The Editor Who Compiled the
Writings of Helena
Blavatsky Never Went to School and Never Had a Job
Carlos Cardoso Aveline
Boris
de Zirkoff (1902-1981)
“Let us try our best to get along
with others. It can be done in an easier
and more dignified way if we look upon
others as fragments of the One Universal Life.”
(Boris de Zirkoff)
One of the leading theosophists
in the 20th century, Boris de Zirkoff was the great-grandnephew of Helena P.
Blavatsky and edited her “Collected Writings”.
Born in Russia on March 7,
1902, Boris felt an early inclination towards theosophy. He wrote about it in
his Autobiographical notes:
“About nine years of age I
distinctly saw my mother’s worried look when I told her that a little man about
one foot tall in a multi-colored dress and night-cap was coming out of the
fireplace and played with me. We talked about the fire and the twigs in the
fireplace. I was interested in whether I could meet some other gnomes or
salamanders, but he never brought any.” [1]
During the first World War,
Boris was 14 years old when the Karma of Russia accelerated in an unusual
way. He writes:
“On the 16th of December,
1916, Rasputin was murdered, and this event seemed to precipitate all sorts of
changes. Very soon afterwards the Revolutionary engaged in various violent
actions (…). Eventually, the Czar had to
abdicate to meet the demands for a constitutional change, and the power passed
into the hands of a Provisional Government.” [2]
In 1917, Boris and his family
left Russia. In 1923 he lived in Stockholm when he first came in contact with
Theosophy. After a meeting with Katherine Tingley, he transferred his residence
to Point Loma, California. He joined the Point Loma Theosophical Society in
January 1924 and in the same year, at 22, he saw what his lifetime task would
be and began working on it.
He wrote:
“… I took a resolution to
compile H.P.B.’s works into one uniform edition of many volumes as source
material for future work. Knowing well what H.P.B.’s published volumes were at
the time, I realized very soon that there was a great deal more material
available, and that it would take much time and effort to put it together in
chronological order. Only then could it be said what was the scope of her
writings, and what they contained. I believe it was sometime in December 1924
that I started compiling her writings.” [3]
In Point Loma, he accomplished
various tasks:
“Sometimes I ushered visitors
into the Temple, or attended to their seating; taking my shift in serving at
the cafeteria counter and also at washing the dishes; trimming with a curved
saw dead leaves off the palm trees on a high ladder, gathering everything that
was cut and burning it up at a special location. (….) The most pleasant period was when I was
helping in the forestry with most of my day occupied trimming, cutting,
burning, and irrigating.” [4]
Boris went to Los Angeles
during the 1940s.
On December 12, 2005, an
experienced theosophist from California wrote a few lines on Boris’ life:
“… Boris lived with
Sven Eek’s family in Los Angeles for at least ten years. Boris’s life was
unusual, in that he never attended a school, never had a job, driver’s license,
insurance, house, credit card, social security number, never paid taxes. A sort
of non-entity, officially. His whole life was theosophy, and he lived at
various apartments starting 1958, existing entirely on donations, and living
extremely frugally.”[5]
Besides editing
HPB’s Collected Writings, Boris de Zirkoff edited “Theosophia” magazine, which
he started in 1943. He produced many important texts of his own about theosophy
and the esoteric movement. In one of
them, published in 1962, he examines the duty of practicing universal
brotherhood, always a challenge for theosophists everywhere:
“Let us try our best to get
along with others. It can be done in an easier and more dignified way if we
look upon others as fragments of the One Universal Life.”
And he goes on:
“We should also remember that
what we see in others is quite often what others see in us. We are mirrors to
each other. Though differing outwardly, we all partake of the same fundamental
consciousness - the consciousness of the One Universal Self. Viewed in this
light, men are but life-atoms of a vast evolutionary current that flows from
age to age.”
Boris closes the article
saying:
“Above all else, let us stand
for Principles and not for personalities! The latter are but the shimmering
waves on the ocean of life, while the former are the deep currents of life
itself, bearing toward distant goals. If we wish to grow inwardly and to become
nobler and stronger, we will of necessity be tested. There is no other way. Life is a series of awakenings, and
each awakening is a birth into a larger sphere of life. Each birth has its
pangs; therefore growth is often painful. The chrysalis of the lower, personal
self must be broken through before the butterfly - the Soul reborn - can emerge
into the boundless freedom of the sky.” [6]
Having made an
enormous contribution to the theosophical literature, Boris de Zirkoff died in
the United States in 1981, at 79. His work helps students in many countries
around the world, who talk in different languages and belong to every sector of
the esoteric movement.
NOTES:
[1] “The Dream That
Never Dies”, Boris de Zirkoff, Compiled and Edited by W. Emmet Small, Point
Loma Publications, Inc., San Diego, California, USA, copyright 1983, 232 pp.,
see p. 209. Boris was born on March 7 according to the present calendar; in the
old Russian calendar of the Orthodox Church, it was February 22. (“The Dream
That Never Dies”, p. 205.)
[2] “The Dream That
Never Dies”, pp. 213-214.
[3] “The Dream That
Never Dies”, p. 221.
[4] “The Dream That
Never Dies”, p. 222.
[5] The theosophist said
that while most of the short testimony could be used in an article, its author should
not be identified. The message is in a postcard covered by words typewritten in
small letters. The present article is written five years after the testimony
was included in our archives.
[6] “The Dream That
Never Dies”, p. 11.
000
In September 2016, after
a careful analysis of the state of the esoteric movement worldwide, a group of students
decided to form the Independent Lodge of
Theosophists, whose priorities include the building of a better future in
the different dimensions of life.
000
