The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (book)

First published in 1923, this volume gathers most of the letters sent by Mahatmas Morya and Koot Hoomi to A. P. Sinnett and A. O. Hume between the years 1880 and 1884. This publication, where the letters were arranged under subjects, underwent three editions. On March 25, 1972, Vicente Hao Chin, Jr. published a fourth edition with the letters arranged in chronological order based on the Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett written by George Linton and Virginia Hanson. This edition also includes brief notes by Hanson regarding the context and circumstances of each letter.

There are three publications of letters written by H. P. Blavatsky's Teachers, variously referred as, "Brothers," "Mahatmas," or "Masters." In 1880 A. P. Sinnett, an Englishman living in India entered into correspondence with This correspondence took place over the years 1880 to 1884, where Mr. Sinnett received many letters from two of the Mahatmas known as Morya and Koot Hoomi. The letters are now kept in the British Library, and were published by A. Trevor Barker in 1923 as a book entitled The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett from the Mahatmas M. & K. H.. The other two publications are known as Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, First and Second Series, and were published in ... respectively by C. Jinarajadasa. These books are collections of letters received by a number of Theosophists and chelas over the years.......

Production of the letters

The majority of the letters were not written physically by the Masters. Mme. Blavatsky, in a letter to Mr. Sinnett wrote: "Has Master K.H. written himself all His letters? How many chelas have been precipitating and writing them——heaven only knows.". "Precipitation" is an occult method by which the Masters impress their thought on a chela's brain and, using the latter's magnetic force, the words are made to appear into the paper after having collected the necessary material from the astral light. This procedure, however, may produce errors which may or may not be corrected later by the Master. Mahatma K.H. explained this as follows:

Another of our customs, when corresponding with the outside world, is to entrust a chela with the task of delivering the letter or any other message; and if not absolutely necessary — to never give it a thought. Very often our very letters — unless something very important and secret — are written in our handwritings by our chelas. Thus, last year, some of my letters to you were precipitated, and when sweet and easy precipitation was stopped — well I had but to compose my mind, assume an easy position, and — think, and my faithful “Disinherited” had but to copy my thoughts, making only occasionally a blunder.

In fact, this method was sometimes a source of errors. Mahatma Letter No. 117 is an example of how mistakes can creep in:

It was dictated mentally, in the direction of, and “precipitated” by, a young chela not yet expert at this branch of psychic chemistry, and who had to transcribe it from the hardly visible imprint. Half of it, therefore, was omitted and the other half more or less distorted by the “artist.” When asked by him at the time, whether I would look it over and correct I answered, imprudently I confess — “anyhow will do, my boy — it is of no great importance if you skip a few words.”

In answer to accusations that said the handwriting of the Masters was (subtly) different along the letters, Mme. Blavatsky wrote:

Now if there is such a marked difference between letters written by the same identical person mechanically, (as the case with me for instance who never had a steady handwriting) how much more in precipitation, which is the photographic reproduction from one’s head, and I bet anything that no chela (if Masters can) is capable of precipitating his own handwriting twice over in precisely the same way — a difference and a marked one there shall always be, as no painter can paint twice over the same likeness. . .