About The Trust

The Blavatsky Trust was founded on the 15th November 1974 by Geoffrey Farthing, Christmas Humphreys and Graham Nicholas with the following principal object:

"to advance education in and promote or further the study of or research into religion, philosophy and science, and to disseminate the results of such study and research to the public".

The object of the Trust reflects the second and third objects of the Theosophical Society (go to the objects) but the Trust operates as a separately constitued organisation to that of Theosophical Society and the English section - The Theosophical Society in England. The permanent address of the Trust is, however, that of the Theosophical Society in England at 50 Gloucester Place, London, W1U 8EA. The Trust is a public charity and depends for its activities on donations. Unlike the Theosophical Society, it does not have a membership, as such, with subscribing members. Being a registered charity the Trust enjoys tax exemption on Gift Aid sums donated, and legacies.

One of the main activities of the Trust is 'to let it be known that such a thing as theosophy exists' and to this end the Trust has funded the publishing of a number of books, a series of four video films (go to details) , and this Web site. The Trust helps to finance an MA course at the University of Exeter in Western Esotericism (go to details). Additionally, the Trust assists in the funding of a number of theosophical Lectures, Seminars and Events in England. In the matter of initiatives to propagate the message, the importance of the very high nature of Theosophy has always to be borne in mind. Any attempt to popularize it must be judiciously done to ensure that the image of Theosophy itself is not impaired.

In furtherance of the Object is the undertaking and promotion of "study and research in the field of the laws of nature and the powers latent in man," and "to disseminate the results of this research and the writings of H.P. Blavatsky and The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett and other literature consonant with them ".

The Trust aims to accomplish this by promoting a knowledge of the essential nature of man and the Cosmos in which he lives and of which he forms a part. There is a tradition in many countries of an Ancient Wisdom or Wisdom Religion known to men of superior development and power who represent the advance guard of humanity (this Ancient Wisdom has latterly been referred to as Theosophy). This Wisdom is relevant to ordinary man as it treats, against a background of knowledge of Nature's inner laws, of man's proper place in the scheme of things, his ultimate potentialities and of his responsibility for his individual and collective state. It also treats of the way to his inner growth of faculty and the unfolding of his essential spiritual nature, in line with the universal evolutionary trend. It tells also of the service a man inevitably renders his fellows in truly progressing along the path of self-development.

Supplementing the accumulated knowledge of science and of antiquity, there is a tradition of a vast system of knowledge about which the world at present knows very little. Some of it - as much as was thought wise - was, however, given out publicly at the end of the last century. This was the first time so much of the knowledge had ever been made available in plain language. It was intended as a fillip to the spiritual development of mankind, to combat the materialism of the time and the general selfishness.

A more specific purpose of the Trust is "to assist in showing to men that such a thing as Theosophy exists" . An outline of the knowledge of it, in part, was made available publicly, for the first time, towards the end of the last century , in the writings of Madame H. P. Blavatsky and others, and in the letters from two Masters of the Wisdom (The Mahatma Letters). The science of the time was opening men’s minds and causing them to think for themselves. They were discovering that orthodox religion did not provide the answers to many of their fundamental questions.

Many books of summary and commentary based, some more and some less, on the original writings have since appeared. With these later works the Trust is not primarily concerned. Enquirers are advised to become acquainted first with the original writings so that they may judge for themselves the quality of the others.

To assist in this the Trustees have compiled a List of Suggested Reading. (go to details)

The Trust has a unique responsibility to maintain the theosophical teachings in their original pure form and to promote them at as high a level as possible. The ideal would be for them to be adopted by all those who influence public opinion, i,e, teachers, academicians, medicos, writers, dramatists, etc, By its very nature the message cannot be conveyed directly to the otherwise uninformed public, and any attempts at 'dilution' such as were made in the second generation literature of The Theosophical Society (Adyar Society) must necessarily do the cause a disservice. This is so for reason not only of general unpreparedness of people but also of the fixed prejudices, particularly religious, of the masses of humanity.

The importance of the teachings can therefore in no way be overstressed. To make them known is the ultimate raison d'etre of the Blavatsky Trust. Obviously other organizations are possessed of these teachings, but as we have said above, other organizations are liable to be affected by personal views in the matter of interpretation and by personal considerations such as ambition and personal status within the organizations. If the trustees of the Blavatsky Trust either do not assume that they can interpret the teachings better than those who expressed them initially, or do not aspire themselves to become 'teachers', then the teachings, in their hands, will remain pure and cannot be affected by personality'.