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Appendix III
The Occult Room
553
"Did you know that _ are buildinq an
Beadquartera ~or the BriUah T.S. in
London? 'l'here we are going to have an
Oocult Roomand a pranaoa where I will
teach to the .l.ect: that which I do not
clar. to entrust to the mails, i.e., the
B.S. Inatructiona .... "
B.P. Bl.vatsley
Letter dated March24, 1890
to a friend
554
THE OCCULT ROOM
[R.P.B.) was, at that very time
(early May, 1891), bu~ld~ng a little
,occult room' next to her own, of a
particular shape and structure, in which
each of her pupils was to 'sit'---alone-
--'for development', under special
condit~ons and 'under observation'. The
tiny roof was to be of dark blue glass,
of which I still possess a small piece of
the colour B.P.B. had finally selected."
Alice Le~ghton Cleather
B.P. Blavatsky: A Great
Betrayal, 1922, p. 8'n.
"Th~s Occult Room was never finished. I
remember it well at the 19, Avenue Road
Beadquarters, where I resided during
three years. The 'esoteric working
room'[see B.P.B.'s letter on the
second page following this one] was in my
time the office of the European Section,
out of which a wooden partition divided
off a part about six feet wide as the
B.S.T. office of Hiss Laura Cooper (later
Mrs. G.R.S. Mead). Proal this B.S.T.
office, one descended by four or five
steps (my me.ory is vague) into a small
heptagonal or octagonal room about eight
feet in diameter. It had a glass roof--
-blue, if I recollect rightly. Bach wall
of the room was to be covered with a
particular tal. The lD~rrors---ofwhich
I recollect seeing one, in ~ome cupboard,
about one foot in diameter, and concave
---were intended for soae purpose of
concentrating both light and occult
influence upon the esoteric student who
was to be .eated in the centre of the
room for 'develop.ent'. I am told that
there was an opening, a window, from
B.P.B.'s room into the Occult Room, so
that she could keep the student in Yoga
under observation
C. Jinarajadasa
The Theosophist,
April, 1932, pp. 20-21n.
555
17, LANSDOWNE ROAD,
/JoJland Park. W.
[No date].
19 Avenue Road, London
Two Letters to Annie Besant on the Occult Room
Esoteric
DEAREST ANNIE,
) see that the builders have forgotten the little windowsthe
ventilators on the top of the walls of the Occult Room. I
feel sure that before we come to the end of building there
will be fifty mistakes made. Do, dear, put a stop to it. Let
all your workmen work at ~omething else until ] am in the
house myself. Do make them stop and begin the covered porch
.and finish everything, leaving the O.R. $lat" quo. Other
mistakes may be fatal and not so easily repaired. Put the key
into your pocket and give it to no one, please. When I am on
the spot I can direct myself. The mirrors are not ready my
thinKS have not yet come from India and were the O.R. finished
now ezternally it would still remain useless and can not be used
till the rest is. Please, darling, do so. I am afraid confusion
has become still more confused since 8 certain day. I know
it is all because I could not be there. Let the blessed Arch
see that my roomBare finished and dry and then ] come like a
ahot.
Annie, I am most profoundly miseralJl~. Why, you
would hardly understand. I believe but in on, person in
England and this is YOU.
Goodbye, darling,
Youra ever,
H. P. B.
556
MONDA Y 1I0RNJlfG,
17, l.ansrJ01l1nt Road.
Holland Park, W.
My DARLING PENELOPE,
Do not accuse your old "occult nurse" of not knowing
her mind, but Ihave dreamed of a dreadful thing. I saw that
if a door from my study was opened into the esoteric working
room on the right side of the fire place-i.e., toward, and on the
right side of my desk it will cram me utterly preventing me
to place my pigeon hole on my right side and leaving no room
to move. So ( have called forth the picture of the future
before me and see that the only way of making things comfort.
ble was to open it (the door) on the left side, there.
where I wanted to place my large press for dresses. (the 20
gui lone.)
With great reluctance then I give up the id~a and will
place i~in my bedroom along the interior wall, and to preserve
myself from catching cold from the entrance door will fix a
high screen, at the head of the bed and along its side.
You know how I like to expand and extend in my writing
corner. and how I need all the available space for it. Now, if
I place my writing desk near the window (with conservatory)
and parallel to it I may have space to put my pigeon hole
table, etc., on my left, but there will be no room to put anything
on the rigbt, and instead of being encased in my three
sided square II II thus I will condemn myself to misery
in a two-sided flapdoodle ~ d k and feel as though my
right side was paralyzed. ir This is then how I have
concluded to do-Behold [I my Michael Angelo frescoes.
here below:
1 GuiD . 557
So that this is stt/led for good. Make the door on the side
where the clothes press was to go and I will order myself a
solid scre~n to conceal my bed and protect me from draughts
(n\)t drafts whicb would be but too welcome).
'Yours __ 1 your,
female Ulysses,
H. P. B.
[The above two letters were written by H.P .B. sometime
before she moved to 19 Avenue Road in July 1890.]
558
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