A year ago, a friend informed me about a newly published book said to be of H.P. Blavatsky: “The Land of the Gods. The Long-Hidden Story of Visiting the Masters of Wisdom in Shambala” (Radiant Books 2022). Then, other friends also told me enthusiastically about the book.
I thought it would be a good travel reading for my journey to India in December 22 / January 23 and mentioned the book in the blog-post “On the Verge to India“. So, I bought it plus three additional copies as gifts for friends in India. However, too many other things kept me busy during the journey and afterwards that I didn’t read more of the book than the first 39 pages, the glossary at the end and scrolled through the book.
I saw that it is about journeys into inner dimensions with encounters of masters / adepts but I didn’t find any mention about Shambala inside the text. Although the story seemed to be interesting, I didn’t feel “drawn into the book” . Looking back, something didn’t make sense, and it didn’t really feel that this should be from Blavatsky.
For a group, I had translated to German (unpublished manuscript) two thirds of HPB’s book “From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan” containing stories which were of a different energy than the text of this Shambala book. Moreover, the two original versions of this latter book also weren’t published in HPB’s name but by Franz Hartmann:
In the ‘Publisher’s Note’ of the Shambala book it says: “This book was originally published anonymously by a mysterious ‘Student of Occultism’ in 1887 under the title An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians, yet with copyright in the name of Franz Hartmann. Helena Blavatsky reviewed it, describing it as: ‘A strange and original little story, charmingly fantastic, but full of poetic feeling and, what is more, of deep philosophical and occult truths, for those who can perceive the groundwork it is built upon.’
Those notes were originally written by H. P. Blavatsky because only she could gain access to the Holy of Holies on the Earth — the secret Abode of the Masters of Wisdom, known as Shambhala. In 1939, Helena Roerich, who continued Blavatsky’s mission in the 20th century, also confirmed her authorship: ‘This reporting about the inner life of the Brotherhood was recorded by Franz Hartmann, undoubtedly from the words of H. P. Blavatsky, conveyed with some changes in literary form.’
The Chief Stronghold of Shambhala is located in the heart of the Himalayas. However, the network of its Abodes is also spread within other mountainous and remote locations around the world, in the most inaccessible places. The notes that Madame Blavatsky prepared were, in fact, different stories that occurred both in the Himalayas and the Alps at various times, yet were later tied into one single story narrating the secret order of the Rosicrucians.”
Why should HPB not give her name for these stories or publish them with a pen name, like she had also done before? She never hesitated to give out occult stories. However, it definitely sells better when the new book is published in her name and as a rare new discovery.
What makes me more suspicious is the claim of the sub-title: “The Long-Hidden Story of Visiting the Masters of Wisdom in Shambala”. In esoteric folklore, there are quite a number of stories about a secret valley in the Eastern or Western mountains, be it Himalaya, Alps, or somewhere else, like Shangri-La or Lost Horizon, where adventurers have mystic experiences and meet sages like the figure of the Imperator in the said Shambala book, a mysterious world.
However, these stories have nothing to do with Shambala as described in the wisdom teachings. They are in a way distorted reflections of the reality of Sravasti, also called Shigatse or Tashi Lhunpo. The Roerichs, who had indeed come into contact with Shambala, through tremendous service, sacrifice, and self-offering, kept, as far as possible, silent about their visit.
Nicholas Roerich, however, did a number of paintings, like the last paintings of his life on “Order of Rigden Jyepo” a name of Sanat Kumara, the ruler of Shambala, or his painting ‘King of Shambhala‘ in the Zanabazar Art Museum in Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia. Shambala is a very different reality than what has been given now in ‘The Land of the Gods’. See here.
I put the book aside. During a talk in August 23, a friend from Berlin mentioned the book and said that he had read the text of Hartmann (see here the PDF of “An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians” by Franz Hartmann, 1887) and that he is sure that this text is from Hartmann and not from Blavatsky. The editors of the ‘Land of the Gods’ had done various omissions and adaptations one of the omissions he found of particular interest in the original text:
On page 175f of ‘An Adventure…’, the author speaks about the sexual encounter with the Queen of the Nymphs: “A voluptuous sensation pervades my whole being…” and then he falls out of the subtle dimension and finds himself back on the physical plane, asking himself if all he experienced had merely been an illusion of his brain. Did the publishers omit this scene because they found it objectionable for giving the story in the name of HPB and as book about visiting the Masters of Wisdom in Shambala?
Last September, a friend from Miami asked me if I think that this book is from Blavatsky. I answered, I don’t know but I am sceptical. However, I didn’t know much about Franz Hartmann and wanted to know more about him. I searched the web and found information which fascinated me very much.
There is an article “Franz Hartmann: A Pioneer of the Theosophical Movement” by Susanne Hoepfl-Wellenhofer published in the Quest magazine in winter 2022 (you can download it here as a PDF). You get very interesting information about the life of Hartmann, who grew up in Bavaria. He spend the last years of his life in contact with an esoteric group of Rosicrucians in the pre-Alps, where you meet scenes as described in the said Shambala book.
Another article from a blog touched me even more: Franz Hartmann, ‘Correspondence with the Masters’ (see PDF here), a compilation of information about letters Hartmann received from Master Morya and Master Koot Hoomi. They give very interesting insights in why the Masters chose to work with Hartmann and what difficulties he faced. I don’t want to go more into this here but the texts are worth reading.
To close this article, I would like to give you here an extract from the biography “HPB. The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement” (PDF) mentioning Hartmann at various places. Although HPB was sceptical towards Hartmann at the beginning, until Master Morya told her to trust him, they quickly became very good friends. And Hartmann stayed true and loyal towards her and the wisdom teachings of the Masters she had given out. He stood as a stronghold of defence against all attacks brought forward by the ignorants.
Read the last passage and think of how the book ‘An Adventure Among the Rosicrucians’, published by Franz Hartmann and now re-edited in a re-worked form as ‘The Land of the Gods’ under the name of H.P. Blavatsky might have come into existence.
