Chapter V.

BIRTH OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.
1875-1878.
In starting the movement which was destined to do so much in breaking down the materialism of her epoch Madame Blavatsky first sought to interest those who were already aware of the phenomena of Spirituahsm. Apparently her aim was to show that she could produce at will the phenomena with which many were becoming familiar in the stance room, and it would occupy too much space even to enumerate the wonders which she performed ; those who knew her then have written fully of the world of marvel and magic in which she habitually moved at that time, yielding constantly to the demands for manifestation of her wonderful control over the unseen agencies in Nature, which waited upon her sHghtest wishes. It is not difficult to reahze that by these means she speedily attracted the attention of a large circle of people, and this pro- bably was the end she then had in view, for later on, when the Theosophical Society was established, she devoted herself to her true work as a Spiritual Teacher and refused to jdeld to the demand for " marvels."
The formation of a Society was proposed in the autumn of 1875 ; after some consideration its name
39
was chosen, and at New York, on November 17th of that year, the President-Founder (Colonel Olcott) dehvered his inaugural address. The original objects of the Society were not the three with which we are now familiar, but a much more elaborate and cumber- some series of seven rules ; on reading these through, however, one can trace the purpose, partially ex- pressed, which Madame Blavatsky had in view, of bringing again to the world some of the Eastern Wisdom, and as the years passed the unnecessary and unsuitable objects fell away, until we find the three clearly defined '* objects '* of the Theosophical Society.
The progress of the new Society was very slow at first, indeed after a year*s work, there survived only a good organization, a few somewhat indolent members, a certain notoriety and two friends, the Russian and the American who were in deadly earnest ; who never for a moment doubted the existence of their Masters, the excellence of their mission, or its final success. The difiiculties before them were enormous, but the following description of a visit paid by one of the Masters to Colonel Olcott may serve to show, on the other hand, the gracious encouragement given to the two comrades. One night Colonel Olcott was seated alone in his room quietly reading, when "all at once . . . there came a gleam of some- thing white in the right-hand corner of my right eye ; I turned my head, dropped my book in astonishment and saw, towering above me in his great stature, an Oriental, clad in white garments, and wearing a head- cloth or turban of amber striped fabric. . . . Long
40
raven hair hung from under his turban to the shoulders ; . . . he was so grand a man, so imbued with the majesty of moral strength, so luminously spiritual, so evidently above the average humanity, that I felt abashed in his presence, and bowed my head and bent on my knee as one does before a god or a god-like personage. A hand was lightly placed on my head, a sweet though strong voice bade me be seated, and when I raised my eyes, the Presence was seated in the other chair beyond the table. He told me he had come at the crisis when I needed him ; that my actions had brought me to this point ; that it lay with me alone whether he and I should meet again in this life as co-workers for the good of mankind ; that a great work was to be done for humanity and I had the right to share in it if I wished ; that a mysterious tie, not now to be explained to me, had drawn my colleague and myself together ; a tie which could not be broken, however strained it might be at times. . . . How long he was there I cannot tell . . . but at last he rose, I wondering at his great height, and observing the sort of splendour in his countenance — not an external shining, but the soft gleam, as it were, of an inner light — that of the spirit, and . . . benig- nantly saluting me in farewell, he was gone.
" To run and beat at H. P. B.'s door and tell her my experience was the first natural impulse ... I returned to my room to think and the gray morning found me still thinking and resolving. Out of those thoughts and those resolves developed all my subse- quent theosophical activities, and that loyalty to the Masters behind our movement which the rudest shocks
41
and the cruellest disillusioning have never shaken."*
In the summer of 1875, I sis Unveiled was com- menced and 1877 saw it published. The account of the writing of it as given by Colonel Olcott, who worked with Madame Blavatsky on the book, is but one more link in a chain of marvels. With a reference library of scarcely one hundred volumes she yet pro- duced a book which suggests the free use of a Museum. Whence did she get this knowledge ? How did she produce such a book ? Here are her own words on the matter : " During the long years of my absence from home, I have constantly studied and have learned certain things. But when I wrote Isis I wrote it so easily that it was certainly no labour, but a real pleasure ... I never put to myself the question, * Can I write on this subject ? ' . . . for whenever I write upon a subject I know little of I address myself to Them and one of Them inspires me." Again she writes, " I live in a kind of per- manent enchantment, a life of visions and sights with open eyes and no trance whatever to deceive my senses. . . . For several years, in order not to forget what I have learned elsewhere, I have been made to have permanently before my eyes all that I need to see. Thus, night and day, the images of the past are ever marshalled before my inner eye. Slowly, and gliding silently, like images in an enchanted panorama, centuries appear before me . . . and every important, and often unimportant event . . . remains photographed in my mind as though impressed in indelible colours. ... I certainly refuse point-
*Old Diary Leaves, Vol. I., p. 380.
42
blank to attribute it to my own knowledge or memory, for I could never arrive alone at either such premisses or conclusions."
In 1878, it was decided that the Founders should journey to India ; the Society was beginning to spread, a branch having been formed in London, and a niunber of Indian members having been enrolled. Their steamer carried them first to London, whence they trans-shipped for Bombay, where a Head-quarters was soon established.
43