Theosophical History

A Quarterly Journal of Research

Volume VIII, No. 9 July 2002 ISSN 0951-497X THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY A Quarterly Journal of Research Founded by Leslie Price, 1985 Volume VIII, No. 9 July 2002

EDITOR The subscription rate for residents in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada is James A. Santucci California State University, Fullerton $21.00 (one year) or $38.00 (two years). California residents, please add $1.63 (7.75%) sales tax onto the $21 rate or $2.95 onto the $38 rate. For residents ASSOCIATE EDITORS outside North America, the subscription rate is $25.00 (one year) or $45.00 Robert Boyd (two years). Air mail is $35.00 (one year) or $65.00 (two years). Single issues are $8.00. Electronic (PDF) issues are $4.00 each or $10.00 for any four avail- †John Cooper able issues. Subscriptions may also be paid in British sterling. All inquiries University of Sydney should be sent to James Santucci, Department of Comparative Religion, California State University, P.O. Box 6868, Fullerton, CA 92834-6868 (U.S.A.). John Patrick Deveney New York, NY Periodicals postage paid at Fullerton, California 92631-9998. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Theosophical History (c/o James Santucci), Depart- April Hejka-Ekins ment of Comparative Religion, California State University, P.O. Box 6868, California State University, Stanislaus Fullerton, CA 92834-6868. The Editors assume no responsibility for the views expressed by Jerry Hejka-Ekins authors in Theosophical History. Nautilus Books This periodical is indexed in the ATLA Religion Database, published by the American Theological Library Association, 250 S. Wacker Dr., 16th Floor, Chicago, IL 60606, email: Robert Ellwood [email protected], world wide web: http://www.atla.com. Theosophical History assumes University of Southern California no responsibility for the views expressed by the contributors to the journal. Antoine Faivre École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * GUIDELINES FOR SUBMISSION OF MANUSCRIPTS Joscelyn Godwin Colgate University The final copy of all manuscripts must be submitted on 8 1⁄2 x 11 inch stock, Jean-Pierre Laurant double-spaced, and with margins of at least 1 1⁄4 inches on all sides. Words and phrases École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris intended for italics output should appear in italics in the manuscript. The submitter is encouraged to send the article, communication, or review by attachment to email. J. Gordon Melton The email address is [email protected]. The submitter may also submit a Institute for the Study of American Religion floppy disk of the work in Microsoft Word (any version). University of California, Santa Barbara Bibliographical entries and citations must be placed in footnote format. The citations must be complete. For books, the publisher’s name and the place and Leslie Price date of the publication are required; for journal articles, the volume, number, and Former Editor, Theosophical History date must be included, should the information be available. There is no limitation on the length of manuscripts. In general, articles Gregory Tillett of 30 pages or less will be published in full; articles in excess of 30 pages University of Western Sydney, Nepean may be published serially. Brief communications, review articles, and book reviews are welcome. They Karen-Claire Voss should be submitted double-spaced. San Jose State University All correspondence, manuscripts, and subscriptions should be sent to:

Theosophical History (ISSN 0951-497X) is published quarterly in January, April, Dr. James A. Santucci July, and October by James A. Santucci (Department of Comparative Religion, Department of Comparative Religion California State University, P.O. Box 6868, Fullerton, CA 92834-6868 U.S.A.) The California State University, P.O. Box 6868 journal consists of four issues per volume: one volume covering a period of one Fullerton, CA 92834-6868 (U.S.A.) year. The journal’s purpose is to publish contributions specifically related to the FAX: 714-693-0142 Email: [email protected] modern Theosophical Movement, from the time of Madame Helena Blavatsky TELEPHONE: 714-278-3727 and others who were responsible in establishing the original Theosophical Society Website: http://www.theohistory.org (1875), to all groups that derive their teachings—directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly—from her or her immediate followers. In addition, the journal Copyright ©2002 by James A. Santucci is also receptive to related movements (including pre-Blavatskyite Theosophy, Spiritualism, Rosicrucianism, and the philosophy of Emanuel Swedenborg to give but a few examples) that have had an influence on or displayed an affinity Composition by Robert Hütwohl, Santa Fe, NM. to modern Theosophy. Printed on acid-free paper THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY

Contents

July 2002 Volume VIII, Number 9

Editor’s Comments James Santucci ...... 237

Communications Missing Material by H.P. Blavatsky Discovered: Part I Daniel Caldwell...... 242 A Response to Dan Merkur’s “Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy” Karen-Claire Voss...... 243

Article Albert L. Rawson, Abd al-Kader, George H. Felt and the Mystic Shrine John Patrick Deveney...... 250

Book Reviews The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky: Insights into the Life of a Modern Sphinx W. Michael Ashcraft ...... 262

The Golden Dawn Source Book The Golden Dawn Source Works: A Bibliography A Chronology of the Golden Dawn: Being A Chronological History of a Magical Order 1378-1994 Ted G. Davy...... 264

On the Cover: W. Emmett Small (1903-2001). This is a composite photo illustration of Mr. Small as he looked in 1980 (the original photo was supplied by Point Loma Publications, with special thanks to Ken Small). On the lower left corner is a photo of the old Spalding House (the administrative center during the de Purucker era and the site of many of Mr. Small’s Theosophical activities) on the grounds of Lomaland. The illustration, which was formatted to look like a watercolor, was designed by Eric Santucci (http://www.ericsantucci.com/main.html). Editor’s Comments

Renewal

his is the first issue of Theosophical His- important role in understanding the history of Ttory after a hiatus of nine months. As sub- The Theosophical Society and its offshoots. scribers know, the illness of my father made it difficult for me to preserve the publication ■ It is important too that this journal serve schedule of the journal; hence the suspension as an outlet for all scholars who exhibit the of publication until I could see myself through highest standards of research. this particularly trying time. As it turned out, my father did not live out 2001, having died A change has been made concerning the rather suddenly on October 25. The end, numbering of the journal. Since only two though expected, came much sooner than the issues will appear in 2002—the July and Octo- prognosis of the doctors. After a period adjust- ber issues—the July issue will be identified as ing to this reality, I thought it best to begin volume VIII, number 9, and the October issue planning the reintroduction of the journal will be identified as volume VIII, number 10. sooner than the previously announced one- The January 2003 issue begins with a new year suspension. volume (IX). All future volumes, beginning Now that the journal is in print again, a with volume IX, will consist of four issues (one review of its purpose and methods is in order. year) rather than eight issues (two years). To summarize my remarks in my letter to the subscribers dated April 27, 2002: The subscription period will be extended by two issues so that the January and April issues ■ The journal will continue as an academic are not charged to subscribers’ accounts. journal based on the methodology principally employed by historians. * * *

■ The primary purpose of the journal is to Rememberances publish original articles on topics in Theoso- phy and related subjects. Since the last issue, a number of prominent ■ The journal must also serve as a means Theosophists have departed from this life: of making available those documents that have Ianthe Hoskins, W. Emmett Small, John P. Van been inaccessible to scholars but which play an Mater.

Theosophical History VIII/9 237 Ianthe Hoskins international connections, there was a signal service she rendered to the historical cause. As chair of the Theosophical World Trust for Ianthe Hoskins (1912-2001), the former Gen- Education and Research she gave her sup- eral Secretary of The Theosophical Society in port to a small grant to the History Centre to meet the cost of an international history England, was noted as a Theosophical lecturer conference at 50 Gloucester Place. These who devoted much of her later life, after she conferences (there were four between 1986 retired in her fifties, to the Theosophical cause, and 1989, and two similar ones in 1995 and serving as Information Officer for the English 1997) were unusual occasions in which stu- Section and the Director of the School of the dents from many different traditions were Wisdom at Adyar. She holds a special place for able to share findings and fellowship. Theosophical History and for me personally, since she helped organize the 1995 Theosophi- Ms Hoskins exhibited all those character cal History Conference at the T.S. headquarters traits to which Theosophists strive: devotion in London. I found her to be a delightful lady: to the teachings of Theosophy, proficiency in intelligent and articulate as one would expect articulating the teachings, and living a life that of her station. On a personal note, when we manifests the Theosophical ideal of Brother- first met in 1995, I was surprised that this hood. quintessential English lady shared something in common with me. Ms Hoskins mentioned W. Emmett Small that she was half-Italian on her mother’s side. Little did I know that she was born in Florence W. Emmett Small epitomized the Point Loma to Ida Hoskins, née Barducci. Theosophy of Katherine Tingley and Gottfried As for the Theosophical History connec- de Purucker. Born in 1903 in Macon Geor- tion, there is much more than her sponsoring gia, taken to The Universal Brotherhood and the 1995 Conference. Her association with the Theosophical Society’s [now known as The journal and the Theosophical History Centre Theosophical Society (Pasadena)] interna- goes back to 1985, as Leslie Price writes in his tional Headquarters in 1905 to be educated tribute to Ms Hoskins in Insight: The Journal at its Raja Yoga School, working at Headquar- of The Theosophical Society in England, 43/1 ters—first at Point Loma until 1942, then at the (Jan-Feb 2002): 28-29: new headquarters in Covina, situated east of Los Angeles—in varying capacities, not least When the Theosophical History Centre was launched in 1985, Ianthe was already of which as member and secretary of the a living embodiment of English Section his- Cabinet, the governing body of the Society tory, with memories back to the mid-1930s. following the death of G. de Purucker in 1942, Quite often an enquiry to her about a long- Mr. Small was to remain a loyal member of forgotten pre-war worker would prompt a the Society until he left Covina in 1946. This personal recollection. But with her extensive particularly difficult time for Emmett and his

238 Editor’s Comments Theosophical History VIII/9 239 family is revealed in a short autobiographical ing firm that would carry on the work of the piece written in 1946 entitled “The Garbage- old Point Loma Society. This became a reality man.” Here are some excerpts: the following year when Point Loma Publi- cations was incorporated. Helen Todd and Six months ago he was writing themes Mr. Small served as editors of its bi-monthly on philosophy, the why of this and that. . . . magazine, The Eclectic Theosophist. From Then he’d had security, friends, an assured this time on, both Mr. Small and Mr. Harris position as an editor, lecturer, instruc- tor in philosophy. Now he was where he became identified as living embodiments of was: handyman, laborer, garbage collector. Point Loma Theosophy and history. Mr. Small Tramping the streets of San Francisco, Oak- remained editor of the magazine until the land, Los Angeles, Hollywood and Pasadena November/December 1991 issue: 126 numbers hadn’t brought him anything, until finally in all. Despite his retirement from active life, he had thought of this forty acre estate Mr. Small continued to remain accessible to which he had known of since childhood, recently bought by Mr. Joe Madder. So he scholars, Theosophists, and students who had wrote to Madder who said, yes, he could questions on Point Loma history. Those who use some outdoor help. And so he’d been knew Mr. Small have found him to be a true glad to come. Since then he had mixed gentleman, dignified, friendly, always encour- rock and cement and sand, and trimmed aging the work of others, and upholding what palm trees and acacias and pines, and filled he believed to be the highest Theosophical with blackmix holes in the roadways, and cleaned cellars and fire-blackened storage- ideals. On a personal note, it was Mr. Small rooms, moved furniture and picked up the who, at the beginning of my research in the litter of paper around the larger buildings, Theosophical Movement, took me in hand and, finally when Pat and Dave left for col- when I attended the Conference, “The Theo- lege, picked up the garbage and emptied sophical Movement: Networking for Unity,” the barrels of tin cans, bottles and general held at the Krotona Institute of Theosophy in junk. . . . Ojai, California on January 28 and 29, 1984 Having settled in Loma Portal (near Old and who introduced me to some of the leading Town, City of San Diego) from 1946 on, Mr. Theosophical lights of the time. Small eventually went on to teach for a short Of all the members of the Point Loma Theo- time in the English Department at California sophical Society, Emmett Small was perhaps State University, San Diego, followed by vari- the one most closely identified with Lomaland, ous positions ending with a position teaching the headquarters of the Point Loma Society. English and creative writing in Adult Educa- It was appropriate, therefore, for a Memorial tion until the mandatory retirement age of 65. Service to be held on the old site, now Point A new career was in the offing. Iverson Loma Nazarene University, on November 3, Harris, the ousted Chairman of the Cabinet 2001. It was a fitting tribute to the man whom of The Theosophical Society, suggested in many considered a dear friend and the living 1970 the possibility of establishing a publish- embodiment of the Theosophical ideal.

238 Editor’s Comments Theosophical History VIII/9 239 John P. Van Mater Index will be considered his most noteworthy achievement. Students of The Secret Doctrine owe him a great debt of gratitude and I for one The June/July 2002 issue of Sunrise, the consider myself fortunate to have known such magazine published by The Theosophical a delightful human being. Society (Pasadena), announced the death (on March 25, 2002) of one of its most prominent * * * members, John P. Van Mater. Many remember John as the Head Librarian of the Theosophi- In This Issue cal University Library in Altadena, California, a position that he held from its public open- ing in 1972 to his retirement in the late 1990s. One of the more intriguing individuals who In addition, he was Secretary General of The had connections with the early Theosophical Theosophical Society from 1942 to 1948, and Society and its leaders was Albert Leighton head of the American Section from 1948 to Rawson. Already the subject of a lengthy article 1982. John’s conduct as Head Librarian is aptly by Paul Johnson in the II/7 (July 1988) issue of described by the editors of Sunrise : “Visitors Theosophical History, A. L. Rawson’s connec- to the Library Center remember John’s kind- tions to the paramasonic Ancient Arabic Order ness, humor, and intellectual depth, his love of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine and to the Algerian people, and his pleasure in sharing his wide- Sufi Abd al-Kader are further investigated by ranging interests in theosophy, literature, his- John Patrick Deveney through primary source tory, and science.” As a frequent visitor in the materials from Masonic archives. Although 1980s and early ‘90s, I can attest to this por- these sources at Mr. Deveney’s disposal dispel trayal. John and I often were engaged in some Rawson’s exaggerated role in the order, his discussion on Theosophy, literature, and John’s connection with it and the claim that it was continuing work on the Index to The Secret connected with the Bektashi Dervishes raises Doctrine. Although my own research was even more questions about the possible asso- often set aside because of these conversations, ciation of Blavatsky and the early Theosophical it was time well spent with such a delightful Society with these organizations. Furthermore, and insightful individual. I also came to appre- the Masonic connection of George Henry ciate his dedication to bringing to completion Felt, one of the formers of The Theosophical his wonderful Secret Doctrine Index. He often Society, is definitely established from internal discussed the effort required to complete the evidence. In my article on Felt, appearing in project, requiring many thousands of hours the VI/7 (July 1997) issue of Theosophical His- of checking and cross-referencing. The thor- tory, I could only suggest his association with oughness and attention to detail make this Freemasonry from secondary sources, Mr. a work that would make any author proud. Deveney has proven Felt’s Masonic association Certainly, of all John’s accomplishments, the as both a member of the Shrine, joining about

240 Editor’s Comments Theosophical History VIII/9 241 a year earlier than Rawson (1877), and a 32° member of the Scottish Rite.

The Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge allows us a glimpse of H.P. Blavatsky’s evolved thoughts on the Stanzas of Dzyan in The Secret Doctrine. Like the lost third volume of the Secret Doctrine, a volume mentioned by Blavatsky herself so in all probability a reality, there is a third part of the Transactions that is unbeknowst to most Theosophists. Daniel Caldwell (Blavatsky Archives) communicates in this issue that part three of the Transactions does indeed exist, although only partially. It is Mr. Caldwell’s hope that this example of Blavatsky’s mature teachings will be made available to the Theosophical world.

A second communication is from Associate Editor Karen-Claire Voss, who takes issue with some comments and analyses of Dan Merkur in his article, “Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy” (Theosophical His- tory, April 2000). Also included are the following reviews: Daniel Caldwell’s The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky: Insights into the of a Modern Sphinx (review by W. Michael Ashcraft) and three brief reviews of Darcy Küntz’s The Golden Dawn Source Book and The Golden Dawn Source Works: A Bibliogra- phy, and A Chronology of the Golden Dawn: Being A Chronological History of a Magical Order 1378-1994 by Mary Greer and Darcy Küntz (review by Ted G. Davy).

* * * * *

240 Editor’s Comments Theosophical History VIII/9 241 Communications

Missing Material by H.P. Blavatsky Discovered: Part I

he Theosophy Company on their web- In H.P.B.’s magazine, Lucifer, it was noted Tsite describes H.P. Blavatsky’s book titled in the October 15th, 1890 issue (p. 165), that Transactions Of The Blavatsky Lodge as fol- the reports of the Transactions (covering the lows: meetings of Jan. 10 through June 20, 1889) were transcribed in “twenty-four large long- In 1889, when H.P.B. was in London, the hand folios.” weekly meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge was devoted to the discussion of the archaic Part I of the Transactions was published ‘Stanzas’ on which The Secret Doctrine is based. Transactions provides . . . H.P.B.’s as a book in London in March 1890 and con- answers to metaphysical and scientific ques- sisted of material discussed by H.P. Blavatsky tions, as stenographically reported, and at the following meetings: afterwards revised by her for publication. . . . Meeting 1. January 10, 1889 [Stanza I, sl. 1-2] In an introductory note prefacing the origi- Meeting 2. January 17, 1889 [Stanza I, sl. nal edition(s) of 1890/1891 of the Transac- 3-4] tions, we find the following information: Meeting 3. January 24, 1889 [Stanza I, sl. 5-8] The . . . Transactions are compiled from Meeting 4. January 31, 1889 [Stanza I, sl. 6- shorthand notes taken at the meetings of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical 9; Stanza II, sl. 1-2] Society, from January 10th to June 20th, Appendix on Dreams 1889, being somewhat condensed from the original discussions. Part II of the Transactions was published in January 1891and consisted of material discussed . . . the members of the ‘B.L. of the T. S.’ by H.P.Blavatsky at the following meetings: agreed to devote the debates of the weekly [Thursday] meetings to each stanza and sundry other metaphysical subjects. Meeting 5. February 7, 1889 [Stanza II, sl. 3-4] The questions were put by members. . . . Meeting 6. February 14, 1889 [Stanza III, The answers in all cases are based on the sl. 1] shorthand Reports, and are those . . . as Meeting 7. February 21, 1889 [Stanza III, sl. given by H. P. B. herself. 2-4]

242 Communications Theosophical History VIII/9 243 Meeting 8. February 28, 1889 [Stanza III, It is my sincere hope that the current sl. 5-8] “keeper” of the folios will soon permit Bla- Meeting 9. March 7, 1889 [Stanza III, sl. vatsky’s unpublished valuable comments on 10-11] Stanzas V and VI to be published for the ben- Meeting 10. March 14, 1889 [Stanza IV, sl. efit of all Blavatsky and Theosophical students 1-6] throughout the world.

In February, 1891, Alice Leighton Cleather More in Part II. wrote (The Theosophist, April 1891: 438): “The second part of the Transactions -Blavatsky Daniel H. Caldwell Lodge, is now out, and the third [part] will Blavatsky Archives shortly follow.” http://blavatskyarchives.com/introduction.htm 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 A Response to Dan Merkur’s only the first four stanzas of Volume I of The “Methodology and the Study of Secret Doctrine. Part III would, no doubt, have Western Spiritual Alchemy” contained Blavatsky’s additional comments on Stanza V and possibly even on Stanzas VI and VII. fter a great deal of thought I have finally What happened to the remaining unpub- Adecided to respond1 to the criticism of my lished Blavatsky material that was contained work, which appeared in Dan Merkur’s “Meth- in the “twenty-four large longhand folios?” odology and the Study of Western Spiritual This unpublished material would have con- Alchemy” (Theosophical History, April 2000). tained the discussions held with Blavatsky at On account of having labored long, hard and Blavatsky Lodge meetings from March 21 to lovingly over both the articles he cites, in the June 20, 1889. A total of 14 meetings! end I found I could not remain silent, and Several years ago I discovered the where- while this response may not be enough to abouts of the missing “large longhand folios.” fully address his criticism I cannot help but Several of the folios are still missing but the try. majority survives. At one point I was allowed The focus of Merkur’s argument is by no to peruse the extant folios and discovered that means only my work. He starts by criticizing H.P. Blavatsky’s discussions and comments on Mary Anne Atwood, saying that she began a Stanzas V and VI survive. Unfortunately, the pattern he views as unfortunate because it folio containing her comments on Stanza VII was she who proposed that spiritual alchemy did not survive the ravages of time and is still was an “initiatory path” without having suf- lost. ficient evidence, and notes that this idea was

242 Communications Theosophical History VIII/9 243 subsequently espoused by Arthur Edward his claim about what I purportedly did. This is Waite, Rudolf Steiner, Julius Evola, Carl Jung something that runs counter to the acceptable and Mircea Eliade.2 Then he writes, “As a norms of scholarship. In fact, I distinctly recall final methodological concern, I would like to agonizing over the precise wording of what I address a persistent rumor in modern occult actually wrote which was: circles that Western alchemists engaged in mystical visualizations and unions during The nature of the conjunction seems to sexual coitus, in a manner that closely resem- me to suggest that the tradition of the alche- soror mystica bles Hindu and/or Buddhist tantra.” 3 After mist and the was not simply intended as a symbol with no corresponding mentioning several works by persons whom reality in time and space, but that it was a he, rightly or wrongly, believes fit within those form of western tantra. However, to explore circles, he comes to me in a section entitled such a speculation would go far beyond the “Alchemical Marriage”: scope of the present article.5

The rumor of tantra was proposed as an My most serious objection is that Merkur academic hypothesis by Karen Voss, who has quoted me out of context for his own suggested that ‘the tradition of the alche- purposes. If he had quoted what I wrote in mist and the soror mystica was . . . a form of Western tantra.’ I would like to lay the its entirety—an extremely tentative statement rumor to rest. Mystical sexuality was indeed if ever there was one—he could never have practiced, but it was kabbalistic rather than claimed that I was proposing “an academic tantric in provenance.4 hypothesis.” To assert that I have done this has serious, negative implications for my What we have here is a jumble that sorely work in this article and my work in general. needs untangling. First, I want to make it Moreover, on reading his article, anyone not absolutely clear that I am in no way connected familiar with mine would get the impres- with any occult circle, modern or otherwise. sion that its entire thrust was to attempt to Secondly, I certainly did not propose this as link the western alchemical tradition with an academic hypothesis! For one thing, there that of tantra. On the contrary, the focus of is the simple fact that I would never have done my substantial (36 page) article was to try to such a thing without providing empirical evi- show that in order to be properly understood dence, something I am hardly in a position to the texts and images of what I call “spiritual do since I am not a specialist in tantra. Toward alchemy,” (a term for which I provided a work- the very end of the article, almost as an aside, ing definition) should be approached in terms I did indeed suggest a possibility, but since of the worldview that produced them. In this when is remarking on a possibility tantamount case, the worldview was esotericism. Follow- to proposing an “academic hypothesis” ? ing Antoine Faivre’s taxonomy of esotericism I Merkur concludes his comments about my argued that for the alchemists, the practice of work by quoting me out of context to support alchemy emerged from out of a “specific expe-

244 Communications Theosophical History VIII/9 245 rience of the world” and constituted a ”way of I submit that neither the reason why a text is being in the world,” 6 and that when studying written nor the character of the person who the corpus of spiritual alchemy this fact had to writes it matter. I would argue that a written be taken into account and, in addition, taken text (just as a spoken one) becomes an entity; seriously. This was indeed proposed as an that is, that it acquires an ontological status academic hypothesis and given the approach of its own, from the moment it is written (or taken in many of the current studies in the spoken). Making text is an act of embodiment, field of contemporary western esotericism it or, if you will, procreation. was and still is a highly controversial one. Yet, Third, Dr. Merkur repeatedly asserts that Dr. Merkur said nary a word about this. spiritual alchemy has similarities with kab- I have several other objections as well and balah (i.e., a form of Jewish mysticism) rather this seems as good a time as any to articulate than with tantra (i.e., a form of Buddhist or them. First, in a footnote Merkur objects to Hindu mysticism). At the end of a lengthy the fact that, according to him, the texts that explanation of a kabbalistic formulation of I used in another article are not examples what constitutes sacred sexuality from the appropriate for illustrating my assertion of the Iggeret HaKodesh Merkur compares it with presence of a hierogamic theme because they the writings of Thomas Vaughan, comment- concern only “the metallic opus.” 7 I do not ing approvingly that Vaughan’s writing bears happen to agree with him. My view was, and numerous similarities with what is written in still is, that such texts can be interpreted on the Iggeret HaKodesh and that Vaughan actu- several levels at once. ally uses kabbalistic terms when describing Second, there is the issue of why an the union between masculine and feminine. alchemical text was written in the first place. He writes that Vaughan’s work “is the talmudic Some years ago, while he and I were talking and kabbalistic teaching in alchemical guise” at a conference we were attending, Dr. Merkur and concludes by saying that “The interest in remarked that one of the texts I had used in procreation contrasts sharply with the goals of an article (he was referring to my article on tantra, whether Hindu or Buddhist.”9 I do not the Rosarium philosophorum) 8 had been writ- agree with Dr. Merkur on this point and want ten by an alchemist who was in the service to take this opportunity to articulate some fur- of, or otherwise under the thrall of, some ther considerations. influential so and so, and had thus been Dr. Merkur is adamant about insisting on entirely impurely motivated to begin with the difference between tantra and spiritual and therefore the resultant text had nothing alchemy and, I suspect, would not admit of whatever to do with spiritual alchemy. I think any similarities at all between tantra and kab- I responded by saying simply that I would balah. I simply do not understand this because give the idea some serious thought because I it is the goal of all three—kabbalah, tantra and hate confrontation. I still loathe confrontation, spiritual alchemy—that unites them and func- but at that time, I was also afraid of it. Now tions to make them similar. Since all mysticism

244 Communications Theosophical History VIII/9 245 is essentially concerned with the same thing, tion. Granted, the kabbalists concentrate on at best his view seems to me to be chauvinis- moving energy from inside, outwards, in as tic. As I wrote in my article: much as they concentrate much of the work of visualization on the semen that would result In my view, in its purest form, spiritual in impregnation while in tantra the semen is alchemy constitutes a bona fide tradition retained and energy is moved inwards and within the history of religions, one that rep- upwards. However, the kabbalists’ work is in resented a serious hope that it was possible to overcome the subject/object dichotomy, imitation of the acts of the gods “in the begin- that chasm which seems to yawn between ning,” as Eliade might have it,12 since they seek the spirit and the body. As such, its praxis “to ascend to, and so participate within, the focused on making the impossible, pos- copulation of the sefirot . . . The copulation of sible.10 the Cherubim,” i.e., “the copulation of Wisdom with Understanding,” as Merkur describes it.13 This is the goal of kabbalistic striving, but Actions performed in imitation of the cosmo- it is also the goal of tantric work as well. Like gonic acts of “the beginning” are intrinsically me, Mircea Eliade, as Merkur disapprovingly procreative, but such actions are by no means points out, also sees a commonality between limited to the kabbalists. Of course the ter- tantra and spiritual alchemy: minology used by the kabbalists is different than that used in tantra and generally, differ- The Sun and Moon must be made one ent than that used in spiritual alchemy, the . . . above all prajna, wisdom, must be joined with upaya, the means of attaining movement of the elements involved is concep- it . . . all this amounts to saying that we tualized differently, and the precise methods are dealing with the coincidentia opposi- involved in effecting the union are different. torum achieved on every level of Life and However, when all is said and done, I confess Consciousness.11 I do not see any essential difference because in every case the impetus is away from frag- Merkur objects because Eliade is saying this mentation towards ontological wholeness. The is what happens in tantra. Since precisely the thing that connects different forms of sacred same thing happens in kabbalah, what is the sexual practices is this, and although there are difference? Sacred sexuality is an element in differences in form, so long as this is the goal, both. The goal of unifying various things that the substance remains the same. With respect are perceived as being in opposition to one to this, whether or not semen is ejaculated another is also an element in both, as is the or retained during an act of sacred sexuality idea that the world is meaningful; indeed, that hardly seems worth mentioning.14 it is hierophanic. Spiritual alchemy, kabbalah, and tantra all entail the movement of energy In closing, I want to remind the reader from one level to another. They all entail an that I am not a specialist in kabbalah, as is interaction between energy and manifesta- Dan Merkur, nor as I have already said, am I

246 Communications Theosophical History VIII/9 247 a specialist in tantra. However, one does not it was somehow uniquely immune to shar- have to be a specialist to be aware that there ing and cross-pollination with other mystical were many connections between the Jewish traditions. This is what has always happened and Hindu traditions generally. Moreover, with mystical traditions. many specialists have articulated such con- At base, my greatest objection to what Dr. nections. For example, a valid comparison Merkur says stems from the fact that he insists between the kabbalistic metaphor of the unio that spiritual alchemy can only be compared mystica and the Katha Upanishad IV:15 was with kabbalah, not with tantra. It seems obvi- made by Moshe Idel in his Kabbalah: New ous to me that the comparison of spiritual Perspectives,15 and in a discussion about the alchemy with kabbalah is valid. There are, phenomenological similarities between the as Dr. Merkur has shown, resonances of kab- kabbalistic practice of visualizing the Tetra- balah in spiritual alchemy. Apparently, there grammaton and certain Hindu mandalas, are also resonances of kabbalah in tantra. Idel notes that, although there are differ- Why wouldn’t there also be resonances of ences, “one cannot underrate the possibility tantra in spiritual alchemy? that Hindu traditions infiltrated into kab- As I have tried to show here, it is valid to balah, perhaps via the intermediacy of Sufi compare spiritual alchemy with tantra since material.”16 There is also Hananya Goodman’s the goal of both was essentially the same. I Between Jerusalem and Benares: Compara- am convinced that whatever their differences tive Studies in Judaism and Hinduism17 that tantra and kabbalah were each concerned contains a discussion of similarities between with healing and with life—with making specifically tantric material and kabbalistic fragmented, wrongly carved up life whole union with God. Finally, there is also the very again. They sought to recover the experience interesting fact that there were other types of of ontological wholeness. In the face of this, connections besides thematic and phenome- it really does seem to be only a detail that nological ones between the two traditions. In tantric practitioners were not concerned with a study entitled “The Song of Songs and Tamil mere physical procreation. For that matter, nei- Poetry,” done almost thirty years ago, Chaim ther was the kabbalist. The tantric adept, the Rabin showed that there was maritime trade kabbalist and the spiritual alchemist were all between Judea and South Arabia and South striving to go beyond the dualistic framework India, that animals and spices from India characterizing ordinary perception, towards became known in Judea as a result, and that genuine encounter with the Self and with this may have happened as early as the first the Divine and with their interpenetration. millennium.18 Historically, wherever there are All three were bent on spiritual procreation. mercantile connections one finds philosophi- While each tradition is marked with its own cal and artistic connections as well. Of course, distinct character, these are the things that the Kabbalah emerged much later, in the 12th unite all of them and these are the things with century, but there is no reason to think that which I have always been concerned.

246 Communications Theosophical History VIII/9 247 Karen-Claire Voss 9 Merkur, “Methodology and the Study of Western Spiri- Istanbul, Turkey tual Alchemy”: 66.

10 Voss, “The Hierosgamos Theme in the Images of the * * * * * Rosarium Philosophorum”: 175.

11 Mircea Eliade, The Forge and the Crucible: The Origins and Structures of Alchemy, translated by Stephen Corrin (New York: Harper & Row, 1976), 118. It should be noted that leaving aside the whole question of whether or not Notes Eliade is correct in seeing the hermeneutical similarities between spiritual alchemy and tantra that he elucidated in The Forge and the Crucible, elsewhere he provides 1 This response is dated December 2001, Istan- specific citations of tantric texts that contain explicit refer- bul. Interested readers may e-mail the author at ences to alchemy. See the section “Tantrism, Hatha Yoga, [email protected] and may also visit her website: and Alchemy,” Ch. VII, “Yoga and Alchemy,” in Yoga: http://www.istanbul-yes-istanbul.co.uk Immortality and Freedom, Bollingen Series LVI (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1973), 278-284. 2 Dan Merkur, “Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy,” Theosophical History, VII /2 (April 12 See Mircea Eliade, The Sacred and the Profane, Chapter 2000): 53. II, “Sacred Time and Myths” (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. 1959), 68-116. 3 “Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy”: 61. 13 Merkur, “Methodology and the Study of Western Spiri- tual Alchemy”: 63. 4 “Methodology and the Study of Western Spiritual Alchemy”: 61. 14 Aside from the issue of intent to procreate, which I have tried to address here, albeit only in cursory fash- 5 Karen-Claire Voss, “Spiritual Alchemy: Interpreting Rep- ion, it does seem to me that focusing on the question resentative Texts and Images,” in Roelof van den Broek of whether or not semen is ejaculated during an act & Wouter J. Hanegraaff, eds. Gnosis and Hermeticism of sacred sexuality is irrelevant unless one is attempt- from Antiquity to Modern Times (Albany, New York: State ing to determine the extent to which, if at all, physi- University of New York Press, 1998), 174, emphases here ological changes in both partners affect the quality of mine). the act. Then, of course, one would also have to look closely at the patterns and practices involving male and 6 Voss, “Spiritual Alchemy: Interpreting Representative female secretions, excretions, and orgasm. Having said Texts and Images”: 150. this, I note that I am aware that the fact of the retention of semen figures largely in much tantric practice and accordingly, in scholarly analyses of it. 7 Merkur, “Methodology and the Study of Western Spiri- tual Alchemy”: 69-70, n. 55. 15 Moshe Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988), 67. 8 Karen Voss, “The Hierosgamos Theme in the Images of the Rosarium Philosophorum,” in Alchemy Revisited, 16 ed. by Z.R.W.M. von Martels (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1990), Idel, Kabbalah: New Perspectives, 108. 145-153.

248 Communications Theosophical History VIII/9 249 17 Hananya Goodman, Between Jerusalem and Benares: Comparative Studies in Judaism and Hinduism (Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 1993).

18 Chaim Rabin, “The Song of Songs and Tamil Poetry,” Studies in Religion III (1973): 205-219.

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248 Communications Theosophical History VIII/9 249 Nobles of the Secret Mosque: Albert L. Rawson, Abd al-Kader, George H. Felt and the Mystic Shrine

John Patrick Deveney

n his book The Masters Revealed, K. Paul family near Oran in Algeria in 1807, and IJohnson gives a short account of the life of fought French domination there almost con- Abd al-Kader (1807-1883) and hypothesizes tinuously from 1830 until his surrender in that there may have been some connection December 1847. He was a figure of romance, between that Algerian Sufi and opponent of heroism and chivalry, both to his own people French colonization and H.P. Blavatsky, and and to the French. After his surrender, he was possibly also between Abd al-Kader and imprisoned and then paroled and pensioned Albert Leighton Rawson.1 The connection to by the French, living first at Broussa in Asia H.P.B. is posited on the basis of her state- Minor and then, beginning in 1855, in Damas- ment that she had lived “with the Bedouin cus, where he conducted a famous religious Arabs and the Marabouts of Damascus,” and school.3 He came to European attention once the fact that “Marabout” is said to be a North more in 1860, when he saved the lives of thou- African term.2 Rawson’s connection with Abd sands of Christians in the anti-Christian riots al-Kader, in turn, rests on the ground that that swept the area.4 he was a frequent traveler to the Near East. “The Shrine—or the Ancient Arabic Order Johnson also notes, in a biographical section of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine,” to give it its on Rawson, that he was one of the founders formal name in English—has two histories, the of the Shriners, the paramasonic order famil- first fabulous and mysterious, and the second iar to all Americans for their fezzes, Harley- pedestrian and utilitarian. More recent histori- Davidson parades, circuses, and support of ans have viewed it as a fraternal organization children’s hospitals. pure and simple, created out of whole cloth A review of Shrine histories and of the Pro- in New York in the early 1870s by a group of ceedings of the Imperial Council of the Shrine, Masonic revelers at the Knickerbocker House in fact reveals a strong connection between hotel and bar on Sixth Avenue. In this view it the Shrine, Rawson and Abd al-Kader, and was a fraternal and convivial organization that also reveals for good measure a little more of was guised by its founders in oriental garb, the activities of the elusive George H. Felt. mystery and legend—as many other such Abd al-Kader was born into a Marabout groups have been both before and since—

250 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 251 simply in order to attract notice. The origi- uals, which were later used by the Carbonari. nal history of the Shrine, on the other hand, It was further claimed that Adam Weishaupt, which Rawson had a hand in creating, makes of Illuminati fame, revived the order as the of the Shrine a direct offshoot of a worldwide, “Illuminati” in 1776, and that in 1860 its ritu- secret brotherhood that was allied or identical als were brought to England by Rizk Allah with the Bektashi Dervishes. Hassoon Effendee, from whom the Shrine This traditional history recites that in in America derived its claim of “competent Marseilles in September 1870, the comedian jurisdiction” to exist.7 In these early histories, and actor William J. Conlin (“Billy Florence,” the order was variously claimed to be identi- as he was known on the stage) chanced to cal with the Bektashi Dervishes or (as seems attend the meeting of a secret brotherhood to have been Rawson’s view) merely to be that numbered among its members both Near closely associated with and under the patron- Easterners and prominent Europeans. The age of the Bektashis. A letter from the Shrine’s ritual of the group was fantastic and theatrical representative in Malta in 1889, makes it very (which must have appealed to Florence both clear that where the term “Shrine” was used to as an actor and as a member of the Ancient describe one of the European or Near Eastern and Accepted Scottish Rite), and he was able temples, the reference was to the Bektashi: to obtain a copy of the ritual from the presid- ing sheik. He later attended the meetings of It has been for simplicity’s sake, and the order in Algiers and Aleppo and again in because their objects and aims are of similar Cairo, where he received “further mysteries at import, that I have always spoken of the different branches of our Order as the “Mystic 5 an Egyptian Temple.” Shrine.” Do not let this mislead any Ameri- In the early days of the Shrine, the order can Noble. If he has read the history of the Florence had stumbled upon was called vari- Order thoroughly, he will be informed of the ously “Order Bektashee, Inquisitorial Order fact that the Bektash (as it is known in all the of the Crescent, or Mystic Shrine,” “Order prominent cities of Oriental Europe), is only 8 Bektasheeyeh, or Mystic Shrine, of the Abd- another title for the Shrine. el-Kader el-Bagdadeeyeh,” or “Order of the Crescent, Bektashee, Abd-el-Kader el Bag- While it was the elaborate, theatrical ritual dadee, or Mystic Shrine,”6 and was claimed supposedly inherited from the East that most to be well established in Mecca, Jerusalem, fascinated Florence and Dr. Walter Millard Damascus and Aleppo, and indeed from Eng- Fleming, the other man usually named as co- land to India. The order was said to have been founder of the Shrine, there were also hints of begun by Ali, the son-in-law of Mohammed, freethought and esoteric mysteries underlying in the seventh century. In the seventeenth cen- the order. From Rawson’s point of view, these tury Father Lodovico Maracci, the translator of seem to have centered on the “pantheistic der- the Qurcan into Latin in 1698, was said to have vish system” and “the new faith in the brother- brought the order to Italy and translated its rit- hood of all mankind—the essential unity of

250 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 251 humanity as of one blood, the children of one guist and Arabic scholar” who assisted Fleming father”9 —a faith, needless to say, unhindered in translating Florence’s rituals.12 The “Origin by literal adherence to the teachings of Islam and History” of the order, however, recites that or to the truths of the various other faiths of “[t]he constitutional authority for promulgating its members.10 the principles and practice of the Order in On his return to America, Florence (in America was confided to Dr. Walter M. Flem- a manner that is hotly debated) cooperated ing, 33°, and his associates,” listing in order with Fleming, a fellow member of the Ancient “A.L. Rawson, 32° (Arabic Translator), William and Accepted Scottish Rite, in organizing the J. Florence, 32°,” and then continuing through Shrine. Fleming gives the story as follows, the customary list of the others who instituted carefully preserving his own importance: Mecca Temple in 1876.13 In fact, Rawson only formally joined the Shrine on April 1, 1878, as But Mr. Florence was never fully recognized number 89 in the list of members.14 or possessed of authority until long after his The Annual Proceedings published con- return to America. All he possessed was a temporaneously by the Imperial Council disconnected series of sheets in Arabic and French, with some marginal memoranda through the 1880s, describe Rawson’s role in a made by himself from verbal elucidation more expansive light—and not coincidentally in Aleppo. Through Prof. Albert L. Rawson, present a view of the origins of the Shrine that these, with others received afterwards is in sharp contrast with later revisionist views. through a correspondence abroad, com- Beginning with the Proceedings for 1882 and prised the translations from which the Order continuing through 1892, Rawson is identified started here. Mr. Florence and Dr. Walter M. Fleming received authority and introduced as “Representative of the Temples in the East” the Order into America.11 and contributes translations of a variety of correspondence with the Oriental branches of the Again according to the traditional history, order.15 In Masonic parlance, “representative” on June 16, 1871, Fleming and Florence con- is usually an honorary title given to a local ferred the order on eleven others, all Scottish Mason on behalf of a foreign Masonic juris- Rite Masons or Knights Templar, and on Sep- diction to enable him to represent the foreign tember 26, 1872 Fleming and others of these body before the local Masonic hierarchy. If the original members began Mecca Temple in title given Rawson is anything other than pure New York, the first Shrine Temple in America. fiction, then Rawson’s status was that of repre- The Imperial Council, the supreme governing sentative or emissary of the Shrine abroad to body of the Shrine, was organized in June the American Imperial Council, and he played 1876. The Annual Proceedings of the Impe- that role to the hilt in painting the Shrine as rial Council never include Rawson among the but one part of a worldwide, ritually organized original founders of the order or of Mecca order working toward common social and Temple, and usually describe him (without mystic goals and closely connected with the giving his name) only as “a professional lin- Bektashi dervishes and with Abd al-Kader.

252 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 253 In the 1882 Annual Proceedings Rawson contributed a letter from James Grant, “physi- cian to the Khedive of Egypt,” who described the “elaborate preparations, costumes, and rehearsals” that accompanied the Shrine ritual in Cairo. Grant noted in passing that Rawson had been in Egypt that year (1882) and had also been there in 1874, when he had seen the order’s ritual performed.16 A letter of March 31, 1882, from James H. Clarke of Damascus listed the activities of the order there and added that all of the leaders of the Druzes were members of the Shrine.17 Rawson’s most striking contributions to the Annual Proceedings are his translations of two letters addressed to Fleming by “Abd-El-Kader Ben Makhi-Ed-Deen”—the Abd al-Kader mentioned by Paul Johnson. The first of these Abd al-Kader21 letters is undated but was apparently written in 1881. In it, Abd al-Kader expatiates on the Rawson’s services to the Shrine were recog- activities of his Shrine Temple—Temple Sala- nized at the ninth annual convocation in 1883, din—in Damascus, and adds that the Shrine when he and Florence were elected “Emeriti” was especially prominent among “the ancient members for their “eminent service” and Flor- and exclusive sect of the Druzes.”18 The second ence was added to the number of “Representa- letter, from Algiers and dated June 30, 1882, tives of the Temples in the East.”22 acknowledged the receipt from Fleming of Rawson’s contributions continued through the “translated histories” (presumably, given the 1880s, culminating with his list of 38 the date, the “Origin and History” written by temples abroad, stretching from Paris (where Rawson) and noted that Abd al-Kader had Thévenot, the Grand Secretary of the Grand twice met Florence19 —as he had similarly met Orient of France, was said to be Potentate) to Rawson.20 The same volume also carried elab- Benares.23 From these contributions we learn orate obituary tributes to Abd al-Kader, who bits and pieces of Rawson’s biography, includ- had died on May 26, 1883, all stressing his ing the fact, disclosed in his obituary of Ben- role as “Shereef of the Order Bektasheeyeh, jamin Perley Poore, that in 1858 he “was made or Mystic Shrine, of the Abd-el-Kader el Bag- a member of the four Scottish Rite bodies [that dadeeyeh.” is, the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite], through the friendly services of Grand Secre- tary Thévenot.”24

252 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 253 Times were changing, however, and there Nobles because they desire to share in the arose an Imperial Potentate who knew not glories of the Order. Such public recognition Rawson. In 1886 Fleming was replaced as in the current news of the day gives the Order a solid reputation indispensable in head of the Shrine, and by the early 1890s, the perpetuity of the Shrine.26 Rawson disappears from the Annual Proceed- ings—as does the early emphasis of the Shrine The letter concluded by asking that Rawson on the worldwide Bektashi organization of be given a (paying) position on the Imperial which it was supposedly a part.25 In October Council as Historian of the Shrine. Support- 1899 Rawson appears briefly in a letter to John ing letters were enclosed from Fleming and H. Atwood, the current Imperial Potentate of others, but the plea fell on deaf ears—though what by then had become an extensive (more Atwood did ask Rawson to undertake the pro- than 50,000 members) and powerful organi- posed work without compensation. zation that had no need of the early mythical history created by Rawson, Florence and Fleming.

I have the honor to refer to my past services in promoting the Mystic Shrine. Dr. Walter M. Fleming, Past Imperial Potentate, who first suggested the movement to follow the methods of the Bektash Dervishes of Arabia in Temple services in this country, asked me early to give him the benefit of experience that I had gained as an initi- ate of that Order of Moslem Reformers, and I translated their ritual, history, secret instructions, etc., for his use. The History of the A.A.O.N.M.S. was written by me, and I translated many letters from the Orient which were printed in proceedings in the early years until a change in the admin- istration of Shrine affairs dropped me as Historian and Foreign Correspondent. Since then, for a long series of years, no attention has been given to the death of Noble Shriners in Turkey, Egypt, or elsewhere in Albert Leighton Rawson27 the Orient, when a proper mention of such events would certainly now, as it has done in former times, be of great use to our Order, The change within the Shrine itself was because it gets us a hearing in the newspa- complete. The best history of the order com- pers and influences those who later become pletely rejects the Near Eastern antecedents

254 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 255 and connections of the Shrine and baldly states around the early T.S. the thought-provok- that “we doubt if in fact any real facts exist jus- ing presence of the Bektashi Dervishes—the tifying such statements.”28 In an argument ad freethinkers and Voltaireans of the Near East, hominem that has repercussions for the early intimates of the Druzes, with whom both history of the T.S., the authors argue that, if Rawson and H.P.B. let it be known they were the Shrine was really part of a vast, worldwide connected.33 organization, why hadn’t there been contact One other thing of interest to Theosophical with the foreign temples in recent years?29 The history emerges from the Annual Proceedings authors similarly dismiss Rawson: of the Imperial Council, and that is that the elusive George H. Felt not only was a member His work appears to have been that of Arabic of the Shrine and a 32° member of the Scottish expert and translator, and in no sense that Rite, but that, after his involvement in the early of author and originator; indeed it was not T.S., he had continued his explorations into until the death of the Founders that he ever claimed to be more, and did not become a graphical presentations of the mysteries. He member of the Order until the fourteenth had joined the Shrine in June 1877, as number session, some years later.30 62 on the rolls.34 In the Annual Proceedings Rawson at one time wanted some sort for 1884 Rawson prints a 1880 letter to him of pay for his part in the start and called from the orientalist Ernest Renan discussing upon me at a hotel in New York City on the esoteric revelations supposedly contained one occasion and gave me a very substantial account of the starting of the Order by “Bill in Gustave Doré’s illustrations for Michaud’s and Fleming,” and claimed that he (Rawson) History of the Crusades and revealing that wrote the Ritual and the story. Rawson told Doré had been initiated in the East.35 Next fol- this after Florence was dead [November 19, lows a letter, dated May 5, 1885, from Florence 1891], and when I afterward talked of this to “Ill. Noble Geo. Henry Felt,” expressing his to those of the original starters of Mecca gratitude to Felt for his discovery that Doré’s Temple and the original initiates into the Order at the hands of Fleming, they claimed engravings illustrated “the symbolism and that Rawson was simply working a little deal work of our Mystic Order.” of graft.31 [They] have photographed themselves so distinctly upon my mind that my impressions The last mention of Rawson in the Proceed- on first receiving those beautiful degrees in ings is in the necrology for 1903, which merely the far East are most distinctly and vividly notes his passing on November 15, 1902, as a recalled. I therein recognize perfect though member of Mecca Temple in New York.32 esoteric representations of those impressive The thesis of Paul Johnson’s books is well and romantic scenes, to which the genius of beyond the topic of this note, but I believe that this gifted artist has added wonderful, pic- turesque effects, bringing out in a startling the early history of the Shrine does cast sig- manner the hidden meaning of the obliga- nificant light on Rawson and on Abd al-Kader, tions and penalties.36 and also adds to the mixture of forces at work

254 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 255 This is followed by a long letter from Shrine and the T.S., which he joined in May Rawson to Fleming, illustrated by quarter-size 1878, Rawson was also creating another group outline engravings of four of Doré’s images, in along Near Eastern lines, the Sheikhs of the which Rawson claims Doré as a brother in the Dessert [sic], Guardians of the Kaaba, Guard- Shrine and exonerates him of the charge of ians of the Mystic Shrine, whose members revealing improperly the order’s secrets.37 included Charles Sotheran, John A. Weisse The period that witnessed the creation and, eventually, John Yarker—all well-known of the T.S. also saw the rise of a number of names in the early history of the T.S.—and other orders and brotherhoods with similar was also involved in the spurious Egyptian interests and claims, many of which adopted Masonic Rite of Memphis or Royal Masonic an oriental garb and many of whose member- Order (a Memphis and Misraim offshoot), that ships overlapped that of the T.S. The Shrine was foisted upon the Masonic world by Darius is one example of this, but not the only one. Wilson in the 1880s and also involved Weisse At the same time that he was involved in the and Sotheran.38 But that is another story.

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Notes

I wish to thank William D. Moore, former Director of the Livingston Masonic Library in New York. Without his personal knowledge and access to the unique books in that library I would not have been able to complete this paper.

1 The Masters Revealed: Madame Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge (Albany: SUNY Press, 1994), 25- 30, 68-70. Also on Rawson, see K. Paul Johnson, “Albert Leighton Rawson,” Theosophical History II/7 (July 1988): 229-51.

2 The reference to the Marabouts is found in the Dondou- koff-Korsakoff letters, written between 1881 and 1884, published in C. Jinarajadasa, ed., H.P.B. Speaks, 2 vols. (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1951), 2: 13f. In the letters, he says that she pursued her researches Albert Leighton Rawson

256 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 257 throughout the Near East, among the “whirling Dervishes, Orient, 1883). These Annual Proceedings are cited here- with the Druses of Mt. Lebanon, with the Bedouin Arabs after simply by their number and year. Beginning with and the Marabouts of Damascus,” all without avail. the proceedings for 1882, they were published within a year of the annual convocation, but the proceedings 3 On the life of Abd al-Kader, see Pierre Lataillade, for the first through the seventh annual meetings (1876- Abd el-Kader, adversaire et ami de la France (Paris: 1881), when the order was small and could ill afford Pygmalion/Gérard Watelet, 1984). There are also a great the expense of printed minutes, appear to have been number of nineteenth-century works on Abd al-Kader as published only in 1889 as a single pamphlet—a fact that the chivalrous opponent of the French, and he, like the at least permits the suspicion that they were altered to equally romantic Shamyl (who fought to liberate the Cau- reflect revisionist ideas. casus from the Russians and may also have connection with H.P.B.’s early life) was sought out by all European 6 Ninth Annual Proceedings (1883): 42, 50. Abd-el-Kader visitors and figures in their travel memoirs. A selection of el Bagdadee is not the Abd al-Kader discussed in this arti- Abd al-Kader’s writings has recently been published in cle, but was the (possibly mythical) dervish who founded English: Michel Chodkiewicz, ed., The Spiritual Writings the Bektashi in Aleppo in the early ninth century. of Amir ‘Abd al-Kader (Albany: SUNY Press, 1995). This is a translation of Ecrits spirituels published by Seuil in 7 This conflated account is based on two sources, both Paris in 1982. Excerpts from Abd al-Kader’s writings are of which depend on and reflect the earliest history of the also available as “The Spiritual Writings of al-Kader,” http: Shrine, written by Rawson and probably first published //www.digiserve.com/mystic/Muslim/al-Kader. about 1878, which is now lost. The first is Edward M.L. Ehlers, “The Mystic Shrine in Europe,” Eighth Annual 4 See Robert Morris, Freemasonry In The Holy Land. Proceedings (1882): 47-49. Ehlers’ history is suppos- Or, Handmarks Of Hiram’s Builders: Embracing Notes edly his translation of a report in the transactions of the Made During A Series Of Masonic Researches, In 1868, Grand Lodge of Berlin in 1879, which in turn was said to In Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt And Europe, And have first appeared in the Transactions of the Supreme The Results Of Much Correspondence With Freemasons Council of Belgium in 1877-78. I have seen neither of In Those Countries (1872; 10th ed. Chicago: Knight & these, but his version is obviously related in structure Leonard, 1876), 572-95. Morris, an enterprising figure and content to the second source of the account given who raised money by prospectus from Masonic lodges in the text—the “Origin and History” of the order. Refer- in the South and Midwest for his trip to Palestine in ences to this first appear in the Annual Proceedings for 1868, illustrates his book with sketches by Rawson, “the 1880, where the assembly voted to publish the “Origin Oriental Artist,” and repeatedly thanks him as “a thor- and History.” This seems not to have been done, and the ough explorer in Eastern Fields” for his help with the next year a resolution was passed that “the revised His- book. Our Abd al-Kader is not the same as the magician tory of the Order” be issued to the Recorder. In 1883, the of the same name who figures in the spiritualist press Grand Recorder announced the issuance of this “Origin and in Lane. See “To Daimon,” “Magical Practices of the and History,” “compiled and translated from the origi- Orient,” Spiritual Telegraph 7/51 (April 16, 1859): 502, nal sources by Noble Albert L. Rawson.” Ninth Annual and Edward William Lane, An Account of the Manners Proceedings (1883): 26. A reprint of this is most conve- and Customs of The Modern Egyptians (1836; New York: niently available as “A.A.O.N.M.S., Ancient Arabic Order Dover, 1973), 263-65. The magician was Abd el-Kader el of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Origin and History,” in Maghbabee. William B. Melish, ed., The History of the Imperial Coun- cil Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for 5 William J. Florence, “History of the Mystic Shrine,” North America, Second Edition 1872-1921 (Cincinnati: Eighth Annual Proceedings, June 7, 1882, Imperial The Committee, 1921), 36-40. Citations to the “Origin and Council, Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic History” in these notes is to this version with the pagina- Shrine for the United States of America (New York: Grand tion given by Melish. The same text, with minor changes

256 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 257 usually relating to the role and prominence of Rawson, the old and very strict laws of Islam” and that “[t]he recently underlies the standard early histories of the Shrine pub- formed Order of the Bektashy in America, or the Nobles lished by individual lodges, though without attribution to of the Mystic Shrine, is devoid of all Islamism, and is in Rawson. See, e.g., History of Palestine Temple, Ancient harmony with the Christian ideas and the laws of Amer- Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Proceeded ica.” Ehlers, “The Mystic Shrine in Europe,” Eighth Annual by a History of the Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Proceedings (1882): 48, 49. See also “Origin and History,” Mystic Shrine and of the Imperial Council, A.A.O.N.M.S. 37 (Christians, Jews and Muslims freely admitted). Rawson for North America (Boston: Hall Publishing Co., 1913). was fundamentally a freethinker with mystical overtones, The text was also reprinted in 1894 by Mecca Temple in but he may have preferred Islam to Christianity as a purer, New York City, where its compilation and collation was simpler form of religion. He claimed to have visited Mecca credited to Walter M. Fleming and William S. Paterson. and seems on good evidence to have been a student at Mecca Temple. Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the one point at Al-Azhar in Cairo. See Rawson, “Letters from Mystic Shrine. Its History and Pleasures, Together With the East,” Twelfth Annual Proceedings (1886), 82-83, The Origin and History of the Order (New York: Press which reprints a letter from Zoolfikar Fauzee, a supposed of Andrew H. Kellogg, 1894). Given the obvious rela- Shriner at Cairo, recalling that he had sat by his “side in tionship between this “Origin and History” and Ehlers’ the school of Fickee Hoseyn ibn El-Homam, at the Col- earlier summary, the two together probably approximate lege (Madrasay) of El-Azhar, Cairo, thirty-three years ago . Rawson’s original version. Melish, the mainstay of the . . “—that is, in 1855. In the 1890s Rawson, with Alexander revisionist Shrine historians, says that the “Origin and Russell (Mohammed) Webb, organized the first circles of History” was “evidently written with a view of preserv- the Muslim Brotherhood in New York City. See Nadirah ing in tangible form the fictitious legendary origin of the Florence Ives Osman, “Alexander Russell Webb,” http: Order which was used by the original founders to make //www.muslim.org/islam/webb1.htm. Webb (1846-1916) it attractive to those who reveled in mysticism.” Melish, was a journalist and newspaper owner who joined the History of the Imperial Council, 36. Theosophical Society in the 1880s and then, while Consul General of the U.S. in the Philippines, converted to Islam. 8 Fifteenth Annual Proceedings (1889): 83, reprinting a After extensive travels in the East, he returned to New portion of an annual report that had first appeared in the York in 1893, where he organized circles of the Muslim proceedings for 1887. The author was John Worthington, Brotherhood with Rawson and lectured before the New American Consul in Malta, who wrote vast letters for the York T.S., and then went on to spread Islam at the World’s Annual Proceedings throughout the 1880s, describing the Parliament of Religions in Chicago. glories and activities of the Shrine/Bektash around the Mediterranean for the American brothers of the order. 11 History of Palestine Temple, 4-5. In other places he specified that fragments of the ritual were also given him 9 See Rawson, “The Mystic Shrine in Persia,” Ninth by Oswald Merle D’Aubigne and Sherwood C. Camp- Annual Proceedings (1883): 44 (transmitting to the Impe- bell. Fleming, “Annual Address,” Second Annual Session rial Council an article of that name written by the Rev. (1877): 10-14. The “authority” claimed apparently came P.Z. Easton, a missionary in Persia and a member of the from Rizk Allah Hassoon in England. See, e.g., History of Shrine, for the Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Palestine Temple, 5. Knowledge); “Origin and History,” 39. The “Origin and History,” hints largely at the “secret and real purpose” of 12 Annual Proceedings, 1876-1881 (New York: Grand the order, known only to the initiated, and at the “secret Orient, 1889): 10-11. The same phrase, again without knowledge” symbolized by the crescent, the Shrine’s Rawson’s name, appears in Walter M. Fleming, “Introduc- main symbol. “Origin and History,” 36, 39. tion of the Mystic Shrine Into The Western Hemisphere,” Eighth Annual Proceedings (1882): 46 (supposedly 10 The Shrine was always careful to emphasize for its reprinting remarks delivered by Fleming at the convoca- American audience that “[t]he Bektashy is little in favor of tion for 1877).

258 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 259 13 “Origin and History,” 39. Subsequent versions of this 19 Ninth Annual Proceedings (1883): 50-51. same material occasionally omit Rawson’s name. See, e.g., The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic 20 Ninth Annual Proceedings (1883): 8. Shrine for North America (Peoria: H. Frank Brown, n.d. [c. 1904]), 19, or transpose Rawson to the end of the 21 From Morris, Freemasonry In The Holy Land, 547. series: “together with Albert L. Rawson, 32°, the Arabic Rawson did not make the sketch, which is from a French Translator.” See Mecca Temple, 9. photograph, though he may have made the engraving for Morris’s book. 14 The annual rosters for Mecca Temple give the information. See, e.g., Register, 1881: Mecca Temple, New York, 22 Ninth Annual Proceedings (1883): 28, 62. N.Y.; Director’s Register, 1888: Mecca Temple, New York, N.Y.; Director’s Register, 1892: Mecca Temple, New York, 23 Fourteenth Annual Proceedings (1888): 52. He was N.Y., all n.p., n.d. See also Melish, History of the Imperial listed among the Emeriti at least as late as 1891. He was Council, 31. The date Rawson joined the Shrine may be also named to various committees, most notably that on significant. Olcott records that on April 17, 1878, he and ritual, in recognition of his past work in preparing the Sotheran and “one or two other high Masons” discussed Shrine rituals. making the T.S. a Masonic body, “the idea being that it would form a natural complement to the higher degrees 24 of the craft, restoring to it the vital element of Oriental Albert L. Rawson, “Benjamin Perley Poore,” Thirteenth mysticism which it lacked or had lost.” Old Diary Leaves Annual Proceedings (1887): 52. Thévenot also figures in (Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974), 468. Rawson’s account of H.P.B.’s travels. He states intrigu- There is no indication, however, that Olcott, Charles ingly that “Madame visited Paris on her way to New Sotheran, Abner Doubleday, W.Q. Judge or any of the York, and compared notes with Thevenot, Grand Secre- other leading lights in the early T.S. was a member of the tary of the Grand Orient of France, and astonished that Shrine. Sotheran was a 32° Mason, but in the irregular very learned and highly advanced Freemason by her Antient and Primitive Rite of John Yarker, which probably knowledge of the secrets of the degrees in one branch to would not have been recognized by the Shrine. See Stat- the Thirty-third, and in another to the Ninety-fifth. “A.L. utes and Regulations of the Imperial Council, section xxx, Rawson, “Mme. Blavatsky. A Theosophical Occult Apol- which requires that members be either Knights Templars ogy,” Frank Leslie’s American Magazine 33 (February or 32nd degree members of the Ancient and Accepted 1892), reprinted in Theosophical History II/6 (April 1988): Scottish Rite “of a regular Supreme Council.” Later this 209-220. The year is unstated, but if it was 1858—and was amended to make it clear that the only “regular” we know from other sources that H.P.B. was in Paris councils were those of the Northern and Southern juris- in that year—it gives us a solid anchor for an event in diction in the United States. H.P. Blavatsky’s biography, and another name (Poore’s) to add to our research investigations. (Poore was editor of the Congressional Record and a friend and associate 15 E.g., Eighth Annual Proceedings (1882): 55-60, 62. of Albert Pike.) Thévenot also plays an important but

16 ambiguous role in the Rite of Memphis (the Antient and Eighth Annual Proceedings (1882): 54-56. Primitive Rite), whose feminine grades John Yarker later bestowed on H.P.B. I explore this matter at more length 17 Eighth Annual Proceedings (1882): 57-58. in my contribution to the Festschrift to be presented to Ted Davy. The annual Registers for Mecca Temple, see 18 Eighth Annual Proceedings (1882): 59-60. For Rawson’s above, show Rawson as a 32° Mason, a membership careful hints about his and H.P.B.’s initiation into a secret that was apparently “regular” even though Rawson was brotherhood among the Druzes, see Isis Unveiled, 2: 313- heavily involved with fringe and irregular Scottish Rite 15, and John Patrick Deveney, Paschal Beverly Randolph Masonry. See “Dr. Wilson Exonerated,” Masonic World (Albany: SUNY Press, 1996), chapter 13. 3/9 (February 1886), which recites an affidavit given by

258 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 259 Rawson “32° A.A.S.R.”—that is, a member of the regular non-Europeans were filtered through Rawson as trans- Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. lator—and we are at his mercy for what they actually contained—the “Foreign Correspondence” in the Annual 25 In addition to the changes in the Shrine’s own percep- Proceedings undoubtedly demonstrates the existence of tion of itself and to the changing of the Shrine’s leader- a widespread organization whose members felt a kinship ship, the minimalization of Rawson’s role may be due to with the Shrine. The “whole cloth” theory of Shrine ori- his close association in the 1880s with the radical free- gins can not be seriously maintained. love, free-speech organizations formed to combat the tireless Anthony Comstock and to the revelation in 1879 30 Melish, History of the Imperial Council, 30. In fact, the that Rawson was both a bigamist and a felon. most prominent of the founders, Fleming, died only in 1913, and Rawson joined the Shrine in 1878. 26 Twenty-Sixth Annual Proceedings (1900): 29-30. The Annual Proceedings in fact reflect that Rawson was 31 Melish, History of the Imperial Council, 30, quoting a occasionally paid for his early labors. See, e.g., Ninth letter written by Saram R. Ellison in 1914. Annual Proceedings (1883): 36, which shows a disburse- ment of $25 to Rawson for correspondence. Rawson 32 Twenty-Eighth Annual Proceedings (1903): 127. This deserved his pay, since it is practically certain that he apparent minimizing of Rawson (and of the Bektashi) was responsible for the beautiful Arabic calligraphy on extended, at least initially, to Florence as well, who, the cover pages of the Annual Proceedings and of the when he died in 1891, merited only a brief and unillu- Statutes and Regulations of the Imperial Council, Ancient minating obituary. “William Jermyn Florence, 32°,” Eigh- Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for the teenth Annual Proceedings (1892): 39. United States (New York, 1882). The calligraphy served its 33 The only references by H.P.B. to the Bektashis that I purpose—to enhance the glamour of the order—but the know of are a brief mention in Isis Unveiled, 2: 316 (on Arabic itself is less than perfect, as has been pointed out the Bektashis initiating the Janissaries, citing John Yarker, to me by various educated native-speakers of Arabic. The of all people, as authority) and in “The Akhund of Swat. translation into Arabic is itself interesting. The English The Founder of Many Mystical Societies,” BCW, 1/369-75, reads: “The Imperial Council, Ancient Arabic Order of 370, where she says that the “Biktashee Dervishes” rec- the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine.” Rawson’s Arabic reads ognized the Akhund’s primacy. The Bektashi Dervishes (ignoring grammatical lapses): “Imperial Council, Ancient are Shiite in inclination (as was Rawson) and antinomian, Arabic Brotherhood, Nobles of the Secret Mosque.” At adhering to the Unwritten Law rather than to the Sharia, some point after Rawson’s death, the Shrine had the cal- drinking wine in their secret rituals and paying lip-ser- ligraphy re-done more grammatically and in a more fluid vice at best to the five principal precepts of Islam. They script. See the “revised translation into Arabic” in History are traditionally said to be derived from the teachings of of Palestine Temple. Hajji Bektash, an Anatolian Sufi of the fourteenth century, but their origin and early history are obscure. From an 27 Morris, Freemasonry In The Holy Land, 364, reprinted early date they were associated with the Janissaries, and (as are all the other plates by Rawson in Morris’s book) suffered from their destruction in 1826. By the mid-nine- in Henry R. Coleman, Light from the East. Travels and teenth century, however, they again emerged from obscu- Researches in Bible Lands in Pursuit of More Light in rity and were widespread in the Muslim world, especially Masonry (Louisville, KY: Author, 1881). in Anatolia and the Balkans. By universal repute, the Bektashi were the freethinkers of the Middle East. See 28 Melish, History of the Imperial Council, 9. John R. Brown, The Dervishes of the Orient, Or Oriental Spiritualism, 2nd ed. (Frank Cass & Co., 1968), 162-224. 29 An argument that ignores the undoubted fact of The association with freethought was so strong that, after earlier contact with Near Eastern temples, recorded all the fall of the Sultanate and the rise of the secular govern- through the 1880s. Even though most of the letters from ment of Kemal Ataturk, one of the Bektashi wrote a book

260 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 261 claiming, in the words of Marshall Hodgson, “that the rev- on. In 1885 Wilson started a Rose Croix Chapter of his olution was fulfilling the egalitarian and freethinking aims Egyptian Masonic Rite of Memphis in New York with which the Bektashis had had all along, so that there was Rawson as “Most Wise.” International Masonic Review. A now no longer any need for a separate Bektashi organi- Monthly Family Magazine Devoted to Masonic Literature zation . . . .” Hodgson, The Venture of Islam, volume 3, and News 1/1 (March 1885): 44. This journal was run by The Gunpowder Empires and Modern Times (Chicago and one of Wilson’s archenemies, C.C. Burt, who ran his own London: University of Chicago Press, 1974), 269. It may Rite of Memphis. It denounced Wilson as “that Prince of have been this adherence of the Bektashi to the “Unwrit- Masonic Rite Peddling humbug,” and called Rawson “32°, ten Law” that prompted Sabbatai Zvi, on his conversion, 33°, 90°, 96°” “the Assine L. Rawson,” and sarcastically to affiliate himself with them. said of the relationship that “‘Dr. Darius Wilson’ is the only legal and true Grand Master, and . . . A.L. Rawson 34 Felt first appears in the annual Registers for Mecca is his prophet.” International Masonic Review. A Monthly Temple in 1886, which may indicate that, while he was Family Magazine Devoted to Masonic Literature and an early member of the Shrine, he came later to Mecca News 1/5 (July 1885): 55. Rawson, in fact, worked closely Temple. The Address of the Illustrious Potentate (New with Wilson and annotated his disquisition on the “Royal York: Mecca Temple, 1912), 71, lists another Felt, George Masonic Rite and Masonic Antiquities.” See Wilson’s L. Felt, number 10781, as a Shriner from New York. This Masonic World 2/9 (February 1885). Rawson’s Rose Croix may be some relative of our Felt. Chapter was Isis Chapter, No. 515, in Manhattan, whose members included Weisse. Rawson eventually designed 35 Tenth Annual Proceedings (1884): 50. Felt’s involve- “A Gorgeous Lodge Room” for Wilson’s chapter in New ment in the Shrine may have been professional as well Haven, Connecticut, with elaborate Egyptian and Hindu as personal, since the Annual Proceedings record a pay- symbolism. Masonic World 4/2 (July 1886). In 1887, ment to “Felt & Co.” for bond paper for charters in 1880. Wilson bought a variety of charters, including one for Seventh Annual Proceedings (1881): 18. the “Crescent Sakkha and Sat B’Hai, or the original Mystic Shrine,” which he advertised as the Indian original of the Ancient Arabic Order of the Mystic Shrine that we have 36 Seventh Annual Proceedings (1881): 51. been discussing, and tried, without much success, to propagate in America. Masonic World 4/11 (April 1887). 37 Rawson, “The Mystic Shrine and Gustave Dore,” Sev- Sotheran’s connection with Wilson is more tenuous, but enth Annual Proceedings (1881): 52-55. Doré was in no the Masonic World reprinted Sotheran’s famous lecture position to reply, since he had died in 1883. The refer- on Cagliostro. Charles Sotheran, “Count Alessandro di ence is to Joseph François Michaud, History of the Cru- Cagliostro 96°, Grand Master of the Egyptian Masonic sades, 2 vols. (Philadelphia: George Barrie, n.d. [c. 1885]). Rite of Memphis from 1776 to 1795,” Masonic World 1/5 The four engravings singled out by Rawson are: “The (October 1883) through 1/8 (January 1884). Baptism of Infidels” (vol. 2, facing p. 42); “St. Francis of Assise Endeavours to Convert Sultan Melic-Kamel” (vol. 2, facing p. 34); “Richard Coeur de Lion in Reprisal Mas- sacres Captives” (vol. 1, facing p. 246); and “The Emir’s Head Shown in the Seraglio” (vol. 1, facing p. 162). The supposed esoteric symbolism is not apparent.

38 On the Guardians of the Mystic Shrine, see John Yarker, “The Order of Ishmael or B’nai Ismael,” Rosicru- cian Brotherhood (1907): 262-63. From the dates given by Yarker, the group must have been formed in the late 1870s or very early 1880s. Darius Wilson is worthy of his own study, which William D. Moore and I are working

260 Nobles of the Secret Mosque Theosophical History VIII/9 261 Book Reviews

The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky: only met Blavatsky once, as well as by people Insights into the Life of a Modern Sphinx. who knew her well. The book is enhanced by Collected by Daniel H. Caldwell. Wheaton, Illi- the inclusion of many photographs of Blavatsky nois and Chennai (Madras), India: Theosophi- and those who knew her. If you read Caldwell’s cal Publishing House, 2000. Pp. x + 451 with collection from start to finish, you will be biographical sketches, suggested readings, treated to a fascinating tour of Blavatsky’s life: references, and index. ISBN 0-8356-0794-1 her childhood and adolescence in Russia, her (hard). $28.95 (hard). Originally published as travels as a young woman to many places in The Occult World of Madame Blavatsky. Col- the world, the beginnings of the Theosophical lected by Daniel H. Caldwell. Tucson, Arizona: Society in the United States, her crucial years in Impossible Dream Publications, 1991. India, and her further travels in Europe ending with her final years in London. For those who his book is not a critical review of Madame believe that Blavatsky was the representative of TBlavatsky’s life. Scholarly treatments of the Masters appointed to bring ancient wisdom Blavatsky by non-Theosophists are virtually to the modern world, as well as those who are absent from the excerpts and selected readings, curious about this highly controversial figure, although a few are included. Instead, this book this book is a welcome addition to the volu- is a celebration of the life and esoteric spiri- minous literature on Blavatsky. Caldwell has tuality of Blavatsky, co-founder, with Colonel done us a great service in bringing together Henry Steel Olcott, of the Theosophical Soci- these excerpts in a single volume. This book is ety. In 133 selections contained in twenty-two indeed a fitting tribute to his efforts over thirty chapters, Daniel H. Caldwell has amassed the years to collect and study the documents per- published observations and musings of many taining to Blavatsky. of the most important individuals who knew However, no book is perfect, no matter and worked with Blavatsky. The reader can find how devoted or well-meaning the author (or reflections by Annie Besant, Alice L. Cleather, in this case the collector). The Esoteric World Franz Hartmann, William Q. Judge, Archibald of Madame Blavatsky suffers from too many Keightley, Bertram Keightley, Damodar K. Blavatsky watchers saying the same thing. How Mavalankar, G. R. S. Mead, Colonel Olcott, A. often do we need to be reminded that Blavatsky P. Sinnett, Constance Wachmeister, and Vera P. rolled her own cigarettes from a supply of Zhelihovsky. A host of others are also included, tobacco and cigarette papers that she always some anonymously. Caldwell’s collection has kept on her person? How frequently must we excerpts from articles or books by people who be convinced that she performed psychic phe-

262 Book Review: The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky Theosophical History VIII/9 263 nomena that delighted the shallow-minded and are never presented to us untouched by a later convinced the more introspective among her interpreter. By including certain texts in spe- visitors that her worldview was genuine? The cific ways, Caldwell provides for us a frame of repetition of details from many people may reference with which to understand Blavatsky. confirm for the researcher that such details are That frame of reference is quite partisan. important, but for the casual as well as more Caldwell makes no pretense otherwise. But intentional readers of this volume, such repeti- that means that he presents some aspects of tion detracts from an overall appreciation of the Blavatsky’s life in a partisan way. The Hodg- book…and possibly of Blavatsky. son report is the best example. To his credit, Furthermore, an implicit organizing prin- Caldwell allows Hodgson to speak in his own ciple of the book seems to be that these texts words. But our enthusiastic Australian inves- speak for themselves. The collector’s contribu- tigator for the Society for Psychical Research tions consist of a brief preface and very brief (SPR) is a soloist competing with a chorus of introductions to each chapter. Otherwise he Blavatsky’s defenders. Caldwell gives the other gets out of the way so that his historical sources side of the debate, the anti-SPR side, more can tell us their stories about Blavatsky. That’s than ample representation, complete with a sound pedagogical and scholarly strategy. website addresses for those desiring additional Students should be given primary texts to work ammunition in the ongoing battle to contest with, to ascertain for themselves the value of the Hodgson report. those texts, to find in them their own insights. Another way that the partisan perspective That being said, it is worth remembering that of the collector may not help literally everyone this collection, like any published anthology of who comes to this volume is in the assumed primary documents, is edited. That is, Caldwell definition of esotericism. Caldwell says in the has already done some interpreting for us. He preface that this book gives us “a special look has selected some texts, not others. And he at the “Esoteric World” in which she [Blavatsky] has selected portions of certain texts. In many lived” (ix). The excerpts therefore point to the instances he even collated them into a single esoteric aspects of Blavatsky’s life rather than excerpt, whereas in the original that informa- focusing on the exoteric or outward details. tion appeared at different places in the text. The latter would include information about What we have, then, is Caldwell’s interpretation when she went where; whom she met or of the most important voices among those who wrote and why; and what she accomplished met and/or knew Blavatsky. The sequence in in terms of organization, publications, and which those individuals appear on the stage other aspects of her work. For Theosophical of Blavatsky’s life is determined by him. It is readers, this focus on the esoteric seems obvi- a fairly recognizable and standard sequence, ous. But for those unfamiliar with Theosophy, and I have no qualms with Caldwell’s handling the collector has provided no hint as to what of the material. But I mention the fact of his “esoteric” means. Many readers will wonder editing as a reminder that primary documents why so much attention is paid to psychic phe-

262 Book Review: The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky Theosophical History VIII/9 263 nomena, Blavatsky’s critique of Spiritualism, World of Madame Blavatsky will undoubtedly her relationship with Masters, and other com- be a standard work in Blavatskian bibliogra- ponents of her “Esoteric World.” phies for many years to come. Not only will In addition, we are not provided with much it provide the sources that future researchers detail about the actual teachings of that “Eso- need for their own work on Blavatsky, the teric World.” By the end of her life, Blavatsky early Theosophical movement, and the late- had become an ardent advocate of the world- nineteenth century world in which she lived, view of Theosophy, attempting (sometimes but it will give the general reader a vivid sense in vain) to shift the attention of potential as of Blavatsky as others knew and experienced well as actual members of the Theosophical her. She remains among the most remarkable Society away from psychic phenomena and figures of her era. She posed strikingly dra- toward the deeper teachings of the ancient matic and potent challenges to cultural con- wisdom. Like many spiritual teachers before formity. As a woman she defied gender-based her, Blavatsky faced an uphill climb. Students, conventions. As a Westerner she articulated a followers, and curiosity seekers couldn’t take complex engagement with Asians and Asian their gaze off the amazing, and for Western- thought systems. And as a spiritual teacher ers that usually meant as well the Oriental as she provided for many thoughtful middle- and seen through a highly distorted cultural lens. upper-class Americans and Europeans, as well But this volume doesn’t give us much of that as educated Indians, new ways to understand worldview, that teaching, which Blavatsky her- the cosmos and their places in it. Caldwell self on numerous occasions pointed toward. helps us to appreciate, then, what this first This volume would have been strengthened by generation of Theosophists appreciated: the including the teachings that Blavatsky passed radical nature of Blavatsky’s affect on those along to her students, information about the around her. Whether you believe her teachings Masters, rounds and races, elementals and or not, that affect cannot be disputed. elementaries, and other aspects of Theosophy. Although much of this information was, at the time, considered privileged (only for members W. Michael Ashcraft of the Esoteric Section or School), there was Truman State University much in Theosophical teaching known to Kirksville, MO 63501-4221 those both within and without Blavatsky’s inner circles that could have been included in * * * this volume. Despite these criticisms, I nonetheless rec- ommend this book as an extremely useful col- The Golden Dawn Source Book. Edited, with lection of primary documents about Blavatsky. an Introduction by Darcy Küntz. Edmonds, There is nothing else in the literature about WA: Holmes Publishing Group, 1996. Pp. 223. Theosophy’s history quite like it. The Esoteric ISBN 1558183310 (paper ed.). $22.95.

264 Book Review: The Golden Dawn Theosophical History VIII/9 265 The Golden Dawn Source Works: A Bib- The Bibliography lists 400 items many of liography. Compiled, with notes, by Darcy which are sub-divided, and the total number Küntz. Edmonds, WA: Holmes Publishing of references is probably close to double this Group, 1996. Pp. 47. ISBN 1558183345. $9.95. number. While as a general rule few such compilations are completely exhaustive, this A Chronology of the Golden Dawn: Being one is probably as thorough as was possible A Chronological History of a Magical at the time of printing. Needless to say, with Order 1378-1994. Compiled by Mary Greer fresh articles constantly appearing, revised and Darcy Küntz. Edmonds, WA: Holmes Pub- editions will no doubt by forthcoming as the lishing Group, 1996. Pp. 52. $9.95. years go on. The Chronology begins in 1378 C.E., with he Golden Dawn Studies Series consists the “Birth of Christian Rosenkreuz,” and con- Tof 32 volumes, 25 of which are already cludes with Golden Dawn events in the 1990s. published. The subjects covered in the series For most readers the entries of principal inter- include Golden Dawn ritual and history; and est are those of the 19th and early 20th centu- some of the publications are reprints of writ- ries, which together form a capsule Golden ings by early Golden Dawn members. The Dawn history. This is valuable in setting out above titles are Numbers 2,4, and 11 respec- the events that led to the formation and early tively in the Series, the General Editor of history of an important movement in modern which is Darcy Küntz. While the whole series occultism. The activities, year by year, of some is a valuable source of information, these three of the principal members are of especial inter- publications should be of particular interest to est. Of these, Dr. W. Wynn Westcott, a member students of Theosophical history. of H.P. Blavatsky’s Inner Group, and S.L. Mac- The Source Book is especially useful as a Gregor Mathers, another early Theosophist, reference volume. Part I, “The Golden Dawn provided much of the energy that went into Letters and Articles” contains numerous the founding of the Golden Dawn. The com- extracts from early correspondence pertinent pilers are to be commended for showing that to the founding and early years of the Order, the movement did not germinate and grow in followed by later letters and articles. Part II, isolation, but in a generally fertile occult era. In “The Commentaries of the Early History of the this regard it is fitting that the founding of the Golden Dawn” is a selection of modern schol- Theosophical and Hermetic Societies, and the arly articles (1970 onwards). Finally, Part III, “A publication of Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doc- Golden Dawn Cross Index “ is a list of Golden trine are included in the chronology of events. Dawn members with their mottoes. This is probably the most complete membership list Ted G. Davy that has so far been compiled, and it is inter- Calgary, Alberta, Canada esting to see the names of many T.S. members who were active in the 1890s and later. * * * * *

264 Book Review: The Golden Dawn Theosophical History VIII/9 265 THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY: OCCASIONAL PAPERS (ISBN 1-883279-00-3) Editor: James A. Santucci

VOLUME I Witness for the Prosecution: Annie Besant’s Testimony on Behalf of H.P. Blavatsky in the N.Y. Sun/Coues Law Case Introduction by Michael Gomes

VOLUME II Joan Grant: Winged Pharaoh By Jean Overton Fuller

VOLUME III Ammonius Saccas and His Eclectic Philosophy as Presented by Alexander Wilder By Dr. Jean-Louis Siémons

VOLUME IV W.T. Brown’s “Scenes in My Life” Introduction by Michael Gomes

VOLUME V Krishnamurti and the World Teacher Project: Some Theosophical Perceptions By Govert Schüller

VOLUME VI Astral Projection or Liberation of the Double and the Work of the Early Theosophical Society By John Patrick Deveney

VOLUME VII Cyril Scott and a Hidden School: Towards the Peeling of an Onion By Jean Overton Fuller

VOLUME VIII Franz Hartmann’s Some Fragments of the Secret History of the Theosophical Society Introduction by Robert Hütwohl

VOLUME IX The Unseen Worlds of Emma Hardinge Britten: Some Chapters in the History of Western Occultism By Robert Mathiesen