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    "num": 9,
    "slug": "10-foreword-to-combined-chronology",
    "title": "Foreword to Combined Chronology",
    "of": 10,
    "words": 2527,
    "text": "## Foreword to Combined Chronology\n\n\n#### Foreword to the Combined Chronology of Margaret Conger\n\n##### By Grace F. Knoche\n\nIn December 1923, the theosophical world was electrified by the publication of\n*The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett* — over 120 letters purportedly\nwritten between 1880 and 1886 by two Eastern adepts, M. and K.H., to A. P. Sinnett\nof Allahabad, editor of *The Pioneer,* a leading Anglo-Indian newspaper,\nand to his friend A. O. Hume, C.B., in the service of Her Majesty's Government\nin India, and an ornithologist of note. Until then, extracts only from this\nremarkable correspondence had been available for study, chiefly those portions\nwhich Mr. Sinnett had quoted in his book, *The Occult World*, in 1881.\nNow the original letters, without deletions, had been transcribed and compiled\nby A. Trevor Barker.\n\nTwo years later, a companion volume was issued: *The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky\nto A. P. Sinnett —* written not only to Mr. Sinnett, but many of them\nto his wife Patience, whom H.P.B. held in lasting and affectionate regard.\n\nIt is of record that the Mahatma as well as the Blavatsky letters had been bequeathed\nby Mr. Sinnett \"solely and unconditionally\" to Miss Maud Hoffman,\nand that she in turn gave Trevor Barker the \"great privilege of undertaking\nthe whole responsibility\" for their transcription and publication in book\nform. That he was keenly sensible of the \"grave responsibility attending\nhis action\" is eloquently set forth in his Introduction to *The Mahatma\nLetters* (2nd edition), the more so as he was well aware that K.H., while\nencouraging Sinnett (ML 49) to \"recast teachings and ideas\" for his \"future\nbook\" which became *Esoteric Buddhism,* had later on reminded him\nthat the letters \"were not written for publication or public comment upon\nthem, but for private use, and neither M. nor I will ever give our consent to\nsee them thus handled\" (ML 63).\n\nThat was in 1884. By the 1920s the situation had greatly altered. The original\nmessage had in certain quarters become marred by intrusions of neo-theosophy,\nideas counter to the teachings of H.P.B. and her teachers. So convinced was\nTrevor Barker that \"the highest interests of The Theosophical Society\n*demanded* the full publication\" of these documents in order that\nthe members and the world at large could \"study the truth for themselves\nconcerning The Masters and their doctrines as set forth in these letters signed\nby their own hands,\"([1]) that he determined\nto publish the whole of the Mahatma letters \"*verbatim* from the\noriginals and without omission\" (ML Introduction).\n\nIncredible as it may seem, publication of the letters roused a good deal of antagonism,\nmainly among those whom one would have thought would be the first to rejoice\nthat at long last the direct words of H.P.B.'s teachers could be studied at\nfirst hand. Some went so far as to ban the book, for reasons of their own. A\nfew believed sincerely that no good could come from \"raking out of a desirable\noblivion the faults and failures of early workers,\" forgetting that the\npenetrating analyses of character were compassionately motivated and, moreover,\nwere not pointed to the individuals involved so much as to human frailties that\nall of us share in common. Others protested because of the final section in\nthe Appendix in which Mr. Barker had outlined the facts of the \"Mars and\nMercury controversy\" — a divergence of interpretation between A.P.S.\nand H.P.B. of the Master's teaching regarding the planetary chains (cf. \"Mars and Mercury\").\n\nMost theosophists, of course, immediately recognized the book's intrinsic worth.\nNot least among these was Dr. H. N. Stokes, brilliant editor of the *O. E.\nLibrary Critic,* whose fearless reporting at the periscope of the theosophic\nship was to earn him the title of 'watchdog' of the movement. To him *The\nMahatma Letters* was \"the most authoritative work of a theosophical\nnature ever made accessible to the public. It is simply transcendent in its\nimportance\" (March 12, 1924). Now the actual letters, telegrams, and memoranda\nfrom M. and K.H. in the possession of Mr. Sinnett at the time of his death could\nbe read by all. In a word, the general public had access to the wellspring of\ninspiration, training and instruction on which H. P. Blavatsky herself had drawn.\nThere was no further doubt as to authenticity of source or inner purpose.\n\nThen in 1925, with the issuance of *The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P.\nSinnett,* covering the years 1880-87, students were given a glimpse into\nthe innermost heart of H.P.B. as she valiantly battled to save the T.S., scarcely\na decade old, and now reeling from the shock of the Coulomb treachery and the\nsubsequent Report of the Society for Psychical Research, which had infamously\nbranded her \"as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting\nimpostors in history\" (cf. *Proceedings**,* December 1885,\nLondon). {See also H. P. Blavatsky and the\nSPR: An Examination of the Hodgson Report, by Vernon Harrison PhD, TUP\n1997}\n\nTo read her letters, especially those to Patience Sinnett written in the summer\nof 1885, is to come profoundly close to the reality of sacrifice. Of that memorable\nnight when H.P.B. was shown the future and what she would have to endure if\nshe chose to remain their instrument, she writes: \"Death was so welcome\nat that hour, rest so needed, so desired; life like the one that stared me in\nthe face, and that is realised now — so miserable; yet how could I say\n*No* to Him who wanted me to live!\" (BL 45).\n\nThe world is vastly in debt to the karma surrounding these letters, first, to\nTrevor Barker for the courage and tenacity of purpose to consummate their publication.\nSecondly, to A. P. Sinnett for his faithful care of these priceless documents,\nall the more because in his latter days he wrote disparagingly of his old friend\nH.P.B., casting a slur on her role as intermediary between himself and the Brothers.\nAnd thirdly to Maud Hoffman who held the safeguarding of this bequest as a most\nsacred trust. A fact that is amply attested by her foresight in arranging with\nMr. Barker to present the entire collection of Mahatma and Blavatsky papers\nto the British Museum {now British Library} in 1939, where they are housed in the Department of\nManuscripts, beautifully bound in several volumes, and protected under the most\nfavorable conditions for future generations of students.\n\nHaving myself had the inestimable privilege in 1951 of examining the originals,\nit doesn't take much imagination to sense the enormous challenge that must have\nfaced Trevor Barker on receiving into his hands the wooden box which Mr. Sinnett\nhad had made to hold the letters. Here were hundreds of loose letters, of every\nsize, shape and color, some of them written on fragile rice paper, others on\nheavier grained stock, with the writing at times startlingly clear, but again,\nin places almost indecipherable, and with the style of handwriting varying nearly\nas greatly as the quality of ink, pencil or crayon used. What is more, most\nof the letters are undated, or only sketchily identified by the recipient as\nto date or place of receipt. Inevitably, as in the swift momentum of history\nin the making, too much is coursing through the consciousness to stop for minutiae.\nTo the historian decades (or centuries) later, the lack of documentation looms\nlarge.\n\nTrevor Barker, at once recognizing the impossibility of accurately arranging\nthe Mahatma letters in chronological order, did the next best thing: he assembled\nthe material under several major categories, starting with those letters from\nSinnett's *Occult World.* Not only were they already well known to students,\nbut were obviously the earliest received. Then came those majestic epistles\non philosophical themes, dealing with the grand evolutionary pilgrimage through\nthe kalpas of man and the kingdoms both below and above the human; next, the\nsection on Probation and Chelaship, to read which is to be immeasurably chastened,\nand strengthened also, through identifying with those who sought then, as does\nthe earnest aspirant of every age, to purify the heart of selfish motive.\n\nNaturally it would have been preferable if Mr. Sinnett and Mr. Hume had conscientiously\njotted down the date and circumstance surrounding the receipt of each communication,\nfor then the moving force behind the sequence of events during those formative\nyears of the theosophical effort might now be more clearly revealed. To compensate\nfor this lack, Margaret Conger in 1939, after years of careful, painstaking\nexamination of the early documents and periodicals of the Society, published\nher *Combined Chronology* for use with both the Mahatma and the Blavatsky\nletters — this being designed as a table of dates, with explanatory notes,\ngiving the order (in certain instances approximate only) of the letters as they\nwere written and received, and by whom. Mrs. Conger brought to her research\na lifetime's study of and dedication to theosophical principles, having joined\nthe Society and also its esoteric section under H.P.B. in 1890. From 1927-1939\nshe had the added advantage of testing her findings in her Mahatma Letters Class,\nin which her husband, Colonel Arthur L. Conger, and Dr. H. N. Stokes were active\nparticipants.\n\nThe next year, Mary K. Neff, author of *Personal Memoirs of H. P. Blavatsky,*\npublished two small pamphlets, giving a chronological order of the letters of\neach volume separately. Other suggested arrangements by different scholars were\nmade over the years, but to our knowledge never publicly shared. Then in 1972,\nGeorge E. Linton and Virginia Hanson issued a *Reader's Guide to the Mahatma\nLetters to A. P. Sinnett* {Second Edition, 1988}, an important contribution inasmuch as it gives\nfor each letter not only its physical description,([2]) approximate date when received, but the circumstances as far\nas known, with references in the literature to support their research. They\nalso indicate where they consider some of the Blavatsky letters fit in to the Mahatma\nseries. No one claims to provide the definitive order, but it is useful to compare\ndoubtful points with the conclusions of others.([3])\n\n*The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett* is again available,\nafter being out of print for more than thirty years, and the reissuance now\nof Margaret Conger's work is therefore welcome and valuable. Her arrangement\nof order is just what the title says it is, *a combined* chronology.\nSimple and direct, there is nothing extraneous to detract from the full impact\nof H.P.B.'s or the Master's thought.([4])\n\nTo be able to follow letter by letter, first in the Mahatma series, and then\nin the Blavatsky book, to find an illuminating sidelight by H.P.B. on the very\nevent or person just alluded to by M. or K.H., is to get a feel, an atmosphere;\nit is to sense the *flow* not only of developments, but of relationships\nbetween the teachers and H.P.B., and between them and Olcott and Sinnett and\nHume, and Damodar too, and, indeed, all who came within the circle of their\ncompassionate interest.\n\nIt is a tremendously inspiring experience, even at this late date, to participate\nin the behind-the-scenes doings of those momentous years that finally persuaded\nthe Chief to permit K.H. and his brother M. to enter into correspondence, through\nH.P.B., with those proud Englishmen, in order to instruct them in some of the\nlaws of natural being. Unfortunately, these gentlemen, with all their amazing\nintellectual and moral endowments, and even their philanthropic urgings (which,\nalas, had \"no character of universality\"), never seemed able to grasp\nthe simple fact that the \"truths and mysteries of occultism,\" while\nof the \"highest spiritual importance . . . for the world at large,\"\nwould not be imparted for the delectation of a select group, a few \"enlightened\nminds,\" but solely that they might \"work for the good of mankind\"\n(ML 6).\n\nThis is not to belittle Sinnett or Hume. Had it not been for their unique karma,\nhumanity may well have had to wait a good deal longer before this mighty philosophy\ncould have been given to the world as fully as it has. Indeed, who knows but\nthat they, by their eagerness to learn, may have pushed the door sufficiently\najar so that H.P.B., far better equipped by training and innate soul-quality,\ncould sweep through and unfold in master strokes the cosmic grandeur of the\nStanzas of Dzyan on which her *Secret Doctrine* is based. From the perspective\nof the errors and successes of several generations of theosophists, of the decades\nof service given without thought of self, dare *we* be prideful? How\nwould we have fared so close to the Flame, to the primal source of Power?\n\n—————\n\nToday, after nearly a hundred years of theosophic ideas in circulation, the current\ngenerations of earnest seekers find them as natural and inevitable as they were\nshocking and revolutionary to those of a century ago. But there is danger here\nas well. Along with an inrush of light, always deep shadows form. With the outpouring\nof spiritual vitality, the wave of psychic interest has been steadily cresting,\nand nowadays more and more people, untutored in discrimination, self-discipline\nand awareness of their own dual nature, are being caught in its wake. Knowledge\nof who man is, and of the perils of wantonly opening the door into the astral\nrealms, is needed if the tide toward psychic experimentation is to be controlled.\n\nTo read the letters of H.P.B.'s teachers and of their teacher is to remind ourselves\nthat benevolence, compassion, generosity of soul, are not intellectual theories\nwith them; they are profound realities born from the dedication of ages.\n\nGrace F. Knoche\n\nNovember, 1973\n\n---\n\n---\n\nFOOTNOTES:\n\n1. In 1938, in response to a number of inquiries, Mr. Barker explained\nthat at the time of publication he had not had the opportunity \"to assimilate\nfully the whole content of the letters,\" and therefore it might have been\nbetter not to have implied that the Mahatmas wrote the letters with \"their\nown hands.\" He called especial attention to several wonderful passages\n(Letters 53, 93, 140) that deal with the transmission of teaching, i.e. by precipitation,\nimpressing the minds of young chelas or trained amanuenses, by mental dictation\nor mental telegraphy (cf. \"The Writing of the Mahatma\nLetters\"). (return to text)\n\n2. Further detail on the physical characteristics of the letters,\ntheir calligraphy and methods of transmission, as well as historic background,\nwill be found in *The Mahatmas and their Letters* (1973), by Geoffrey\nA. Barborka (Theosophical Publishing House, 1973).(return to text)\n\n3. {In 2021, utilizing far greater access to primary sources, some of which\nwas unavailable in the 1930s, TUP published a Second & Revised Edition of\n*The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett* with an updated chronological order.}(return to text)\n\n4. {Most but not all of the Blavatsky letters\nwere dated and, with some exceptions, this made re-synchronizing the two\nvolumes a simpler task. However, because of the changed dating sequences, the print version of the *\nCombined Chronology *is no longer published, Mrs. Conger's inestimable\ncontribution being embedded in these online editions of the two volumes*.*}(return to text)\n\n---\n\n####### Theosophical University Press Online Edition",
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