Its Editor, G.R.S. Mead,
Misused Helena P. Blavatsky’s Name
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
H.P. Blavatsky (left) is not the author of the Theosophical
Glossary
Everyone can buy from Theosophy Company and other publishers the volume
“Theosophical Glossary”, whose authorship is wrongly ascribed to Helena P.
Blavatsky.
The main founder of the
theosophical movement died in May 1891. In the Preface of the Glossary’s first
edition, dated January 1892, its editor G. R. S. Mead frankly admits that the
volume is “almost entirely posthumous”. H.P.B. only saw in proof 32 of its 389
pages.
Henry S. Olcott soon made a
review of the Glossary, and it was published at “The Theosophist” (India), in
April 1892 (pp. 444-445). Olcott wrote that if H.P.B. had lived to bring out
the Glossary, she would have been much more careful with its contents. Olcott listed
a number of mistakes present in the volume, and added:
“Permitting the work to be
hurried out with so many errors of omission and commission in its Sanskrit
department, are we not playing into the hands of Prof. Müller and other
Sanskritists who concur with him in calling us a lot of pseudo-scholars?”
One example of
pseudo-scholarship in the Glossary should be given here. It shows the
arrogance and occult
disinformation which would soon lead
Mr. Mead and his colleague, Mrs. Annie Besant, away from true theosophy.
In the entry on “Fakir”,
Mr. Mead pretends to know better than the author of “Isis Unveiled” and indulges
in “correcting” that masterpiece of esoteric philosophy. Mead writes:
“Fakir (Arab.) - A
Mussulman ascetic in India, a Mahometan ‘Yogi’.
The name is often applied, though erroneously to Hindu ascetics; for
strictly speaking only Mussulman
ascetics are entitled to it. This loose way of calling things by general names
was adopted in Isis Unveiled but is now altered.”
Indeed, Initiates have a
“loose”, or rather a flexible, living, dynamic
relationship with words.
They prefer a direct use of
words, giving them many shades of meanings according to each context.
They leave the dead-letter
approach in the study of esoteric philosophy to those who are attached to shallow
views of life and literature.
While it is acceptable that
editors look for exactitude in terms, they should respect the way Initiates as
HPB and the Masters of the Wisdom use words.
In “The Mahatma Letters” the
term “Fakir” is used several times and in every instance it has the same
general meaning as used in “Isis Unveiled”.[1]
Because Mead could understand nothing of occult teachings, he tried to correct the sacred teachers of our
mankind.
In spite of its mistakes, the
“Glossary” is useful. It certainly should
not bear H.P. Blavatsky’s name as its author. In the book “The Dream That Never Dies”, one
finds an article by Boris de Zirkoff, on Mead’s Glossary. [2]
Under the emphatic title “Who Played That Trick on H.P.B.? - The
Puzzle of The Theosophical Glossary”, Boris makes a detailed examination of
Mead’s volume and shows many of its mistakes. “The definitions of the Days and
Nights of Brahmâ”, for instance, “are entirely wrong”: and this is a key topic
in theosophy.
According to Boris, “a
partial survey of the first four
letters of the Glossary has revealed
no less than 40 mistranslations out of about 300 terms, a very high percentage
indeed.”
The Theosophy Co., Los
Angeles, republished Mead’s Glossary in 1930. The action was possibly right for
that particular point in history. Mead’s Glossary was better than nothing. However, it was already known by then that
G.R.S. Mead had directly participated with Annie Besant in the distortion of
and tampering with the original edition of “The Secret Doctrine”. If that had been taken into due consideration,
the Theosophy Co. could have abstained from adopting Mead’s Glossary.
There are significant success
stories in the history of the theosophical movement. It was fortunate that in the late 1970s the
Theosophical Society, Adyar, abandoned the spurious Besant/Mead version of “The
Secret Doctrine”.
The same destiny may be
waiting for Mead’s Glossary. The theosophical literature is capable of renewing
itself, and the reading public deserves other and better reference books than
Mead’s.
The best esoteric Glossary
available has been around for quite a few years. It is the comprehensive online
TUP edition of the Encyclopedic
Theosophical Glossary, an electronic version of a Working Manuscript. G. de Purucker is its Editor-in-Chief.
Geoffrey Barborka is the Editor and Project Manager, and Grace F. Knoche the
Editor. The Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary is
reliable and well-documented. It points to its sources. It is free from pseudo-theosophical
fancies and focuses on real philosophy. One should recommend it to readers and
researchers. [3]
A Gradual Progress in Esoteric Literature
Evolution and
self-improvement in theosophical literature are rather slow. Changes take time to spread over various
languages.
Mead’s Glossary is still
the best-known theosophical reference book available in Portuguese language,
for instance. And it is helpful, in spite of its many mistakes. As the volume uses Helena Blavatsky’s name, it
is considered by many as a classic. However, this creates an aura of relative falsehood around it. In future editions Mead’s “Theosophical
Glossary” could well be published with his name as the author. Such a decision would
make it become more accurate, at least on its front cover.
G. R. S. Mead’s mistake is
far from being an isolated fact. It is equally
incorrect to publish under HPB’s name any summaries
of her works which (well-intentioned as they may be) were not penned by her
and are quite different from what she wrote. An example among others is the Summary of “The
Secret Doctrine” made by Michael Gomes.
Mr. Gomes uses the same title as the original work, and his volume is intensely
yet unethically ambiguous about its authorship.
While it may be a
temptation to some to misuse the name of famous authors, responsible editors refrain
from that out of respect for the public.
They know that readers have
a right to immediately know whose words they will read, and whose
books they will possibly buy.
NOTES:
[1] See for
instance the TUP edition of “The Mahatma Letters”, Letter XXIX, p. 224, and
Letter LIV, and Letter LVI (first
paragraph), and Letter CXXXIV (the Prayag Letter).
[2] “The Dream
That Never Dies - Boris de Zirkoff Speaks Out On Theosophy”, Point Loma
Publications, 237 pp., 1983, San Diego, CA. See pp. 81-85. The article was
first published in the winter of 1967-1968.
[3] The
“Encyclopedic Theosophical Glossary” is available at http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/etgloss/etg-hp.htm.
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On the dharma
and duty of the esoteric movement, see the book “The Fire and Light of
Theosophical Literature”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline.
Published in
2013 by The Aquarian Theosophist,
the volume has 255 pages and can be obtained through Amazon Books.
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