The Secret Doctrine (1888), Volume 2 of 2: Anthropogenesis

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Blavatsky Speaks Series · 536 pages

The second and longer volume, at 536 pages the largest file in Blavatsky Speaks, prepared from the same 1888 facsimile by the Theosophy Company of Arizona in 2005. Where the first volume treats the origin of the universe, this one treats the origin and descent of humanity — the root-races, the succession of continents, and the account of anthropogenesis that the rest of the library refers back to constantly.

It is the volume the Atlantean Realities section of this website draws on most heavily, and the one the Preliminary Notes discussed in All-Important Pages from the Secret Doctrine introduce. As with the first volume, the pagination follows the 1888 printing, so references given in the compilations elsewhere in the library will lead to the right page here. Read straight through it is famously hard going; the two selections published separately in this section exist precisely to give a reader a route in, and both point back to this file for the full text.

Read the full text (PDF, 4.9 MB, 536 pages)