We here share the text of two little-known letters that are attributed to the Adept or Master known as Hilarion, also written as Illarion, and on occasion referred to as Illarion Smerdis. These two Mahatma Letters date from the late 19th century and were both received in the USA.

Master Hilarion was (and surely still is) an initiated member of the Great Brotherhood of Masters of Wisdom, the hidden, esoteric, worldwide fraternity (including women too) which guides and watches over the spiritual evolution and advancement of humanity. Although working closely alongside Masters belonging to the Trans-Himalayan or Tibetan branch of the Brotherhood, his most direct occult connections seem to have centred around such parts of the world as Egypt, Greece, Asia Minor, and the Middle East.

In some of her numerous references to him, H. P. Blavatsky calls him “an Eastern adept” and “a Greek gentleman whom I have known since 1860,” i.e. around nine years after she first met her Guru, the Master M. or Morya, and fifteen years before establishing the modern Theosophical Movement. In her letters to A. P. Sinnett, she very briefly mentions meeting and travelling with Hilarion on several occasions during her years of preparation and training prior that preceded the beginning of her public mission. 

In the book “The Mahatma Letters,” the Master K.H. or Koot Hoomi (Kuthumi) makes a few very brief but interesting mentions of the Master Hilarion:

“. . . one of ours, who is passing through Bombay from Cyprus, on his way to Thibet.” (p. 36)

“. . . our semi-European Greek brother.” (p. 64)

“The sun of Theosophy must shine for all, not for a part. There is more of this movement than you have yet had an inkling of, and the work of the T.S. [i.e. Theosophical Society] is linked in with similar work that is secretly going on in all parts of the world. Even in the T.S. there is a division, managed by a Greek Brother about which not a person in the Society has a suspicion excepting the old woman [i.e. a nickname for HPB] and Olcott; and even he only knows it is progressing, and occasionally executes an order I send him in connection with it.” (p. 271)

“. . . our Brother H—— [was] then in Scotland, .  . .” (p. 385)

On the visit to Bombay or Mumbai, mentioned in that first quote, Hilarion visited – in his physical body – HPB and Col. Olcott at the Theosophical Society headquarters, which were initially in Bombay before moving to Adyar. On another occasion, the Master M. paid a physical visit to them, arriving on horseback.

The Master Hilarion was specifically a Greek Cypriot and described by Olcott as “a swarthy [i.e. dark-complexioned or olive-skinned] Cypriot” and he is known to have had a black moustache and beard and often worn a turban, with his overall appearance not greatly dissimilar from that of the Master M.

In William Q. Judge and The Masters of Wisdom we wrote:

“In “Letters That Have Helped Me” (p. 271-272) is reproduced a letter sent to “The Irish Theosophist” magazine by Julia Keightley (better known under her pen name of Jasper Niemand) and her husband Archibald and published therein in February 1895. In their letter they write:

“A report having arisen that William Q. Judge did not himself write Letters that have Helped Me, we ask your fraternal assisting in correcting this rumour. It is false. It attributes the letters to the dictation or the teaching of the Master “Hilarion,” who is known to have been in daily (physical) intercourse with Mr. Judge in 1888 in New York. . . . Those of us to whom the Master Hilarion is objectively, as well as psychically known, have the best of reasons for asserting that these letters were not from him, and we do so state now and here. Matter from him, whether “inspired” or objectively dictated, is in quite another style.” [bold added]

“It is very interesting to learn that this Greek-Cypriot Adept was in direct face-to-face contact and communication with Mr. Judge in New York (the city where he lived and worked) in 1888, which was when HPB was still alive and in fact the year that “The Secret Doctrine” was published.”

One of the letters below was addressed to William Judge but dates from before 1888.

In “H. P. Blavatsky – As I Knew Her,” Alice Leighton Cleather recalls how some photographs that were taken one day of the inside of the house in London where HPB and numerous of her pupils were living and working turned out, when developed, to feature the ethereal form of an unknown man with a black beard, who HPB explained to be the Master Hilarion, who had been visiting the London headquarters in his astral body on that day. There is also a remarkable photograph – which used to be on the internet but no longer is – of a partially materialised Hilarion manifesting himself at a Spiritualist seance, under the name of “John King.” His appearance, which is extremely clear in that photo, is exactly as has been described. If one did not know otherwise, one would probably guess him to be an Indian. Compare this with the later Theosophical, “Ascended Master,” and other New Age portrayals and illustrations of the Master Hilarion, in which he is typically white-skinned, blonde-haired, and blue-eyed!

Whatever his broader and further-reaching work might be, in Theosophical circles the Master Hilarion is of course most well known for his direct inspiring of the small but potent book “Light on The Path” via Mabel Collins. H. P. Blavatsky stated that the main part of that book has its source in the same “Book of The Golden Precepts” from which she (HPB) would later translate “The Voice of The Silence.” Mabel Collins also produced the esoteric novel “The Idyll of The White Lotus” and the quasi-sequel to “Light on The Path” titled “Through The Gates of Gold” under his inspiration. 

A moment ago, we saw mention of this Adept having his own distinctive style of expression. In the letters below, we see the same style as found in “Light on The Path,” a style which often includes mention of and analogies to Nature, whether it be “grow as the flower grows – unconsciously” in “Light on The Path” or “let faith carry you through your life as a bird flies in the air – undoubtingly” in the letter to W. Q. Judge, and quite frequent allusions to song, tone, harmony, symphony, and melody. 

Illarion or Hilarion is a popular first name in Greece, Russia, and other Eastern Orthodox countries, stemming from reverence towards Saint Hilarion, the ascetic recluse who died in Cyprus in 371 C.E.

A researcher once claimed to have searched the historical birth records of Cyprus and Greece and found no mention of an Illarion Smerdis. Even if that is true, it is hardly surprising, for as H. P. Blavatsky clearly declared in her article “Lodges of Magic”: “The real names of Master Adepts and Occult Schools are never, under any circumstances, revealed to the profane; and the names of the personages who have been talked about in connection with modern Theosophy, are in the possession only of the two chief founders of the Theosophical Society.” 

LETTER TO WILLIAM Q. JUDGE,
A CO-FOUNDER OF THE MODERN THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT 

This letter was “precipitated” – i.e. materialised by occult means – onto the back of a letter sent to WQJ by H. P. Blavatsky in May 1887. It was signed with the simple symbol of a triangle, which, along with the style, was the means of identifying its author as the Brother known as Hilarion. He repeatedly signed himself in this way in different sections of “Light on The Path,” which had been published a couple of years previously.

You say you are a “sad case” and yet you have in your heart so great a love for humanity and for the individual members of the race that you are haunted night and day by thoughts of their suffering, ignorance and pain. It is such as you who hold the human race from falling into that bottomless pit of emptiness where despair is forgotten and where effort is unknown.

My dear friend, for that you are, being truly the friend of all who are looking for the light, do not forget that you are living in a very dark and sad Maya of intensely physical life. The whole busy continent of America is eaten up by materialism and when an effort is made towards psychic life it results only in dragging that psychic life into matter where it dies as a volatile gas escapes in the hands of one who is not expert. The sadness of this fact colours your letter. You know that any school founded amongst you would at once become a school of practical magic working in order to produce results in matter. This is quite true. The reason is that even those who are most in earnest among you have no true psychic aspirations. Remedy this in yourself and endeavour to remedy it in others by word and example.

Desire no results which are forms of power. Desire only, in your efforts, to reach nearer to the centre of life (which is the same in the Universe and in yourself) which makes you careless whether you are strong or weak, learned or unlearned. It is your divinity; it is the divinity we all share. But its existence is not credited by those who look only for money or power or success in material effort. (I include intellect in matter.)

Lean I pray you in thought and feeling away from these external problems which you have written down in your letter; draw on the breath of the great life throbbing in us all and let faith (which is unlearned knowledge) carry you through your life as a bird flies in the air — undoubtingly. Only remember one thing — when once you fling yourself on the great life of Nature, the force that keeps the world in motion and our pulses beating and which has within it, in its heart, a supreme and awful power — once having done that, you can never again claim back your life. You must let yourself swing with the motions of the spheres. You must live for other men and with them; not for or with yourself. You will do this, I am sure. △

LETTER TO UNKNOWN RECIPIENT(S)

At an inaugural event of Katherine Tingley’s “The Theosophical Society – Point Loma” at Lomaland, near San Diego, California, in 1897, part of this letter was read out. That part was then quoted in official Point Loma Society publications but there was never any attribution or indication of where it came from. Robert Crosbie (the founder of the United Lodge of Theosophists) was at that time a Point Loma member and kept a copy of those particular excerpts of that letter among his personal papers, where they were simply headed “Extracts from a Master’s Letter.”  Later, what seems close to a complete version of the letter, albeit with slightly different wording, was attributed to “an unknown writer” and quoted by a Dr. H. V. Sweringen in the 30th March 1901 issue of “The Cincinatti Lancet-Clinic.” This was the last time this apparently complete version was published anywhere and it has been unknown ever since, until now. If this is indeed “a Master’s Letter,” it seems obvious that the Master in question is Hilarion. It almost certainly dates from before the passing of William Q. Judge (which was in March 1896) but nothing is known today of exactly how, when, where, why, or to whom it was sent.

Preserve harmony in your own soul and it will flow out to all others, for its effects are more powerful than you understand, and more far-reaching. Sink all thought of self, all personal ambition, the small jealousies and suspicions which mar the heart’s melodies, in love of the work and devotion to the cause. 

Listen to the great song of love, compassion, tenderness; and losing yourself in that, forget these passing shadows. United, harmonious, your power is limitless; without these you can do nothing. See to it then that your tone in the great instrument be pure and clear, else discord will result. Behind all sin and suffering — shadows, these — lie the divine harmonies of reality. These seek and finding lose not.

The divine harmony of the World-Soul surges through our hearts in mighty waves will we but listen. In hours of meditation seek it, listen to it, it fadeth never, and a power and peace will be yours unspeakable, divine. From this knowledge rises knowledge of things spiritual, the gift of tongues and the healing fire. This is the song of life in which all Nature joins, for reaching the heart of Nature we reach the heart of all and read therein the most sacred mysteries of the ancients. Fail not nor falter in the endeavour to hear those harmonies. Remember that the cries of suffering and pain which so plainly reach our ears are but the discords which make the music finer, discords only to the untrained ear, and some day the whole grand symphony will be yours, to listen to, hearing it first in your own heart and then in the heart of the whole world.

O suffering, struggling humanity, whose eyes know only tears, whose ears hear only discord, dying and death, awake and listen! The inner voice echoes a harmony sublime. Cease your conflict for an instant’s space and you will hear a promise of salvation. Peace and power are yours, peace divine and power all powerful, so your deliverance has come; the light shines out, the hour is at hand, Nature calls aloud with all her voices: Humanity shall sweat and toil no more in vain, man’s feet shall be set upon that path which leads to final liberation.

~ * ~

~ BlavatskyTheosophy.com ~

This article may have raised more questions about various things. Please make use of the site search function (the magnifying glass symbol at the top of the page) and visit the Articles page to see the complete list of over 400 articles covering all aspects of Theosophy and the Theosophical Movement. You may particularly be interested in those listed under the heading “THE MASTERS.” Two other articles relating to teachings from the Master Hilarion are Assimilation To The Masters and Through The Gates of Gold.