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On December 25, 1886, H. P. Blavatsky wrote a historically significant letter to J. Ralston Skinner. This letter was originally part of the Skinner Papers: 1863-1887 collection at the Harvard Divinity School Library, and yet, although it is considered a historically and doctrinally significant letter, no record of such a letter exists today.
However, there is proof that this mysterious letter was originally part of the library, and in fact segments of the letter have appeared in print twice.
This talk will discuss the origins of the letter, J. R. Skinner’s importance to H. P. Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine, Skinner’s relation to George Henry Felt, selected contents of the letter, and the letter’s ultimate fate.
James A. Santucci is Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at California State University, Fullerton. He received his Ph.D. at the Australian National University in Canberra in the field of Asian Civilization and M.A. in history at the University of Hawaii in Honolulu. He was editor of Theosophical History from1990 to 2014 and editor of the Theosophical History Occasional Papers series from 1993 to 2024. In addition, he has written numerous articles covering topics in the history of Theosophy, Buddhism, and Hinduism and has also authored La società teosofica, An Outline of Vedic Literature, and co-authored America's Religions. He also contributed to the Intercontinental Dictionary Series (Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig) regarding the Sanskrit language.
You may also like the following events from Theosophical Society in America:
- Next Friday, 5th December, 01:00 am, How Theosophy Changed the World in Wheaton, Illinois
- Next month, 12th December, 01:00 am, The Evolution of the Objects: Rooting the Ageless Wisdom in the World in Wheaton, Illinois
- Next month, 17th December, 07:00 pm, Therapeutic Touch: A Healing Practice in Wheaton
