Isis Unveiled: A Perspective
Isis Unveiled was never intended to unveil Isis, the Egyptian
goddess who here represents the mysteries of nature. Blavatsky had given this book to the printer with the title, The Veil of Isis.
But after printing had commenced, it was found that this title had already been used elsewhere. So a new title had to be found quickly. The publisher suggested Isis Unveiled, and Blavatsky had little choice but to agree.1
The book which came out as Isis Unveiled was intended not to unveil the mysteries of nature, but to make known to the
world the existence of a once universal Wisdom-Religion, now hidden from view. The symbolical Isis, the Wisdom-Religion, is indeed veiled since it had been lost to the world for long ages,but it exists! This startling news caused so much excitement that the first printing of 1000 copies sold out in 10 days.2
What is the Wisdom-Religion? It is described by Blavatsky in her later book, The Secret Doctrine, as the universally diffused religion of the ancient and prehistoric world.3 Further, all the presently existing religions and philosophies originate from it.
When this is recognized, the divisive walls that separate one group of people from another crumble. It was brought out to
help achieve this, in keeping with the first object of Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society, to promote universal brotherhood.
In making known to the modern world for the first time the existence of the once universal Wisdom-Religion, Blavatsky
had a twofold task. She had first to show that science did not
have all the answers; that the ancients had knowledge of things
not yet discovered by science. This she did in volume I of Isis
Unveiled. She had also to show that religion in its separativism
had ceased to meet humanity’s needs, but that these separate
pieces come together in the one archaic Wisdom-Religion. This
she did in volume II.
2 Isis Unveiled: A Perspective
Throughout both volumes of Isis Unveiled she cited book
after book written by ancient authors from all over the world,
showing on their part a knowledge of the teachings of the now
lost Wisdom-Religion. In this way she showed that although this
knowledge had become lost, partly through the religious fervor
of followers of separative religions, and partly through being
withdrawn by its custodians to safeguard it from such sectarians,
it was once common knowledge. But it had for many centuries
been carefully hidden away.
So how did Blavatsky learn of the existence of the once
universal Wisdom-Religion, hidden so well for so long? She had
gone to the East in search of wisdom, and found there certain
individuals who were its custodians. But Blavatsky was not the
only person to travel to the East in search of wisdom. Why did
she find the Wisdom-Religion, when others did not? It would
seem, rather, that its custodians found her.
The custodians of the Wisdom-Religion make up a secret
Brotherhood centered in Tibet and India. Two members of the
Tibetan Brotherhood were Blavatsky’s primary teachers, called
in Theosophical writings the Mahatmas K.H. (Koot Hoomi)
and M. (Morya). The great fourteenth-century Tibetan teacher
Tsong-kha-pa, who reformed Tibetan Buddhism and founded
the Gelugpa order, is said to have also reformed the secret
Tibetan Brotherhood who are the custodians of the Wisdom-
Religion. Among his reforms of the latter is an injunction to
make an attempt to enlighten the Western barbarians during
the last quarter of each century.4 Hitherto, we are told, each
such attempt had failed. Then came the attempt in 1875. The
Mahatma K.H. writes about the choice of Blavatsky as the agent
for this in a letter now preserved in the British Library:
After nearly a century of fruitless search, our chiefs had to avail
themselves of the only opportunity to send out a European body
upon European soil to serve as a connecting link between that
country and our own.5
Thus it was the custodians of the Wisdom-Religion who found
her, and then allowed her to find them.
Isis Unveiled: A Perspective 3
After receiving instruction from them, Blavatsky founded
the Theosophical Society in 1875. She then wrote Isis Unveiled,
which was published in 1877. In this way she made known to the
modern Western world for the first time the existence of the
Wisdom-Religion, still preserved in the East. She was entrusted
with the task of bringing out a portion of its teachings, for which
she used the term “Theosophy.” The first installment of these
teachings is found in Isis Unveiled. It is thus a pioneering work, a
work which paved the way for the much fuller installment given
in her later work, The Secret Doctrine.
In bringing out something altogether new, Isis Unveiled
had to devote much space to tearing down and clearing away
existing beliefs that stood in the way of the acceptance of the
new teachings. The existing beliefs, as said before, were firstly