The Secret Doctrine (book)

From Theosophy Wiki
Revision as of 22:32, 9 December 2014 by Pablo Sender (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Expand article image 5.png




The First Volume of The Secret Doctrine came off the Press on October 20, 1888. The first printing of 500 copies were exhausted before date of publication. The Second Volume is out towards the end of the year.

Writing

In May 1879, soon after moving to India, H. P. Blavatsky started designing a new book on Theosophy that would eventually become The Secret Doctrine.

In January 1884 the Supplement to The Theosophist published an advertising announcing that "a New Version of Isis Unveiled", which was to be published in monthly. Although Mme. Blavatsky had some written material to start the monthly installments, this never came to fruition in the way planned, due to ill-health, her travel to Europe, and the Coulomb affair.

In the fall of 1885, a few months after HPB moved to Wurzburg, Germany, she started working steadily on its writing. The Countess Wachtmeister moved with HPB to help her in this endeavor. As the writing of the book developed with the help of Masters M. and K.H., HPB realized it was much more than a rewriting of Isis Unveiled. In a letter to A. P. Sinnett she said she felt that this could vindicate the Theosophical Society after the unfavorable Report that Hodgson made.[1]

In the spring of 1886 she sent a preliminary manuscript of the first volume to Adyar, where T. Subba Row was supposed to read it and contribute in what had to do with Hindu philosophy. However, he refused to do so. HPB moved to Ostende, Belgium, where she continued working on the book.

By the end of March 1887 she fell gravely ill with a kidney infection. She was not expected to live. Master M. came at night and asked her if she wanted to be freed from the body or live, amidst much suffering, or live and finish The Secret Doctrine. She agreed on finishing the book. On May 1, 1887, she moved to London where a group of earnest students would help her finish and publish her book.

The First Volume of The Secret Doctrine came off the Press on October 20, 1888, while the Second Volume was out towards the end of the year.

Wurzburg manuscript

The Würzburg Manuscript of The Secret Doctrine was finally published in 2014 by David and Nancy Reigle. According to the editors:

It includes H. P. Blavatsky’s first translations of stanzas from the Book of Dzyan with her unrevised commentaries on them. Only the stanzas from the Würzburg manuscript had been published until now, not her unrevised commentaries on them. These comprise cosmogenesis, and a few on anthropogenesis. The Würzburg manuscript also includes a large introductory section, comprising about half the book. Most of the chapters in this introductory section were later published in the 1897 third volume of The Secret Doctrine. As with the commentaries on the stanzas, here we have her unrevised versions.

The so-called Würzburg manuscript is a partial copy of Blavatsky’s early manuscript of The Secret Doctrine, written while she was staying at Würzburg, Germany, and then at Ostende, Belgium, in 1885 and 1886. Her manuscript of the almost completed Secret Doctrine was copied by two or more scribes to send to India for revision by T. Subba Row, which revision did not occur. Only part of this copy has been found. What we have is estimated to be about a fourth or a third of the whole that was sent to India. Fortunately, it includes the whole cosmogenesis section, all seven stanzas and their commentaries.[2]

Editions

  • First edition in 2 vol., 1888. The first volume was published on October 20. The second volume was published towards the end of the year. Both volumes have a greyish binding bearing in the usual place the imprint: Theosophical Publishing Co., Ltd., London. They bear the inscriptions: Printed by Allen Scott and Co., 30, Bouverie Street, E.C.—facing the title-page; and facing the dedication: Entered at Stationer’s Hall. All Rights Reserved.
It seems that the sheets of the First Volume, most likely folded, were sent to W. Q. Judge in New York. The American edition was published in a dark brown and a dark blue binding, and bears the inscription: “Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1888, by H.P. Blavatsky, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington, D.C.”— facing the dedication.[3]
  • Second edition in 2 vol., 1888. The 500 copies of the first printing of volume 1 were sold before date of publication to advance subscribers. This was followed by an immediate second impression, erroneously called “second edition.” It was only a second printing from the same plates, with a few minor inaccuracies rectified.[4]
  • Third and revised edition in 2 vol., 1893. The text in this edition was considerably revised, mainly by scholar and former secretary of Mme. Blavatsky, G. R. S. Mead,[5] with some involvement of Annie Besant. The corrections generally involve grammatical errors, spellings, etc., although some students claim there are some changes that are not justifiable. The pagination of this is different from the previous editions.
This widely circulated Edition was published by The Theosophical Publishing Society, London; The Path Office, New York; and The Theosophist Office, Adyar, and printed by the H.P.B. Press, London.[6]
This edition was reprinted by the Theosophical Society (Adyar) in 1902, 1903, 1905, 1908, 1911, 1913, 1918, 1921, and 1928.
  • Index to the "Third and revised edition", 1895. This large and comprehensive Index was published as a separate volume, substantially expanding the "Index to v. 1 & 2" in the first and second editions. A key to the paging of the previous editions was included. The publishers were The Theosophical Publishing Society, London; The Path Office, New York; The Theosophical Publishing Society, Benares; and The Theosophist Office, Adyar.

Theosophical Publishing House

  • First edition of Volume 3, 1897. Reprinted in 1910 and 1913.
  • First reprint of the 1895 Index, 1911. Includes the index for vol. 3, separately paged.
  • Fourth (Adyar) edition, 6 vol., 1938.
  • Fifth (Olcott) edition, 6 vol., 1946.
  • Sixth (Adyar) edition, 6 vol., 1971. With orange & white book jackets.

Theosophical University Press

In 1909 a new edition of Volumes I and II of The Secret Doctrine was produced by the Aryan Theosophical Press, Point Loma, California (since then moved to Covina, California, and known as the Theosophical University Press) under the direction of Katherine Tingley. This is virtually a reprint of the original 1888 edition with a scholarly transliteration of Sanskrit words according to an accepted standard, some corrections of faulty Greek and Latin and of obvious typographical errors, and the occasional substitution of square brackets in place of parentheses for clearness. No changes were made in H. P. Blavatsky's language and no passages were eliminated. This is the standard edition still being published by the Theosophical University Press, Covina.[7]

The Theosophy Company

The Theosophy Company of Los Angeles published in in 1925 a photographic facsimile of the two volumes of The Secret Doctrine, bound in one volume. This edition provides the opportunity to study this work in exactly the way the author wrote it, although this edition perpetuates many typographical errors.[8]

Online resources

Articles and pamphlets

Books

Audio

Video

Other resoruces

Additional resources

Notes

  1. ↑ A. Trevor Barker, The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett Letter No. CXVI, (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1973), 79.
  2. ↑ Posting by David and Nancy Reigle to Theos-Talk discussion group. May 5, 2014.
  3. ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Collected Writings vol. X (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988), 157-158.
  4. ↑ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine vol. I, (Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), [59].
  5. ↑ See Facts about The Secret Doctrine by G.R.S. Mead
  6. ↑ Some Notes on The Secret Doctrine by Charles J. Ryan
  7. ↑ Some Notes on The Secret Doctrine by Charles J. Ryan
  8. ↑ Some Notes on The Secret Doctrine by Charles J. Ryan
Retrieved from "https://theosophy.wiki/w-en/index.php?title=The_Secret_Doctrine_(book)&oldid=4122"