H.P.B. Foretells That a Theosophical
Frankenstein Will Threaten Her Work
Helena P. Blavatsky
Frankenstein, the Literary Character Created By Mary
Shelley
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
A 2011 Editorial
Note:
The following letter from H. P. Blavatsky
to W. Q. Judge is dated March 19, 1887. We
reproduce it from “Theosophical
History” magazine,
volume V, Number 4, October 1994,
pp. 125-127.
We thank the magazine for publishing this document.
Underlined words are thus in the original. Sometimes,
they are underlined with a double line in the transcription
made by Mr. Michael Gomes. We don’t take that into
consideration. Words in brackets, followed by question marks,
are attempts by the transcriber to understand the original.
While the first paragraph of
the letter is addressed
specifically to William Judge,
it also applies as an
axiom to every earnest student
of theosophy in any time
or place. A truth-seeker has
to renounce important, often
central parts of his emotional
life in order to be able to make
progress along the path. Such
renunciation is seldom easy.
The letter contains the “Frankenstein prophecy”, by
which H.P.B. anticipates the abandoning of the original
teachings of theosophy on the part of her students in
London, and also the distortion of her teachings in the
1890s. Both facts occurred under the leadership of
Annie Besant. The prophecy refers to the classical drama
of the creature turning against its creator, as in the novel
“Frankenstein”, by Mary
Shelley (1797-1851). H.P.B.’s
vision of the future of her work in London is in these words:
“I have dozens upon dozens of petitions from
London to come without delay & take the management,
reformation & revival of the Branch - of the L.L. - into
my hands. I am offered a corpse!! I have to galvanize
a rotten body like Christ with Lazarus. I must go,
nevertheless. The Keightleys have come for me - all
is prepared there & it is old, paralyzed, hardly moving
old woman who has to build up a new Frankenstein who,
when grown & strong again will pounce upon his
parent & try to destroy her. So be it. - Such is my
destiny.”
The paragraph shows that H.P.B. had no illusions
about any short-term results of her mission. She worked
instead with a long-term vision of the theosophical effort.
The letter has also significant information on the training
of groups of disciples by the Masters of the Wisdom.
We add a few explanatory notes.
(Carlos Cardoso Aveline)
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
My dear W. Q. J.
Ostende
March 19 / 87
When a fruit has a
worm in it, the latter does its work of destruction to the bitter end. But the
fruit can’t help it - a human fruit endowed with will,
intelligence & perambulatory powers can. If the human fruit who could
extract the damaged part 10 years ago did not do it, - for lack of resolution
& choice of either one thing or the other - of “to be or not to be”
- why should he curse his fate, the web of his own fabrication.
If you went in
search of Masters now - you would not find Them. One must be free & unclaimed
by man or woman if he would offer himself personally to them. Otherwise the
link which binds you to Brooklyn would be like a rope ever pulling back.[1] You have tried it once & went half
way to search for & meet the Masters. What has it resulted in? Scandal
certainly worse than a clean divorce ever would. You have fettered yourselves
with chains & unless you keep within their limit they will be always
strangling you. You have to come to a decisive & final
determination & she has to choose. It is only womanly accursedness
to hold you chained as she does. In this I can give no advice but only point
out the cause in the diagnosis of the mortal disease. You will never be
happy outside your natural element.
You have very good
& wholesome ideas when sitting bent over your fancy sketches & pen drawings.
But these ideas vanish away in thin air as soon as you throw up your pencil or
pen. You have been watched my poor old chum. You have all the sympathy of
Masters and pupils. But who dares touch the “link” and bonds & break them
except yourself?
No; you do not know
yourself. The only palliative I know of is for you to come & get strength
with me for a month or two this summer. Try to do so.
I have dozens upon
dozens of petitions from London to come without delay & take the
management, reformation & revival of the Branch - of the L.L. [2] - into my hands. I am offered a corpse!!
I have to galvanize a rotten body like Christ with Lazarus. I must go,
nevertheless. The Keightleys [3]
have come for me - all is prepared there & it is old, paralyzed, hardly
moving old woman who has to build up a new Frankenstein who, when grown &
strong again will pounce upon his parent & try to destroy her. So be
it. - Such is my destiny.
Mrs. Cables writes
& complains you will not answer her letters - something about Convention. Asks
& wants me to tell her whom shall she choose this day - the gods in
Washington - or Coues [4] or the god
of her fathers - W.Q.J. I answered she
might choose who she damn pleased. I opined for Coues. She is too gushy for you.
My advice, our
advice is external unity at least. 31 counties or states & rings and
quarrels do not prevent the U.S. from being one for the outside world.
Let the Branches be all as free as every state is in America, all of which
recognize one fool, who so ever he be in the White House & yet have their
own laws. The Board of Control is abolished isn’t it? Why then not let &
even help Coues to do his work as an independent President of his Branch.
Let each Branch have its own Karma. “There is more joy over one repented sinner
than over 99 saints in heaven.” Make a rule that any fellow found out
slandering another - be expelled after the second warning. Make the rules strict
& foremost of. Let every one either peg out of the Society or - hold his
tongue & mind his own business. Too many cooks spoil a broth. Make another rule
that on that day when one joins the Society a wall should be built between his past
& the Fellows of [the?] Society. No one has the right to criticize a fellow
for what he was before he joined. But no mercy should be shown to one who
goes on whoring & backbiting & leading a bad life when he is in
the Society.
He who does all
& the best he can & knows how - does enough for them.[5] This is a message for you. Your “Path” begins to beat the Theosophist
out of sight. It is most excellent. Bjerregaard’s articles are very very
good. The “Path” alone is your certificate for you in Theosophy. A secret
group may be formed in any state the T.S. is in. Join three or five or seven;
and work with all your powers on the same & one [line ?]. Note every event every casual thing in your
daily lives - to the most trifling - then once a week meet & compare them
& find out the occult causes & effects & the mutual interaction
& correlation of those events & then see whether a hand will not lead
you; whether you will not recognize that hand which will retard some events,
precipitate others etc - without interfering with the law of Karma in the
least. If your group can be brought into strict union of thought &
singleness of purpose - & harmony you will sense Orders and the
right direction you have to take as plainly as Bishop & Co. sense the
hardly perceptible tension of the muscles in the hand that he is in contact
with. This is the method of training of the younger chelas - down there at
home. They record every small circumstance, compare their accumulated numbers,
deduct their conclusions from the premises & those syllogisms lead them
unerringly onward. It helps sharpening intuitions & sensitiveness, develops
clairvoyance & every chela comes to recognize instantaneously the smallest change
in the invisible aura of the ever present thought of his guru who guides
the events though he never creates them. Do you understand, oh Lamb of
god? Try to.
My poor, poor
friend, what a damned fool you are with all your intelligence, Irish-Hindu
acuteness of perception etc. It is the worm that gnaws at your
discriminative powers. It is the incubus of the family hearth that sits
so heavily on your brain that it can hardly function in the right direction after
every methodist squabble. Oh my poor crushed chum what I would I give to help
you. But how can I fight against your Irish Self which sits upon & tries to
throttle the Hindu Self - the “mild” Hindu?
I try to be with
you as much as I can. I am often watching you. Watch the shadows on the walls around
you & gather strength from one who is oftener with you than you know of. Do
not oppose Coues in his department. For my external sake do not be
against him openly. He is a weapon in the hands of Karma & you are
interfering with the Law.
Be strong, calm
firm & hopeful. You are not even forty.
Yours ever
HPB
NOTES:
[1] Indeed, the link
between Judge and his wife was not superficial. Ernest Pelletier writes in his
book “The Judge Case” that Mrs. Ella M. Judge was a Brooklyn school teacher
when she married W.Q. Judge in 1874. “Mrs. Judge was described as a very
ordinary woman, and a strict Methodist. Their marriage was very difficult, both
on personal and religious grounds, and that only increased when their daughter
died at a very early age. (…) Yet in her own way, she was devoted to him, and
during his illness, never spared herself in her efforts to alleviate his
suffering. When travelling, Judge took
her with him as often as he could. During his life, she cared nothing about
theosophy. Yet after his death she came to see the value of the theosophical
teachings. Some records say she was already a member of the theosophical
movement in 1897. She joined the United
Lodge of Theosophists in 1915 (six years after its creation in 1909). Mrs. Ella
Judge died in April 17, 1931, four days after Mr. Judge’s birthday. See “The Judge Case”, Ernest Pelletier, Edmonton
Theosophical Society, 2004, part I, p. 264.
See also “Theosophical Quarterly”, July 1933, pp. 33-35, and “Echoes of
the Orient”, a three-volume compilation of writings by W.Q.J., edited by Dara
Eklund, volume I, pp. XIX-XX (information on Mrs. Ella Judge is in a text
compiled by Sven Eek and Boris de Zirkoff).
[2] “L.L.” - London
Lodge.
[3] Archibald
Keightley and his uncle Bertram Keightley.
[4] Elliott Coues.
[5] “for them” - that
is, for the Masters.
000
On the role of the esoteric
movement in the ethical awakening of mankind during the 21st
century, 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.
000
