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relationship turned his worship of her into feelings of another kind.3 His own
letters during the years of his acquaintance with Madame Blavatsky and her
sister Madame Jelihowsky discloses his enthusiastic interest in the esoteric
program, and his own description of a number of psychic experiences which
occurred to him in person through the agency of his compatriot and her Adept
aides is noteworthy. He recounts the personal appearance to him one night of the
Master Morya himself, and gives the gist of the conversation he had with the
exalted personage who stood before him in his astral (materialized) form. M.
Solovyoff's testimony was considerably weakened later when he repudiated the
reality of this phenomenon and endeavored to explain it away with the statement
that he was at the time suffering from overwrought nerves. The current of his
entire narrative in the Modern Priestess thinly disguises a general
inconsistency between the attitude his letters show at the time of his close
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association with H.P.B. (and her sister) and that which he assumed when he came
to write his books after her death. Madame Jelihowsky's letters to him and her
rebuttal of many of his specific charges, which are appended to his book as a
supplement, indicate that the foundation of his accusations is erected on very
shifty sands. M. Solovyoff shows the capabilities of a good novelist, and
Theosophists are persuaded, after painstaking analysis of the entire situation,
that he drew largely for the material of his book upon the romantic
inventiveness of his literary genius. In any case, his book is added testimony
to H.P.B.'s powerful personality, whatever inferences one draws from it
regarding her methods.
In 1888 the General Convention in India adopted the policy of reorganizing the
Theosophical Society on the plan of autonomous sections. The Society was thus
changed from a quasi-autocracy to a constitutional federation, each part
independent as to its internal and local affairs, but responsible to every other
part for its loyal support of the movement, and to the headship which bound the
sections together.
As Col. Olcott and his partner were driving each in his own direction-the one
for an exoteric goal and the other toward an esoteric one-the history of the
Society in the years antedating Madame Blavatsky's death reflects a struggle
between the aims and interests of the two. Col. Olcott was cool to the
establishment of the Esoteric Section. He frequently resented H.P.B.'s arbitrary
overriding of his authority. It was in miniature the clash between church and
state, the spiritual and the temporal power, all over again. While the priestess
lived she left no doubts as to which had supremacy. And hardly less than in her
day, the later developments of Theosophic history can be understood only in the
light of the reverence given the Masters. A word dropped from their lips is the
highest law in the Theosophic kingdom. Material interest or temporal expediency
must bend before its authority.
Curiously also the attitudes taken toward their common enterprise by the two
Founders reflect the views of two opposing schools of thought. Col. Olcott
looked upon the growth of the movement as a development, not a teleological
unfoldment. It had no determinate purpose in the beginning, no definite lines of
direction, but was largely the product of unintended and unexpected events. Even
its declared objects were a "development." His views on these matters were
reflected in an article, "The Theosophical Society," signed by "F.T.S." (thought
to have been Mr. Richard Harte, one of the Colonel's lieutenants at Adyar),
published in Theosophist for Jan, 1889. But at least one gesture of assent to
the contrary view is made in the article when it says:
"This variation in the declared objects of the Society must not be taken as
indicating any real change in the intentions of the Founders. There is abundant
evidence in their writings and speeches that from the first their purposes were
to stimulate the spiritual development of the individual and to awaken in the
race the sentiment of Brotherhood."
Nevertheless, the Theosophist, during 1889, and thereafter, kept printing
articles from Mr. Harte's pen, emphasizing the need of the Society's standing
before the world divested of secret and mystical connection with, or at any rate
vital dependence upon, the mysterious wire-pullers behind the scenes, the
Mahatmas. Olcott's party, including Mr. Sinnett, Mr. Hume, and other prominent
members, desired to avoid the inevitable storm of worldly contumely which
adherence to the legend of the Masters provoked. They claimed that the
organization rested on high scientific, philosophical, and ethical principles
that stood on their own merits without adventitious supernatural aid. They
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wished it thus to take on the colors of anthroposophism and humanism. They
desired first of all that the Theosophical Society should appear eminently
respectable in the sight of intelligent people and not expose the questionable
Masters to public view. To the Masters, on the other hand, H.P.B. and Mr. Judge
were irretrievably committed. From the standpoint of these two the danger to be
guarded against was that the exoteric leaders might make of the Society a
worldly success, at the risk of occult failure. They feared that Theosophy might
gain the whole world but lose its own soul. This division of aims explains most
of the internal troubles which have arisen on board the ship of Theosophy.
In one of the Harte articles mention was made of Madame Blavatsky's "loyalty to
Adyar," i.e., to Col. Olcott's outer headship and authority. She replied by
saying that:
"H.P.B. is loyal to death to the Theosophic Cause, and those great Teachers
whose philosophy alone can bind the whole of humanity into one Brotherhood."
She would be loyal to Olcott and the Theosophic officialdom only so long as they
held true to the Masters and their Cause. Her loyalty to the Colonel was based
on his tireless labors for that Cause. If he deserted it her nexus of loyalty to
him was broken.
Events moved on from year to year, with "crises" and storms every few years, yet
with rapid increase in membership. In 1886 there were 8 Lodges in the United
States; in 1887, 12; in 1888, 19; in 1889, 26; in 1890, 45; in 1891, 57; and in
1892, 69. The American Section worked for the ethical ideals of Theosophy. In
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