Dr. Jirah Dewey Buck was an active member of the
Theosophical Society in the United States from its inception.
H.P. BLAVATSKY AS SEEN
THROUGH HER WORK
Having joined the Theosophical
Society in 1878, just as Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott were leaving America
for India, and having followed the fortune of the Society ever since with
increasing interest up to the time of H.P.B.'s death, it has occurred to me
that the reasons that have led me, step by step, to the present time, may not
be without interest to the readers of Lucifer.
It is not my purpose to write even
an epitome of the Theosophical movement, or to attempt to show Madame
Blavatsky's relations thereto, but rather to give a distant view of the
teacher, as seen in her work, and show how her motive and aim may be discerned
there from.
Coming to the Theosophical Society
doctrines from the orthodox protestant communion through familiarity with
modern science, and philosophers like Herbert Spencer, these studies were
immediately followed by mystical writers like Jacob Bohme, when at this point
my attention was attracted to Isis
Unveiled.
The result of all previous studies had
been most unsatisfactory. The old religious creeds and theological
interpretations of Christianity had been altogether repudiated; and while the
materialism into which modern science was obviously drifting was still less
satisfactory, as giving the meaning of life, the nature and destiny of man,
there lingered a feeling that there must be, after all, an element of truth and
a beneficent purpose in the old religions. I was still earnestly searching for
that which I had all along been unable to find, and yet which I felt must
somewhere exist.
Two or three times I took up one of
the volumes of Isis Unveiled, only to
lay it down, discouraged by the idea that I must read it through in order to
know what it contained, and life at that time seemed very short, and time
always precious. To "scan" these books hastily, and get, as I had
often done with other volumes, a good general idea of their contents, seemed
impossible. One day I opened the first volume, "Science", and certain
references therein to the Freemasons arrested my attention. I read on and on,
and always with increasing interest. Before I had read to the end of the volume
I began to hunt for some clue to the author. Who was H.P. Blavatsky?
I had found in the volumes certain
references to a Theosophical Society. What was Theosophy, and what objects had
the Society in view?
At last my interest became so great
that I wrote a letter of enquiry to the publisher, Mr. Bouton, and the result
was a most kind and courteous response from H.P. Blavatsky herself. A more
specific letter of enquiry was followed by another kind answer, and by my
joining the Society.
Soon after arriving in India H.P.B.
wrote me again in regard to the Theosophist, just then getting out its first
number and requested me to answer any attacks upon, or misrepresentations
regarding the Theosophical Society. From that time till her residence at Avenue
Road, she wrote me at considerable intervals of time and whenever occasion
specially required.
Obtaining, from clues given in Isis,
a more definite idea of that for which I had been so long in search, as also of
its ear-marks in many directions, I soon learned the sign-manual of the true
occultist, viz., the absence of all
egotism. As soon as I found a writer exploiting a doctrine for either personal
fame or profit, I learned first to distrust, and finally to discard him.
Applying this test to H.P.B., as I did from the beginning, I found her in the
face of her immense knowledge never egotistic, and not only from every sign and
all reliable information, free from all personal pride or ambition, but rejecting
everything offered to herself in the way of adulation or revenue. If one called
her great or wise, she replied:
-
"I
am but the servant of Masters who are indeed great."
Before leaving America she became a
naturalized citizen of the U.S., and in doing so lost her pension from the
Russian Government. The expense of founding the Society, of removing its
headquarters to India, of starting the Theosophist,
and of many other items, was largely borne by H.P.B. and Col. Olcott, while at
the same time the small fees for dues, diplomas, etc., went in every instance
into the treasury of the Society. I never knew her to solicit money in any way,
even for the propaganda, and whenever presents of money were made to her they
invariably went into the general fund of the Society.
I speak of these matters here,
although so generally known, because as year after year went by, they furnished
additional confirmation that here was no selfish egotist, no "adventuress",
but a worker for truth and for humanity who utterly sank herself in her work.
This chain of evidence, beginning from the foundation of the Society and ending
only at her last breath, is unbroken. Nor have I ever seen one particle of
evidence to the contrary, though ignorant and unscrupulous persons have made
all sorts of baseless and absurd charges against her.
I regard this line of evidence as of
great importance for the reason that every other movement of modern times,
claiming to work on similar lines, with which I am acquainted, and I know a
good many personally and intimately, is open to the charge of exploitation for
both money and personal aggrandizement. H.P.B. sometimes made the statement
that some of these organizations had stolen the livery of Theosophy for the
purpose of personal profit; and in several instances, taking their professions
at face-value with the reserved right of withdrawing if I found them otherwise.
I joined them for the purpose of
learning whether they were indeed true, and if they were working unselfishly on
Theosophical lines. In every single instance their professions were false, and
their boasted wisdom a delusion and a snare. One society was exploited by a
convicted felon with great pretensions and manuscripts "borrowed"
from the "literary remains" of P.B. Randolph.
The test to which I referred in the
early part of this paper is unfailing, and those who are inexperienced in such
matters will do well to bear it in mind. The true teacher of arcane wisdom who
really aims at the betterment of man is never egotistic, ambitious, mercenary,
or time-serving. For fourteen years I have applied this test to H.P.B. with the
result of confirming all my earlier impressions. She sacrificed fortune, fame,
health, and at last life itself, for an idea, and that idea was first and last
the teaching of the truths of Theosophy for the benefit of humanity.
Coming now to her teaching itself;
those who have charged her followers —those who were glad to be taught and led
by her— with foolish credulity or blind fanaticism, are invariably those who
speak without knowledge, and malign without evidence.
If I examined her method and motive,
I also critically examined the grounds of her knowledge, and the evidence of
her statements. Everyone who has ever read her larger works, even with curious
and literary interest, has remarked the almost innumerable references to many
books in many languages and written in almost every age.
Profound, indeed, would be the
knowledge and priceless the opportunity, of him who had the ability and the
opportunity to verify all these references. He might, indeed, find here and
there inaccuracies; what wonder, when these references were known to have been
made apparently from memory, for it is well attested that she had a small
number of volumes of any sort within her reach, and for months together never
left the house in which she was living.
Fortunately I have one of the
largest libraries of occult and rare books to be found in America, and as my
studies progressed I kept buying books to which she referred in Isis Unveiled, in the Secret Doctrine, and in her almost
numberless fugitive essays, for the purpose of verifying her statements as well
as for further research.
Through the clues thus afforded by
her writings I was almost unconsciously gathering a mass of testimony in
support of the old wisdom religion. Given, now, an individual of fair intelligence,
capable of estimating evidence, and loyal at all times to the simple truth, I could
undertake to support the great bulk of H.P.B.'s teaching by outside and
overwhelming testimony.
There is also another, and entirely
different, line of evidence; I have already early in this paper referred to the
Freemasons. It was at this point that I first became attracted to H.P.B.'s
writings and joined the Society; I had been through thirty-two degrees of
Masonry, and had here, as in the orthodox religions, found something wanting.
There were, indeed, traditions of "Ancient Landmarks", and that
Masonry had originally been given to man "by God Himself", but what
these ancient land-marks really were, or how and when the G. A. of T. U. had
revealed them to man was nowhere to be discovered.
In other words, there was the
evidence of glyphics, and the meaning of symbolism; and here my first real clue
was derived from H.P.B. A friend of mine who has probably made more discoveries
in the ancient Kabbala than anyone known to modern times, and who had devoted
more than twenty years to this special line of work, raised once certain
enquiries concerning his own researches, and expressed the doubt that any man
then living could or would answer his enquiries.
I suggested that he should write to H.P.B.
in regard to the matter, and after some delay he did so. The result was nearly
forty pages of very closely-written MSS. answering every question he had
raised, and adding a fund of information that astonished the recipient beyond
all measure. This gentleman is not and never has been a member of the Theosophical
Society, but to the present time he declares his conviction that H.P.B. was the
most profound and wonderful woman of this or of any age. He, a specialist for
half a lifetime in an obscure and unknown field, found H.P.B. perfectly
familiar with all his work.
But why multiply evidence on these
lines so familiar to all who have really any knowledge of the subject of which I
write?
If such methods of examination and
such tests constantly applied for fourteen years constitute
one a "blind follower" and
an ''unreasoning enthusiast", then am I all that and more. Mine is not the
pen to write a biography of H.P.B., nor to estimate the value and magnitude of
her work. These are but brief personal reminiscences of one who never saw her,
who could not, therefore, come under her personal magnetism, nor be in any way prejudiced
by personal contact.
From the beginning I have measured
the work of H.P.B. by itself, as well as by every available test and
comparison, and allowed it to stand or fall on its merit. The time has now come
when everyone at all interested in the teachings and work of the Theosophical Society
must apply this discriminating method, and if the student be in real earnest
and ready to accord to truth its owa intrinsic value the result can be in
nowise uncertain. There is no record of any such teacher in the western world
since our boasted "civilization" emerged from barbarism.
If it be just to judge a tree by its
fruit, a character b}' its service to humanity, and a personality by its self-forget
fullness, then will H.P. Blavatsky soon be recognized in her true character,
and placed among the benefactors of humanity.
Her mission remains to the Society
she came forth to found. If its members have not apprehended her mission, then,
indeed, have they studied in vain, and she hath imagined a vain thing. Those
who have received most through larger opportunity and from personal contact
with the teacher, have the larger duty.
"Nay, O thou candidate for
Nature's hidden lore!
If one would follow in the steps of
holy TathsLgata,
Those gifts and powers are not for
Self."
But what if the disciple prove
forgetful and untrue, and wander off in search of Self?
The teachings still remain, and
truer disciples yet will come to carry on her work. A tidal wave raised by her
hand has already swept around the world. Its pulses throb in every artery of
life. The Society has but to feed the body already transfused with a newer
life, to keep it intact as a whole, and to draw from exhaustless sources
already in their keeping, to move the world, as it has not been moved for many
a weary century. The nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood is already formed.
Shall this Laya-centre lift humanity and enlighten the world?
H.P.B. is not dead. There is no
death. H.P.B. has diffused her life into the Theosophical Society, bidding them
again diffuse its vital stream to every soul that breathes; adding their
life-force to hers, and so to pass it on, involving all; enlightening all;
redeeming all from selfishness and sin.
"Death" was her most
heroic deed. It marks and means renewed life. Hitherto we have received, now we
must give. Hitherto we have learned; now, like her, we must teach. The harvest
is ready, and the reapers are not a few, and the golden grain shall not fall
back into the ground, nor be devoured by the beasts of the fields and the fowls
of the air, for an innumerable host that no man can number stand hungry and
waiting without. They are waiting without, foot-sore and weary with life. They have
waited long, clamoring for bread, and receiving only a stone, and here is the
One only Truth that can feed and satisfy the starving soul; the one truth that
to the last analysis can satisfy the reasoning mind, and give new life and hope
to the sorrowing heart of humanity.
Let us push on the work of H.P.B.
(This
article was published in Lucifer
magazine, June 1891, p.305-309; and later in the book HPB: in memory of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1891, p.41-45)
