(1851-1927). English novelist and mystical writer. She was born in Guernsey, Channel Islands, on September 9, 1851. Mabel Collins liked to refer to herself as a “Nine” because she was the ninth child and was born on the ninth day of the ninth month. In 1871 she married Kenningale Robert Cook from whom she later separated. Collins joined the Theosophical Society (TS) in 1884, becoming a member of the London Lodge. She acted as Assistant Editor to Helena P. BLAVATSKY on the periodical LUCIFER from September 1887 to February 1889. She had a disagreement with Blavatsky and withdrew from the TS. Later, at her own request, she was reinstated into the Society, but did not remain a member very long.

She was devoted to the welfare of animals and founded the Incorporated Parliamentary Association for the Abolition of Vivisection (British). Collins was said to be clairvoyant and was considered by some to be a channel for the Masters. Probably her most important book from a theosophical viewpoint is Light on the Pathwhich was published in 1885. On the title page of a copy of the first edition in the archives of “The H. P. B. Library,” North Vancouver, B.C., Canada, the work is attributed by Collins to the Master HILARION, but in 1889 she repudiated this claim and maintained that it was entirely her own work.

Collins was a prolific writer having about a score of novels and many articles and short stories published.

Publications include:

Light on the Path; Idyll of the White Lotus; The Story of Senza; When the Sun Moves Northward; The Story of the Year; As the Flower Grows; A Cry From Afar; Fragments of Thought and Life; Through the Gates of Gold; etc.

P.S.H.

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