H.P.B.’s Alter Ego in Europe: Dr. Archibald Keightley
Fohat Magazine (Fall 2007) - by Ernest Pelletier
Archibald Keightley is a familiar name to students of theosophy mostly because of his dedication to H.P. Blavatsky — especially at the time she was writing The Secret Doctrine.
The following article by a New York Times reporter is an interview with Keightley after his arrival in New York City to attend the Third Annual Convention of the Theosophical Society, American Section held in Chicago on April 28th and 29th, 1889. The actual date of his arrival is not known but he delivered a talk at the Aryan T.S. on Tuesday, the 23rd. From there he and W.Q. Judge travelled together to Cincinnati where a special meeting of the Society was held on April 26th.
Archibald Keightley first met Judge at A.P. Sinnett’s house in 1884 when Judge was on his way to meet H.P. Blavatsky in Paris before continuing his journey to India. Keightley met Blavatsky for the first time shortly after (Theosophical Quarterly 28:289). While in Paris Blavatsky wanted Judge to stay to help her with the writing of The Secret Doctrine. Is it only by chance that A. Keightley later became her principal assistant with the S.D.? There are hints that since the Masters had other plans for Judge, in America, they also had plans for Keightley to serve as Judge’s replacement to help Blavatsky. Bertram Keightley later acknowledged in his Reminiscences of H.P. Blavatsky that during this time much of his focus was also as “sub-editor of Lucifer” while “Arch’s centred upon the S.D.”
