Cosmogenesis,: The Secret Doctrine, Volume I

First of all, avoid the Kindle edition, as it deletes illustrations (a huge problem with Kindle to begin with).You need a good print version, UNABRIDGED.The good:This is the book that started it all. "All" being the West's awakening to the heretofore hidden secrets of the cosmos and of mankind. HPB was not a "seer," she was a mouthpiece. She wrote what was given to her in communication with certain Eastern masters, which she received in, for lack of a better term, a trance, or psychic link to these other personalities. Even her enemies gloss over the fact that she wrote the book alone in her room with none of the books that she cites in her thousands of footnotes and references. Not a single one to this day has proved erroneous. She cites manuscripts in the Vatican Library where she has never been allowed entrance; she cites unpublished manuscripts throughout the ages. For many, the most important book published in many centuries.The bad:It's horribly written. It always reminds me of a beautiful stained glass creation that has been smashed to pieces and thrown back together willy-nilly. It makes Ulysses look like a comic strip. She is also angry, sarcastic, and bitter. And incredibly defensive.The ugly:Believe nothing from these Eastern masters when they speak of Christianity. They know little about it, for starters, but more annoying -- they hate it, and spare no opportunity to tear it to pieces, deliberately conflating the deeds and thoughts of self-proclaimed "Christians" at their worst, while propping up the Eastern view as the best and one-and-only.But with these caveats, the book is indispensable and a must-read for anyone with any pretense of serious study of the mysteries of the universe.After this, read Steiner.