Theos-Talk Archives (March 1995 Message tl00066)

In message <199503061901.NAA30235@mailman.pk.ac.com>
theos-l@vnet.net writes:

> > Since the Kabbalah falls squarely under the second object of the
> > Society, I think it should be allowed to remain on the list.
> > Same with any other religion or philosphy.  Perhaps, however, it
> > might be useful to relate it somehow to theosophy eg what HPB
> > said about it, etc.
> >
> >
> >She goes on about it a great deal, both in _Isis_ and the SD.
> >Trouble is, her comments are scattered all over the place.  It is
> >clear she regarded it much more highly than the church :-).
> >
> >Alan.
>
> Related to this, I have read from various sources that HPB
> received a lot of input on the Kabbalah from one of the founders
> of the Golden Dawn (MacGregor? ...its been a while and I'm not
> sure if I remember the name correctly.) It would not have been
> unlikely - the Theosophical Society and the Golden Dawn were
> contemporaries, and a few senior members of each society were
> members of the other.

Difficult to be _certain_, but yes, some were contemporary.  The
most likely adviser however would have been G.R.S.  Mead, who
wrote a lot on gnosticism - trans.  Pistis Sophia, for example -
and was for a time her personal secretary; certainly so, I am
told by a theosophical historian, when she was writing the SD.
As the Golden Dawn was a secret organisation, we cannot be
certain who all the members might have been at that time.
Writings by some of them appear in early editions of _The
Theosophist_ and I think even in _Lucifer_.  Some of the
best-known names in the GD are however too late.  She does
mention some names of Kabbalist advisers in the SD - I'll have a
rummage through the index ...

AB.