LETTER FROM BLAVATSKY TO HER AUNT FADEYEV

 

 

 

New-York, [1877]

 

Friend of my soul, Nadéjinka [my little Nadine]

 

Do not be astonished that I write to you on paper which is not letter-paper. I do this because I absolutely must speak to you very seriously; since the very day of my getting your letter —and may the heavenly powers grant you happiness because of it— I am thinking, thinking all the time and I have at last decided to write to you the whole truth, such as it is.

 

I shall lay before you my whole inner being: my soul, my heart, my brain — and then, come what come may. If you understand me, then —thanks to God— fate will have favored me; if you do not understand, if you get angry — that will grieve and trouble me.

 

In the other world, in future life, where we shall certainly meet, all will be cleared up and we shall know who is right and who is wrong; but meanwhile, as we are both sincere and obey our conscience and do not deceive anyone because of fear or cowardness, however much we might be deceived in our calculations, our hopes, our beliefs, we nevertheless remain honest people.

 

If you were Madame Ghan or that foolish Romonof, I should not have spoken of these things. But you know yourself that you are extra-intelligent and that you are really much more learned than I am, for your learning is a solid emanation from your own brain and understanding and mine is hereditary.

 

 

I am but the reflection of an unknown bright light. However this may be, this light has gradually been incorporated into me, it has been filtered into me, it has, as it were, pierced through me; and, therefore, I cannot help myself that all these ideas have come into my brain, into the depth of my soul; I am sincere although perhaps I am wrong.

 

This long preface is called forth, because you and your uncle, through goodness of heart and family-feeling, wish to have two copies of my book Isis Unveiled. The first volume “Against Exact Science” will no doubt interest you very much. But I fear for the second volume “Against Theology and for Religion”.

 

I know how sincere and devout you are, how clear and pure your faith is, and my only hope is that you will understand that my books are not written against religion, against the Christ, but against the cowardly hypocrisy of those who murder, burn, kill in the name of the Almighty Son of God —even since the first moment after His death on the Cross for the whole of humanity, for the sinners, in particular for the fallen, for the heathens, for the fallen women and for those w ho have left the straight road— and all in His Name!

 

Where is Truth?  Where to find it?

 

 

Three great, so-called Christian, Churches; in England, Germany and other Protestant countries there are 232 sects, in America 176: everyone claims respect and wishes it to be recognized that its own dogmas are true and those of the other sects untrue.

 

“Where is truth—what is it?” asked Pilate of the Christ, and that is 1877 years ago. Where is it?

 

I, poor sinner, asked and nowhere is it to be found. Everywhere are found deceit, falsehood, ferocity — and the sad heritage of the Jewish Bible, which burdens the Christians and by which half of the Christian world has stifled the teachings of even the Christ.

 

Understand me: here our orthodoxy does not come in. The book does not mention it. I have refused once for all to analyze it, for I wish to keep at least one small corner of my heart, where doubt does not work its way in — a feeling which I put from me with all my strength.

 

The orthodox populace is sincere; their faith may be blind, unintelligent, but that faith leads the masses to the good. And though our priests are often drunkards and thieves (idiots often) yet their faith is pure and can but lead to the good.

 

The Master admits this and He says that the only people in the world, whose religion is not a speculation, are the orthodox people. As to our privileged classes, let them go to the devil. They are the same hypocrites everywhere. They do not believe in either God or devil, being full of nihilistic ideas and materializing all that exists. There is no question of them, but of universal religions.

 

What after all is the essence of all religion?

 

“Love your neighbor as yourself.”

 

 

Are these not the words spoken by Jesus?

 

 

Has He left behind even one single dogma, has He taught a single one of the thousand articles of faith which the Church-fathers have invented afterwards?

 

Not one. On the Cross, He prayed for His enemies and, in His Name, as well as in the name of Moloch, fifty to sixty million people have been thrown into the fire and burnt.

 

He spoke against the Jewish Sabbath and purposely belittled it, and here, in free America, fines and imprisonment are imposed for the violation of the Sabbath, called “Sabbath-day”, although they have altered it to Sunday (the day of the Resurrection); but what has been done?

 

“Saturne” has been changed into “Sol”, Dies Solis, day of the Sun and of Jupiter. At least with us Russians, Sunday reminds us of the day of Resurrection (Voskressénité), but with those heathenish Protestants and Catholics, it is only the day of the Sun, “Sunday”.

 

St. Paul clearly says that every one acts as he chooses: to one it is a day that pleases, to another something else. St. Justinian the Martyr is absolutely opposed to the observing of Sunday, because the heathens on that day observe the day of Jupiter; and here people are put into prison.

 

If we believe in the New Testament, then it is impossible to believe in the Old Testament. Jesus and the Old Testament and the ancient books are in opposition to each other.

 

His Sermon on the Mount (see the Gospel according to St. Mark) gives a diametrically opposed teaching to the Ten Commandments of Sinai. On the Mount of Sinai, in the books of Moses, it is said “a tooth for a tooth”, etc., and “But I say unto you”, etc.

 

Is this not a revolt against the ancient institutions of the Synagogue?

 

 

All the Churches may be against me, mankind may curse me, God, the great invisible God, sees why I rebel against the teaching of the Church.

 

I shall never believe that the absolutely pure personality of the Christ was the son of the Jehovah of the Jews, of that wicked, cruel Jehovah, who expressly rouses cruelty in the heart of the Pharaoh and, later, strikes him down for it; who tempts the Jewish people, who tempts it personally and who, from behind the clouds, hits them with stones like a Spanish bandit; who materializes himself in the cleft of a rock.

 

If the Christ had believed in Jehovah, He would not have been crucified. Has He ever, even once, pronounced His name?

 

[No]

 

Jehovah is a mere national God of the Jews, and they would never have admitted that He could have been the God of anyone except of the chosen people. They are wonderful, the chosen people! Jehovah is simply Bacchus and it can be proved, just as two and two make four. One of the names of Bacchus was Sabbaoth and El, and Bacchus was Dionysos, Dio-Nysos, the God of Niza — that is the Mount of Sinai, so that the Egyptians called Sinai, Niziel.

 

And what do we find in the Bible?

 

“And Moses built an altar on the mount and named it Jehova-Nizi.” (see Exodus from Egypt, Exodus XVII-15).

 

We find that all the names of Jehovah belong to heathen gods, all of them, even the last. Solomon has no idea of Jehovah, and David has taken that name from the Phoenicians. Yago was one of the four gods of the Kabiri — hidden gods who took a part in all the mysteries.

 

The old Jewish nationality is a legend. There has been no Jewish Nation until the second century B.C.; all their books are apocryphal.

 

Where are the historic documents to prove that their books are original?

 

Which is the first sacred Jewish book of note?

 

The Septuagint. It was translated by order of Ptolemy by seventy translators.

 

Who mentions it?

 

Only Josephus the writer, who upholds the Jews with all his might and who is a great liar.

 

Why is this story of the 70 translators never mentioned in any book, neither by Greek writers, nor in any archives or documents?

 

Who better than the Greeks and Romans could have made known the deeds of Ptolemy?

 

If all the divines of the whole world united, yet they never would find in any book, or in any record a single word on the “Jews as a nation”.

 

Who has ever heard it spoken of?

 

Herodotus, the most exact writer, traveler, historian, whose every word, every indication is now confirmed by archaeology, palaeology, philosophy and all the sciences, was born in 484 B.C.; he travelled in Assyria and in Babylonia during the life of Cyrus.

 

It is only half a century after the transformation of Nabuchodonosor into a bull by the prophet Daniel; during seven years that king bellowed as a bull; 42,000 Jews, under the guidance of Zorobabel, returned to Jerusalem (538 B.C.) after their exile to build a temple.

 

Herodotus resided there for a few years; now, he, who described so minutely and often with bothersome detail (see Book VI. 98) the reign of Nabuchodonosor (584 B.C.) after Jerusalem had been taken by him, who wrote of Cyrus, Darius and Artaxerxes, does not allude to this transport of the Jews, to the prophets, nor to any Jew who so ever. Except for a few lines, where he mentions that the Syrians inhabiting Palestine, have learned the practice of circumcision from the Egyptians — nothing more.

 

Is this possible?

An event like the metamorphosis of a king into a bull by the chief of the Magians (Daniel) would this not at least have been described by other historians as a legend?

 

How can one reconcile, if the chronology of the Bible, established by our scholars and theologians is correct, that the prophet Ezekiel, who wrote in 605 B.C. speaks, twice over, of Daniel as of an ancient sage — although Daniel had not yet been born?

 

Why, if Judah was a nation w here Solomon, David, Saul and all those had reigned, is there now here in the world an ancient coin with a Hebrew inscription — that is Hebrew coins, although there are a number of Samaritan coins?

 

Would the Jews, who hated the Samaritans, have consented to use the coins of their enemies and would they not have coined their own money?

 

Coins, thousands of years old, are found again and again; tombs of those, w ho have lived before Moses, have been opened and some small indication is found confirming their existence. But of the Jewish nation — nothing.

 

Neither tombs, nor coins — nothing. It is as if all had evaporated and had disappeared by magic. Only the Sacred Books remain (the God of which has been killed by the Jew s) in which mankind must believe blindly.

 

But of such events as the exodus from Egypt by nearly 3 million people (as compared to the 70 taken by Jacob 150 years earlier —that means that they have multiplied quicker than red herrings— think this out according to statistical law!) surely of such events some trace would have been found on monuments for the dead, on tombs or in some ancient scripts. And there is nothing — dead silence!  Nowhere a hint, nowhere the slightest confirmation!

 

Impossible! And then as to the Scriptures — where is historical confirmation of their existence 200 or even 150 years B.C.?

 

The Hebrew language, that is the universal language, called old Hebrew, has never existed; it is a language without a single original root; it is a language composed from Greek, Arabic and Chaldean parts. I have proved this to Professor Rawson (Yale College). Take any Hebrew word whatsoever, and I shall prove to you that its root is Arabic, Greek or Chaldean. It is like a harlequin’s coat.

 

All the biblical names are composed of foreign words and they indicate why they have thus been composed. It is an Arabic-Ethiopean dialect with a mixture of Chaldean; and the Chaldean comes from Sanskrit. It has now been proved that Babylonia at one time was inhabitated by Brahmans and was a school for Sanskrit.

 

The Akkadians are recognized by our Assyriologists, so it seems, (according to Rawlinson) as coming from Armenia and taught the Magians a priestly language, that is a kind of sacred language; they are simply the Aryans from whom our Slavonic language has also come.

 

Here is an example (excuse the diversion) of the Rig-Veda:

 

Dyaurvah pita prithvi mata somo bhrataditih svasa.

 

(Hymn of the Mandalas to the Maruts. 1, 191-6)

 

Translated it is:

 

"Heaven is your father; Earth, your mother; Soma, your brother; Aditi, your sister."

 

 

This is why it is ridiculous to demand to believe that the Hebrew manuscripts are ancient revelations or the Word of God.

 

God would never have written nor dictated anything which would give occasion at the same time for the earth, created by Him, mankind, science, etc., to accuse Him of falsehood. To believe absolutely in the Jewish Scriptures and to believe at the same time in the Heavenly Father of Jesus is absurd, it is worse — it is sacrilege.

 

If the Father of Heaven and Earth, and the Father of the whole unlimited Universe had had to write, He would not have allowed mankind to be obliged to accuse Him of contra dictions, which are often without sense. 64'900 mistakes have been actually pointed out in the Bible by a “revision” society and when these mistakes had been corrected, as many contradictions were still found. This has all been done by the Jewish Massorah.

 

Yes, the most learned Rabbis have lost the key to their books and do not know how to correct them. It is well known that the Jews from Tiberia constantly amended their Bible, altering words and numbers, taking these from the Fathers of the Christian Church or accusing them of the evil habit of falsifying the texts and the chronology at every discussion, to defeat the opposing party. And that is how they have made a mess of it. For we have no MSS. of the Old Testament before the tenth century.

 

The Codex of the Bodleian is considered to be the oldest. And w ho can guarantee its exactness?

 

Tischendorf has stated in his history, and has persuaded the whole of Europe to believe him, that he has found in Sinai the so-called Codex of Sinai. And, as a matter of fact, two other scholars [one of whom is our Theosophist] who have lived in Palestine during several years and on the Mount of Sinai, are prepared to prove that such a Codex did not even exist in the library.

 

They have made investigations during two years, they have visited all the hidden places with a monk, w ho had lived in the country for 60 years and who had known Tischendorf. And this monk has sworn that for years he has known every script, every book, but that he never had heard that one spoken of.

 

It is clear that this monk will be made to disappear and as to Tischendorf, the Russian Government has simply deceived him with a falsehood. Out of 260 MSS., Hebrew, Greek, etc., of the Old and New Testaments, there are not two similar ones. And is this to be wondered at?

 

The books of Moses have been lost during several centuries. Suddenly Ezekiel finds them back in the year 600 B.C. Solomon’s temple is destroyed and his people are driven out . . . (II Kings XXIII) and again they all disappear.

 

Ezra writes them down from memory (40 books) in 40 days in 425 B. C.; again they are lost; Antiochus Epiphanus burns them all in 150 B.C.; once more, by a wonder, they are found.

 

All this is but a legend, there is not one historic fact.

 

Now comes the famous Massorah.

 

Jehovah is changed into Adonis and Adonais, with the help of the Massorites, and he might as easily have been transformed through their wily processes into Ivan Petrovitch as into Adonais. And at the same time their Cabalah teaches, as well as Onkelos, the most famous Rabbi of Babylonia, that Jehovah is not God, but that he is Nemro — a word which means Logos (the word).

 

Analyze the word Iodhevau and you will have Adam and Eve, because Jehovah is the first Adam (not the second), the chief of the creation of the world, not the earthly Adam, but the first chief male and female Elohim [bard]. A man was created that is an Adam Kadmon, fantastic, bi-sexual, whose name is composed of the letters of Iod and of the three letters of Eve.

 

Jehovah, the personification of sinful humanity — but enough of these Jewish fables!

 

(To be concluded)

 

(Note: letter addressed to Mademoiselle Nadine Fadeeff, who died at Odessa, cousin of Madame Blavatsky. The French translation of the letter, which was in Russian, was sent to Mr. Jinarajadasa by H.P.B's grand-niece. The English translation is by J.v.I.)

 

 

(Theosophist, October 1931, p.32-40)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OBSERVATION

 

I agree with Blavatsky that there are many lies on which the Judeo-Christian religions are based. When Blavatsky stated this in the 19th century, she caused a great shock, but today this asseveration is much more widely accepted.