An Outline of the Secret Doctrine

Johnston translated several works from Sanskrit and Russian. As an author, he devoted himself primarily to philosophical and theosophical topics, and wrote a great number and variety of articles and books, ranging from scholarly writings on scriptures to popular volumes of humor, travel, and history.

In his essay-commentary An Outline of the “Secret Doctrine”, which we propose to our readers today and which was published between October 1891 and May 1892 in the Lucifer Magazine, Charles Johnston attempted to give a clear account of the theory of life and development contained in Madame Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine, based on stanzas from the Book of Dzyan.

In our opinion, it is still a fundamental work today for understanding the thought and message of Helena Petrovna Blavatsly and for approaching Theosophy.