H. P. Blavatsky Defense Fund is
Preparing a Book for 2013 or Before
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
The TUP edition of the HPB
Letters to A.P. Sinnett is an
example of fine editorial work
One or two readers seem to believe that the aim of the HPB Defense Fund and Project is to reproduce in a book the same letters published by Mr. John Algeo and the TPH in 2003, only leaving out of the volume the numerous slanders against H. P. Blavatsky which Mr. Algeo included among authentic letters.
The project is quite different, though.
The HPB Defense Project, presently coordinated by the websites www.TheosophyOnline.com , www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com , is going to publish in paper - as it has published online - some of the letters of Helena Blavatsky. This includes the HPB Letters as edited by W.Q. Judge.
Yet the work is not limited to HPB Letters. The future paper book will have a variety of texts on editorial policy. Most of the falsehoods promoted in book form by the Adyar Society since the 1890s - especially those dealing with H. P. Blavatsky and her teachings - will be thoroughly examined. It will give the reader a vision of the impressive context from which John Algeo’s volume emerged in 2003.
The 2003 slanders did not occur by chance: in order to understand them, it is necessary to study the wider process of misleading editorial policies inside the theosophical movement. It was Mrs. Annie Besant who inaugurated this sort of procedure by publishing her own adulterated version of “The Secret Doctrine” in the 1890s.
Our editorial work with the HPB Letters is not adopting a chronological order. We also do not pretend - as John Algeo does - to erase or to ignore the various editions of Letters of H.P.B. now available. We will not try to melt everything down in one sole edition.
Being unfamiliar with the original teachings of Theosophy, unexperienced in this field of study, Mr. John Algeo mixed paragraphs from here and there and made a confusing mass of fragments true and false. His unfortunate editorial work, though presented as scholarly, actually made his volume a heartless, soul-less collection of transcriptions, in which the good texts, hard to identify among many falsehoods, are in most cases easy to find elsewhere.
Our policy, on the other hand, is to acknowledge and to respect the variety of authentic editions of H.P.B. letters now available online and in paper.
There is no reason to try to duplicate, for instance, the excellent edition of the letters of HPB to A.P. Sinnett, made by the T.U.P., Pasadena
There is no need to ignore the HPB Letters as published by Eugene Corson, which are easy to obtain both online and in paper.[2] The book “Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky”, by Alfred Sinnett, also has its own value today and must be available to the public. [3]
On the other hand, it is necessary to identify, to understand and to uproot the whole practice of editorial falsifications inside the theosophical movement.
One of the texts already in our websites reproduces official transcription of a dialogue among leaders of the Adyar TS in their World Congress in 1966, during which they openly discuss whether to tamper and how to tamper theosophical literature. [4]
In that astounding dialogue, it is clear that there was a divide in the Adyar Theosophical Society: India United States
Taking that into consideration, it should not be a huge surprise that while Mr. John Algeo, from the U.S.A. , presents his slanders against H. P. Blavatsky as if they were true, Mrs. Radha Burnier, from India
Theosophists may discuss whether the movement should have been able to prevent from the beginning such a variety of editorial mistakes. The topic is only partially relevant. As time passes, a growing number of students are beginning to open their eyes to the whole process of pseudo-theosophy, whose threefold foundations are, in fact, Illusion, Ritualism and Blind Belief.
The important fact is that more students are seeing the need for growing levels of frankness in the theosophical movement.
Adyar members are well-meaning and sincere persons, and dialogue should be improved. Those sections of the movement which are already opening their eyes have the duty to help their Adyar brothers and sisters get to the new cycle. The whole movement must gradually leave behind a variety of illusions, from which, of course, no one is entirely free - since the movement is but one at the inner levels.
All have something to teach and to learn from each other, in the common search for truth.
The old cycle does not work anymore, and this is good news. The theosophical effort is a long term business. As we make progress towards the 22nd century and beyond, a certain winter is about to end.
NOTES:
[1] “The Letters of HPB Letters to A.P. Sinnett”, and Other Miscellaneous Letters, compiled by A.T. Barker, T.U.P., Pasadena
[2] “Some Unpublished Letters of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky”, Eugene Rollin Corson, Kessinger Publishing , USA
[3] “Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky”, Alfred Sinnett, London
[4] See the text “Adulterating Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline, in the section “Truth and Falsehood in the Theosophical Literature” which can be found at the websites www.TheosophyOnline.com, www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com .
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If you want to have access to a daily study of the original teachings of Theosophy, write to lutbr@terra.com.br and ask for information on the e-group E-THEOSOPHY.
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Always visit www.TheosophyOnline.com, www.Esoteric-Philosophy.com and www.FilosofiaEsoterica.com .
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