An Invitation to the Secret Doctrine by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Grace F. Knoche as Editor List Price             $8.95 Our Price             $7.60   (15%)     usually ships within 24 hours during weekdays Details: Publisher: Theosophical University Press Pub. Date: February, 1998 Format: paperback, 80pp ISBN: 9781557000095

To those who would like to explore the essence of The Secret Doctrine, or who have had difficulty penetrating its two large volumes, An Invitation to The Secret Doctrine should prove welcome. Based on Blavatsky's study suggestions given to her personal students, it is a succinct and appealing statement of the SD's principal teachings in her own words. Included are the Bowen notes of HPB's comments, relevant pages from The Secret Doctrine, photographs of HPB's manuscript, a historical account of "The Writing of The Secret Doctrine" by Kirby Van Mater, and a glossary of terms.

Text from the SD is reproduced from the original 1988 edition.

As theosophical classics often become lifelong companions, Theosophical University Press makes every effort to produce books that are readable, durable, and affordable. This book is printed on recycled, acid-free paper selected for color, opacity, and antiglare surface. Its signatures are Smyth-sewn and bound with 14-point Kivar for durability. Given reasonable care, this book will not split or fall apart, and will last a lifetime.

To those who would like to explore the essence of the SD, or who have had difficulty penetrating its two large volumes, An Invitation to The Secret Doctrine should prove welcome. Based on Blavatsky's study suggestions given to her personal students, it is a succinct and appealing statement of the SD's principal teachings in her own words. - Reed Carson

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born on August 12, 1831, at Dnepropetrovsk (Ekaterinoslav), Ukraine, daughter of Colonel Peter Alexeyevich von Hahn and novelist Helena Andreyevna (née de Fadeyev). In 1849 she married N. V. Blavatsky, and shortly thereafter began more than 20 years of extensive travel, bringing her into contact with mystic traditions the world over.
In 1873 Blavatsky arrived in New York from Paris where, impelled by her teachers, she began her work. At first she attempted to interest the Spiritualists in the philosophy behind phenomena but they resented her refusal to accept their standard explanations. In July 1875 she was urged "to establish a philosophico-religious society," and in the Fall of the same year she became the principal founder, along with H. S. Olcott and W. Q. Judge, of The Theosophical Society. She devoted the rest of her life to its humanitarian and educational objectives.
About the time the Society began, she started to write her first major work, Isis Unveiled, and after its publication in 1878 she and H. S. Olcott left for India. There they worked to re-establish Oriental philosophical and religious ideas, largely through the pages of The Theosophist, a magazine which Blavatsky founded and edited.
In 1884, while Blavatsky was traveling in Europe, disgruntled TS employees in India went to the missionaries with forged documents, bringing charges of fraud against her. The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) then sent Richard Hodgson to investigate the charges, and subsequently published an unfavorable report. (In 1986 the SPR published an analysis of the Hodgson Report by Dr. Vernon Harrison, an SPR member expert in forgery and handwriting analysis, who concluded that the Hodgson Report was biased, unscientific, and completely unconvincing.)

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