BLAVATSKY EXAMINED BY JIRAH DEWEY BUCK

 

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)