Occultist, Author, Chela, Co-founder of the Theosophical Society. Bio: H. P. Blavatsky.
Preface The following is a compilation of references to and quotations from the Manava Dharma Shastra (“Laws of Manu”) by H. P. Blavatsky in her… Read More »Manava-Dharma-Sastra (Manu-Smriti) [Selections]
THE SECRET DOCTRINE DIALOGUES H. P. BLAVATSKY TALKS WITH STUDENTS [FROM REPORTS OF THE MEETINGS OF THE BLAVATSKY LODGE, JANUARY 10 TO JUNE 20, 1889.]… Read More »The Secret Doctrine Dialogues
[Note: for historical context, see the introduction by C. Jinarajadasa and the appendices in the 1931 printing, as well as in the Blavatsky Collected Writings… Read More »[The Original Programme of The Theosophical Society]
Idolatry The outward form of idolatry is but a veil, concealing the one Truth like the veil of the Saitic Goddess. Only that truth, being… Read More »Fragments: on Idolatry, Avataras, Initiations, Cycles and Modern Fallacies
Works by specialists and scholars have to be treated with a certain respect, due to science. But such works as Payne Knight’s On the Worship… Read More »Buddhism, Christianity and Phallicism
In one of the oldest philosophies and religious systems of prehistoric times, we read that at the end of a Mahâ-Pralaya (general dissolution) the great… Read More »Old Philosophers and Modern Critics
At or near the beginning of the present century all the books called Hermetic were loudly proclaimed and set down as simply a collection of… Read More »The Denials and the Mistakes of the Nineteenth Century
[Note on the term Kabalah:] The spelling of the word is various; some write Cabbalah, others Kabbalah. The latest writers have introduced a new spelling… Read More »The Kabalah and the Kabalists at the Close of the Nineteenth Century
THE THEOSOPHICAL GLOSSARY BY H. P. BLAVATSKY I PREFACE. ——— The Theosophical Glossary labours under the disadvantage of being an almost entirely posthumous work, of which… Read More »The Theosophical Glossary
The following notes have been collected partly from an old work by a French missionary who lived in China for over forty years; some from… Read More »Chinese Spirits
Just back from under the far-reaching shadow of the eighth wonder of the World—the gigantic iron carrot that goes by the name of the Eiffel… Read More »Eighth Wonder
A well-known public lecturer, a distinguished Egyptologist, said, in one of his lectures against the teachings of Theosophy, a few suggestive words, which are now… Read More »The Blessings of Publicity
In an interview with the celebrated Hungarian violinist, M. Remenyi, the Pall Mall Gazette reporter makes the artist narrate some very interesting experiences in the Far… Read More »Civilization, the Death of Art and Beauty
“Hail, holy light, offspring of Heaven first-born. Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam. . . . . . . Since God is light Bright effluence of bright essence increate.” . . . . .… Read More »The Devil’s Own: Thoughts on Ormuzd and Ahriman
81 PART II. STANZAS II TO IV 83 Meeting V. Meeting held at 17, Lansdowne Road, London, W., on February 7th, 1889, Mr. W. Kingsland in… Read More »Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge (Part 2)
“O ye Lords of Truth who are cycling in eternity . . . save me from the annihilation in this Region of the Two Truths.”—Egyptian “Ritual of… Read More »The Babel of Modern Thought
Before we enter into the subject of the occult art as practised on the West Coast of Africa, it will be well to clear the… Read More »African Magic
“. . . I made man just and right, Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall, Such I created all th’ ethereal powers And… Read More »Psychic and Noetic Action
“No doubt but ye are the people and wisdom shall die with you.”—JOB xii. 2. “But wisdom is justified of her children.”—MATTHEW xi. 19. It… Read More »The Dual Aspect of Wisdom
A Birthday Book Of Precepts and Axioms Compiled by H.P.B. PREFACE Few words will be needed by way of preface to these “Gems from the… Read More »Gems from the East
“That the world is in such bad condition morally, is conclusive evidence that none of its religions and philosophies, those of the civilized races less… Read More »Diagnoses and Palliatives
“. . . Commence research where modern conjecture closes its faithless wings.” (Bulwer’s Zanoni). “The flat denial of yesterday has become the scientific axiom of today.” (Common… Read More »Black Magic in Science
Every educated Englishman has heard the name of General Yermoloff, one of the great military heroes of this age; and if at all familiar with… Read More »An Astral Prophet
Ever since the publication of the Secret Doctrine Students of Theosophy (outside the inner ring of Occult Sciences) have complained that the teachings contained in… Read More »Mistaken Notions on the “Secret Doctrine”
Whatsoever quits the Laya (homogeneous) state, becomes active conscious life. Individual consciousness emanates from, and returns into Absolute consciousness, which is eternal MOTION. (Esoteric Axioms.)… Read More »Kosmic Mind
The following transactions are compiled from shorthand notes taken at the meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society, from January 10th to June… Read More »Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge (Part 1)
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.—TENNYSON The goal of yesterday will be the starting-point of tomorrow.—CARLYLE The great… Read More »The Cycle Moveth
To send the injured unredressed away, How great soe’er the offender, and the wrong’d Howe’er obscure, is wicked, weak and vile— Degrades, defiles, and should… Read More »Was Cagliostro A “Charlatan”?
FIRST SERIES. THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE BEING CHOSEN FRAGMENTS FROM THE “BOOK OF THE GOLDEN PRECEPTS” ———— FOR THE DAILY USE OF LANOOS (DISCIPLES) ———— TRANSLATED… Read More »The Voice of the Silence
“Alas! we know that ideals can never be completely embodied in practice. Ideals must ever lie a great way off—and we will thankfully content ourselves… Read More »The Fall of Ideals
“Genius! thou gift of Heaven, thou light divine! Amid what dangers art thou doom’d to shine. Oft will the body’s weakness check thy force, Oft… Read More »Genius
BEING A CLEAR EXPOSITION, IN THE FORM OF QUESTION AND ANSWER, OF THE ETHICS, SCIENCE, AND PHILOSOPHY FOR THE STUDY OF WHICH THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY… Read More »The Key to Theosophy
[The [following] article is a rough translation from La Revue Theosophique. Better H.P.B. at second hand than not at all—Ed. [The Theosophist]] [I.] It is written… Read More »Le Phare de L’inconnu [The Beacon-Light of the Unknown]
“The difference is as great between The optics seeing, as the objects seen. All manners take a tincture from our own, Or some discolour’d through… Read More »Force of Prejudice
We cannot inaugurate this first issue of an official and strictly Theosophical Magazine without giving our readers some information that seems essential to us. Indeed,… Read More »The New Cycle (Le Cycle Nouveau)
Such is the title1 of an admirably thoughtful, learned, and very conscientious volume (for full title vide infra note), by Mr. Isaac Myer, LL.B., of… Read More »[Review:] Qabbalah, The Philosophical Writings of Solomon Ben Yehudah Ibn Gebirol (or Avicebron)
M. Of course it is most difficult, and, as you say, puzzling to understand correctly and distinguish between the various aspects, called by us the “principles”… Read More »Dialogue on the Mysteries of the After Life
M. C. Great confusion exists in the minds of people about the various kinds of apparitions, wraiths, ghosts or spirits. Ought we not to explain once for… Read More »Dialogues Between the Two Editors: On Astral Bodies, or Doppelgangers
Letter by A. P. Sinnett | Notes and Closing Remark by H. P. B. In reference to various remarks concerning “Esoteric Buddhism” which appear in the course of… Read More »“Esoteric Buddhism” and the “Secret Doctrine”
THE SECRET DOCTRINE THE SYNTHESIS OF SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND PHILOSOPHY. BY H. P. BLAVATSKY [2 Volumes, Unabridged, Single HTML File] सत्यात् नास्ति परो धर्मः ।… Read More »The Secret Doctrine
[Review of John Martin Crawford, The Kalevala: The Epic Poem of Finland, 1888.] The last proof of the universality in time and space of that… Read More »The National Epic of Finland [Kalevala]
“Truth is the Voice of Nature and of Time— Truth is the startling monitor within us— Naught is without it, it comes from the stars,… Read More »What is Truth?
My Lord Primate of all England,— We make use of an open letter to your Grace as a vehicle to convey to you, and through… Read More »“Lucifer” to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Greeting!
A Correspondent from New York writes: . . . The Editors of Lucifer would confer a great benefit on those who are attracted to the movement… Read More »Answers to Queries
Such is the title of a letter received by the Editors of Lucifer. It is of so serious a nature that it seems well to… Read More »“Let Every Man Prove His Own Work”
Part I “. . . . Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of thy presence, and of the… Read More »The Esoteric Character of the Gospels
A newspaper paragraph lately declared that a certain American lady of great wealth, residing in London, had conceived the strange desire to possess a cloak… Read More »Sin Against Life
“I would advise all in general that they would take into serious consideration the true and genuine ends of knowledge; that they seek it not… Read More »Tetragrammaton
What is Life? Hundreds of the most philosophical minds, scores of learned well-skilled physicians, have asked themselves the question, but to little purpose. The veil… Read More »The Science of Life
[Note: in the pages of Lucifer, aphorisms or brief explanations of specific topics, like the following, often appear at the close of articles. These are… Read More »[On Harmony and Brotherhood]
[Note: in the pages of Lucifer, aphorisms or brief explanations of specific topics, like the following, often appear at the close of articles. These are… Read More »Will and Desire
[Note: in the pages of Lucifer, aphorisms or brief explanations of specific topics, like the following, often appear at the close of articles. These are… Read More »Self-Knowledge
The problem of the origin of evil can be philosophically approached only if the archaic Indian formula is taken as the basis of the argument.… Read More »The Origin of Evil
It is intensely interesting to follow season after season the rapid evolution and change of public thought in the direction of the mystical. The educated… Read More »The Signs of the Times
Poem by Gerald Massey | Note by H.P.B. The Lady of the Light (Written for Lucifer) Star of the Day and the Night! Star of… Read More »[All Gods and Goddesses Androgynous]
The Theosophist: a magazine of Oriental Philosophy, Art, Literature, and Occultism, conducted by H. P. Blavatsky, and H. S. Olcott, Permanent President of the T.… Read More »[Review: The Theosophist]
A strange and original little story, charmingly fantastic, but full of poetic feeling and, what is more, of deep philosophical and occult truths, for those… Read More »[Review:] An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians
[Note: in the pages of Lucifer, aphorisms or brief explanations of specific topics, like the following, often appear at the close of articles. These are… Read More »Desire Made Pure
A definition of Public Opinion. The gathering of a few fogies positively electrified by fanaticism and force of habit, who act on the many noodles… Read More »The Esoteric Value of Certain Words and Deeds in Social Life.
The Theosophist, a magazine of Oriental Philosophy, Art, Literature, and Occultism. Conducted by H. P. Blavatsky, and H. S. Olcott, Permanent President of the T.S.,… Read More »[Reviews:] Theosophical and Mystic Publications
Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research: These reports coming out ad libitum, without any definite date, cannot be regarded as periodical. Depending for their… Read More »[Review: Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research]
[Note: in the pages of Lucifer, aphorisms or brief explanations of specific topics, like the following, often appear at the close of articles. These are… Read More »[On Harmony]
It is rumoured that A Catechism on Every-Day Life, by a Theosophical writer, is ready for press. Let us hope it will contain no special… Read More »[On the Life of a True Theosophist]
Buddhism in Christendom, or Jesus the Essene, by Arthur Lillie, etc.—A queer and rather thickish volume, of a presumably scientific character, by an amateur Orientalist.… Read More »[Review: Buddhism in Christendom]
Whatever may be said against godless Buddhism, its influence, wherever it penetrates, is most beneficent. One finds the Spirit of “Lord Buddha . . .… Read More »The Last of a Good Lama
A France, why do you misunderstand us? European and American Journalists, why don’t you study genuine Theosophy before criticizing it? Because scientific aristocracy is full… Read More »Misconceptions: A Response to Various Criticisms
The Book of Life, by Siddhartha (also) Vonisa; his discoveries from “6215 to 6240, Anno Mundi.” A cross between an octavo and duodecimo. This volume,… Read More »[Review: The Book of Life]
“The Latest Romance of Science,” summarized by a Frenchman. If the Atomo-mechanical Theory of the Universe has caused considerable embarrassment to our materialists and brought… Read More »[Review: The Latest Romance of Science]
No star, among the countless myriads that twinkle over the sidereal fields of the night sky, shines so dazzlingly as the planet Venus—not even Sirius-Sothis,… Read More »The History of a Planet
[Note: in the pages of Lucifer, aphorisms or brief explanations of specific topics, like the following, often appear at the close of articles. These are presumed… Read More »[On Occultism]
What’s in a name? Very often there is more in it than the profane is prepared to understand, or the learned mystic to explain. It… Read More »What’s in a Name?
[For background, see: Classification of “Principles”] In the May Theosophist (1887 [see “The Constitution of the Microcosm”]) I find the first part of a long… Read More »Re-Classification of Principles
“. . . . . For our own part, we regard her (Madame Blavatsky) neither as the mouthpiece of hidden seers, nor as a mere… Read More »Judges or Slanderers?
Months have passed since the publication of this remarkable work—remarkable as a psychic production besides its undeniable literary worth—and we have been watching all the… Read More »[Review:] United
In a most admirable lecture by Mr. T. Subba Row on the Bhagavad Gita, published in the February number of the Theosophist, the lecturer deals,… Read More »Classification of “Principles”
Selections by Franz Hartmann | Notes by H.P.B. Acthna.—an invisible, subterrestrial fire, being the matrix from which bituminous substances take their origin, and sometimes producing… Read More »[Notes from The Life of Paracelsus]
Selection from Vera Zhelikhovsky’s Narrative | Note by H.P.B. Her uncle . . . too the greatest interest in this mysterious work [of HPB answering… Read More »[The Astral Light, a Record Book of All Things]
It is with sincere and profound regret—though with no surprise, prepared as I am for years for such declarations—that I have read in the Rochester… Read More »“The Theosophical Mahatmas”
To whatsoever cause it may be due matters little, but the word fetich is given in the dictionaries the restricted sense of “an object selected… Read More »Animated Statues
Over and over again the abstruse and mooted question of Rebirth or Reincarnation has crept out during the first ten years of the Theosophical Society’s… Read More »Theories About Reincarnation and Spirits
Paulthier, The French Indianist, may, or may not, be taxed with too much enthusiasm when saying that India appears before him as the grand and… Read More »Ancient Magic in Modern Science
I. Ecce Signum! Behold the sign foreseen in a brighter future; the problem that will be the question of the forthcoming age, that every thoughtful,… Read More »Occult or Exact Science?
This is a letter from H. P. Blavatsky to Countess Constance Wachtmeister reprinted verbatim et literatum and in full, portions of which only, as far as we… Read More »“H. P. Blavatsky on Precipitation and Other Matters”
[Note: for background, see “[On the Coulomb Forged Letters]”; “The Collapse of Koot Hoomi”; “To Theosophists and Men of Honour,” The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to… Read More »Madame Blavatsky’s Protest
Sir,—“R. R.” attempts in the October number of our Magazine to prove that I have taught in Isis Unveiled substantially the doctrine of Viśiṣṭādvaita, to which view… Read More »Isis Unveiled and the Visishtadvaita
“Continually soaked with blood, the whole earth is but an immense altar upon which all that lives has to be immolated—endlessly, incessantly.” . . .—Comte… Read More »Have Animals Souls?
Dear Sir: In No. 30 of your interesting journal, on page 276, under “Brief Notes,” I find the following, regarding my arrival in Europe: “It… Read More »[Letter From H. P. Blavatsky to the Editor of Rebus]
[Note: the following is a verbatim reproduction of the story as it first appeared in The Theosophist. For the enlarged, posthumous edition, see Nightmare Tales.] It was… Read More »A Bewitched Life
The current of public attraction runs towards psychic phenomena and is becoming in Europe stronger every year. Even German science and philosophy are beginning to… Read More »Facts and Ideations
Letter Selections by Dhunjibhoy Jamsetjee | Editor’s Note by H.P.B. The Zendavesta is full of allusions to Devas, Drugs, and Drugnasus. The whole tenor of… Read More »[Notes on the Demons of the Zend-Avesta]
Christina Rossetti’s well-known lines: “Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end. Does the journey take the whole long day?… Read More »Spiritual Progress
In our last number, we published a contribution on the subject of Astrology by one of our brothers of the Madura Branch. We now find… Read More »A Remarkable Astrologer
Article Selections by A. P. Sinnett, “Kama-Loka and the Bearings of the Esoteric Doctrine on Spiritualism” | Editor’s Note by H.P.B. . . . many… Read More »[Notes on Kama-Loka and the After Death States]
Article Selections by “A Theosophist” | Intro and Note by H.P.B. The following suggestive reply by a member of the Madura Branch to an enquiry… Read More »Faith in Astrology
[Note: for background, see “[On the Coulomb Forged Letters]”] Madame Blavatsky leaves London for India today (Friday). Last night she took farewell of the faithful… Read More »“The Collapse of Koot Hoomi”
Pamphlet Selections incl. Comments by H.P.B. [Note: for bakckground, see “The Theosophical Society in India,” and the history of the conspiracy of the Coulombs against… Read More »[On the Coulomb Forged Letters]
[Note: for background, see “Mr. A. Lillie’s Delusions” among other articles.] To the Editor of “Light.” Sir,—When, in my answer to Mr. Arthur Lillie’s “Delusions,”… Read More »Mr. Arthur Lillie
[Note: for background, see the history of the conspiracy of the Coulombs against H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society.] To the Editor of The Times.… Read More »The Theosophical Society in India
Notwithstanding the many articles which have appeared in this magazine upon the above subject, much misunderstanding and many false views seem still to prevail. What… Read More »Chelas
Article Selections from “Unpublished Writings of Eliphas Levi” | Notes by H.P.B. . . . The legend of St. Bernard tells us that one day… Read More »[Notes on the Acta Sanctorum and Enoch]