A Master of Wisdom Defends Madame Blavatsky

A Master of Wisdom, Boris de Zirkoff · The Masters Speak Series · 9 pages

Nine pages presenting the statement Blavatsky issued in 1888 as a twelve-page pamphlet from Allen Scott & Co. of Bouverie Street, together with substantial introductory notes by Boris de Zirkoff from Blavatsky Collected Writings volume X. De Zirkoff explains a small textual point carefully: the same material appeared in Lucifer for October 1888 with slight alterations, and since the pamphlet text is the more complete, it is the pamphlet that is followed here.

The introduction is the most useful part of the file for anyone who does not already know the period, because it says plainly how bad things were. The situation in the movement around 1888 is described as very precarious; many mistakes had been committed, and the Adept-Brothers had withdrawn somewhat into the background so far as the Society's outer affairs were concerned, while remaining in touch with a few individuals. De Zirkoff points to what he calls the best and most authentic source on the period — a memorandum in Blavatsky's own handwriting, in pencil on thin notepaper, recording remarks of Master K.H. about the state of the Society in 1888, held in the Adyar archives and printed as Letter 47 in Letters From the Masters of the Wisdom — and recommends it for careful study. The organisational consequence follows: in November 1888, acting on an earlier suggestion of W.Q. Judge, Blavatsky founded the Esoteric Section, or Eastern School of Theosophy, expressly to strengthen the link between the outer Society and the Brothers who were its real founders. The reason given is blunt — that the Society was becoming gradually devitalised and the idea of Brotherhood had been pushed into the background in favour of the Second Object.

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