The Secret Doctrine (1888), Volume 1 of 2: Cosmogenesis

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Blavatsky Speaks Series · 470 pages

The complete first volume of the work that made her reputation, in an electronic edition prepared by the Theosophy Company of Arizona in 2005 from a facsimile of the original London printing of 1888. The subtitle names the ambition — the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy — and the motto beneath it is the one the whole library takes as its own: there is no religion higher than truth.

This first volume is Cosmogenesis, concerned with the origin and structure of the universe rather than of man, and it runs to 470 pages. The edition follows the pagination and style of the 1888 first edition exactly, with a single deliberate departure explained in the editor's note: where the original broke long footnotes across pages for want of space, this version keeps each footnote whole on the page where it begins — which makes it considerably easier to read and slightly harder to cite. Anyone using this file alongside the abridged and full selections elsewhere in this section will find the page references match the printed book.

Read the full text (PDF, 4.7 MB, 470 pages)