Mabel Collins

Mabel Collins (pseudonym, actually Minna Cook or Mrs. Keningale Cook , sometimes Mrs. Kenningdale Cook ) (born September 9, 1851 in Saint Peter Port , Guernsey ; † March 31, 1927 in Gloucester , England ) was a British author , Theosophist and animal rights activist .

Live and act

Childhood and marriage

Collins was born on September 9, 1851 under her maiden name Minna Collins on the Channel Island of Guernsey as the only child of Edward James Mortimer Collins (1827–1876) and Susanna Hubbard (1808–1867). From her mother's first marriage, 19 years older than her father, she had six half-siblings. The father wrote poetry, was a journalist and teacher, but was in financial difficulties for most of his life. In 1856 the family moved to mainland England, taking on odd jobs and being persecuted by the creditors, and moved several times until they settled in Knowl Hill (near Maidenhead ) in 1866 .
Collins did not go to school and received lessons from her father at home. This placed value on poetry , philosophy and literature , but neglected other subjects. Compared to girls of the same age of their time, their knowledge was unbalanced, on the one hand far ahead, on the other hand there was a lack of self-evidence. At the age of 12 she began to write short stories and poems.

On August 3, 1871, she married in Knowl Hill Keningale Robert Cook (1845-1886). The marriage remained childless and after a few years was increasingly characterized by mutual alienation, from February 1885 they lived separately. In the 1890s she married again, her second husband died after a few years, details are not known.
Since their first marriage, Collins was actually called Minna Cook or Mrs. Keningale Cook , sometimes also written Mrs. Kenningdale Cook . Her father coined the nickname Mabel in her childhood and her books, which she later published under the name Mabel Collins , made her known under this actual pseudonym .

As a writer

In 1875 she published her first novel The Blacksmith and Scholar under the name Mabel Collins . Her second work, An innocent Sinner , which appeared in 1877, was a bestseller and made her famous. She wrote a total of 46 books and numerous magazine articles. Her novels and stories mostly had an occult background. The most famous book was Light on the Path, which was first printed in sequels in 1887 and 88 in the theosophical journal Lucifer and published in book form in 1888. This work is still relevant in esoteric circles today. Several works are said to have been created by automatic writing .

As a theosophist

Collins first came into contact with spiritualism at the end of the 1870s . She attended séances and eventually became active as a medium herself. As already mentioned, several books are said to have been transmitted to her in this way. However, she later refused this activity and described it as dangerous.

In 1881 she joined the London Lodge and thus the Theosophical Society and in 1884 she met Helena Blavatsky for the first time . When Blavatsky moved to London on May 1, 1887, she made her house in Upper Norwood (now part of the London Borough of Croydon ), known as Maycot , available to Collins as an apartment until October 1887. She was also one of the founders of the Blavatsky Lodge on May 19, 1887 and supported Blavatsky with the publication of her work The Secret Doctrine . With the founding of the magazine Lucifer , the first edition of which appeared on September 15, 1887, she was appointed deputy editor, she also published a number of her own articles in the magazine.

On February 15, 1889, she lost her post with the magazine Lucifer and in April 1889 she resigned from the Theosophical Society or was expelled, the information on this is confused. Blavatsky allegedly charged Collins with performing black magic and tantric rituals with Archibald Keightley . Archibald's uncle Bertram Keightley is also said to have been involved, both of which were denied by Collins. In any case, the matter poisoned the atmosphere and produced a scandal that eventually led to the elimination.
This was followed by Coues-Collins charges . Elliott Coues claimed that, on Blavatsky's instructions, Collins said that her book, Light on the Path , was dictated by the Masters of Wisdom . Blavatsky then used this statement to upgrade the Theosophical Society. The whole thing led to a series of legal battles and undermined the health of Collins, who had suffered nervous breakdowns as a result for years .

Business and social engagement

Upon the death of her first husband in 1886, Collins inherited and, along with the income from her writing, was able to lead a carefree life. Together with two partners, she founded the Pompadour Cosmetique Company around 1890 , of which she was the financier. The company failed, wiped out her fortune, and in 1892 she went bankrupt . She devoted the next few years to writing, but struggled to recover from her financial disaster. In 1913, she lost her money again in a bank failure and was dependent on friends for the rest of her life.
In 1899 she was a secretary at the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV) (British Society for the abolition of vivisection ) and in 1909 she moved to the BUAV as Parliamentary Secretary to the British Parliament . In addition to this commitment to animal welfare, she advocated vegetarianism and appeared as an opponent of vaccinations .

As an anthroposophist

Known with Rudolf Steiner's work since 1909 , she met him herself in 1913. Anthroposophical sources also speak of Collins being a member of the Anthroposophical Society , theosophical sources only discuss a close relationship with anthroposophy, the actual situation is unclear. As a result of the anti-German stance in the UK after the outbreak of World War I , she was forced to take a more distant stance towards Steiner's teaching. As a result, as well as from the predicament of her financial needs, she approached the theosophy of the now Theosophical Society Adyar again from 1914/15 , as evidenced by correspondence with Annie Besant .

Works (selection)

• The student. An occult account of research into life extension. Aquamarin Verlag, Grafing 1983, ISBN 3-89427-290-2 .
• The lotus queen. An occult "novel" from ancient Egypt. The idyll of the white lotus. Manas Verlag, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-89071-011-5 .
• Flita, The Flower and the Fruit, The True Story of a Black Magician. Ullrich Verlag, Calw 1980, ISBN 3-924411-19-0 .
• Story of the year. Perseus Verlag, Basel 2001, ISBN 3-907564-35-9 .
• Light on the path. Aquamarin Verlag, Grafing 2001, ISBN 3-89427-206-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Mabel Collins in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography (English)
• Collins best known work Light on the Path online
• Some books online (English)