Flying saucers have landed,

This is a somewhat peculiar work, published by Tarl Warwick, an occultist and Youtube personality based in rural Vermont. It contains “The Stanzas of Dzyan” in modern English rendering, but absolutely nothing else. An interesting but somewhat peculiar move, since the Stanzas, supposedly discovered by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, are almost incomprehensible without the extensive interpretation contained in her two-volume magnum opus “The Secret Doctrine” (first published in 1888).

Madame Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy, purportedly discovered the Stanzas in Tibet during her occult Lehrjahren. The documents were part of the Tantras, written in an ancient form of Sanskrit (Blavatsky called it Senzar) and contained the secrets of cosmogenesis and the mysterious origins of man. Nobody else has seen the relevant documents, and many suspect that Blavatsky never visited Tibet in the first place. To most people outside the Theosophical fold this is pretty damning, since “The Secret Doctrine” is said to be based on these ancient teachings. Different speculations exist about HPB's actual sources. I noticed that “The Stanzas of Dzyan” contain both Vedic, Buddhist and specifically Tibetan allusions. Others believe it was very freely inspired by material from the Jewish Kabbalistic scripture Zohar (or perhaps less freely). Of course, a Theosophist would solve this problem by claiming that the Stanzas contain the original Ur-Message from which all other sources derive their inspiration…

The Stanzas have played a certain role in ufology, perhaps because some ufology is influenced (perhaps unwittingly) by Theosophy. Both Desmond Leslie and Erich von Däniken took Blavatsky's stanzas seriously, or pretended to do so. I came across an excerpt from the stanzas already as a child when reading a Swedish UFO book. I think it was “Tefatsfolket ser oss” by Staffan Stigsjöö. The author, perhaps taking a cue from Däniken, assumed that the Book of Dzyan was an actual scripture from ancient India, quoting the following: “At the Fourth, the Sons are told to create their Images, One-Third refuses. Two obey. The Curse is pronounced. They will be born in the Fourth, suffer and cause suffering. This is the First War.” This was taken as evidence for ancient aliens and/or nuclear wars in the distant past. As a child, I did believe in UFOs and aliens. I was therefore amused when reading the stanzas just a couple of hours ago, seeing this very verse! So it was *Blavatsky* all the time. Well, is anyone really surprised?