Missing "Transactions" by H.P. Blavatsky Discovered
by Daniel H. Caldwell
danielhcaldwell@yahoo.com
The Theosophy Company on their website describes H.P. Blavatsky's book titled Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge as follows:
"In 1889, when H.P.B. was in London, the weekly meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge was devoted to the discussion of the archaic 'Stanzas' on which The Secret Doctrine is based. Transactions provides . . . H.P.B.'s answers to metaphysical and scientific questions, as stenographically reported, and afterwards revised by her for publication. . . ."
In an introductory note prefacing the original edition(s) of 1890/1891 of the Transactions, we find the following information:
"The . . . transactions are compiled from shorthand notes taken at the meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society, from January 10th to June 20th, 1889, being somewhat condensed from the original discussions."
". . . the members of the 'B.L. of the T. S.' agreed to devote the debates of the weekly [Thursday] meetings to each stanza and sundry other metaphysical subjects."
"The questions were put by members. . . . The answers in all cases are based on the shorthand Reports, and are those . . . as given by H. P. B. herself."
H.P.B. herself mentions these meetings and the Transactions in a letter written to her sister Vera in Russia. She writes about:
"...the receptions, the weekly meetings, accompanied by learned discussions, with a stenographer behind my back, and sometimes two or three reporters in the corners, — all this, you can easily believe, takes some time. I must read up for every Thursday, because the people who come here are no ignoramuses from the street, but such people as the electrician K., Dr. William B. and the naturalist C. B. I must be prepared to defend the teachings of Occultism against the applied sciences, so that the reports of the stenographer may be printed, without correction, in our new monthly publication under the name of The Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge. This alone, the stenographer and the printing — cost my theosophists nearly L 40 a month... Since your departure they have all gone mad here; they spend such a lot of money that my hair stands on end... Don’t you see, they have written a circular to all theosophists of all the wide world: ‘H.P.B.,’ they say, ‘is old and ill, H.P.B. wont stay with us much longer. Suppose H.P.B. died, then we might whistle for it! There will be no one to teach us manners and secret wisdom. So let us raise a subscription for the expenses, etc., etc...’ And so they have raised a subscription and now spend money. And ‘H.P.B.’ sits with holes in her elbows, sweating for everybody and teaching them...." Quoted from Letters of H.P. Blavatsky to Her Family in Russia: Part XII---England 1887-1889.
In H.P.B.'s magazine Lucifer, it was noted that the reports of the Transactions (covering the meetings of Jan. 10 through June 20, 1889) were transcribed in "twenty-four large longhand folios." Lucifer, October 15th, 1890, p. 165
Part I of the Transactions was published as a book in London in March 1890 and consisted of material discussed by H.P. Blavatsky at the following meetings:Meeting 1. January 10, 1889 [Stanza I, sl. 1-2]
Meeting 2. January 17, 1889 [Stanza I, sl. 3-4]
Meeting 3. January 24, 1889 [Stanza I, sl. 5-8]
Meeting 4. January 31, 1889 [Stanza I, sl. 6-9; Stanza
II, sl. 1-2]
Appendix on DreamsPart II of the Transactions was published in January 1891 and included material discussed by H.P.Blavatsky at the following meetings:
Meeting 5. February 7, 1889 [Stanza II, sl. 3-4]
Meeting 6. February 14, 1889 [Stanza III, sl. 1]
Meeting 7. February 21, 1889 [Stanza III, sl. 2-4]
Meeting 8. February 28, 1889 [Stanza III, sl. 5-8]
Meeting 9. March 7, 1889 [Stanza III, sl. 10-11]
Meeting 10. March 14, 1889 [Stanza IV, sl. 1-6]The above material is available online in an easily accessible format at: Secret Doctrine Commentary / Stanzas I-IV: Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge
In February, 1891, Alice Leighton Cleather wrote:
"The second part of the 'Transactions -- Blavatsky Lodge,' is now out, and the third [part] will shortly follow." Theosophist, April 1891, p. 438. Italics added.
But H.P. Blavatsky died in May 1891 and Part III of the Transactions was never published.
It should be emphasized that the discussions in the published Parts I and II cover only the first four stanzas of Volume I of The Secret Doctrine.
Part III would, no doubt, have contained H.P.B.'s additional insightful and valuable comments on Stanza V and possibly even on Stanzas VI and VII.
What happened to the remaining unpublished Blavatsky material that was contained in the "twenty-four large longhand folios"?This unpublished material would have contained the discussions held with H.P.B. at Blavatsky Lodge meetings from March 21 to June 20, 1889. A total of 14 meetings!
Several years ago I discovered the whereabouts of the missing "large longhand folios". Several of the folios are still missing but the majority survive. At one point I was allowed to peruse the extant folios and discovered that H.P. Blavatsky's discussions and comments on Stanzas V, VI and VII survive.
I have written to the person now in charge of this H.P.B. manuscript urging him to publish this remarkable literary treasure. It is my sincere hope that the current "keeper" of the folios will soon permit HPB's unpublished valuable comments on Stanzas V, VI and VII to be published for the benefit of all Blavatsky and Theosophical students throughout the world.
Since the above was written in the summer of 2002, the material in one of the unpublished folio notebooks (i.e. for the meeting of April 25, 1889) has now been published as a supplement to the September 17, 2002 issue of The Aquarian Theosophist.
Since 2002, I have also been given photocopies of a few of these unpublished folios to read and study.In the latter part of 2005, I have been informed that all (or at least most of) these unpublished Transactions will probably be published as a book in 2006.
"...Contrast alone can enable us to appreciate things at their right value; and unless a judge compares notes and hears
both sides he can hardly come to a correct decision." H.P. Blavatsky. The Theosophist, July, 1881, p. 218.