Countess Wachtmeister and Others: Reminiscences of HP Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine (1893)

Countess Constance Wachtmeister and others · Blavatsky Tributes Series · 160 pages

Published in London by the Theosophical Publishing Society in 1893, with simultaneous issues from The Path in New York and the Theosophical Society at Adyar, this volume gathers the recollections of several people who had the advantage of being most closely connected with Madame Blavatsky during her residence in Europe — the years in which she was engaged on the great work of her life. It is reproduced here as a complete facsimile of that first edition. Countess Constance Wachtmeister, who shared her household, is the principal contributor.

The preface is unusually careful about what the book can and cannot claim. A full and detailed account of every circumstance attending the preparation of The Secret Doctrine would be a difficult task, its anonymous editor writes, because it must never be forgotten that H.P.B. was — as she often said herself — only the compiler of the work. Behind her stood the real teachers, the guardians of the Secret Wisdom of the Ages, who taught her the occult lore she transmitted in writing. Her merit lay partly in being able to assimilate that transcendental knowledge and to be a worthy messenger of her Masters, and partly in her marvellous capability of rendering abstruse Eastern metaphysical thought in a form intelligible to Western minds, verifying and comparing Eastern Wisdom with Western Science. At 160 pages this is the longest item in the series.

Read the full text (PDF, 4.3 MB, 160 pages)