions, very different to 
those of contraction and densification, which exist where doubt or 
criticism fill the mind. A literal quickening of my aura and inner 
body took place. The contraction in which men and women enfold 
themselves is too little understood. To be known, faith and devotion 
must first be had.

After HPB accepted me as a pupil, no rules were laid down, no plans 
formulated. I continued my daily routine, and at night, after I fell 
into a deep sleep, the new life began. On waking in the morning from 
a sleep so profound that the attitude of the previous night was 
still retained, I would vividly remember that I had gone, as it 
were, to HPB. I had been received in rooms which I could and did 
describe to those who lived with her—described, even to the worn 
places or holes in the carpet. On the first occasion of this kind 
she signified to me her acceptance of me as a pupil. After that, she 
would receive me in varying fashion, showing me pictures which 
passed like panoramas across the walls of the room.

At other times, times more rare, I would awake to find her standing 
at the foot of my bed, and as I leaned upon my elbow, her sign 
language would begin, the harmonies of Nature would fill the moonlit 
room, while the wondrous living pictures passed across the wall. All 
this was perfectly objective to me. I was fully awake to all the 
surroundings, to all the natural sounds of the night, and I have 
taken my pet dog into my arms because it shivered and whimpered at 
sight of her. All the expressions of HPB's face became familiar to 
me. I can see her now, her old bedgown—what dingy old gown was ever 
so cherished?—folded about her, as she opened out space before me, 
and then, too, expanded into her own real being.

I have hardly more than half a dozen letters from her, and these 
contain no teaching; they bore upon external theosophic affairs and 
have this peculiarity. At night she would tell me to advise certain 
persons of certain things. I would obey, giving her as my authority, 
and a few days afterwards, but never long enough for the full 
voyage, would come her letter giving in writing the instructions 
previously heard at night. Thus I was enabled to prove that I really 
heard her wish over seas, for always the request concerned some 
sudden emergency which had just arisen a day, two days at most, 
before. I was able to check off my experience in this way, as I was 
also able to speak at times before an event occurred.

A few days after Madame Blavatsky died, HPB awoke me at night. I 
raised myself, feeling no surprise, but only the sweet accustomed 
pleasure. She held my eyes with her leonine gaze. Then she grew 
thinner, taller, her shape became masculine; slowly then her 
features changed, until a man of height and rugged powers stood 
before me, the last vestige of her features melting into his, until 
the leonine gaze, the progressed radiance of her glance alone 
remained. The man lifted his head and said, "Bear witness!" He then 
walked from the room, laying his hand on the portrait of HPB as he 
passed. Since then, he has come to me several times, with 
instructions, in broad daylight while I was busily working, and once 
he stepped out from a large portrait of HPB.

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This article was signed "R.S." but research indicates that the 
author was Julia W. Keightley.

Quoted from:
Wachtmeister, Countess Constance, and others. "Reminiscences of H. 
P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine." London, Theosophical 
Publishing Society, 1893, pp. 121–5, 127.  

The above narrative has been transcribed from the original source 
but spelling and punctuation has been modernized. For people's 
names, the spelling used in HPB's Collected Writings has been 
adopted. Material not immediately relevant to the narrative has been 
silently deleted. Explanatory notes added by the editor are enclosed 
within brackets.

Daniel
http://hpb.cc