The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy, a book originally published as two volumes in 1888, is Helena P. Blavatsky's magnum opus. The first volume is named Cosmogenesis, the second Anthropogenesis. It was an influential example of the revival of interest in esoteric and occult ideas in the modern age, in particular because of its claim to reconcile ancient eastern wisdom with modern science. 1888 (MDCCCLXXXVIII) is a leap year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. ... Helena Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Hahn (also Hélène) (July 31, 1831 (O.S.) (August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) - May 8, 1891 London), better known as Helena Blavatsky (Russian: ) or Madame Blavatsky, born Helena von Hahn, was a founder of the Theosophical Society. ... Magnum opus (sometimes Opus magnum), from the Latin meaning great work, refers to the best, most popular, or most renowned achievement of an author, artist, or composer. ... Cosmogenesis is the term created by the French Jesuit Priest and Scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe the cosmological process of the creation of the Universe. ... Etymology Esoteric is an adjective originating during Hellenic Greece under the domain of the Roman Empire; it comes from the Greek esôterikos, from esôtero, the comparative form of esô: within. It is a word meaning anything that is inner and occult, a latinate word meaning hidden (from which...

Blavatsky claimed that its contents had been revealed to her by 'mahatmas' who had retained knowledge of mankind's spiritual history, knowledge that it was now possible, in part, to reveal. Mahatma is Sanskrit for Great Soul. ...

Volume One

The first part of the book explained the origins of the universe itself, in terms derived from the Hindu concept of Yugas, or long passages of time through which the world is supposed to have evolved. Blavatsky attempted to demonstrate that the discoveries of "materialist" science had been anticipated in the writings of ancient sages, and that materialism would soon be proven wrong. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...

Volume Two

The second half of the book describes the origins of humanity through an account of "Root Races" dating back millions of years. The first root race was, according to her, "ethereal", the second root race lived in Hyperborea. The third root race lived according to her in Lemuria and the fourth root race in Atlantis. Root Race is a term first used by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in her book The Secret Doctrine. ... In Greek mythology, according to tradition, the Hyperboreans were a mythical people who lived to the far north of Greece, near the Ural Mountains. ... In Roman religion Lemuria is the Feast of the Lemures, during which the unwholesome and malevolent spectres of the restless dead (lemures) were propitiated. ... Athanasius Kirchers map of a possible Atlantis location. ...

According to Blavatsky, the present fifth root race, the so-called Aryans, is approximately one million years old. It overlapped the fourth root race and the very first beginnings of the fifth root race were approximately in the middle of the fourth root race. Aryan is an English language word derived from the Indian Vedic Sanskrit and Iranian Avestan terms ari-, arya-, ārya-, and/or the extended form aryāna-. The Sanskrit and Old Persian languages both pronounced the word as arya- and aryan. ...

Volume Three and Four

Blavatsky wanted also to publish a third and a fourth volume of the Secret Doctrine. After Blavatsky's death a controversial third volume of the Secret Doctrine was published by Annie Besant. Annie Besant Plaque on house in Colby Road, London SE19 where Annie Besant lived in 1874. ...

Racial theories

Blavatsky argues that some peoples are less fully human than the "Aryans". For example:

Of such semi-animal creatures, the sole remnants known to Ethnology were the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians and a mountain tribe in China, the men and women of which are entirely covered with hair. They were the last descendants in a direct line of the semi-animal latter-day Lemurians referred to. There are, however, considerable numbers of the mixed Lemuro-Atlantean peoples produced by various crossings with such semi-human stocks -- e.g., the wild men of Borneo, the Veddhas of Ceylon, classed by Prof. Flower among Aryans (!), most of the remaining Australians, Bushmen, Negritos, Andaman Islanders, etc.

Blavatsky also asserts that "Semites, especially the Arabs, are later Aryans -- degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality."

While these assertions have been criticized, other extracts from her writings show her strong belief in an Universal Brotherhood of humanity. In The Key to Theosophy she wrote that "All men have spiritually and physically the same origin, which is the fundamental teaching of Theosophy" and that "mankind is essentially of one and the same essence." One of the objects of her Theosophical Society is "To form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, color, or creed." She also spoke out against European slave trade in Africa (Key to Theosophy 3), the Caste System (SD I:270) and often laid stress on "kindness, absence of every ill feeling or selfishness, charity, goodwill to all beings, and perfect justice to others as to one's self" (The First Message of HPB). The Universal Brotherhood is a term used in theosophical writings. ...

On the other hand, in The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky states: "Verily mankind is 'of one blood,' but not of the same essence." Blavatsky connects physical race with spiritual attributes constantly throughout her works: "Esoteric history teaches that idols and their worship died out with the Fourth Race, until the survivors of the hybrid races of the latter (Chinamen, African negroes, &c.) gradually brought the worship back. The Vedas countenance no idols; all the modern Hindu writings do" (The Secret Doctrine: Anthropogenesis). Blavatsky calls the physical Aryan race "the 'cream' of the Fourth Race", which "gravitated more and more toward the apex of physical and intellectual evolution", asserting that the Aryan Fifth Root Race corresponds to "the final adjustment of the human organism -- which became perfect and symmetrical only in the Fifth Race" (The Secret Doctrine: Anthropogenesis). According to Blavatsky, "the MONADS of the lowest specimens of humanity (the "narrow-brained" savage South-Sea Islander, the African, the Australian) had no Karma to work out when first born as men, as their more favoured brethren in intelligence had" (Anthropogenesis). She also prophesies of the destruction of the racial "failures of nature" as the "higher race" ascends: "Thus will mankind, race after race, perform its appointed cycle-pilgrimage. Climates will, and have already begun, to change, each tropical year after the other dropping one sub-race, but only to beget another higher race on the ascending cycle; while a series of other less favoured groups -- the failures of nature -- will, like some individual men, vanish from the human family without even leaving a trace behind."

Study of the Secret Doctrine

According to P.G.B. Bowen, Blavatsky gave the following instructions regarding the study of the Secret Doctrine:

Reading the S.D. page by page as one reads any other book (she says) will only end us in confusion. The first thing to do, even if it takes years, is to get some grasp of the "Three Fundamental Principles" given in the Proem. Follow that up by study of the Recapitulation - the numbered items in the Summing Up to Vol. I (Part 1.) Then take the Preliminary Notes (Vol. II) and the Conclusion (Vol. II).

Quotations

Such a work as this has to be introduced with no simple Preface, but with a volume rather; one that would give facts, not mere disquisitions, since the SECRET DOCTRINE is not a treatise, or a series of vague theories, but contains all that can be given out to the world in this century. (The Secret Doctrine)

Writings about "The Secret Doctrine"

• Alice Bailey wrote about the Secret Doctrine: But those of us who really studied it and arrived at some understanding of its inner significance have a basic appreciation of the truth that no other book seems to supply. H.P.B. said that the next interpretation of the Ageless Wisdom would be a psychological approach, and A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, which I published in 1925, is the psychological key to The Secret Doctrine. None of my books would have been possible had I not at one time made a very close study of The Secret Doctrine.

• Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine by Max Heindel (1933; from Max Heindel writings & with introduction by Manly Palmer Hall), www

THE SECRET DOCTRINE is one of the most remarkable books in the world... Behind her [H.P.B.] stood the real teachers, the guardians of the Secret Wisdom of the ages, who taught her all the occult lore which she transmitted in her writings.

Alice A. Bailey (16th June,1880 ‑ 15th December,1949), writer and lecturer on neo-theosophy, was born in England in 1880 as Alice LaTrobe Bateman. ... Max Heindel (1865-1919) Max Heindel - born Carl Louis von Grasshoff in Aarhus, Denmark on July 23, 1865 - was a Christian occultist, astrologer, and mystic. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...

References

• The Secret Doctrine, by HP Blavatsky
• The Secret Doctrine and Its Study by P.G.B. Bowen
• The Key to Theosophy, by HP Blavatsky
• The First Message of HP Blavatsky. To WQ Judge, General Secretary of the American Section of the Theosophical Society. 1888.

See also

• Theosophy
• Round (Theosophy)
• Book of Dzyan
• Mahatma Letters

Seal of the Theosophical Society Theosophy is a body of ideas which holds that all religions are attempts by man to ascertain the Divine, and as such each religion has a portion of the truth. ... A round in the esoteric cosmology of Theosophy, Anthroposophy and Rosicrucianism is a cosmic cycle or sequence by which an evolving reincarnating being passes through the various stages of existence as the Earth, the Solar System or the Cosmos comes into and passes out of manifestation. ... The Book of Dzyan is reputedly an ancient text, of Tibetan origin, written by H.P.Blavatsky. ... The Mahatma Letters are letters that were supposedly written by the mystical theosophical Mahatmas to certain theosophists. ...

External links

• The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 1 and Vol.2 Online Version
• The third volume of the Secret Doctrine
• The Secret Doctrine Net
• The Secret Doctrine at Blavatsky.Net
• The Book of Dzyan Research Reports by David Reigle
• Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine by Max Heindel with an Introduction by Manly Palmer Hall, little essay on H.P. Blavatsky and "The Secret Doctrine" published in 1933

Seal of the Theosophical Society Theosophy is a body of ideas which holds that all religions are attempts by man to ascertain the Divine, and as such each religion has a portion of the truth. ... Helena Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Hahn (also Hélène) (July 31, 1831 (O.S.) (August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) - May 8, 1891 London), better known as Helena Blavatsky (Russian: ) or Madame Blavatsky, born Helena von Hahn, was a founder of the Theosophical Society. ... William Quan Judge (1851-March 22, 1896 New York) was one of the founders of the original Theosophical Society. ... Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), founder and first president of the Theosophical Society, is well-known as the first prominent person of Western descent to make a formal conversion to Buddhism. ... Dr. George Sidney Arundale (* 1. ... Alice A. Bailey (16th June,1880 ‑ 15th December,1949), writer and lecturer on neo-theosophy, was born in England in 1880 as Alice LaTrobe Bateman. ... Annie Besant Plaque on house in Colby Road, London SE19 where Annie Besant lived in 1874. ... Radha Burnier (* 15 November 1923 in Adyar, India) is a freemason and president of the Theosophical Society Adyar since 1980. ... John B. S. Coats or JBS Coats (* 8. ... Arthur Latham Conger jun. ... The United Lodge of Theosophists, or ULT, was founded in 1909 by a disgruntled Theosophical Society member, Robert Crosbie (1849-1919). ... Abner Doubleday Abner Doubleday (June 26, 1819 – January 26, 1893), was a career U.S. Army officer and Union general in the American Civil War. ... Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa (* 16. ... Grace F. Knoche (* in Point Loma, California, USA) is a theosophist and president of the Theosophical Society Pasadena. ... Jiddu Krishnamurti (జిడ్డు కృష్ణమూర్తి in Telugu) (May 12, 1895 Madanapalle, India–February 17, 1986 Ojai, California), often written as J. Krishnamurti, was discovered, in 1909, as a teenager by C.W. Leadbeater in India on the private beach at the Theosophical headquarters at Adyar in Chennai. ... C.W. Leadbeater (1847 or 1854-1934), English clergyman and Theosophical author, contributed to world thought mostly through his work as a clairvoyant. ... James A. Long (* 27. ... George Robert Stowe Mead (1863-1933) was an author, editor, translator, esotericist, and an influential member of the Theosophical Society. ... Gottfried von Purucker (January 15, 1874, Suffern, New York - September 27, 1942) was an author and Theosophist. ... Nilakanta Sri Ram or Nilakantha Sri Ram (N. Sri Ram) (* 15 December 1889 in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, India; † 8 April 1973 in Adyar, India) was a freemason, theosophist and president of the Theosophical Society Adyar. ... Helena Roerich (1879-1954) was born in Russia on February 12, 1879. ... Guests from Overseas, 1899 (Varangians in Russia) Nicholas Roerich, (October 9, 1874 - December 13, 1947) also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Russian: Николай Константинович Рерих), was a Russian painter and spiritual teacher. ... Katherine Augusta Westcott Tingley (1847, Newbury, Massachusetts - 1929) was a social worker and prominent Theosophist. ... Bahman Pestonji Wadia oder Bomanji Pestonji Wadia (BP Wadia, or BPW) (* 8. ... Isis Unveiled, a master-key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology, published in 1877, was Helena Petrovna Blavatskys first major book. ... The title of a popular book by Helena P. Blavatsky first published in 1889 and still in print today, expounding the principles of theosophy in a readable question-and-answer manner. ... The Mahatma Letters are letters that were supposedly written by the mystical theosophical Mahatmas to certain theosophists. ... The Voice of the Silence is a book by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. ... The etheric body, ether-body, æther body, or vital body is one of the subtle bodies in esoteric philosophies, in some religious teachings and in New Age thought. ... The etheric plane or etheric region is one of the planes of existence, or more specifically a subplane or planes, in Theosophy and New Age thought. ... The Mental Body is one of the Subtle Bodies in Theosophy and New Age thought. ... The Mental Plane in Hermeticism, Theosophical, Aurobindonian, and New Age thought refers to the macrocosmic or universal plane or reality that is made up purely of thought or mindstuff. ... A round in the esoteric cosmology of Theosophy, Anthroposophy and Rosicrucianism is a cosmic cycle or sequence by which an evolving reincarnating being passes through the various stages of existence as the Earth, the Solar System or the Cosmos comes into and passes out of manifestation. ... The Septenary in H.P. Blavatskys teachings refers to the seven principles of man, In The Key to Theosophy, pp. ... The Universal Brotherhood is a term used in theosophical writings. ... The Theosophical Society was the organization formed to advance the spiritual doctrines and altruistic living known as Theosophy. ... The Theosophical Society - Adyar is a successor organization to the original Theosophical Society founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others in 1875. ... The Theosophical Society (Pasadena) is a successor organization to the original Theosophical Society founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and others in 1875. ... The United Lodge of Theosophists, or ULT, was founded in 1909 by a disgruntled Theosophical Society member, Robert Crosbie (1849-1919). ... Sunrise is a journal of the Theosophical Society Pasadena. ... The Theosophist is a theosophical journal. ... Agni Yoga, also called the Teaching of Living Ethics or (in Russian) the Zhivaya Etica, is an esoteric teaching founded by the Russian painter Nicholas Roerich (Nikolai Konstantinovitch Rerikh) and his highly adept empathic wife, Helena Roerich (Elena Ivanovna Rerikh). ... Esotericism refers to knowledge that is secret or not generally known. ... Maitreya Bodhisattva is the future Buddha in Buddhist eschatology. ... In metaphysics and esoteric cosmology, a plane of existence (sometimes called simply a plane, dimension, vibrating plane, or an inner, invisible, spiritual, supraphysical world, or egg) is a theoretical region of space (and/or consciousness) beyond, but permeating, the known physical universe (or the region of the physical universe itself... ...