Theos-Talk Archives (January 1995 Message tl00296)

Jerry HejkaEkins, his wife April, and a number of active
theosophical students in Northern California are in the
process of creating a non-profit corporation, Alexandria
West. It will be a research and library center that will own
and manage a library and collection of rare archival
materials including Jerry's personal library, and the
library he inherited from Victor Endersby.

At a Board Meeting of Point Loma Publications, earlier this
month, we granted Alexandria West permission to make a copy
of our rare archives. Other archives at the Pasadena T.S.
and Wheaton are under lock and key, like the Boris de
Zirkoff collection at Wheaton, which even Dara Eklund is no
longer allowed to see. I would like to challenge both
Wheaton and Pasadena to throw open their actives to copying
by Alexandria West [AW].

The materials in AW will be open to the public; scholars can
come and review them. Only certain items may be
withheld from viewing, if they refer to still-living people.

Why do theosophical centers keep their archives secret?

Perhaps one reason is that by having the materials, they are
somehow legitimatized, somehow given a sense of special
connection with the Work. (I would disagree on this, and say
that the special connection is in the inner life of the
organization, independent of any external resources it may
own.)

Perhaps another reason is that there are materials that are
damaging to their organization's presentation of
theosophical history or of the character and lives of their
leaders? (Another unethical reason, opposed to the motto:
There is no religion higher than truth!)

Regardless of past reasons for keeping archives secret, I
think it is time to open them up to the world, so that the
materials become an asset in the public quest for Truth!
Let's not entomb the reality of Theosophy and its history in
the private archives of our current-day organizations!