Charles
James Ryan was a member of the old Theosophical Society Point Loma and in this
article he recounts how The Secret Doctrine was written and the different
editions that were subsequently made.
SOME
NOTES ON "THE SECRET DOCTRINE"
History
The Secret Doctrine, H.P.
Blavatsky's masterpiece, was begun in India in 1879 but owing to her
pre-occupation with the activities connected with the establishing of Theosophy
in that country, the editing and writing for her magazine The Theosophist,
and her immense correspondence, little was done for several years.
The Secret Doctrine was intended to be an enlarged and
improved rendering of Isis Unveiled which, according to the Master K.
H., writing in 1882, "really ought to be re-written for the sake of the
family honour," and in which everything is "hardly sketched — nothing
completed or fully revealed." (ML
20C, p-130-1.)
About 1884 she took up the task of
re-writing Isis Unveiled and a full page notice appeared in The
Theosophist for February of that year with a proposed title page running as
follows:
« The Secret Doctrine, a
new version of Isis Unveiled with a new arrangement of the matter, large
and important additions, and copious notes and commentaries, by H.P. Blavatsky,
Corresponding Secretary of the Theosophical Society, assisted by T. Subba Row
Garu, Councillor of the Theosophical Society. »
Subba Row, however, gave little
assistance and withdrew from the undertaking long before the book was
published.
H.P. Blavatsky wrote a few chapters
in India —a more or less preliminary Draft— but they were not included in the
final publication in 1888. Many years after her death they were printed in The
Theosophist for 1931 to 1932.
During her visit to Europe in 1884,
William Q. Judge, her old friend and trusted disciple, spent some weeks with
her in Paris and at the chateau of the Count d'Adhemar, at Enghien, and was
able to give help in the preparation of The Secret Doctrine which she
said was of the greatest use to her. In Lucifer, July, 1891, Mr. Judge
eloquently describes his experiences with H.P. Blavatsky during his stay at
Enghien, and says:
« It was with a feeling of some
regret that we left this delightful place where such quiet reigned and where
H.P.B. was able to work amid the beauty and the stillness of nature. It cannot
be blotted from the memory, because there our friend and teacher was untroubled
by the presence of curiosity seekers, and thus was free to present to us who
believed in her a side of her many-sided nature which pleased, instructed and
elevated us all. »
It was very different, however, when
she returned to India [end 1884] where the distressing condition of
Theosophical affairs made any progress impossible. It was not until she settled
in Wurzburg, Germany [on July 1885] that she could concentrate on The Secret
Doctrine.
The Countess Wachtmeister lived with
her [later in Belgium] and gave her the most devoted care, attempting to shield
her from intrusion, but this was not always possible and the work was several
times delayed. Reminiscences of H.P. Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine
by the Countess, an enthralling narrative by a constant observer who was at her
side for months at a time, describes the remarkable way the book was written
and the active part the Masters took in providing the information contained.
Many "phenomena" occurred
in the most matter-of-fact way, as a part of the regular method of
communication between the Master and his chela and not in the slightest degree
for the edification of the inquisitive or the skeptical — who were not present!
The Countess Wachtmeister was
greatly impressed by the enormous number of quotations from books —including many
very rare ones— that H.P.B. introduced into her manuscripts of The Secret
Doctrine. The number of books she could carry in her travels was very
limited.
How did she get the quotations?
The Countess writes:
« Her manuscripts were full to
overflowing with references, quotations, allusions, from a mass of rare and
recondite works on subjects of the most varied kind. Now she needed
verification of a passage from some book only to be found in the Vatican, and
again from some document of which only the British Museum possessed a copy. Yet
it was only verifications she needed. The matter she had. »
In regard to the verification of one
of these Vatican quotations, the Countess had to obtain the services of a
friend who, in a roundabout way succeeded in having the original document
examined. H.P.B.'s version was correct except in two words which in the
original were so blurred as to be almost illegible. Furthermore, the Countess
writes, in discussing the images which H.P.B. copied from the records in the
Astral Light:
« Such visions often present the
image of the original reversed, as it might be seen in a looking-glass, and
though words can, with a little practice, be read easily ... it is much more
difficult to avoid mistakes in figures. »
George Mead relates many striking
instances of H.P.B.'s employment of astral vision for similar purposes during
the time he spent at her side as secretary; and Bertram Keightley independently
corroborates the same in his account of the preparation of The Secret
Doctrine in London after H.P.B. had left Wurzburg. He writes:
« Quotations with full
references, from books which were never in the house — quotations verified
after hours of search, sometimes at the British Museum for a rare book — of
such I saw and verified not a few. But I also found out that the numerical references were often
reversed, e.g., page 321 for 123, illustrating the reversal of objects when
seen in the astral light. »
During her long stay in Wurzburg
H.P.B. was closely confined to her apartment owing to ill health and had no
opportunity of visiting libraries, the Countess having to do all her errands.
She was very poor at this time of crisis when some of the most violent attacks
on her reputation were being made, but, knowing how much she had to do and how
little time was left to her to write, she absolutely refused to accept a large
salary to write for the Russian journals. The Countess Wachtmeister suggested
that she devote a part of the day to the Russian work, but she answered:
« No — a thousand times no! To
write such a work as The Secret Doctrine I must have all my thoughts
turned in the direction of that current. It is difficult enough even now,
hampered as I am with this sick and worn-out body, to get all I want, how much
more difficult, then, if I am to be continually changing the currents into
other directions. »
H.P.B. told the Countess
Wachtmeister that the four volumes of The Secret Doctrine "would
give out to the world as much of the esoteric doctrine as was possible at the
present stage of human evolution," but that "it will not be until the
next century when men will begin to understand and discuss the book
intelligently."
Although the "next
century" is not yet half through, the effect of H.P. Blavatsky's work is
already becoming plainly evident in modern thought.
During the Wurzburg period H.P.B.
corresponded with William Judge about the progress of The Secret Doctrine.
In one letter, dated March 24, 1886, she writes him:
« I wish only you could spare
two or three months and come to me at Ostende where I am emigrating again. ...
I want you badly for the arrangement of Secret Doctrine. Such facts,
such facts, Judge, as Masters are giving out will rejoice your old heart. Oh,
how I do want you. The thing is becoming enormous, a wealth of facts. »
Unfortunately, he was unable to
leave America at that time.
In 1887 she moved to London, where
two well-qualified and utterly devoted Theosophists, Dr. Archibald Keightley
and Bertram Keightley, gave invaluable help in the preparation and publication
of her greatest work, a tremendous task. They also provided much, perhaps most,
of the financial backing necessary. Without their indefatigable energy and
self-sacrifice the world would possibly have had to wait a long time for The
Secret Doctrine.
The main editions
The first edition appeared in 1888
in two volumes, the publishers being The Theosophical Publishing Company,
Limited, London; William Q. Judge, New York; and the Manager of The
Theosophist, Madras. It was printed by Allen, Scott and Co., London.
The sales were so large that a
second printing was soon called for. This has been strangely called the Second Edition,
but it was only a reprint of the original with the words "Second
Edition" stamped on it.
In 1893 George Mead, well known as a
classical scholar and a former secretary of H.P.B., and Mrs. Annie Besant
edited and brought out a really new edition in two volumes. It was called the
"Third and Revised Edition" though strictly speaking it was the
second edition. The original text was considerably revised by the
editors, and much criticism was aroused in certain quarters by many changes
considered unnecessary and in some cases unjustifiable. However this may be,
this edition cannot be called a verbatim or entirely faithful
reproduction of the original as written and published by H.P. Blavatsky.
In defense of the numerous
alterations in the 1893 edition it has been said that H.P.B. was so anxious for
accuracy that she corrected and added to the paged proofs of the
original edition to the last minute even though it cost hundreds of pounds.
These changes were, however, made by the author herself and were authoritative.
It is quite a different matter when the author is dead.
(Cid's note: that was a lie invented by Annie Besant
and George Mead to try to justify all the alterations they made to the original
work.)
This widely circulated Third Edition
was published by The Theosophical Publishing Society, London; The Path
Office, New York; and The Theosophist Office, Adyar, and printed by the
H.P.B. Press, London.
In 1895, a large and comprehensive
Index to the "Third Edition" was published as a separate volume. As
the paging had been changed from that of the original a key was included for
the convenience of those who had the original edition. The publishers were The
Theosophical Publishing Society, London; The Path Office, New York; The
Theosophical Publishing Society, Benares; and The Theosophist Office,
Adyar.
Until 1909 no other editions of
Volumes I and II of The Secret Doctrine were produced, but in that year
a new edition was published by the Aryan Theosophical Press, Point Loma,
California (since then moved to Covina, California, and known as the
Theosophical University Press) under the direction of Katherine Tingley.
This is virtually a reprint of the
original 1888 edition with a scholarly transliteration of Sanskrit words
according to an accepted standard, some corrections of faulty Greek and Latin
and of obvious typographical errors, and the occasional substitution of square
brackets in place of parentheses for clearness. No changes were made in H.P. Blavatsky's
language and no passages were eliminated. This is the standard edition still
being published by the Theosophical University Press, Covina.
As the demand for H.P. Blavatsky's
works increased, yet another edition of The Secret Doctrine appeared.
This was in 1925 when The Theosophy Company of Los Angeles published a
photographic facsimile of the two authentic volumes, bound in one
volume. This excellent edition provided opportunity for the study of H.P. Blavatsky's
masterpiece in exactly the way she left it, without change or correction, even
though in this way many typographical errors are perpetuated.
As the demand continued to increase,
new editions and new printings have been printed from time to time, but there
is no reason to enumerate them here, and The Secret Doctrine has been
translated into many foreign languages.
(The Theosophical Forum, March 1945)
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