Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett - 1925
By A. T. Barker
Letter No. 51
Nov. 28/85.
To Mrs. and Mr. Sinnett,
In days of my youth — when I had a reputation to lose as all other women have — a young lady, I mean an unmarried woman, was, for the slightest petit scandale d'amour — where she was the pursued victim, not the Messaline or Mrs. Potiphar, hooted out of respectable society and seen no more. No one would marry her, no respectable family receive her; no social gatherings would tolerate her, until the day of her marriage — if a fool could be found. Nowadays it appears different. Unmarried spinsters pursue men into their bedrooms; strip themselves naked before a man they have sworn to seduce — in full day light, in woods, and — because that man won't have them, they swear revenge; and it is the amazed spectators who had no hand in those little passe temps copied from scenes in the lupanars of Rome and Pompeii — it is they who tremble before such revenge — not the acting and active modern Messalinas!
There are actions in our lives that to the day of death we are unable to account for. Such was the impulse that prompted Mr. Sinnett to introduce his "Roman" character in the trance-scene in Karma; the thought that had pursued him for nearly 3 years in relation to something said in one of K. H.'s letters; and finally that led him to get acquainted and dance with, and then initiate that reincarnation of a Stabian Hetera, once called the "Tepidarium Damsel" — into the wretched and doomed Theos. Society.
And now — behold Karma!!
Ladies and Gentlemen of the L.L. We are right in the hornet's nest and no mistake about it. The enclosed letter from Mme. de Morsier — who knows perhaps once upon a time the step-mother who sold the Stabian beauty to the Tepidarium — may explain much, and it also may explain nothing. It is in answer to mine written to her on a "half-shell" order. It appears that Mr. S. was anxious not on account of the presence of such a "bijou" in the Theosophical family but simply feared she might disgrace the O. L. still more — (as though it was possible!) by charging her with opening Mohini's letter, one addressed to him at any rate. Well I suppose by this time you have read a copy of the letter forwarded by me to the Emilie de Morsier and sent to Mohini by D. N.? As soon as I had learnt that Mr. Sinnett was required to give his word of honour that I had not opened one of her (B-----'s) letters — I, whose name is H. P. B. in this unwelcome incarnation wrote to ask the Emilie to tell the "Stabian" reincarnation that I had read the letter — though I had never opened it. But all this is immaterial since I might have opened it and still no harm done, for it was one to Mohini between whom and me no secrets are possible as he may, or may not tell you. Having disburdened my heart, on the day following I wrote another letter. I asked her to keep it confidential. Told her what she had been doing; how she had fallen under the influence of Mad. B-----, the Avitchean powers (beautifully natural in her case) and propensities, and therefore what were the influences that surrounded her. Ended by telling her, that with her highly nervous temperament, her sensitiveness, etc. — if she went on as she did, I was commissioned to tell her (and that I was) that it might lead her to a dangerous illness and perhaps — worse. The enclosed is her answer.
The work of Karma in every line. It bursts through!
The handwriting is so bad that those words that I could make out, I have tried to make them more legible. Please note the sentences marked with blue.
Yes; she is right. This time if the scandal bursts it shall [be] hundred times worse and more terrible than the Coulomb tricks. These touch but myself — one of mighty little consequence. The future "stranger" shall be born but to sweep off like a cyclone from the face of the earth the London Lodge, if not the Theos. Society in India. It shall carry it off in a tornado of ridicule not of indignation, against the shameless old spinster who is destined to become its mother — oh no!; the ridicule will be for Mohini and the blasphemous laugh for the MASTERS of such a chela. In India where they care for the former and pay little attention to the failings of the latter — the scandal shall do no harm — except perhaps to the extent of strengthening the contempt of the Hindus for European ladies. In London it shall be the end of the Lodge. In England it is those who dare to unveil vice and try to suppress [it] who, like Stead, are tried and imprisoned. The B---- shall become the heroine of the day and Mohini shall be hooted out. For if, I say, she succeeded in convincing Mme. de Morsier of her innocence and of Mohini's infamy and lust — so much so that de Morsier is preparing to play the Nemesis at the risk of death "pourvu que je fasse mon devoir" — why shall she not succeed in persuading all the London people she knows of the same? A voice whispers in my ear "It is Mr. Sinnett, I believe, who introduced B. to de Morsier and brought the two ardent creatures together?" Karma, karma, my good friends!
Mohini is pure and innocent and that's just the reason why he shall be made out guilty. Take my advice and send for him, and have a good consultation. There remains one thing for the boy to do, the measure is violent and requires moral courage or — the full force of innocence: let Mohini go to Paris face the B----- before Mme. de Morsier and force her to confess her vile lie and calumny of the Potiphar she is. — I shall not sign —
