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Excerpt in The American Theosophist, May, 1953

Idyll of the White Lotus is one of the best-known occult works of Mabel Collins published in 1884.

Content

The preface to the book offers the following description:

The ensuing pages contain a story which has been told in all ages and among every people. It is the tragedy of the Soul. Attracted by Desire, the ruling element in the lower nature of Man, it stoops to sin; brought to itself by suffering, it turns for help to the redeeming Spirit within, and in the final sacrifice achieves its apotheosis and sheds a blessing on mankind.

The book was also advertised as "The career of the soul in story form. This novel is based on a past life of one of the Masters, and depicts the Egyptian priesthood in its work, its magic and its initiations."

Writing history

The author had started writing the book The Idyll of the White Lotus prior to her Theosophical connections. N. D. Khandalavala recounted this story as follows:

An obelisk from Egypt called "Cleopatra’s Needle" was brought to England and put up on the bank of the Thames, opposite which there lived a lady in a little house. Looking out of her window every day at the obelisk, she used now and then to see strange-looking men coming out of the monument, as it were, dressed in a peculiar garb. She used to make her living by writing small novels. One day, while she was at work at her writing table, she saw a row of priests dressed in white passing by her side and she went into a sort of trance, but her hand went on working and sheet after sheet was written in a different hand. This went on for several days, and half of the book named The Idyll of the White Lotus was written, and then the writing stopped. A Jewish relative of hers used to watch her while this curious phenomenon was taking place.

Mabel claimed that during the writing of the book, "she had been absolutely taken from her body in order that her hand and pen might be used by another intelligence."

Years later, upon joining the TS, she showed the unfinished manuscript to H. S. Olcott, then visiting Europe with H. P. Blavatsky. Mabel told him that the text was written either in trance or under dictation by an unseen character, but the inspiration had ceased. Col. Olcott recommended that, if she had ever thought of making money by publishing the book, she should give up such a thought and try again. She did so and the writing of the Idyll was completed in the same manner by automatic writing. According to her, it was dictated by the Master Hilarion, which was also reflected in the dedication statement: "To the True Author, the inspirer of this work, it is dedicated."

Regarding the inspirer of the book, H. P. Blavatsky stated that it was "one who became an adept only in 1886." She also said:

When I met her, she had just completed the Idyll of the White Lotus, which, as she stated to Colonel Olcott, had been dictated to her by some "mysterious person." Guided by her description, we both recognized an old friend of ours, a Greek, and no Mahatma, though an Adept; further developments proving we were right.

Three Great Truths

The book is well known as the source of the Three Great Truths, which are presented in chapter 8 as follows:

There are three truths which are absolute, and which cannot be lost, but yet may remain silent for lack of speech.

The soul of man is immortal, and its future is the future of a thing whose growth and splendour has no limit.

The principle which gives life dwells in us and without us, is undying and eternally beneficent, is not heard or seen, or smelt, but is perceived by the man who desires perception. Each man is his own absolute lawgiver, the dispenser of glory or gloom to himself; the decreer of his life, his reward, his punishment.

These truths, which are as great as is life itself, are as simple as the simplest mind of man. Feed the hungry with them.

According to Albert Powell Warrington:

The Theosophic viewpoint has never been better summed up than in the Three Great Truths which first appeared in The Idyl of the White Lotus.

These truths gained widespread recognition, often appearing individually on plaques and broadsheets, and were frequently cited by theosophical speakers.

Publication history

The work was first published in The Banner of Light and later released in book form in 1884, followed by numerous subsequent editions.

• The Idyll of the White Lotus. London: Reeves and Turner, 1884. First Edition. Available online at Google Books.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. The Gnostic. Oakland, CA.: Published by George Chutney and Anna Kimball, vo. 1. no 1. (July 1885) - vo.1 no.10 (April 1988)). (In serialized form, Chapters 1-9. Issues available at IAPSAP)
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. New York: John W. Lovell Company, 1890. "Together with an Epitome of theosophical teachings and Esoteric philosophy, by Wiliam P. Judge [sic]." Available online at Internet Archive.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1896. Available online at Google Books in two versions [5] [6].
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. New York: The Metaphysical Publishing Co., 1900. Available online at Google Books.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. New York: Theosophical Publishing Co., 1907. Available online at Internet Archive and at Google Books.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1910. Third edition.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1919. Fourth edition. Available online at Internet Archive.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. Wheaton, Il.: Theosophical Press, 1932.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. Adyar: Theosophical Publishing House, 1933. Fifth edition.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1946. Sixth edition.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1952. Seventh edition.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1973. Ninth edition.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. Wheaton, Il.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1974 Re-Quest Book edition. Available to borrow at Internet Archive.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 2000.

The book was later followed by The Story of Sensa. An Interpretation of the Idyll of the White Lotus by Mable Collins and was also adapted into a play by Maud Hoffman under the title Sensa, a Mystery Play in Three Acts.

Idyll of the White Lotus was widely read by theosophists and translated into various languages, including French, German, Italian, Slovenian, Spanish, and Finnish.

Translations and Reception

The earliest interpretation attempts were conducted in 1886 by T. Subba Row, who emphasized the book’s symbolism in his commentary The Idyll of the White Lotus published in The Theosophist under the pen name The Solar Sphinx and later reprinted multiple times, and in 1892, by an anonymous author, whose commentary "The Idyll of the White Lotus. An attempted interpretation" appeared in The Theosophist as a reprint from the Sphinx (January 1890).. Upon its publication, Henry Steel Olcott left a remarkable Editor's Note:

The reader should not fail to read the late T. Subba Row’s analysis of “The Idyll of the White Lotus,” written under the nom de plume “Solar Sphinx” in the July and August (1886) Numbers of this Magazine. He interprets the work from the point of view of Hindu Esotericism; so that by comparing his views with those of the Sphinx writer, one ought to get a pretty deep insight into this charming and most subtle allegory, whose visible author only held the pen to transcribe another’s thoughts. There is a curious history connected with the writing of this book, its completion having been coincident with our visit to London in 1884, and brought about by it. I must tell the story in my “Old Diary Leaves. H.S.O.

Preparing the latter material for publication, Rai B. K. Laheri wrote about the work and the commentary:

...it seems to me by far the best and most complete interpretation that has yet appeared of one of the most suggestive, the most beautiful of books. ... The interpretation of any truly mystic work, to be worth anything, must be complete and leave nothing, no single detail even of the text, without a meaning in full harmony with the entire scheme of the rendering.

Following T. Subba Row’s example, William W. Quinn, Jr., in his review, referred to The Idyll of the White Lotus as 'A Symbolical Novel' and wrote:

The story concerns the events surrounding the discovery, initiation, and eventual work of Sensa, a young "seer" or prophet who alone is able to receive and communicate messages from two goddesses—one representing materialism and hedonism; the other representing love, awareness, and truth. [...] Young Sensa is torn between the beckoning "sirens"—the two goddesses—as to which direction to take, yet the agonies, thought processes, and emotional strains he goes through create a resonance within the reader. [...] As the reader's spiritual ambassador, Sensa succeeds in overcoming "himself" and begins living true to his higher principle, symbolized by the Lady of the Lotus. When he has defeated the adversaries of worldly passions and materialism, symbolized by the Queen of Desire, and self-image and importance through conformity and peer pressure, symbolized by the priesthood, the stage is set for a final confrontation in which the three absolute truths are given.

Ricardo Lindemann, a National Lecturer and former General Secretary of the Brazilian Section of the TS, noting the correspondence between the Three Truths and the Three Fundamental Propositions, wrote:

Though the Divine Wisdom or primary Theosophy corresponds to a level of absolute truth (paramârthika satya) and therefore is beyond the level of the mind, perhaps the three propositions of The Secret Doctrine’s Proem and the three truths of the The Idyll of the White Lotus represent the essence of Theosophy in a relative truth (vyâvahârika satya) in their own level of complexity.

Additional resources

• On the Idyll of the White Lotus by T. Subba Row, published in A Collection of Esoteric Writings of T. Subba Row.. Bombay: Rajaram Tookaram, for the Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund, 1910. Available online at Wikisource, also printed as pamphlet No. 8 in the Adyar Pamphlets series Comments on the Idyll of the White Lotus by T. Subba Row [7]. Originally published in The Theosophist in 1886.
• The Idyll of the White Lotus. An attempted interpretation. The Theosophist, vol. 13, no. 12 (September 1892), 757-762. (Reprinted from the Sphinx, January 1890). Available at IAPSAP