Be Ye Perfect
London: The Theosophical Publishing House Ltd. [printed by The Whitefriars Press, Ltd.], (1928). Stabler, Phoebe. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo size, 52 pp., with dust jacket, inscribed by Geoffrey Hodson. Very good / fair. Item #22030602
Geoffrey Hodson (1886-1983) was a prolific author of metaphysical and Theosophical writings. He authored about 50 books and more than 200 articles, as well as giving radio talks and travelling the world lecturing.
Hodson's spiritual awakening began at an early age; as a boy of five or six he "had dream experiences in the half waking state...connected with Kundalini, the power of life and one of the great forces also known as the 'Serpent Fire'." He began as a young man to study "the angelic kingdom" and claimed that "he received teachings from a high angel" (n.b., info and quotes from Wiki).
This book is Hodson's sharing of those teachings, which began with a prior book "The Brotherhood of Angels and of Men" published in 1927. As he wrote in the book's Preface: "The errors and deficiencies of the book are due to my lack of competence to receive the angel's teaching in all its clarity and beauty; my hope is that gleams of the light of his wisdom may find their way through the darkness of my limitations and may serve to illumine the minds that are open to receive them; and particularly those responsible for the upbringing of the children of the new age."
This volume inscribed by Hodson to Dorothy Hungerford Lassow of whom, alas, we could find no trace; the inscription is dated April 5th, 1930. A fairly scarce book in the marketplace; as of this writing we see only two other copies online, neither with the dust jacket and neither one signed.
___DESCRIPTION: White paper over boards with a blue linen shelfback, blue lettering on the front board, author's inscription on the front free endpaper in black ink, frontis black-and-white drawing by Phoebe Gertrude Stabler (1879-1955) which is mirrored on the front panel of the jacket; octavo size (8 1/2" by 6 5/8"), pagination: [i-vi] vii-x, [1-2] 3-42. The dust jacket shows the original price of 3s.6d. on the upper corner of the front flap, the illustration by Stabler on the front with black lettering, black lettering on the spine, publisher's ads on the back panel, both flaps blank (other than the printed price).
___CONDITION: Volume very good, with clean boards, a strong, square text block with solid hinges, the interior is clean and bright, and other than the author's inscription free of prior owner markings; light rubbing to the corners and board edges, the spine and top of the shelfback sunned. The dust jacket fair only, with significant overall edgewear, light soiling, and the spine mostly perished, being connected to the panels by only about a half-inch (likely to detach in the near future); however, we see no other copies with a jacket, thus having most of this one is quite nice, particularly on an inscribed copy.
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Price: $350.00