Collins, Mabel (Mrs. Keningale Cook)(1851-ca. 1922)

An important but shadowy figure in the Theosophical Society during the latter part of the nineteenth century. Although her influential book Light on the Path (first published anonymously in 1885) is a classic work in the theosophical movement, Collins has received only scant biographical notice.

A daughter of Mortimer Collins, she became a prolific author of novels and other works, including: Princess Clarice: A Story of 1871 (2 vols., 1872), Blacksmith and Scholar (3 vols., 1875), An Innocent Sinner (3 vols., 1877), In the World (2 vols., 1878), Our Bohemia (3 vols., 1879), Too Red a Dawn (3 vols., 1881), Cobwebs (3 vols., 1882), The Story of Helen Modjeska (1883), In the Flower of Her Youth (3 vols., 1883), Violet Fanshawe (2 vols., 1884), The Prettiest Woman in Warsaw (3 vols., 1885), and Lord Vanecourt's Daughter (3 vols., 1885).

Her later books, The Idyll of the White Lotus (1885), Through the Gates of Gold (1887), and The Blossom and the Fruit: The True Story of a Black Magician (1888), strongly manifested her growing interest in metaphysics and the occult. The Blossom and the Fruit was included by occultist Aleister Crowley as recommended reading for neophytes in working with magic, and it seems possible that the author had some inside knowledge of secret occult organizations.

Collins's husband, Dr. Keningale Cook, was also a writer, author of The Fathers of Jesus: A Study of the Lineage of the Christian Doctrine and Traditions (2 vols., 1886).

Collins became an active worker in the movement for women's suffrage in Britain and collaborated with suffragette Charlotte Despard on a novel, Outlawed (1908) dealing with the subject of women's rights.

She was an early member of the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society, which she joined in 1884. In the same year, she wrote The Idyll of the White Lotus, followed by Light on the Path, subtitled "A Treatise written for the personal use of those who are ignorant of the Eastern Wisdom, and who desire to enter within its influence. Written down by M.C., Fellow of The Theosophical Society." In 1887, after publication of Through the Gates of Gold, Collins became coeditor with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky of the society's journal Lucifer, but ceased editing it two years later as a result of a controversy in the movement connected with the authorship of her books. The ambiguous ascription on the title page of Light on the Path suggested to some that the work was inspired by an adept, and for some time it was implied that the source was Mahatma Koot Hoomi , one of Madame Blavatsky's mysterious "Masters." After fierce controversy over the source of the book's inspiration, Collins was expelled from the society. Later she was permitted to rejoin. Whatever the true source of the book, it seems that Collins sustained a claim to have traveled on the astral plane and encountered inspired teachers.

Another strange episode in her life revolves around allegations that in 1888 she was closely associated with the notorious murderer Jack the Ripper. According to Aleister Crowley in his Confessions, Collins had a lover who was a doctor and later evidence strongly suggested he was the infamous Ripper.

Sources:

Collins, Mabel. The Awakening. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1906.

——. The Blossom and the Fruit: The True Story of a Black Magician. New York: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1888.

——. A Cry from Afar. London: Theosophical Publishing Society, 1905.

——. The Idyll of the White Lotus. Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1885.

——. Light on the Path. Boston: Occult Publishing, 1884.

——. Through the Gates of Gold. London: J. M. Watkins, 1887.

Crowley, Aleister. The Confessions of Aleister Crowley. Edited by John Symnonds and Kenneth Grant. New York: Hill and Wang, 1969.

Fuller, Jean Overton. The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg. London: W. H. Allen, 1965.