Theos-Talk Archives (April 2012 Message tt00097)

April 12, 2012

Excerpted from my forthcoming book entitled MRS. HOLLOWAY AND THE MAHATMAS:  including Articles by Laura C. Holloway and Letters from H.P. Blavatsky, the Mahatma K.H. and the Mahatma M.

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Laura Carter Holloway (1848-1930) became associated with The Theosophical Society, its founders and some of its leading members in 1883 and 1884.

Before she entered the Theosophical scene, Mrs. Holloway was already well-known as an American author, journalist and lecturer.  She had already written a number of books including the popular "Ladies of the White House" (1870), which sold more than 100,000 copies.  From 1870 to 1884, Mrs. Holloway was an associate editor of the "Brooklyn Daily Eagle."

In 1883, while living in Brooklyn, New York, Mrs. Holloway read two popular introductions to Theosophy - "The Occult World" and "Esoteric Buddhism," both written by A. P. Sinnett. At this time she also met the Theosophist William Q. Judge who also lived in Brooklyn.  Later in 1884, Mrs. Holloway went to Europe and met Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), Russian-born Occultist, Theosophist and co-founder of The Theosophical Society  

In the following pages Mrs. Holloway tells the story of her association with Madame Blavatsky and other leading Theosophists of the day and about her encounters and relationship with Madame Blavatsky's Masters.  

In Appendice 2, pp. 61 et seq, I have included numerous published and unpublished letters written by the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Morya to Mrs. Holloway, H.P. Blavatsky, Henry S. Olcott, and Francesca Arundale.  I've attempted to arrange these Mahatma Letters in chronological order but the arrangement is tentative in many instances.  More research still needs to be done on these letters and the history surrounding them.

Some of these Mahatma letters to and about Mrs. Holloway were first published in the Theosophical magazine "The Word" (New York; May and July 1912 issues) and later reprinted by C. Jinarajadasa in the Fourth (1948) and subsequent editions of Series I of "Letters from the Masters of Wisdom" (Adyar, Madras, India, Theosophical Publishing House).  

But other related Mahatmas letters were never published in the above two publications.

In 2000, a Theosophical student (now deceased) gave me transcriptions of still unpublished Mahatma Letters to and about Mrs. Holloway.  These were eventually published online by me in the Blavatsky Archives.  [See http://blavatskyarchives.com  especially http://blavatskyarchives.com/hollowayml.htm ]

But subsequent research in 2004-2005 lead me to the discovery of thirteen original letters from the Mahatmas Koot Hoomi and Morya as well as three original letters from Madame Blavatsky.  These are letters to Mrs. Holloway or about her.  These sixteen original letters are preserved among the papers of Mrs. Holloway at the Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library in Delaware (USA) [ http://www.winterthur.org ].  Jeanne Solensky (Librarian, Joseph Downs Collection & Manuscripts & Printed Ephemer Library at Winterthur) helped me in accessing all these letters and I am ever grateful for her help in this matter.

Part of the text of some of these letters at Winterthur had already been published in the above two publications and on my website as mentioned above.  But some of the text and some of the letters have never yet been published.  Also these Winterthur letters help to correct some of the transcriptions, etc. in my article published on the web.  The reader will find all of these letters (and corrections) from the Masters and H.P. Blavatsky with dozens of colored photographic reproductions in Appendice 2, pp. 61 et seq of this book.
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In Part Two of this posting, I will give a chronological list of the 26 letters reproduced in my book.

Daniel H. Caldwell
Blavatsky Study Center / Blavatsky Archives
http://blavatskyarchives.com
http://hpb.cc
http://theosophy.info