An Abridgement of the Secret Doctrine

By H. P. Blavatsky

The creation of the universe and the nature of humanity as taught by the Ancient Wisdom. An abridgement of the original 1500 page work, The Secret Doctrine. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) was born of a noble family in Russia. She became a student of metaphysical lore, and traveled to many lands, including Tibet, in search of hidden knowledge. In the 1870s she went to New York and, with Col. Henry S. Olcott and others, formed the Theosophical Society.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Quest Books
• Release date: Apr 8, 2015
• ISBN: 9780835631549

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AN ABRIDGEMENT OF

THE

SECRET

DOCTRINE

AN ABRIDGEMENT OF

THE

SECRET

DOCTRINE

H.P. BLAVATSKY

EDITED BY

ELIZABETH PRESTON &

CHRISTMAS HUMPHREYS

A publication supported by

THE KERN FOUNDATION

Learn more about H.P Blavatsky and her work at www.questbooks.com

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Copyright © 1966 by the Theosophical Publishing House, London, Ltd.

First Quest Edition 1967

Eighth printing 2012

Quest Books

Theosophical Publishing House

PO Box 270

Wheaton, IL 60187-0270

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

ISBN 978-0-8356-0009-5

ISBN for electronic edition, e-pub format: 978-0-8356-2190-8

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EDITORIAL FOREWORD TO THIS ABRIDGEMENT

H. P. BLAVATSKY: A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

THE GENESIS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE

PREFACE [Part]

INTRODUCTORY [Part]

VOLUME FIRST

COSMOGENESIS

PROEM [Part]

PART I

COSMIC EVOLUTION

STANZA 1.—THE NIGHT OF THE UNIVERSE [Part]

STANZA 2.—THE IDEA OF DIFFERENTIATION [Part]

STANZA 3.—THE AWAKENING OF KOSMOS [Part]

STANZA 4.—THE SEPTENARY HIERARCHIES [Part]

STANZA 5.—FOHAT: THE CHILD OF THE SEPTENARY HIERARCHIES [Part]

STANZA 6.—OUR WORLD, ITS GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT [Part]

THEOSOPHICAL MISCONCEPTIONS [Part]

EXPLANATIONS CONCERNING THE GLOBES AND THE MONADS [Part]

STANZA 6.—CONTINUED [Part]

STANZA 7.—THE PARENTS OF MAN ON EARTH [Part]

SUMMING UP [Part]

PART II

THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM

 1.  SYMBOLISM AND IDEOGRAPHS [Part]

 2.  THE MYSTERY LANGUAGE AND ITS KEYS [Part]

 3.  PRIMORDIAL SUBSTANCE AND DIVINE THOUGHT [Part]

 4.  CHAOS—THEOS—KOSMOS [Part]

 5.  THE HIDDEN DEITY, ITS SYMBOLS AND GLYPHS [Omitted]

 6.  THE MUNDANE EGG [Omitted]

 7.  THE DAYS AND NIGHTS OF BRAHMĀ [Part]

 8.  THE LOTUS AS A UNIVERSAL SYMBOL [Omitted]

 9.  DEUS LUNUS [Omitted]

10. TREE AND SERPENT AND CROCODILE WORSHIP [Omitted]

11. DEMON EST DEUS INVERSUS [Omitted]

12. THE THEOGONY OF THE CREATIVE GODS [Omitted]

13. THE SEVEN CREATIONS [Omitted]

14. THE FOUR ELEMENTS [Omitted]

15. ON KWAN-SHI-YIN AND KWAN-YIN [Omitted]

PART III

SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED

 1.  REASONS FOR THESE ADDENDA [Part]

 2.  MODERN PHYSICISTS ARE PLAYING AT BLIND MAN’S BUFF [Omitted]

 3.  AN LUMEN SIT CORPUS NEC NON? [Omitted]

 4.  IS GRAVITATION A LAW? [Part]

 5.  THE THEORIES OF ROTATION IN SCIENCE [Omitted]

 6.  THE MASKS OF SCIENCE [Omitted]

 7.  AN ATTACK ON THE SCIENTIFIC THEORY OF FORCE BY A MAN OF SCIENCE [Omitted]

 8.  LIFE, FORCE, OR GRAVITY? [Omitted]

 9.  THE SOLAR THEORY [Part]

10. THE COMING FORCE [Omitted]

11. ON THE ELEMENTS AND ATOMS [Part]

12. ANCIENT THOUGHT IN MODERN DRESS [Omitted]

13. THE MODERN NEBULAR THEORY [Omitted]

14. FORCES—MODES OF MOTION OR INTELLIGENCES? [Part]

15. GODS, MONADS, AND ATOMS [Part]

16. CYCLIC EVOLUTION AND KARMA [Part]

17. THE ZODIAC AND ITS ANTIQUITY [Omitted]

18. SUMMARY OF THE MUTUAL POSITION [Omitted]

VOLUME SECOND

ANTHROPOGENESIS [Part]

PRELIMINARY NOTES [Part]

PART I [Part]

STANZA 1.—BEGINNINGS OF SENTIENT LIFE [Part]

STANZA 2.—NATURE UNAIDED FAILS [Part]

THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE BRAHMINS [Omitted]

STANZA 3.—ATTEMPTS TO CREATE MAN [Part]

STANZA 4.—CREATION OF THE FIRST RACES [Part]

STANZA 5.—THE EVOLUTION OF THE SECOND RACE [Part]

STANZA 6.—THE EVOLUTION OF THE SWEAT-BORN [Part]

STANZA 7.—FROM THE SEMI-DIVINE DOWN TO THE FIRST HUMAN RACES [Part]

STANZA 8.—EVOLUTION OF THE ANIMAL MAMMALIANS—THE FIRST FALL [Part]

WHAT MAY BE THE OBJECTIONS TO THE FOREGOING [Part]

STANZA 9.—THE FINAL EVOLUTION OF MAN [Part]

EDENS, SERPENTS AND DRAGONS [Omitted]

THE SONS OF GOD AND THE SACRED ISLAND [Omitted]

STANZA 10.—THE HISTORY OF THE FOURTH RACE [Part]

ARCHAIC TEACHINGS IN THE PURANAS AND GENESIS [Part]

A PANORAMIC VIEW OF THE EARLY RACES [Omitted]

STANZA 10.—Continued

ARE GIANTS A FICTION? [Part]

THE RACES WITH THE THIRD EYE [Part]

THE PRIMEVAL MANUS OF HUMANITY [Omitted]

STANZA 11.—THE CIVILIZATION AND DESTRUCTION OF THE THIRD AND FOURTH RACES [Part]

CYCLOPEAN RUINS AND COLOSSAL STONES AS WITNESSES TO GIANTS [Omitted]

STANZA 12.—THE FIFTH RACE AND ITS DIVINE INSTRUCTORS [Part]

WESTERN SPECULATIONS, FOUNDED ON THE GREEK AND PURANIC TRADITIONS

ADDITIONAL FRAGMENTS FROM A COMMENTARY ON THE VERSES OF STANZA 12 [Part]

CONCLUSION [Part]

The Whole of Parts II and III have been omitted

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS ON H. P. BLAVATSKY AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE

EDITORIAL FOREWORD TO THIS

ABRIDGEMENT

THERE has long been a need for some abridgement or condensed version of The Secret Doctrine by H. P. Blavatsky, partly for the general reader unwilling to embark on the thirteen hundred pages of the original two volumes, and partly for the serious student, to serve as an introduction and guide to the larger work.

The Secret Doctrine has sold steadily since its first appearance in 1888, but succeeding editions have increased in price, and the present Adyar Edition contains no fewer than six volumes. In any edition, the work is large and heavy to handle and contains a good deal of material that is now of secondary importance, and even a hindrance in a first attempt to grasp the main tremendous theme.

The author herself left no work that can be used as an introduction to the great sweep of Cosmogenesis and Anthropogenesis outlined in The Secret Doctrine, for The Key to Theosophy, published a year later, does not cover this ground at all.

The first attempt to produce a shortened version was the Abridgement by Katharine Hillard, published in 1907, and the present Editors considered reproducing this by some modern process. But it was found to be itself too long. Moreover, Miss Hillard had changed the order of whole paragraphs with a view to easier reading, had translated Sanskrit terms with equivalents no longer acceptable, and made actual changes in the text.

For these reasons it was decided to prepare an entirely new abridgement, to be taken from the First Edition, to be entirely in the words of the author, and entirely in her own order of writing. The present work is based on such an abridgement made by Miss Elizabeth Preston for her own studies. Mr. Christmas Humphreys who, with Mrs. Elsie Benjamin, edited the new edition of The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett, worked over Miss Preston’s MSS. at her request, making minor restorations and equivalent cuts. The revised MS. was then examined by Miss Grace Blanch with reference to the comparable cuts made in Miss Hillard’s original abridgement, and further suggestions from Mr. Wallace Slater, then General Secretary of The Theosophical Society in England, Mr. Leslie Leslie-Smith, now General Secretary and Chairman in charge of the Theosophical Publishing House in London, Mrs. Elsie Benjamin, Hon. Secretary of the Corresponding Fellows Lodge of Theosophists, and Mr. Boris de Zirkoff, now editing the Collected Writings of H. P. Blavatsky, were carefully considered. The present work is therefore the result of long and careful study by a team of experienced students of The Secret Doctrine. It is appreciated, however, that no other student of the same experience will be entirely satisfied with the result, and it is therefore important that the principles devised and followed by the Editors in making their decisions should be clearly set out.

Only the two volumes of the original First Edition of 1884 have been used, and in the form therein printed. The alterations made for the Third Edition of 1893 have been carefully examined line by line. In many places, particularly in the more consistent use of capitals, these revisions have been adopted, but in no instance has a change been made unless made visible to the reader by the use of square brackets. The so-called Third Volume, which appeared for the first time in 1897, has not been used. It may be that those who collected from the author’s unpublished MSS. and other writings the material which appeared as a separate Third Volume in 1897 were in error only in giving such a collation such a name. The result, however, has been unfortunate, for a large section of the Theosophical Movement has refused to recognize this altered and additional material as part of The Secret Doctrine, and these Theosophists have produced and thereafter used their own exact reproductions of the original edition. All Theosophists, of any Theosophical Society or none, may accept the present work as a genuine attempt to produce a shortened version, and no more, of The Secret Doctrine of H. P. Blavatsky.

To reduce some thirteen hundred pages to some three hundred pages meant that the Editors had to decide what to leave in, rather than what to cut out. Clearly, the Introduction, the Proem, the actual Stanzas of Dzyan and the Commentaries thereon take precedence. Clearly the long quotations from contemporary writers which the author refutes in equal detail are the first to be cut out. It is in the large remaining field that difficulties of choice arise. Much that is off the main axis of the book’s development, on symbolism, comparative religion and scientific theories of the 1880’s must also go, for this material does not actively enlarge our knowledge of Cosmogenesis and Anthropogenesis, the coming into being of the Universe and the origin of Man. Within this field the Editors have made such cuts as were inevitable, realizing that much material of value would be thereby omitted. At times the continuity from surviving portion to portion was difficult to keep smooth, and a line of dots (…) has been inserted to warn the reader of a big break.

At all times the Editors had in mind the reader who would be using the Abridgement as an introduction to the larger work, and have therefore published the original Contents in full. It will be thus obvious which whole sections have been removed and which remain in part only.

It has been thought right to include a brief Biography of H. P. Blavatsky and a note on the Genesis of The Secret Doctrine. At the end, the reader will find a selected Bibliography of works on H. P. Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine, and an Index suitable to this Abridgement.

For the rest, this work is offered in the spirit in which it was conceived, to encourage an ever-increasing number of those in search of the meaning of life to study, with the intellect and the intuition, this new-old presentation of The Secret Doctrine.

ELIZABETH PRESTON

CHRISTMAS HUMPHREYS

H. P. BLAVATSKY

A BRIEF BIOGRAPHY

THE author of the two volumes of The Secret Doctrine, of which this is an abridgement, was born on July 31 (August 12 new style) 1831, at Ekaterinoslav in South Russia. Her father was Colonel Peter von Hahn, son of General Alexis Hahn von Rottenstern Hahn. Her mother, Helena de Fadeyev, was the daughter of the gifted Princess Helena Pavlovna Dolgoroukov, but she died when her daughter was only eleven, and the young Helena was brought up in her grandmother’s house at Saratov, where her grandfather was Civil Governor.

She was clearly an exceptional child, and at an early age was aware of being different from those around her. Her precocious psychic powers puzzled her relations and friends. At once impatient of all authority, yet deeply sensitive, she was gifted in many ways that are seldom found in the same girl. A clever linguist, an exceptionally fine pianist and a clever artist, she was yet a fearless and skilled rider of half-broken horses, and always in a remarkable degree at one with nature about her. Quite early she sensed that she was in some way dedicated to a life of service, in which her developing spiritual powers would be harnessed in the service of mankind. When just eighteen she married, not from affection or desire, but because, it is said, her governess taunted her that, with her rebellious disposition, she would never marry anyone, not even the middle-aged Nikifor V. Blavatsky, a friend of the family who was then Vice-Governor of the Province of Erivan. She accepted the challenge, and in three days made him propose. The marriage meant nothing to her and was never consummated. In a few months she escaped, and travelled widely in Egypt, Greece and lesser known parts of Eastern Europe on money supplied by her father. In 1851 she was in London and there, on her twentieth birthday met the Master Morya, or M. as he became known in the Theosophical Movement. He told her something of the work that was in store for her, and from that moment she accepted his guidance both in her inner development and her outward work for mankind.

In 1852, after adventurous travels in America, she made her first attempt to enter Tibet, where her Master lived, but the time was apparently not ripe, and she got no farther than Nepal. She returned to London and thence sailed to the United States where she spent some two years. She then went to India via Japan, and this time succeeded in entering Tibet, from Kashmir and Ladakh. Here, her real training began, but after three years with her Master she returned to India, leaving it for Europe during the troubled times of the Mutiny. She returned home unannounced, but was soon off on her travels again, through the Caucasus, Georgia, and we do not quite know where.

During the period from 1867 to 1870 she was again in Tibet, and there completed her control of her occult powers, cleansing herself of what she called her psycho-physical weakness, by which she meant the last trace of negative mediumship. There followed a period of further wandering during which she visited Egypt, Syria and Constantinople. While at Odessa she was instructed by her Master to go to Paris, where she received direct instruction to proceed to New York. She landed on July 7, 1873.

In 1873 Mme. Blavatsky was forty-two and at the height of her exceptional spiritual, mental and psychic powers. In the opinion of those who had trained her she was the best available instrument for the work they had in mind, to offer to the world a new presentation, though only in brief outline, of Theosophy, meaning Divine Wisdom, the accumulated Wisdom of the ages, tested and verified by generations of Seers…, that body of Truth of which religions, great and small, are but as branches of the parent Tree. The task laid on her was tremendous, to challenge on the one hand the entrenched beliefs and dogmas of established Christianity, and on the other the equally dogmatic views of the science of her day. But a crack had recently appeared in this twofold set of mental fortifications. It was caused by Spiritualism, then sweeping America, and the work entrusted to this brilliant yet excitable Russian woman was, as she understood it, clear. I was sent to prove the phenomena and their reality, and show the fallacy of the spiritualistic theory of spirits.

The double nature of this objective was soon to embarrass her. In proving, by her own astonishing phenomena, the presence of a psychic plane beyond the physical, she identified herself with the Spiritualists, yet by teaching in considerable detail the immemorial Wisdom, and in particular the principles it taught as to the sevenfold nature of man, she made enemies of the Spiritualists.

In New York she was put in touch by those instructing her with Col. H. S. Olcott, an American lawyer who had fought in the Civil War, and with W. Q. Judge, an Irish lawyer, who were both interested in the new phenomena. In 1875, these three, with a number of others interested, founded a new society to collect and diffuse a knowledge of the laws which govern the Universe.

She chose for it the name Theosophy, Divine Wisdom, or the aggregate of the knowledge and wisdom that underlie the Universe, a word originally coined in the third century A.D. by the Neo-Platonists. The Theosophical Society was founded in New York on November 17, 1875 with Objects which were later formulated as follows:

1. To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour.

2. To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy and Science.

3. To investigate unexplained laws of Nature, and the powers latent in man.

Col. Olcott was elected President and Mme. Blavatsky Recording Secretary.

To prepare the way for the new movement she began to write Isis Unveiled, a Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology, and while Col. Olcott was organizing the new Society, worked on it for the next two years.

Isis Unveiled was published in 1877 in New York and proved an immediate success. The Theosophical Society, which had by its very Objects roused considerable interest, support and opposition, expanded rapidly. In 1878, again on the instructions of her Master, Mme. Blavatsky sailed with Col. Olcott for India. Soon after landing in Bombay they received a letter from A. P. Sinnett, then Editor of The Pioneer, of Allahabad. In due course Mme. Blavatsky put Sinnett in touch with the two Masters who were sponsoring the Theosophical Movement, and from this introduction came the long correspondence, from 1880 to 1884, which was later published as The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett.

Sinnett compiled from the Letters his understanding of the Masters and their Teaching, first in The Occult World (1881) and later in Esoteric Buddhism (1883), and these two volumes, together with the Mahatma Letters, flowing in a sense from the same source as Mme. Blavatsky’s own knowledge of the occult Teaching, may well be studied in conjunction with The Secret Doctrine.

After an extensive tour of India, the Founders returned to Bombay and published, in October, 1879, the first issue of The Theosophist, with H. P. Blavatsky as Editor, the Masters themselves being early contributors.

In May, 1880, they visited Ceylon, and publicly took Pancha Sila. According to Col. Olcott, We had previously declared ourselves Buddhists, in America, both privately and publicly, so this was but a formal confirmation of our previous professions. In May, 1882, the Founders bought a large estate at Adyar, near Madras, and this has remained the Headquarters of The Theosophical Society to this day. Here they settled down, with very little help, to found new Lodges, receive visitors, conduct an enormous range of correspondence and produce The Theosophist. Col. Olcott began his remarkable career as a lecturer and healer. In Ceylon he stimulated the revival of Buddhism, and in 1884 left for London to petition the British Government on behalf of the Sinhalese Buddhists. Mme. Blavatsky, then in very poor health, went with him.

In Europe she recovered and was widely received with great enthusiasm, her brilliance of conversation, profound knowledge, and reputation for psychic powers everywhere drawing attention to her work. Meanwhile, a vicious and dangerous attack on her by two of her servants at Adyar, a Mr. and Mrs. Coulomb, was rapidly building up. She returned to Adyar in November, 1884, and learnt the details of the attack. She wished to sue the couple, already dismissed by the committee left in charge before the attack began, for their gross libel on her concerning the supposed fraudulent production of phenomena at Adyar. She was, however, overruled by the committee, and in disgust resigned all her appointments. In March, 1885, she left for Europe, never to return.

The attack, as was later proved, had no foundation. In the absence of the Founders in Europe, the two servants, already dismissed by the committee for incompetence and worse, sent to a Christian missionary newspaper in Madras two letters, purporting to be written to them by Mme. Blavatsky, containing instructions to arrange fraudulent phenomena. The Society for Psychic Research in London, ignoring Mme. Blavatsky’s flat repudiation of the letters, which she was at no time allowed to see, sent a young man, Richard Hodgson, to India to report on the Coulombs’ allegations. This Report, published in December, 1885, has been the basis for all subsequent attacks on Mme. Blavatsky, as to her morals, the worthlessness of Theosophy and even the non-existence of the Masters, and has been repeated with variations and additions by ill-wishers ever since. At last, in 1963, with the aid of hitherto unpublished documents, Mr. Adlai Waterman, in his Obituary: The Hodgson Report on Madame Blavatsky, published by the Theosophical Publishing House at Adyar, has analysed the whole sad story, and to any impartial mind destroyed it utterly.

But the effect on Mme. Blavatsky of this violent attack by a couple whom she had long befriended was serious. She was already grossly overworked and in poor health, and on her arrival in Europe she fell seriously ill. In August, however, she began work at Würzburg in Germany on her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, a brief history of which follows this Biography. In 1886, she moved to Ostende, and in the following year, at the invitation of English Theosophists, to a small house taken for her at Norwood, London. Soon, however, the Norwood premises proved too small, and she moved to 17 Lansdowne Road, Notting Hill, where, with the aid of Archibald and Bertram Keightley, she completed The Secret Doctrine, which was published in 1888. In 1887, as she had lost control of The Theosophist, which was published in Adyar, she founded Lucifer, a monthly magazine designed, as she said on the title-page, to bring to light the hidden things of darkness.

In 1889, she moved to 19 Avenue Road, St. John’s Wood, and from there published The Key to Theosophy, a clear Exposition, in the form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science and Philosophy for the study of which the Theosophical Society has been founded. In the same year she translated selected passages from a Tibetan scripture which she had learnt by heart during her training in Tibet, and published it as The Voice of the Silence, Dedicated to the Few.

She died peacefully at 19 Avenue Road on May 8, 1891, and her body was cremated at Woking.

This is no place for the history of the Theosophical Movement, nor for an account of its considerable influence on the religious thought of the day, but Mme. Blavatsky gave to her own students a description of the ideal theosophical student and this, allowing for all the faults of her outer personality, is surely a true and sufficient epitaph.

Behold the truth before you: A clean life, an open mind, a pure heart, an eager intellect, an unveiled spiritual perception, a brotherliness for all, a readiness to give and receive advice and instruction, a loyal sense of duty to the Teacher, a willing obedience to the behests of TRUTH once we have placed our confidence in and believe that Teacher to be in possession of it; a courageous endurance of personal injustice, a brave declaration of principles, a valiant defence of those who are unjustly attacked, and a constant eye to the ideal of human progression and perfection which the sacred science depicts—these are the Golden Stairs up the steps of which the learner may climb to the Temple of Divine Wisdom.

THE GENESIS OF THE SECRET DOCTRINE

Isis Unveiled was published, as already described, in 1877. It was an immediate success, and the first edition was exhausted in ten days. Two years later Mme. Blavatsky had in mind a successor, and even drafted a Preface for it, but pressure of work for the expanding Theosophical Society, and the promotion of The Theosophist put other work aside, and it was not until January, 1884, that an announcement appeared in The Theosophist concerning "The Secret Doctrine, a New Version of Isis Unveiled," to appear in monthly parts. The scheme of monthly parts never materialized, but later in the year the author returned from India to Europe, and began work in earnest. She had assistance, in Würzburg and in Ostende, but as the Master K. H. wrote in 1885 to a German doctor, a member of the Society, The Secret Doctrine, when ready, will be the triple production of M. [the Master M.], Upasika [Mme. Blavatsky] and the Doctor’s most humble servant, K. H.

All who watched her at work on the manuscript, in different parts of Europe and at different times, speak with amazement of the smallness of her reference library. As one of her helpers wrote, Quotations, with full references, from books which were never in the house—quotations verified after hours of search, sometimes at the British Museum for a rare book—of such I saw and verified not a few. Only rarely did her helpers find a reference for her; in most cases they merely verified what was already written down.

Early in 1886 she told Col. Olcott that the forthcoming work would be utterly new, and not merely an improved version of Isis Unveiled. That summer she was working with the help of the Countess Wachtmeister at Ostende. Dr. Archibald Keightley and Mr. E. C. Fawcett helped in the arrangement of the sections and in general research, while Mme. Blavatsky was busy re-writing it, pasting and repasting, scratching out and replacing with notes from my AUTHORITIES. In Ostende she was seriously ill, but with her Master’s help she recovered, and in September sent the material for Volume I., as copied out by Countess Wachtmeister, to Col. Olcott in Adyar. This version is extant in the Society’s archives, and differs to some extent from the version finally published.

In May, 1888, she moved to London, and it was at 17 Lansdowne Road that, with the help of Dr. Archibald Keightley and his uncle, Bertram Keightley, the final version was prepared. A fund was raised to pay for the publication, and the printing was begun for the Theosophical Publishing Co. Ltd. of Duke Street, Adelphi. Many assisted in the proof-reading, during which Mme. Blavatsky sorely tried the printer’s patience and pocket with voluminous corrections. The Preface was written last, and dated October, 1888. In it she apologized for the delay occasioned by ill-health and the magnitude of the undertaking. She made it clear what the book contained. These truths are in no sense put forward as a revelation…for what is contained in this work is to be found scattered throughout thousands of volumes embodying the great Asiatic and early European religions, hidden under glyph and symbol, and hitherto left unnoticed because of this veil. What is now attempted is to gather the oldest of the tenets together and to make of them one harmonious and unbroken whole. Later she adds, "The teachings, however fragmentary and incomplete, contained in these volumes, belong neither to the Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Chaldean nor the Egyptian religion, neither to Buddhism, Islam, Judaism nor Christianity exclusively. The Secret Doctrine is the essence of all these. Sprung from it in their origins, the various religious schemes are now made to merge back into their original element, out of which every mystery and dogma has grown, developed and become materialized. The aim of the work, in brief, was To show that Nature is not ‘a fortuitous concurrence of atoms’, and to assign to man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe…"

In October, 1888, The Secret Doctrine was published simultaneously in London and New York. The first English edition of five hundred copies was exhausted before the day of publication. It was immediately reprinted, with the words Second Edition added to the title-page, although in modern usage this would be called a second impression or reprint.

While in London H. P. B., as she was affectionately known, founded the Blavatsky Lodge, and in 1889 attended a series of its meetings at 19 Avenue Road. At these discussions she answered questions on the Stanzas in Volume I. of The Secret Doctrine, and these Questions and her Answers, later published as Transactions of the Blavatsky Lodge of the Theosophical Society, may be usefully studied in conjunction with the major work.

In 1893, two years after the author’s death in 1891, a Third and Revised Edition appeared, edited by Annie Besant and G. R. S. Mead. It contained a great many changes in the text, correcting references, improving faulty English and making a more consistent transliteration of foreign terms. But some of the corrections substantially altered the sense, and many later students do not accept them as justified.

In 1897, the Theosophical Publishing House published a new work described as Volume III. This, however, was never planned as such by Mme. Blavatsky, and is clearly not either of the volumes three and four to which she more than once referred.

Since then, many editions of The Secret Doctrine have appeared, in London, India and America. Some are careful reprints of the First Edition, in two volumes or in one; others are further revisions of the Third Edition. The current Adyar Edition has been carefully collated with this Abridgement in order that every change in the text, trivial or substantial, might be carefully considered. But, as explained in the Editorial Preface, on the rare occasions when a change, other than a purely editorial improvement has been made, that change is clear to the eye.

The work itself is difficult reading, for its teaching is, to modern Western minds, entirely new. It needs considerable mental effort to digest, but as H. P. Blavatsky wrote in the preface to The Key to Theosophy, To the mentally lazy or obtuse, Theosophy must remain a riddle; for in the world mental as in the world spiritual each man must progress by his own efforts. It is hoped that this Abridgement will make the effort of digestion easier.

PREFACE

THE author does not feel it necessary to ask the indulgence of her readers and critics for the many defects of literary style, and the imperfect English which may be found in these pages. She is a foreigner, and her knowledge of the language was acquired late in life. The English tongue is employed because it offers the most widely-diffused medium for conveying the truths which it had become her duty to place before the world.

These truths are in no sense put forward as a revelation; nor does the author claim the position of a revealer of mystic lore, now made public for the first time in the world’s history. For what is contained in this work is to be found scattered throughout thousands of volumes embodying the scriptures of the great Asiatic and early European religions, hidden under glyph and symbol, and hitherto left unnoticed because of this veil. What is now attempted is to gather the oldest tenets together and to make of them one harmonious and unbroken whole. The sole advantage which the writer has over her predecessors, is that she need not resort to personal speculations and theories. For this work is a partial statement of what she herself has been taught by more advanced students, supplemented, in a few details only, by the results of her own study and observation.

This book is not the Secret Doctrine in its entirety, but a select number of fragments of its fundamental tenets. It is perhaps desirable to state unequivocally that the teachings, however fragmentary and incomplete, contained in these volumes, belong neither to the Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Chaldean, nor the Egyptian religion, neither to Buddhism, Islam, Judaism nor Christianity exclusively. The Secret Doctrine is the essence of all these. Sprung from it in their origins, the various religious schemes are now made to merge back into their original element, out of which every mystery and dogma has grown, developed, and become materialised.

The writer is fully prepared to take all the responsibility for what is contained in this work, and even to face the charge of having invented the whole of it. That it has many shortcomings she is fully aware; all that she claims is that its logical coherence and consistency entitle this new Genesis to rank, at any rate, on a level with the working hypotheses so freely accepted by modern science. Further, it claims consideration, not by reason of any appeal to dogmatic authority, but because it closely adheres to Nature, and follows the laws of uniformity and analogy.

The aim of this work may be thus stated: to show that Nature is not a fortuitous concurrence of atoms, and to assign to man his rightful place in the scheme of the Universe; to rescue from degradation the archaic truths which are the basis of all religions; and to uncover, to some extent, the fundamental unity from which they all spring; finally, to show that the occult side of Nature has never been approached by the Science of modern civilization.

If this is in any degree accomplished, the writer is content. It is written in the service of humanity, and by humanity and the future generations it must be judged.

H. P. B.

London, October, 1888.

INTRODUCTORY

SINCE the appearance of Theosophical literature in England, it has become customary to call its teachings Esoteric Buddhism. Esoteric Buddhism¹ was an excellent work with a very unfortunate title, though it meant no more than does the title of this work, The Secret Doctrine. It proved unfortunate, because people are always in the habit of judging things by their appearance, rather than their meaning. From the first, protests were raised by Brahmins and others against the title; and, in justice to myself, I must add that Esoteric Buddhism was presented to me as a completed volume, and that I was entirely unaware of the manner in which the author intended to spell the word Budh-ism. This has to be laid directly at the