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[[File:W. A. Carrithers.gif|right|190px|thumb|W. A. Carrithers at a young age]] '''Walter Adley Carrithers''' ([[August 14]], 1924 - ca. [[August 21]], 1994) was a Theosophical historian in Fresno, California. Using the pen name of '''Adlai E. Waterman''', he wrote the book, '''''Obituary: the “Hodgson Report” on Madame Blavatsky 1885-1960''''', in which he reveals that the research of [[Richard Hodgson]] into the activities of [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]] was biased and defective.
[[File:WIZARDS - Mythical Monsters and other works.jpg|right|240px|thumb|Books by Wizards Bookshelf]]
'''Wizards Bookshelf''' was a publishing house operated by [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|Blavatsky]] scholar Richard Robb. The company was founded in Minneapolis in 1972, and later moved to San Diego, California. It continued producing books until 2006[?].  


He formed '''[[Blavatsky Foundation|The Blavatsky Foundation]]''' to perpetuate public knowledge of the life and works of [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]].
== The Secret Doctrine Reference Series ==


== Personal life ==
=== History of the series ===


Walter Adley Carrithers, Jr., was born on August 14, 1924 in Fresno, California, to Walter Carrithers and Mabel E. Fletcher. His close family relationships were important in his life.
Mr. Robb wrote about the beginnings of Wizards Bookshelf in ''Sunrise'' in November 1975:
 
<blockquote>
=== The Carrithers family ===
''The Secret Doctrine'' was written for the Western world to stem the tide of abject materialism. No messenger made his appearance in glowing aura to impress the multitude and, if he had, he would probably have been completely ignored. Instead, we have a book designed to gain acceptance in the minds of thinking men for many long years to come. The form and content of the S.D. is such that the student is constantly referred to the thoughts and ideas of hundreds of authors, all of whom are generally tending in the same direction.
 
'''Walter Adley Carrithers, Sr.''' (b. May 9, 1887) was ordained as a minister in the evangelical Pilgrim Holiness denomination in 1922. Carrithers met '''Mabel Elizabeth Fletcher''' (b. June 30, 1886), and they married on September 1, 1923 in Fresno. He became pastor of the Pilgrim Holiness Church in Fresno and maintained a ministry to prisoners until his death on March 17, 1964. For twenty-three years, he was also chief mechanic at the Fresno Playground Department, until he retired in 1951. The couple had two sons: Walter born in 1924, and his brother '''Nathan''', born on October 1, 1927.
 
Nathan was drafted into the Army in 1950, but was released from service in 1953 after suffering a brain injury and a damaging course of insulin shock treatments. He gradually recovered and was able to operate an auto repair shop and to share an interest in photography with his brother. After their mother Mabel died in September, 1973, the two brothers inherited the family home.
 
=== Education and employment ===
 
Walter enjoyed English and art classes in High School, and was art director for the school yearbook for three years. He won awards in art and essay contests, and wrote letters to local newspapers about subjects like communism and dirigibles.<ref>Walter A. Carrithers letter to ''Fresno Bee" published on May 17, 1938, page 16.</ref><ref>Walter A. Carrithers letter to ''Sacramento Bee" published on September 12, 1938, page 20.</ref> However, he could not maintain interest in other courses like geometry and Spanish that were required for college entrance. Testing showed his IQ to be 138, but lack of discipline and motivation deterred his academic progress. He enrolled in correspondence schools to become a commercial artist, but did not turn in many of the lessons. He also considered librarianship and law school, but could not manage the academic and financial requirements.
 
In 1944 Walter Jr. took a job as mayonnaise cook at Coleman Products, and stayed there until 1951. After that point, the family struggled financially, since the father had retired from his government job, and Nathan was in the Army. In 1957 Walter Jr. offered astrological readings, advertising in Astrology Guide, but that never generated much income, if any. From 1964-1980 Walter had a typesetting business called Manuscript Typing Service, later known as Textset Col-Type Service.
 
== Work in defending H. P. Blavatsky ==
 
Most of Carrithers' life work lay in defending [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]] (HPB), cofounder of the [[Theosophical Society]] in 1875. Madame Blavatsky was accused of fraud, deceit, espionage, and other things by detractors from 1875 until the end of the end of her life in 1891, and for many decades afterward. The English Raj in India accused her of spying for the Russians. Spiritualists believed she was faking the [[phenomena]] that she produced. Her colorful narratives and inconsistency in relating her personal history often led to allegations that she was was deceitful. Despite her kind actions, the brusque manner of her speech offended some. [[Richard Hodgson]] of the [[Society for Psychical Research]] in London went to Theosophical Society headquarters at Adyar, Madras, India in 1884 to conduct an investigation that turned into a media circus.
 
Carrithers was triggered by the Blavatsky biography ''Priestess of the Occult'' published by Gertrude Marvin Williams in 1946. That author was inclined to believe the worst about HPB, using sarcastic chapter titles such as "Danse Macabre," "Hoodoo Years," and "Necromancy, Inc." Her writing was sensationalistic and sarcastic, inventing dialogue freely, and putting the worst possible construction on facts presented. Carrithers set to work to dispute Williams' numerous errors of fact and interpretation.
 
=== ''The Truth about Madame Blavatsky'' ===
 
The first work Carrithers published to defend Madame Blavatsky was '''''[http://www.blavatskyfoundation.org/carrith1.htm The Truth about Madame Blavatsky]'''''. It was issued as a pamphlet and also as a Supplement to ''The Theosophical Forum'', April 1947, by the [[Theosophical Society (Pasadena)|Theosophical Society]] then at Covina and now at Pasadena, California."<ref>John Cooper, [http://www.hctheosophist.com/archives/pdf/hc199501.pdf# "Death of an American Theosophical Historian"] ''The High Country Theosophist'' 10.1 (January 1995), 16.</ref> It was intended as a direct rebuttal of Williams' negative comments. Carrithers focused on HPB's travels in Tibet; her writings; Tibetan adepts; HPB's morality; the SPR investigation; and the Mahatma Letters.
 
=== Society for Psychical Research ===
 
Support for Richard Hodgson's investigation into [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|Madame Blavatsky's]] [[phenomena]] came from the London-based [[Society For Psychical Research]] (SPR).
 
Carrithers became a dues-paying member of the SPR in 1947, hoping to have more cooperation and influence by working from the inside than he would as an independent researcher. This intuition proved to be correct. Over the course of fourteen years, he persuaded the SPR to search out documents used in [[Hodgson Report|Hodgson's 1884 investigation]]:


* Pamphlet by [[Emma Coulomb]] that was Hodgson's personal copy, with notations by Blavatsky and Hodgson.
Some people have claimed that the 750 and more books cited are merely proofs. But what are proofs? If these references are by sheer weight of numbers designed to force people to believe the validity of the teachings developed in the S.D., then surely the exposition could have been far more explicit and detailed, thus removing from the mind of the inquirer any chance of doubt. But this is not the case. As stated in the Preface, there is simply not room enough to explain the complete scheme of nature in two volumes. It would take a thousand volumes. Moreover, the ideas expressed are often obscure to the Western mind, because we have no background. Background in these areas is best supplied by the very sources that are used, and the reader will discover that there are perhaps 40 or 50 out of the 750+ books referred to that are mentioned with regularity.
* [[Henry Rhodes Morgan|General Morgan's]] pamphlet replying to a handwriting expert.
When I first became interested in The Secret Doctrine, an interest that was fostered by happenstance — an encounter with a copy of The Mahatma Letters in a small bookstore in New Orleans — I felt the work was utterly impossible, that there was little chance that I would ever be able to understand it. However, I found parts so interesting that I continued to read. Whole paragraphs passed without the least bit of comprehension, but occasionally a page really made sense to me.
* Preliminary version of the 1884 [[Hodgson Report]].
* Proofs of the Hodgson Report.
* A sketch by Richard Hodgson of HPB's rooms at Adyar.


Carrithers persuaded C. R. Groves of the Theosophical Society in England to have the documents transcribed and then microfilmed, and paid to have the work done. His persistence paid off as a great leap forward in understanding the flaws in Hodgson's work.
That was in 1965. Several people told me that the S.D. could not be read per se, but used only as a sort of dictionary or reference work. Be that as it may, I started and read the entire two volumes all the way through. When I had finished, two things were uppermost in my mind: first, that I was utterly ignorant; and secondly, that my education had left me totally unprepared for the study of The Secret Doctrine. Here was a range of knowledge that required effort and scholarly endeavor, books that I had never heard of before, whole subject areas that were foreign to me. As it turned out, I really was motivated to begin my education over again. And in so doing I set out to find some of the books quoted or referred to in the S.D. Of course, these were rather scarce and I didn't locate them immediately. However, after a time I discovered a copy of ''The Source of Measures'' on a used book list and sent away for it. The parts of [[J. Ralston Skinner|Skinner's]] treatise that I did understand were an absolute revelation to me. "Why," I thought, "hadn't the Masons made a point of preserving this text, so rare and valuable as it is?" Inquiries of local Masons indicated that they possessed little knowledge of the subject matter. At length, I became convinced of the absolute necessity of preserving the text of ''The Source of Measures'', regardless of cost or its public acceptance. Some day, somewhere, there would be men who would fasten upon these ideas. Though utterly unacquainted with the publishing industry, I did finally succeed in reprinting 535 copies. Response to advertisements was nonexistent. However, a few copies were sold, and I was encouraged to the extent that I considered a second title — ''The Book of Enoch''. Since then the list of titles has steadily grown.


=== ''Obituary: the "Hodgson Report"'' ===
Thus the "Secret Doctrine Reference Series" (published by Wizards Bookshelf) came into being. It is fundamentally designed to guarantee future generations access to the ideas contained in the already rare and difficult-to-obtain titles of past centuries. These works, if hard to find today, will be impossible to locate a hundred years from now.
 
There are many whose spiritual longing and philosophical inquiry are too sacred to be exposed among strangers or even among friends who they suspect may have entirely different views. The fact is, it is the written word that allows the student the privacy of his own thoughts, that gives rise to the most profound aspirations and the most intuitive insights It is literature, then due to its impersonal character, its relative permanence and its very silence, that has motivated us.
Carrithers worked for years to clarify every detail of what happened in the Hodgson investigation, and to identify the factual errors and inaccurate conclusions of the [[Hodgson Report]]. He corresponded with numerous libraries, organizations, and individuals to pin down bits of information. In 1963, '''''[http://www.blavatskyfoundation.org/obituary.htm# Obituary: The "Hodgson Report" on Madame Blavatsky]''''' was finally published under the name Adlai  E. Waterman.
</blockquote>
 
Dr. John Cooper, a Theosophical history expert who worked extensively on the Blavatsky correspondence, wrote of this work:


Richard Robb wrote of [[Helena Petrovna Blavatsky|Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's]] work '''[[The Secret Doctrine (book)|''The Secret Doctrine'']]''':
<blockquote>
<blockquote>
Walter Carrithers will be best remembered under the pen name of Adlai E. Waterman as the author of the book, ''http://www.blavatskyfoundation.org/obituary.htm# Obituary: The "Hodgson Report" on Madame Blavatsky'', which was published by the Theosophical Publishing House in 1963 with a preface by [[N. Sri Ram]].
''The Secret Doctrine'' is a timeless synthesis of philosophy, science, religion, history and metaphysics; its bibliography of over 1,000 books and journals draws upon many languages, and it has been called the most abstruse work in English.<ref>Richard Robb email to Michael Conlin. October 29, 2023. Theosophical Society in America Archives.</ref>  
 
</blockquote>
The then President of the [[Theosophical Society (Adyar)|Theosophical Society]] called the book а “remarkable piece of work... undertaken... with extreme thoroughness and care.”<ref>John Cooper, [http://www.hctheosophist.com/archives/pdf/hc199501.pdf# "Death of an American Theosophical Historian"] ''The High Country Theosophist'' 10.1 (January 1995), 16.</ref>
</blockquote>
 
After publication, Carrithers mailed dozens of copies to interested people, and followed the reviews closely &ndash; even making rebuttals to some reviewers' comments. "He was obsessed with this defence and neglected his health by working night after night as one of the Defenders. In some ways he carried this to such an extreme that his friend [[Boris de Zirkoff]] wrote to advise that he should “take some rest, some sleep... and place your mind somewhere else than on those schemers and slanderers.”<ref>John Cooper, 16.</ref>
 
=== Funding and support for these projects ===
 
Carrithers was not a member of any of the branches of the [[Theosophical Movement]], but solicited assistance from all of the organizations and their publishing houses. His interest in HPB accorded with the missions of all these groups. Extensive correspondence demonstrates his engagement with the [[Theosophical Society (Adyar)|Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai, India]] with its English and [[Theosophical Society in America|American]] sections and [[Theosophical Publishing House (Adyar)]]; the [[United Lodge of Theosophists]] and its [[The Theosophy Company|Theosophy Company]]; the [[Theosophical Society (Pasadena)|Theosophical Society based in Pasadena, California]] and its Point Loma Publications and [[Theosophical University Press]]; and the HPB Library in Canada. He sought research materials and funding. Individuals sent his information, encouragement, and donations to support the work. Some of his most frequent correspondents were [[Boris de Zirkoff]], William Biersach, [[Iverson L. Harris, Jr.]], and Michael Gomes.
After The Blavatsky Foundation was formed, his requests for funding were channeled through foundation newsletters. By 1982 his correspondents had become weary of the continual demands for donations, especially since they saw his major work ''Obituary'' was already in print. When he sent out a circular looking for support of his Meade-Campbell project, he received no responses at all.
 
[[File:Blavatsky Foundation logo 1971.jpg|right|200px|thumb|Logo of Blavatsky Foundation in 1971]]
== Formation and activities of The Blavatsky Foundation ==
 
'''The Blavatsky Foundation''' was established February 21, 1968 as a nonprofit corporation in Fresno, California by Mabel E. Carrithers, Nathan W. Carrithers, and [[Walter A. Carrithers, Jr.]] Carrithers issued regular newsletters mainly dealing with attacks on Madame Blavatsky and requesting financial support for his continuing activities. He used Foundation letterhead for many of his letters to news media and government agencies, and through Foundation mailings distributed ''Obituary'' and other literature to public libraries.
 
The organization continues this work, and maintains a website, '''[http://www.blavatskyfoundation.org/ blavatskyfoundation.org]''', that makes available the works of Walter A. Carrithers, Jr., plus articles by Leslie Price and John Cooper.
 
== Other interests ==
 
UFOs and other unexplained phenomena drew his attention in his earlier years, along with science fiction and astrology. He collected books and subscribed to numerous periodicals. These interests led him to the newsletter ‘’Doubt” of the '''Fortean Society''', where his name appeared in the very last issue of ''Doubt'', 61, in the summer of 1959. He followed the activities of SPR closely, and wrote about the "Soal-Shackelton-Stewart Experiments," "The Borley Excavations," the "Gregson Tenancy," and many other investigations.
 
After the major thrust of his HPB defense culminated in the publication of ''Obituary'', he devoted considerable attention to the assassinations of President John Fitzgerald Kenney in 1963 and his brother Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1968. When the jailed RFK assassin Sirhan Sirhan asked for books written by HPB, the press went wild. American Theosophists lie [[Joy Mills]] appeared on television to dispel some of the bad publicity, and Carrithers conducted a major letter-writing campaign in support of HPB.
 
=== Death ===
 
Walter’s health was never robust, and around 1980-1981 he applied for disability and public assistance. He died of heart failure in Fresno on or about August 21, 1994. He was found by the police about three days after his death. Tributes were written in ''The High Country Theosophist'' by John Cooper and in the Preface to the online edition of ''Obituary: "The Hodgson Report'', published by The Blavatsky Foundation.
 
== Additional resources ==
 
=== Websites ===
* [http://www.blavatskyfoundation.org/carrwrit.htm# '''''The Writings of Walter A. Carrithers, Jr.'''''] at the Blavatsky Foundation website.


=== Articles and pamphlets ===
{|style="margin: 0 auto;"
* Carrithers, Walter A., Jr. '''''[http://www.blavatskyfoundation.org/carrith1.htm The Truth about Madame Blavatsky]''''', subtitled "An Open Letter to the Author of ''Priestess of the Occult'' Regarding the Charges Against H.P. Blavatsky." California: Theosophical University Press, 1946.
| [[File:Wizards_Bookshelf_MEC_set.jpg|400px|center|thumb|SD Reference Series with Blavatsky books. Owned by Michael Conlin]]
* Cooper, John. "Death of an American Theosophist Historian," ''The High Country Theosophist'' 10 no.1 (January 1995), 16.
|}
* Price, Leslie. '''[http://blavatskyfoundation.org/obitpric.htm# Preface to the online edition of Obituary: "The Hodgson Report"]'''.
=== List of titles in the series ===


=== Books ===
* '''''The Divine Pymander of Hermes''''' translated from Arabic by John Everard.
* '''[http://www.blavatskyfoundation.org/obituary.htm#'''Obituary: The "Hodgson Report" on Madame Blavatsky'']''' by Walter A. Carrithers, Jr.
* '''''The Virgin of the World: Hermes''''' translated by Dr. Anna Kingsford.
* Meade, Marion. '''''Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth'''''. New York: Putnam, 1980.
* '''''The Book of Enoch the Prophet''''' translated from Ethiopie by Richard Laurence.
* Williams, Gertrude Marvin. '''''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.178230 Priestess of the Occult]'''''. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946. This biography is overtly hostile and is known to have numerous errors of fact and interpretation.
* '''''Esoteric Budhism''''' by A.P. Sinnett. 1885 edition with annotations.
* '''''The Origin & Significance of the Gt Pyramid''''' by C. Staniland Wake.
* '''''The Eleusinian & Bacchic Mysteries''''' translated by Thomas Taylor, notes by Alex Wilder.
* '''''The Chaldean Account of Genesis''''' translated from Cuneiform tablets by George Smith.
* '''''Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas & Quiches''''' by Augustus LePleongeon.
* '''''The Theosophist: Volume I''''' edited by H.P. Blavatsky. 320p.
* '''''On the Mysteries: Iamblichus''''' translated by Thomas Taylor.
* '''''The Desatir''''' (1818) translated by Mulla Firuz bin Kaus.
* '''''The Pythagorean Triangle''''' by George Oliver.
* '''''Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery in the Source of Measures, + index & notes''''' by J. Ralston Skinner.
* '''''The Gnostics & Their Remains''''' by Charles W. King.
* '''''Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients Demonstrated''''' by Samson Arnold Mackay. Revised 2nd edition 1826.
* '''''The Zohar (Bereshith)''''' translated by Nurho de Manhar
* '''''Theon of Smyrna: Mathematics Useful for Understanding Plato''''' translated by Robert & Deborah Lawlor.
* '''''Surya Siddhanta (Hindu astronomy)''''' translated by E. Burgess & W.D. Whitney.
* '''''New Platonism & Alchemy''''' by Dr. Alexander Wilder.
* '''''The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac''''' by T. Subba Row.
* '''''Plato: Cratylus, Phaedo, Parmenides, Timaeus, & Critius''''' translated by Thomas Taylor. (1793 edition, reset).
* '''''Ancient Fragments of the Egyptian Phoenician, etc.''''' translated by I.P. Cory. 1832 edition.
* '''''Posthumous Humanity''''' by Adolphe D'Assier translated by Henry S. Olcott.
* '''''The Anugita''''' translated by K.T. Telang.
* '''''Mythical Monsters''''' by Charles Gould.
* '''''Life & Teachings of Paracelsus''''' by Dr. Franz Hartmann.
* '''''The Qabbalah''''' by Isaac Myer, intro by H.P. Blavatsky.
* '''''Sepher Yetzireh''''' translated by W. W. Westcott.
* '''''Sod, the Sun of Man''''' by S.F. Dunlap.


=== Archival collections ===
== Other books published ==


* '''Walter A. Carrithers, Jr. Papers''', Records Series 25.26, Theosophical Society in America Archives. This archival collection includes some Blavatsky Foundation records, the extensive correspondence of Walter A. Carrithers, Jr., and notes related to his writings.
* '''''Astronomy & Astrology of the Babylonians''''' by A.H. Sayce.
* '''Boris de Zirkoff Papers''', Records Series 22, Theosophical Society in America Archives. Walter A. Carrithers, Jr. conducted an extensive correspondence with Boris de Zirkoff.
* '''''Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on H.P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine'''''.
* '''Sidney A. Cook Papers''', Records Series 08.05, Theosophical Society in America Archives. The presidential papers of Sidney A Cook include some correspondence with or about Carrithers.
* '''''The Lost Fragments of Proclus''''' translated by Thomas Taylor.
* '''''The Books of Kiu-Te in the Tibetan Buddhist Tantras''''' by David Reigle.
* '''''H.P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine''''' by Max Heindel.


== Notes ==
== Notes ==
<references/>
<references/>


[[Category:Writers|Carrithers, Walter A]]
[[Category:Publishing companies|Wizards Bookshelf]]
[[Category:Nationality American|Carrithers, Walter A]]
[[Category:People|Carrithers, Walter A]]
[[Category:Independent|Carrithers, Walter A]]

Latest revision as of 16:23, 26 April 2024

Books by Wizards Bookshelf

Wizards Bookshelf was a publishing house operated by Blavatsky scholar Richard Robb. The company was founded in Minneapolis in 1972, and later moved to San Diego, California. It continued producing books until 2006[?].

The Secret Doctrine Reference Series

History of the series

Mr. Robb wrote about the beginnings of Wizards Bookshelf in Sunrise in November 1975:

The Secret Doctrine was written for the Western world to stem the tide of abject materialism. No messenger made his appearance in glowing aura to impress the multitude and, if he had, he would probably have been completely ignored. Instead, we have a book designed to gain acceptance in the minds of thinking men for many long years to come. The form and content of the S.D. is such that the student is constantly referred to the thoughts and ideas of hundreds of authors, all of whom are generally tending in the same direction.

Some people have claimed that the 750 and more books cited are merely proofs. But what are proofs? If these references are by sheer weight of numbers designed to force people to believe the validity of the teachings developed in the S.D., then surely the exposition could have been far more explicit and detailed, thus removing from the mind of the inquirer any chance of doubt. But this is not the case. As stated in the Preface, there is simply not room enough to explain the complete scheme of nature in two volumes. It would take a thousand volumes. Moreover, the ideas expressed are often obscure to the Western mind, because we have no background. Background in these areas is best supplied by the very sources that are used, and the reader will discover that there are perhaps 40 or 50 out of the 750+ books referred to that are mentioned with regularity. When I first became interested in The Secret Doctrine, an interest that was fostered by happenstance — an encounter with a copy of The Mahatma Letters in a small bookstore in New Orleans — I felt the work was utterly impossible, that there was little chance that I would ever be able to understand it. However, I found parts so interesting that I continued to read. Whole paragraphs passed without the least bit of comprehension, but occasionally a page really made sense to me.

That was in 1965. Several people told me that the S.D. could not be read per se, but used only as a sort of dictionary or reference work. Be that as it may, I started and read the entire two volumes all the way through. When I had finished, two things were uppermost in my mind: first, that I was utterly ignorant; and secondly, that my education had left me totally unprepared for the study of The Secret Doctrine. Here was a range of knowledge that required effort and scholarly endeavor, books that I had never heard of before, whole subject areas that were foreign to me. As it turned out, I really was motivated to begin my education over again. And in so doing I set out to find some of the books quoted or referred to in the S.D. Of course, these were rather scarce and I didn't locate them immediately. However, after a time I discovered a copy of The Source of Measures on a used book list and sent away for it. The parts of Skinner's treatise that I did understand were an absolute revelation to me. "Why," I thought, "hadn't the Masons made a point of preserving this text, so rare and valuable as it is?" Inquiries of local Masons indicated that they possessed little knowledge of the subject matter. At length, I became convinced of the absolute necessity of preserving the text of The Source of Measures, regardless of cost or its public acceptance. Some day, somewhere, there would be men who would fasten upon these ideas. Though utterly unacquainted with the publishing industry, I did finally succeed in reprinting 535 copies. Response to advertisements was nonexistent. However, a few copies were sold, and I was encouraged to the extent that I considered a second title — The Book of Enoch. Since then the list of titles has steadily grown.

Thus the "Secret Doctrine Reference Series" (published by Wizards Bookshelf) came into being. It is fundamentally designed to guarantee future generations access to the ideas contained in the already rare and difficult-to-obtain titles of past centuries. These works, if hard to find today, will be impossible to locate a hundred years from now. There are many whose spiritual longing and philosophical inquiry are too sacred to be exposed among strangers or even among friends who they suspect may have entirely different views. The fact is, it is the written word that allows the student the privacy of his own thoughts, that gives rise to the most profound aspirations and the most intuitive insights It is literature, then due to its impersonal character, its relative permanence and its very silence, that has motivated us.

Richard Robb wrote of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's work The Secret Doctrine:

The Secret Doctrine is a timeless synthesis of philosophy, science, religion, history and metaphysics; its bibliography of over 1,000 books and journals draws upon many languages, and it has been called the most abstruse work in English.[1]

SD Reference Series with Blavatsky books. Owned by Michael Conlin

List of titles in the series

  • The Divine Pymander of Hermes translated from Arabic by John Everard.
  • The Virgin of the World: Hermes translated by Dr. Anna Kingsford.
  • The Book of Enoch the Prophet translated from Ethiopie by Richard Laurence.
  • Esoteric Budhism by A.P. Sinnett. 1885 edition with annotations.
  • The Origin & Significance of the Gt Pyramid by C. Staniland Wake.
  • The Eleusinian & Bacchic Mysteries translated by Thomas Taylor, notes by Alex Wilder.
  • The Chaldean Account of Genesis translated from Cuneiform tablets by George Smith.
  • Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas & Quiches by Augustus LePleongeon.
  • The Theosophist: Volume I edited by H.P. Blavatsky. 320p.
  • On the Mysteries: Iamblichus translated by Thomas Taylor.
  • The Desatir (1818) translated by Mulla Firuz bin Kaus.
  • The Pythagorean Triangle by George Oliver.
  • Key to the Hebrew-Egyptian Mystery in the Source of Measures, + index & notes by J. Ralston Skinner.
  • The Gnostics & Their Remains by Charles W. King.
  • Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients Demonstrated by Samson Arnold Mackay. Revised 2nd edition 1826.
  • The Zohar (Bereshith) translated by Nurho de Manhar
  • Theon of Smyrna: Mathematics Useful for Understanding Plato translated by Robert & Deborah Lawlor.
  • Surya Siddhanta (Hindu astronomy) translated by E. Burgess & W.D. Whitney.
  • New Platonism & Alchemy by Dr. Alexander Wilder.
  • The Twelve Signs of the Zodiac by T. Subba Row.
  • Plato: Cratylus, Phaedo, Parmenides, Timaeus, & Critius translated by Thomas Taylor. (1793 edition, reset).
  • Ancient Fragments of the Egyptian Phoenician, etc. translated by I.P. Cory. 1832 edition.
  • Posthumous Humanity by Adolphe D'Assier translated by Henry S. Olcott.
  • The Anugita translated by K.T. Telang.
  • Mythical Monsters by Charles Gould.
  • Life & Teachings of Paracelsus by Dr. Franz Hartmann.
  • The Qabbalah by Isaac Myer, intro by H.P. Blavatsky.
  • Sepher Yetzireh translated by W. W. Westcott.
  • Sod, the Sun of Man by S.F. Dunlap.

Other books published

  • Astronomy & Astrology of the Babylonians by A.H. Sayce.
  • Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on H.P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine.
  • The Lost Fragments of Proclus translated by Thomas Taylor.
  • The Books of Kiu-Te in the Tibetan Buddhist Tantras by David Reigle.
  • H.P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine by Max Heindel.

Notes

  1. Richard Robb email to Michael Conlin. October 29, 2023. Theosophical Society in America Archives.