{
  "meta": {
    "schema_version": "1.2",
    "endpoint": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/index.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "mahatma-letters",
    "name": "Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett",
    "stream": "western-european",
    "epoch_reflected": "current",
    "epoch_written": "current",
    "form": "master correspondence",
    "tradition": "Theosophical",
    "author": "Masters Koot Hoomi and Morya (transmitters); A.P. Sinnett (recipient)",
    "year_approx": 1882,
    "note": "Direct correspondence with Masters Koot Hoomi and Morya, received in India (1880–1884) by A.P. Sinnett and A.O. Hume. A.T. Barker's edition of the letters (1923; revised 1948).",
    "books_slug": "barker--the-mahatma-letters-to-a-p-sinnett-selections",
    "books_slugs": null,
    "has_project_translation": false,
    "steiner_loci": []
  },
  "parents": [],
  "translation": {
    "title": null,
    "author": null,
    "source": null
  },
  "chapters": [
    {
      "num": 1,
      "slug": "01-introduction",
      "title": "Introduction",
      "words": 3516,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/01-introduction/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/01-introduction.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Editorial introduction",
      "blurb": "Editorial introduction to this selection from the *Mahatma Letters*. The provenance: 1880-1884 correspondence purportedly received by A. P. Sinnett (editor of the Allahabad *Pioneer*) and A. O. Hume from the *Mahatmas* Koot Hoomi and Morya — the *Masters* who, in Theosophical claim, transmitted the doctrine via H. P. Blavatsky."
    },
    {
      "num": 2,
      "slug": "03-the-writing-of-the-mahatma-letters-at-barker",
      "title": "The Writing of the Mahatma Letters (A.T. Barker)",
      "words": 1377,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/03-the-writing-of-the-mahatma-letters-at-barker/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/03-the-writing-of-the-mahatma-letters-at-barker.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "A. T. Barker's account of the Letters' writing",
      "blurb": "A. T. Barker's editorial account from the 1923 first published edition of the Mahatma Letters. Provenance, transmission, physical character (the famous *precipitations*), the question of authenticity that has divided Theosophical scholarship from the start."
    },
    {
      "num": 3,
      "slug": "04-mars-and-mercury",
      "title": "Mars and Mercury",
      "words": 2094,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/04-mars-and-mercury/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/04-mars-and-mercury.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Mars and Mercury — the planetary chains controversy",
      "blurb": "On the controversy over whether Mars and Mercury are part of the earth-chain of globes (as Sinnett had inferred from Letter 23B) or are separate chains as later Theosophical doctrine held. One of the contested doctrinal-textual cruxes of the Mahatma Letters tradition."
    },
    {
      "num": 4,
      "slug": "05-first-letter-of-kh-to-a-o-hume",
      "title": "First Letter of K.H. to A. O. Hume",
      "words": 4488,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/05-first-letter-of-kh-to-a-o-hume/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/05-first-letter-of-kh-to-a-o-hume.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "First Letter of K.H. to A. O. Hume",
      "blurb": "Koot Hoomi's first letter to A. O. Hume — the first sustained doctrinal address by the Mahatma to a Western correspondent of high social-political standing. Establishes the relationship and the doctrinal frame within which Hume's many questions will be answered in the succeeding letters."
    },
    {
      "num": 5,
      "slug": "06-view-of-the-chohan-on-the-ts",
      "title": "View of the Chohan on the T.S.",
      "words": 2175,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/06-view-of-the-chohan-on-the-ts/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/06-view-of-the-chohan-on-the-ts.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "View of the Chohan on the Theosophical Society",
      "blurb": "The famous *Chohan letter* — the senior Mahatma's intervention regarding the future of the Theosophical Society. The strongest single statement of the Mahatmic perspective on the Society as an experiment in human spiritual education and the conditions for its success or failure."
    },
    {
      "num": 6,
      "slug": "07-cosmological-notes",
      "title": "Cosmological Notes",
      "words": 4347,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/07-cosmological-notes/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/07-cosmological-notes.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Cosmological notes — the chains, rounds, races",
      "blurb": "Doctrinal cosmology of the Mahatmic teaching as conveyed through the letters: the seven globes of the earth-chain, the seven rounds of evolution upon each, the seven root-races of each round. The foundation upon which Blavatsky's *Secret Doctrine* will subsequently elaborate."
    },
    {
      "num": 7,
      "slug": "08-a-o-humes-reply-to-khs-first-letter-letter-99",
      "title": "A. O. Hume's Reply to K.H.'s First Letter (Letter 99)",
      "words": 3910,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/08-a-o-humes-reply-to-khs-first-letter-letter-99/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/08-a-o-humes-reply-to-khs-first-letter-letter-99.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "A. O. Hume's reply (Letter 99)",
      "blurb": "Hume's reply to K.H.'s first doctrinal letter. The exchange shows the dialogue-character of the correspondence: not a one-way oracle but a sustained back-and-forth in which the Western correspondent's specific questions shape the Mahatmic response."
    },
    {
      "num": 8,
      "slug": "09-foreign-words-and-phrases",
      "title": "Foreign Words and Phrases",
      "words": 1812,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/09-foreign-words-and-phrases/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/09-foreign-words-and-phrases.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Foreign words and phrases — glossary",
      "blurb": "Editorial glossary of the Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Pali terms employed by the Mahatmas in their correspondence. Helps the Western reader navigate the technical vocabulary of Eastern esoteric tradition as it appears in the Letters."
    },
    {
      "num": 9,
      "slug": "10-foreword-to-combined-chronology",
      "title": "Foreword to Combined Chronology",
      "words": 2527,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/10-foreword-to-combined-chronology/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/10-foreword-to-combined-chronology.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Foreword to the Combined Chronology",
      "blurb": "Editorial foreword to the Combined Chronology — Margaret Conger's 1973 attempt to establish a definitive chronological ordering of the Mahatma Letters together with H. P. Blavatsky's correspondence and the surviving Sinnett-Hume papers."
    },
    {
      "num": 10,
      "slug": "11-preface-to-combined-chronology",
      "title": "Preface to Combined Chronology",
      "words": 1846,
      "url": "/sources/mahatma-letters/11-preface-to-combined-chronology/",
      "api": "/api/sources/mahatma-letters/11-preface-to-combined-chronology.json",
      "project_translation": false,
      "subtitle": "Preface to the Combined Chronology",
      "blurb": "The Preface to the Combined Chronology. The editorial methodology, the textual cruxes faced, and the rationale for the particular chronological orderings adopted. The reference-tool that makes the Mahatma Letters navigable in their proper sequence."
    }
  ]
}