LUCIFER (JOURNAL)

After Blavatsky was unjustly expelled from India by Colonel Olcott and the members of the Steering Committee, she went to live in Europe and by orders of Master Morya, she began there a theosophical organization parallel to the Theosophical Society in Adyar.

She founded the Blavatsky Lodge in London in 1887, started the Esoteric Section in 1888 to instruct the students who wanted to deepen their esoteric studies, and published in London a new theosophical journal which she named: "Lucifer"

The reason why Blavatsky chose that name is detailed here.

And in short, she did it to fight against the deformation that was made to that name (which in Latin means "The Light Bearer") and that is the name of a Divine Being who made the sacrifice of bringing Light to humanity when this was still very savage, and that Divine Being was revered in ancient times, but later the Catholic Church associated that name with Satan and thus transformed Lucifer into the diabolical being as it is known to this day.

Then Blavatsky wanted to claim that injustice by calling her magazine with the name of “Lucifer”.

And although she was valiant for doing that, personally I think it was a very bad idea because many people since then categorize her as satanic because few people know the ancient meaning of Lucifer and therefore they immediately make the association with the devil.

In her place, I would have preferred instead to look for other less disturbing ways to fight against that prejudice, but that's how she was. And as Master Kuthumi pointed out on one occasion: Blavatsky was very passionate and impetuous, and consequently she did not evaluate in depth the consequences of her decisions.

The magazine was published monthly and the first publication was published in September 1887.   This first publication was financiered by Bertram Keightley who was a student and collaborator of Blavatsky.

The publisher was Mr. George Redway (located on York Street, Covent Garden, London).

Apart from addressing theosophical issues, the magazine also tried philosophical, theosophical, scientific and religious topics. And it should be noted that a new volume of the journal was started every six months (rather than annually) so that the volumes ran September-February and March-August.

Blavatsky contributed substantially the first years, although she was usually anonymous in her writings, and her articles were subsequently retranscribed in the Collected Writings by Boris de Zircoff.

And besides Blavatsky, several members of the Theosophical Society contributed to their articles, being the most important: William Judge, Mabel Collins, Annie Besant, Archibald Keightley, Anna Kingsford, Henry Olcott, William Scott-Elliot, Constance Wachtmeister, Gerald Massey and William Kingsland.

The slogan printed on the cover was:

"To bring to light the hidden things of darkness."

In the first publications Blavatsky was coeditor with Mabel Collins, who was a famous English novelist who was interested in esotericism and therefore had approached Blavatsky.

At first they were very friendly but when Blavatsky started the Esoteric Section, Mabel Collins wanted to enter at all costs, but Blavatsky initially refused to accept her because she felt that Mabel was not qualified for it, but Mabel implored her so much that she was finally put on probation and in a short time she failed.

And this was because in accord to several testimonies, Mabel Collins did not have the skills and commitment to be a true theosophist.

And this rejection caused Mabel Collins to resent Blavatsky and get away from her to go with other much less genuine esoteric instructors.

Mabel Collins was co-editor of Lucifer magazine for the first 13 months (from September 1887 to October 1888).

The following months must have been quite hard for Blavatsky to continue with her magazine because she had to do most of the work and every time she was sicker.

But in March of 1889 Blavatsky met Annie Besant, who progressively became closer to her until May 10, 1889 when Annie Besant joined the Theosophical Society and in September 1889 she began working as a co-editor of Lucifer magazine.

On January 2, 1890 Annie Besant was elected President of the Blavatsky Lodge, but it was not until the early summer of 1890 that she began to work closely with Blavatsky (ten months before Blavatsky died) and in those ten months Miss Besant was absent from London for two or three months.

And therefore Annie Besant knew very little about esotericism when her teacher passed away.

And also in 1889, George Mead (who was an English theosophist) goes to work permanently as the private secretary of Blavatsky, and on this subject he mentions that:

« With childlike confidence (and with one of those great and eccentric gestures typical of her) Blavatsky immediately handed me the keys to her desk and bookcase and also handed me unopened, voluminous correspondence that was delayed by many people who they wrote to her abundantly, and asking me to answer her as best as possible because she wanted to devote all of her time to writing her articles and books. »

Unfortunately, Mr. Mead was not very ethical and quickly influenced Annie Besant to help him to "improve" (although the most appropriate word would be: to alter) the work of their teacher.

And so in the end of 1890 and begin of 1891, Annie Besant and George Mead suppressed without Blavatsky's consent (and taking advantage of the fact that she was already very ill to supervise) a part of the "Preliminary Explanations" that it was part of the documents of the Esoteric Section.

And also during that period they elaborated a new "Revised Edition" of the "Esoteric Instructions of Blavatsky" making a great amount of drafting changes, altering the terminology used by it, and even deleting paragraphs and complete passages, as well as adding a series of symbols on the covers of the Instructions which were inconsistent with their content.

From this, William Judge exclaimed:

« It is a hodgepodge of everything, from gods acting like mortals to sets of misplaced snakes, and they are used with other symbols with which they have no unity or correspondence. What is it not and has always been a serious thing to mix the symbols? »

(The Esoteric Papers of Madame Blavatsky, p.301)

Blavatsky died in May 1891, and Annie Besant and George Mead were in charge of the editorial work of Lucifer magazine, and which under their supervision continued to be published until August 1897.

In 1898 Lucifer magazine was replaced by The Theosophical Review, which was edited only by Mead until February 1909.

(And also Besant and Mead continued to alter other parts of Blavatsky's work.)

MY OPINION ABOUT THIS MAGAZINE

The most interesting volumes are those of the first years (1887-1890) when Blavatsky was still supervising its content, because as she was also aware that she had only a few years to live, she tried to put in her magazine as much esoteric information as be possible.

Unfortunately the quality of the articles was quickly degraded after the death of Blavatsky and this is because Annie Besant had great qualities, but also she had a great defect and it is that she was extremely influenced.

After George Mead manipulated she to alter the work of Blavatsky, she was manipulated by other men. In late 1893 Annie Besant met the orthodox Brahmin Chakravarti and was captivated by him.

Chakravarti made her his pupil and manipulated her so that she attacked William Judge (who was the main collaborator of Blavatsky and a disciple of Master Morya).

And this is perceived in the articles that Annie Besant published in the magazine, because before knowing Chakravarti she wrote:

« I want to place on record here my testimony to the splendid work that William Judge has done in America. Blavatsky knew well what she was doing when she chose that strong and quiet man to be her second self in America. »

(Lucifer Magazine, April 1893, p.89)

And after meeting Chakravarti, she published a long article entitled "Should Mr Judge Resign?" Where she proposed a resolution be made to expel William Judge from the Theosophical Society.

(Lucifer Magazine, February 1895, p.454-465)

And later, Annie Besant met the ex-Anglican priest Leadbeater, who gradually convinced her to get away from Chakravarti to be led by him.

And this is how we see that from May 1895, Lucifer magazine was publishing more and more articles of that big babbler that was Leadbeater, until in May 1906, a pedophilia scandal forced him to renounce the Theosophical Society.

But when Annie Besant became the General President, she plotted for Leadbeater to be readmitted again.

This brazen manipulation scandalized many members and resulted in around 700 theosophists in England renouncing to their membership of the Theosophical Society and George Mead was one of them.

And this is how we see that in the last issue of the Theosophical Review (N°258 published in February 1909), he said goodbye to his readers explaining that he resigned because he had lost confidence in President Annie Besant and the main officials of the Theosophical Society.

Around 250 of these dissidents joined to found the Quest Society and published a new magazine with the title of "The Quest", which was quarterly and began in October 1909, and continued with Mead as publisher until it stopped publishing in 1930 (3 years before Mead died at 65 years of age).

DOWNLOADS

You can find the list of all the articles in this link.

And almost all the publications (with exception of February 1895) can be downloaded here.

NEW PUBLICATIONS

Subsequently, the Theosophical Society from Point Loma-Pasadena published magazines on several occasions with this same title: "Lucifer" (most probably as a tribute to Blavatsky).

• The first magazine was published in the 1930’s by the Theosophical Lodge of Point Loma. 
• The second magazine was published in 1979 by the Dutch Section (in Dutch). 
• And as of February 2013, the Dutch Section republished a new magazine with that name (but this time, mainly in English) and you can download several volumes in this link.

OBSERVATION

Do not confuse these theosophical journals with the American journal published from 1883 to 1907 by the anarchist Moses Harman and who called it "Lucifer the Lightbearer".

CURIOSITY

Later, Alice Bailey wanting to pretend that she was the next messenger of the Masters, created an organization that she also called "Lucifer", but seeing that people were cataloging her as Satanic, she quickly changed the name to "Lucis" and that organization still exists to this day.