A. Trevor Barker

A. Trevor Barker, from frontispiece of The Hill of Discernment, 1941.

Alfred Trevor Barker (b. October 10, 1893- d. July 17, 1941) was a Theosophist, writer, and lecturer. He is better known by his publication of the The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett and The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett.

Bio-data

A. Trevor Barker was born at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands.

He joined the Theosophical Society (Adyar) and published the The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett in 1923. In 1925 he resigned from this organization. In 1926 he published The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett. In 1930 he joins the Theosophical Society (Pasadena). He was the head of the English Section of that organization for many years.

Dr. Barker married Virginia _____, who was also a Theosophist. They had children.

On June 24, 1931, Dr. Barker, then President of the English Section of the Theosophical Society (Pasadena), chaired the H. P. Blavatsky Centennial Conference held in London. This meeting, which celebrated the 100th anniversary of H. P. Blavatsky’s birth, was well attended by leading representatives of the principal Theosophical Societies.

Dr. Barker died on July 17, 1941, in Torquay, Devon, England. His writings were compiled into the book The Hill of Discernment by Gottfried de Purucker. In the preface of that book he wrote:

With the death of A. Trevor Barker on July 17th of this year, the spontaneous wish was expressed by his many friends all over the world that his lectures and writings might be gathered together for publication in some permanent form. The present work, THE HILL OF DISCERNMENT, is an answer to this widespread desire. It contains in large part all the available addresses given in various parts of England, mainly to Theosophical groups and lodges, to European Conventions of the Theosophical Society, and to various 'fraternization' meetings with the Phoenix Lodge and otehr Lodges of the Adyar T. S. in England.

The Mahatma Letters

Grace Knoche wrote,

Just what prompted Trevor Barker to contact Maud Hoffman, executrix of the estate of the late A. P. Sinnett who had died in 1921, is not known. It is of record that the Mahatma as well as the Blavatsky letters had been bequeathed by Mr. Sinnett "solely and unconditionally" to Miss Hoffman, and that she in turn had allowed this young man the "great privilege of undertaking the whole responsibility" for their transcription and publication in book form.

As Gottfried de Purucker wrote, "One of Trevor's last actions was arranging for the depositing of the MSS. the The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett in the British Museum, where these papers are now held in the Department of Select Manuscripts."

Other writings

Dr. Trevor Barker's writings and lectures have been compiled in a book entitled The Hill of Discernment, published by The Theosophical University Press. This book provides information as to where and when the various lectures contained in that volume were given.

Additional resources

These books are available online:

• The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett. Theosophical University Press.[2]
• The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett. Theosophical University Press. [3]
• The Hill of Discernment. Theosophical University Press.[4]