POSTHUMOUS HOMAGE TO BLAVATSKY BY ARCHIBALD KEIGHTLEY

Archibald Keightley was one of Blavatsky's main students in London and when she died he wrote the following article in tribute to her.

 

 

 

IN MEMORIAM

 

The first occasion on which I ever heard of H.P.B. was on reading Mr. Sinnett's Occult World, at the close of 1883-1884. At that time I had, with other friends in Cambridge, been studying the phenomena of spiritualism to a slight extent, and had also been reading all the books on magic which I could find in the University Library. Consequently the ideas did not come to me in an entirely new fashion, and Madame Blavatsky was less associated with the Occult World phenomena in my mind than with the letters which are printed in that work.

 

It was in the spring of 1884 that I first saw her. I was then on the eve of joining the Theosophical Society, or had just done so, and was attending a meeting of the London Lodge held in Lincoln's Inn, for the purpose of settling, under the presidency of Col. Olcott, certain differences between the Oriental and Occidental views on Theosophy.

 

During that meeting I noticed particularly a somewhat stout lady quietly enter the room and sit down near the door. Nothing occurred till some mention was made of what Madame Blavatsky had done, when this lady remarked quietly, "That's so", after which a general rush was made towards her, and she was carried off to the head of the room, while the meeting broke up in confusion.

 

It appeared that Madame Blavatsky had found it imperatively necessary to attend that meeting; had started from Paris without luggage or attendant; had in fact arrived by the mail train and had followed her occult instinct in guiding herself to the rooms where the meeting was being held, of which she had not the address. As Madame Blavatsky returned to Paris the next day or the day after, I had no opportunity of making her acquaintance.

 

 

When next I saw her she was staying at the house of Mrs. Arundale, in Elgin Crescent. I cannot say that, beyond admiring her learning very greatly, i was very closely drawn to her. Outside the fact that I was a member of the Theosophical Society and anxious to get information, there was nothing in me to draw her attention. I was then in the midst of my medical studies, and, living outside London, had very little time to spend in visits.

 

It was during the autunm, however, that Madame Blavatsky, together with my friends Mr. and Mrs. Cooper-Oakley, rented rooms in Victoria Road, and I there joined them for a short time previous to their departure for India. Even under such favorable circumstances I cannot lay claim to being intimate with her. So far as I could tell, I was to her the friend of Mr. and Mrs. Cooper-Oakley, with whom she might talk and chat in the evening when her work for the day was done, and nothing more.

 

I may, I think, lay claim to the proud distinction that of all who had at that time lived in the same house with Madame Blavatsky, I was alone in never having witnessed any of the phenomena which were so frequently seen in her neighborhood.

 

I saw the steamer leave the docks on the Mersey, and did not see Madame Blavatsky again till 1887, when I twice visited her at Ostende. In the mean time I had of course seen and read all that was to be heard of the S.P.R. Investigation. I was present at the meetings at which the report was read, and most certainly it made very little impression on my mind. I had been reading a good many "detective stories" and I well remember the poor impression as a story which the report made on me.

 

As to the rest immediately concerning Madame Blavatsky, I knew her learning, wit, and cleverness. I thoroughly believed in the existence of the Masters as constituting a necessary link in human evolution, and the only effect on my mind was a still greater contempt for circumstantial evidence, hearsay reports, and working hypotheses. Theosophy was itself; Madame Blavatsky had brought it to the world, and I felt a trust in facts as opposed to appearances.

 

 

However, it was in 1887 that I was first brought in close contact with H.P.B. She was then in Ostende, engaged in writing the Secret Doctrine. At the time Theosophy seemed to be slowly decaying as a force in England, and together with other friends I felt that some strong step had to be taken. Consequently, after corresponding, Madame Blavatsky replied that if she found that the desire for her presence was sufficiently strong, she was willing to leave her retirement and come to London to help on the work. All of us wrote to her and finally she consented to come.

 

At Ostende I found Madame Blavatsky and the Countess Wachtmeister living together, and was at once set to work to read some part of the Secret Doctrine. Almost directly on my return to London, I heard that H.P.B. had been taken suddenly ill and that her life was in danger. A slight chill had developed dangerous symptoms which by some extraordinary means disappeared, and she recovered a second time from a condition in which recovery is rarely, if ever known.

 

It can easily be imagined, then, that on my second visit to assist in her journey to England, I was to the last degree dismayed to find the day when we were compelled to leave damp and foggy, and that a thin misty rain was falling. It must be remembered that Madame Blavatsky had not set foot outside her rooms, she would not come out of her private room into the parlor if the window was open, and as a rule her own room was nearly unbearable to others from the heat which made it pleasant to her. However, we started and got on board the steamer with ease; the tide was full, and the steam.er lay alongside the wharf at a convenient height.

 

But Dover! There the tide was low, and many were the damp and dripping steps up which we had to climb. However, a carrying chair and porters overcame the difficulty. But her face, as she was being carried up, was a study. Imagine the circumstances, recollect Madame Blavatsky's face, and the scene is easily conjured up.

 

Next came an even greater difficulty, crippled as her limbs were from disuse — the getting her into the railway carriage from the low platform. However, an end comes to everything, and so it did to the journey, and she arrived safe and well at Norwood in the evening, and, further, there were no ill effects to be detected next day.

 

 

We settled down to work at Maycot, Bertram Keightley and myself, with H.P.B., her maid, and one servant, staying there till September through the heat of the Jubilee summer. Work was the order of the day, and its results are visible. A great deal of the Secret Doctrine was written again; it was corrected and recorrected and type-written, Lucifer magazine was started, and the Blavatsky Lodge was formed.

 

Friends gathered around her and rallied to the Theosophical flag. Then came the time for expansion, for the Countess Wachtmeister was on the point of arrival, and another exodus was made to Lansdowne Road. Unintermittently the work went on, and the focus of activity steadily extended its rays, until the present condition of affairs was reached.

 

Thus it may be seen that for at least two years I was closely associated on intimate terms with Madame Blavatsky. It is next to impossible to convey to one who did not know her the varied sides of her personal character. To those who were merely curious about her and her work she was courteous and external, but it was not until the interest in Theosophy became real that H.P.B. showed herself as she was.

 

Well do those who love her know that almost every fault and sin imaginable in human character have been assigned to her. Doubtless to the external and carnal observer some color may have been given, and even then we know that nature is not all smiles and that thunder-showers clear the air. But what I distinctly affirm is that such excuses are not valid. It is not in any degree possible to comprehend the many phases of a single human character, and especially such a complex one as H.P.B.

 

I am positive from long observation of her actions that there was a purpose in all her acts and words, and that it depended on the observers how much they might profit by the lesson. This may sound ridiculous to some, but I convinced myself that H.P.B. used the physical instrument which was called H.P. Blavatsky with distinct, untiring purpose, although the instrument grew so impaired by sickness that it became increasingly difficult to direct it.

 

To all who assisted her work she was ever ready to give counsel and help, and only those who received her help can appreciate it at its just value. But though they feel it, they cannot talk of it, for it is not possible to bring the deepest feelings to the surface. Personally, as I know her, I may say that I found in her the wise teacher, the loving friend who knew how to cut for the purpose of curing, and an example in practice when the need arose of how to regulate action to theosophical ideas.

 

I may close by saying that I regard myself as most fortunate in the Karma which brought me in association with H.P.B. and enabled me to assist so far as I could in the work of the lion-hearted leader of the Cause of Theosophy.

 

 

(This article was first published in Lucifer magazine, July 1891, p.362-364; and later in the book HPB: in memory of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1891, p.55-58)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

POSTHUMOUS HOMAGE TO BLAVATSKY BY ALICE GORDON

 

Alice Gordon was an English Theosophist who met Blavatsky when she lived in India, and when Blavatsky died Mrs. Gordon wrote the following article remember her.

 

 

 

REMINISCENCES OF MADAME BLAVATSKY

 

It was in December, 1879, that I had the pleasure of first seeing Madame Blavatsky, when she was on a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett, and I am glad to say that the friendship which ensued lasted without diminution until the day of her death. I had, while in England in 1878, investigated the phenomena of spiritualism, and a lady spiritualist whom I had met while investigating, suggested, when writing to me in India, that I should make Madame's acquaintance if opportunity offered.

 

Curiosity, and a desire to meet Mr. and Mrs. Sinnett —the former of whom I had corresponded with as Editor of the Pioneer— induced me to take a long journey of about thirty hours to Allahabad for this purpose; and no journey in my life has ever repaid me so well, or been the source of so much and such permanent satisfaction.

 

So many Theosophists have written eulogies on our late friend and teacher —H.P.B., as she preferred being called— that I feel it will be preferable for me to confine myself to a short account of my impressions of her character and of some of the incidents which occurred during this brief visit to Allahabad, and afterwards when we again met at Simla.

 

Eastern philosophy has now, very rightly, taken the chief place in connection with the Theosophical Society, and her name will be handed down to posterity rather as the exponent of these doctrines, than as a wonder worker; but at the time of which I am writing it was the phenomena which were associated with her name that attracted us to her. But it must be acknowledged that she always deprecated this craving for wonders, and spoke of such phenomena as "psychological tricks''.

 

Still our wish, and perhaps a little interest she herself had in proving her powers, induced her to show us some of these "psychological tricks'', even while assuring us they were of no real value in comparison with the teaching which lay at the back of them.

 

Mr. Sinnett's book, The Occult World, gives so full an account of our early experiences, that I do not propose to go into any detail, but I feel that it is only due to her memory to say, in the face of the abuse which has been showered upon her both in life and after death, that I never saw anything, or have heard anything, which has led me for a moment to doubt the reality of the phenomena which occurred in her presence.

 

And I also can say with perfect frankness, that although she was the most intellectual woman I have ever known, she was, I consider, so constituted that in her case systematic deceit was impossible. She had neither the cunning nor the self-control needful for plotting and concealment; and she lived so openly among her friends that the many falsehoods about her are absurd to those who have lived in the same house with her.

 

 

She had the kindest of hearts, the most generous of dispositions, and without contending that she was perfect, she was one of those persons who are loved and respected most by those who know them most intimately. And you cannot pay anyone a greater compliment than this, I think.

 

Her very failings, some of them, arose from a too open and generous nature, a too great readiness to accept every one who came to her and trust them.

 

To myself and others it sometimes appeared strange that she seemed to have so little discernment of character; but in some cases at least, it was a hope of doing good which probably induced her to tolerate and even appear friendly to those who afterwards turned against her and tried to injure her.

 

How keenly she felt the shameful attacks upon her character we who knew her well, realized and regretted; and I often tried to reason her into a feeling of indifference for the opinions of those who knew nothing of her except what they gathered from garbled and prejudiced accounts in newspapers.

 

But although she personally felt these slanders, a large part of her suffering arose from a fear that the Cause which she had at heart, and for which she worked as I have never seen anyone else work in any other cause, would be injured by the calumnies against her.

 

I always felt astonished at the untiring energy which she displayed; even when ill she would still struggle to her writing-table and go on working. It fills one with contempt and anger to think that even when she was beyond the reach of slander some of the papers degraded their pages with abuse, and republished the falsehoods which have found credulous audience among a class who pride themselves on their incredulity.

 

 

I have, I find, left myself but little space for saying anything about the many interesting occurrences during our early intimacy, and perhaps on second thought a repetition of these is unnecessary, as they can be read elsewhere to better purpose.

 

Still to show that I had ample opportunities for knowing her well, I will mention that during both her visits to Simla I saw her almost daily, in fact I was in the same house for three months, in and out of her room at any and all times of the day.

 

She was always affectionate towards me, and I had a real affection for her, and shall always, as hitherto, defend her before the world. And we who know what a wonderful woman she was, and how interesting and profound is the philosophy which she has brought prominently forward, know also that a day will come when the world will acknowledge her greatness, and will realize that we who defend and reverence her memory are not such foolish and gullible people, as the conceited and usually ignorant public of to-day assume.

 

 

(This article was first published in Lucifer magazine, July 1891, p.374-375; and later in the book HPB: in memory of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1891, p.67-68)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

REMINISCENCES OF BLAVATSKY BY FRANCESCA ARUNDALE

Francesca Arundale was a London Theosophist and a friend of Blavatsky, and when Blavatsky died she wrote the following article in tribute to her.

 

 

 

MADAME BLAVATSKY AND HER WORK

 

It was in April, 1884, that I first met Madame Blavatsky, and it was on the 26th of March, 1891, that I saw her for the last time, shortly before her death.

 

I well remember her arrival from Paris and her unexpected appearance at a meeting of the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society, which was being held at Lincoln's Inn. The impression made upon myself and others by her remarkable personality has never faded from my memory.

 

At that first meeting I recognized that I had met one whose influence on my life would be ineffaceable by time, and that having touched the very root and core of the inner nature that influence could never be set aside or ignored.

 

The few months of the summer of 1884 which she passed in our house in Elgin Crescent were marked by events of a curious and exceptional character, all alike bearing witness to the fact that the personality called Madame Blavatsky was different in most characteristics from those around, and crowds of visitors of all classes testified to the interest she evoked.

 

It was her custom while with us to devote the earlier part of the day to writing; she usually began at seven o'clock, but often earlier, and it was very rarely indeed that when I went into her room at about eight o'clock in the morning I did not find her already at her desk, at which she continued with a slight interval for lunch till about three or four o'clock in the afternoon. Then it was that the reception time began, and from early afternoon to late evening, one constant succession of visitors arrived. The old lady sitting in her armchair in the small drawing-room, which was barely large enough for the influx of guests, would be the centre of an enquiring circle. Many, of course, drawn by the fame of her great powers, merely came from curiosity. In those days the Psychical Research Society had not issued its famous report, and some of its members were often present, seeking the signs and wonders they so much desired to behold.

 

One afternoon a small party had assembled in the back drawing-room and among them some prominent members of the S.P.R. Madame Blavatsky was earnestly solicited to produce some phenomena. She laughingly answered, as she so often did to similar requests:

 

-        "What do you want with phenomena? They are but psychological tricks and of little value to earnest students."

 

However, she at length consented to try if she could do anything, and sitting among the others round the large table, she joined in conversation, and talk flowed on for a short time in the easy way it always did when she was surrounded with intellectual minds. In a very little while a strikingly sweet and crystal-like sound known as the astral hell made itself heard, and was repeated several times, to the great delight and pleasure of those who had never heard it before. The gentlemen present belonging to the S.P.R. professed themselves more than satisfied, remarking more than once that there could be no doubt as to the genuineness of that phenomenon.

 

 

I might multiply instance after instance of phenomena, but knowing the value that Madame Blavatsky herself put upon these things, it would be but a poor tribute to her memory to put that forward which is but the least part of her work. But the Psychic Society Researchers and phenomena hunters, and those who only came to see and wonder, were but one portion of the great crowd. Many earnest minds engaged in scientific or philosophic study would come again and again, attracted by the power of an intellect that showed its vast strength in the way in which she dealt with the many subjects put before her.

 

Grave professors from Cambridge came and spent an occasional afternoon in her company, and I can see before me now the bulky form in the loose robe in the big armchair, with the tobacco basket by her side, answering deep and learned questions on theories of cosmogony and the laws governing matter, while twisting the little cigarettes which she constantly smoked herself and gave to her guests.

 

To those friends who were in constant and unrestrained intercourse with her, other sides of her character were observable. She had an almost childish dependence upon others, alternating with great impatience of control, and her utter disregard of ordinary conventionality rendered life in a civilized community a burden to herself, and a continual trial to her friends in the endeavor to keep her from outraging the convenances of society.

 

I believe her utter abhorrence of society shams often caused her to emphasize and delight in a certain bluntness of speech and rudeness of action that was sometimes perplexing even to her best friends. With all this she was easily moved by distress or pain in others, and was very kind to any children she came across.

 

I remember one incident showing this aspect of her many-sided nature: she was at the Zoological Gardens in a bath-chair, when the little child of a friend fell just before her, against the wheel; in her eagerness to assist the child she almost threw herself out of the chair, difficult as she always found it to move, and was not satisfied till assured there, was not much harm done. Little touches like this shew plainly that in spite of her roughness of speech and manner, and the disregard she often had for the feelings of others, she had yet much sympathy towards the weak and suffering.

 

 

When she first came to us she brought with her her Indian servant (Babula), and it was an essential feature of the afternoon to see him in his native dress bring in the Russian Samovar, and hand round the cups of tea to those present; altogether the 77, Elgin Crescent of those days differed widely from what it ever was before or ever will be again.

 

The whole party had received an invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Gebhard, of Elberfield, to spend the month of August at their house; accordingly, on the 16th of that month Madame Blavatsky, accompanied by Mr. M. Chatterji and several Theosophists, ourselves among the number, went to Germany.

 

I remember well most of the incidents of that journey, the kind care of our host Mr. Gebhard, who took every precaution to render it as easy as possible to Madame Blavatsky, the pleasant and lively conversation among us all in the train, the notice we attracted at some of the stations in Germany, where we stopped and where probably no such type as Mr. Chatterji had ever been seen before, and many other details which, although interesting to those who were present, are of too personal a nature to be in place in this slight notice.

 

It was while staying with these kind friends that the explosion of the Coulomb affair took place. The particulars of all that occurred at that time are well known, and it is quite unnecessary for me to touch on them, the more so as we had left Madame at Elberfeld and had returned to London before we heard of it.

 

 

It was in the end of September that Madame Blavatsky again came to us for a short time before going to Mr. and Mrs. Oakley, previous to their all leaving for India. She was very depressed and unwell, almost worn out with the trouble that she had gone through. In a letter that she wrote me at that time, just before leaving Elberfeld, she says:

 

-        "I have resigned my corresponding secretary ship in the Society; I have disconnected myself with it publicly; for I think that so long as I am in and at the head of the Society I will be the target shot at and that the Society will be affected by it " — and she goes on to say, "My heart —if I have any left— is broken by this step. But I had to sacrifice myself to the good of the Society. The Cause before persons and personalities."

 

This devotion to the Cause was the keynote of her life, from which she never departed. She failed many times in the discrimination of what was or the good of the cause, as she did in this instance, when she contemplated disconnecting herself from her official position, but it is impossible to ignore the fact that, whether rightly or wrongly carried out, her motive for action was always the same devotion to the Cause and her Teachers.

 

She was fortunately prevented from carrying out her intention, over-ruled by the wiser judgment of others who, being a little more distant from the fray, could view the situation more calmly.

 

 

There are many occasions that I remember during her stay with us of conversations or rather monologues on her side of a most interesting character. It was my custom, one which she always encouraged, to go in to her the last thing at night and I would often remain until she was asleep. At these times she would occasionally relate short stories, sometimes a kind of allegory and at other times what seemed to be incidents in a past life, either of herself or some other person, but so poetically and yet graphically related, that whether it was fact or fancy needed intuition to decide. Question she would not brook: if I ever attempted to question she would be silent, or say:

 

-        "I have said it; you can make what you like of it."

 

In November of that same year, many of us accompanied her to Liverpool, when she left for India with Mr. and Mrs. Oakley, and from that time, with the exception of a week in Wurzburg and an occasional visit in London, my personal intercourse with Madame Blavatsky was over. Difficulties, trials and events of a more or less painful nature were constantly occurring during her stay with us, and yet I should be sorry not to have had this intimate association with one who, whatever her faults may have been, has certainly accomplished one of the greatest works of her time.

 

 

 

With respect to her work there is one aspect of it which I should wish to bring before the notice of all, whether Theosophists or not — a work which I think has hardly been sufficiently estimated and which nevertheless is of the utmost importance, whether viewed from the physical or spiritual standpoint.

 

In our relations with the East we have hitherto only acted from the principle of give and take in self-interest. No one will deny the advantages derived on both sides from the presence of the English in India, wealth and prestige on the one, education and material development on the other. But a line of separation has been drawn between the two races, a line which has but been accentuated by the missionary in his vain endeavor to bring over the dark sons of the soil to the religion of the dominant race.

 

The endeavor has signally failed, and yet it has perhaps more than anything .else divided the East from the West. The Orientalist in his study of Eastern language, literature, and religion, has at different times attempted to pass the barrier, but his own pride of race and arrogance of knowledge have been a fatal obstacle in the way. The idea that it is only through Western interpretation that Eastern philosophy can be unraveled and that whatever that interpretation is unable to deal with is but the vain nonsense and babbling of children, is the rock against which most students of Oriental philosophy have fallen.

 

It has been the glorious work of Madame Blavatsky to entirely take a fresh departure. Ex Oriente Lux is henceforward the motto, and the light is to be found through Eastern sources, interpreted through Eastern teachers. The future of India is the future of England politically, materially, and spiritually; and it is the drawing together of the East and the West in the bonds of spiritual philosophy, which I consider one of the most salient features for good in the work of the Theosophical Society.

 

The marked advance in the knowledge we are gaining day by day of Indian philosophic history must be evident to all. A few years ago and there were scarcely any translations of Sanskrit philosophical works, and the knowledge of Sanskrit itself was limited to a few students here and there. The whole tendency of the teaching of Madame Blavatsky has been to awaken India to a knowledge of its past spiritual life, and to bring that life to be better understood by the Western World.

 

The evidences that mark the work accomplished in this direction are to be found in the various translations constantly being brought out of Sanskrit works, and the efforts of Europeans, both in and out of the Society, to seek that wisdom which has been so long forgotten in India although never completely lost.

 

The close union of the East and the West, in the unfoldment on the one side, and on the other the acceptance of this spiritual wisdom, will go far to minimize the painful effects of that struggle which must inevitably take place as the Eastern races rise to a sense of their own power in the pursuit of material advantage.

 

Much more might be said on this subject, but this is not the place; it is sufficient here to acknowledge gratefully that in this aspect, as well as others, Madame Blavatsky has been the leader in a work which we who claim to have been her pupils would do well to endeavor to carry forward.

 

 

(This article was first published in Lucifer magazine, July 1891, p.376-380; and later in the book HPB: in memory of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, 1891, p.69-73)