Helena Blavatsky

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Born	Helena von Hahn (1831-08-12)12 August 1831 Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine)
Died	8 May 1891(1891-05-08) (aged 59) London, United Kingdom
Parents	Peter Alekseevich Hahn

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Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Russian: Еле́на Петро́вна Блава́тская, Ukrainian: Олена Петрівна Блаватська), (born as Helena von Hahn (Russian: Елена Петровна Ган, Ukrainian: Олена Петрівна Ган); 12 August [O.S. 31 July] 1831 – 8 May 1891) was a scholar of ancient wisdom literature who, along with H. S. Olcott and Anagarika Dharmapala, was instrumental in the Western transmission and revival of Theravada Buddhism. In 1875, Blavatsky and Olcott established a research and publishing institute called the Theosophical Society. Blavatsky defined Theosophy as "the archaic Wisdom-Religion, the esoteric doctrine once known in every ancient country having claims to civilization." Blavatsky's extensive research into the many different spiritual traditions of the world led to the publication of what is now considered her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, which collates and organizes the essence of these teachings into a comprehensive synthesis. Blavatsky saw herself as a missionary of this ancient knowledge and one of the main purposes of the Theosophical Society was “to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color”. Blavatsky's other works include Isis Unveiled, The Key to Theosophy and The Voice of the Silence. Blavatsky is a leading name in the New Age Movement.

Lineage

Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandfather

Maternally, H. P. Blavatsky's lineage goes back through Prince Michael of Chernigov to Rurik, founder of the Russian state at Novgorod. One of Blavatsky's direct ancestors was Sergey Grigor’yevich Dolgoruky, a well-known diplomat of his time and the brother of Aleksey Grigor’evich Dolgoruky, a member of Supreme Secret Council under Peter the Second. Sergei Grigor’evich was the great grandfather of Helena Pavlovna Fadeyeva-Dolgorukaya (H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother) and great-great-great-grandfather of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.

H.P. Blavatsky’s great grandfather, Prince Pavel Vasilyievich Dolgorukov (1755–1837) was a Major General during the reign of Ekaterina the Great. He was decorated with the highest army award, the Order of St. George and was a companion in arms of Kutuzov. His wife was Henrietta Adolfovna de Bandre du Plessis (died 1812), a daughter of a military officer (of French descent) who had command of an army corps during the Crimea campaign and, according to A.M. Fadeyev, was a favorite of Suvorov.

Princess Helena Pavlovna, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother, was a daughter of Pavel Vasilyievich and Henrietta Adolfovna. She received a versatile home education, spoke five languages, and focused her studies in archeology, numismatics, and botany. Fadeyev’s herbariums and pictures of various plants aroused the admiration of many scientists. Helena Pavlovna was in scientific correspondence with : well-known German scientist, Alexander von Humboldt ; English geologist and founder of Geographic Society, Sir Roderick Murchison ; Swedish botanist, Christian Steven, a researcher of Caucasus flora and fauna. According to H.F. Pisareva, botanist Homer de Hel named found by him shell Venus-Fadeyeff in honor of Helena Pavlovna.

Helena Pavlovna Dolgorukaya, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother

In 1813, Princess Helena Pavlovna Dolgoroukov married Andrey Mikhailovich Fadeyev who was the state officer and later the Secret Councilor Governor of Saratov and Tiflice. His lineage goes back to Russian hereditary noblemen and the German von Krause lineage. Andrey Mikhailovich’s grandfather, Peter Mikhailovich Fadeyev, was a captain in the army of Peter the Great. Helena Pavlovna and Andrey Mikhailovich had four children. The eldest daughter, Elena Gan (Helena von Hahn), was a well-known writer and made a name for herself as a Russian George Sand (she was the mother of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Vera Petrovna Zhelihovsky and Leonid Petrovich von Hahn). Their son, Rostislav Andreevich Fadeyev, was a general, army writer and reformer. Their daughter, Ekaterina Andreevna, was the mother of the well-known Russian statesman, Sergei Witte. Lastly, youngest daughter Nadejda Andreevna became an active member of the Theosophical Society.

Sergei Witte wrote that his grandfather, P.V. Dolgorukov, during his daughter’s marriage had blessed his daughter and new son-in-law with an ancient cross which, according to family legend, belonged to the Grand Prince of Kiev, St. Michael of Chernigov. Later, this cross passed into the hands of Helena Pavlovna and further to Sergei Witte.

According to the lineage of her father, Peter Alekseevich Hahn, Helena Petrovna belongs to the Baltic-German family von Hahn. Boris Zirkoff, an editor and active promoter of theosophy, in the introduction to H.P. Blavatsky’s collected works pointed out that Hahn's family (H.P. Blavatsky’s forefathers from father’s side) belonged to the Count von Hahn's family line from Basedov (Mecklenburg). According to information from another source, this family is traceable back to the Carolingian dynasty and German knights and crusaders. Meanwhile, any documents supporting a relationship between H.P. Blavatsky’s family and the Mecklenburg Counts von Hahn (a.k.a. Hahn von Rottenstern-Hahn) have yet to be located. In the record of service of “Aleksey Fedorov Hahn’s son” (1751–1815) (H.P.Blavatsky’s grandfather, Governor of the fortress Kamenets-Podolsk) is mentioned as descended from “Eastland’s inhabitants." His father had foreign citizenship and was Kraits-Commissioner in the Eastland”. The archives contain the documents supporting the existence of “Kraits-Commissioner” Johann Friedrich (Fyodor) Hahn who was born in 1719 at Narva died 31 May 1803, in the same place. The documents do not contain any information about the lineage or ties of relationship of the family. Note that B. Zirkoff himself belongs to Hahn's family on the female side, not Johann Friedrich but Johann August von Hahn, which is not connected with H.P. Blavatsky’s family by documents.

Childhood and Youth

Rostislav Andreevich Fadeyev, H.P. Blavatsky’s uncle

Helena Petrovna was born on 31 July (12 August new style), 1831, at Yekaterinoslav (from 1926 Dnepropetrovsk). Her parents were Colonel Peter von Hahn (Russian: Пётр Алексеевич Ган, 1798–1873) of the ancient von Hahn family of German nobility (German: uradel) from Basedow (Mecklenburg) and her mother Helena Andreevna von Hahn (Fadeyeva).

Because of her father’s profession, the family often moved. A year after Helena’s birth, the family moved to Romankovo (now part of Dneprodzerzhinsk), and in 1835 they moved to Odessa, where Helena’s sister, Vera (the future writer Zhelihovsky), was born. Later the family lived in Tula and Kursk. In the spring of 1836 they arrived in St. Petersburg where they lived until May 1837. From St. Petersburg, Helena Petrovna, along with her sister, mother, and grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev moved to Astrakhan. There, Andrei Mikhailovich was an officer in charge of Kalmyks and local German colonists. In 1838, Helena's mother moved with her daughters to Poltava, where Helena began to take dance lessons and her mother taught her to play the piano.

In spring 1839, the family moved to Odessa. There Helena Andreevna found a governess for her children, who taught them English. In November, Helena’s grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich was assigned governor of Saratov by Emperor Nikolai I. After this, Helena Andreevna and her children moved to live with him. In June 1840, at Saratov, Helena Andreevna's son Leonid was born. Helena Petrovna was then nine years old. Nadezhda Fadeyeva, Helena’s aunt, wrote to A. Sinnett of her memory of her niece:

Helena Andreevna Hahn, H.P. Blavatsky’s mother

In childhood, all [Helena’s] likings and interests were concentrated on the people from lower estates. She preferred to play with the children of domestics but not with equals. <…> She always needs attention to prevent her escape from home and meetings with street ragamuffins. And at a mature age she irrepressibly reached out to those whose status was lower than her own, and displayed a marked indifference to the “nobles”, to which she belongs by birth.

At ten years old, Helena began to study German. Her progress was so appreciable that, according to V. Zhelihovsky, her father “complemented her, and in jest called her a worthy heiress of her glorious ancestors, German knights Hahn-Hahn von der Rother Hahn, who knew no other language besides German."

In 1841, the family returned to the Ukraine, where Helena contracted herpes. On 6 July 1842, Helena Andreevna Hahn, Helena’s mother and at that time a well-known writer, died at the age of 28 of galloping consumption.

According to Vera Zhelihovsky, Helena's mother, at the time, was worried about the destiny of her elder daughter, “gifted from childhood with outstanding features”. Before her death, her mother said: “Well! Perhaps it is for the better that I am dying: at least, I will not suffer from seeing Helena’s hard lot! I am quite sure that her destiny will be not womanly, that she will suffer much”.

After her mother’s death, Helena’s grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich and grandmother Helena Pavlovna took the children to Saratov, where they had quite a different life. Fadeyev’s house was visited by Saratov’s intellectuals. A well-known historian, Kostomarov, and writer, Mary Zhukova, were among them. Helena's grandmother and three teachers were occupied with the children’s upbringing and education, so she received a solid home education.

Helena’s favorite place in the house was her grandmother’s library, which Helena Pavlovna inherited from her father. In this voluminous library, Helena Petrovna paid special attention to the books on medieval occultism.

“Two Helens (Helena Hahn and Helena Blavatsky)” 1844-1845. According to one of the versions, the picture was drawn by H.P. Blavatsky. Museum centre of H.P. Blavatsky and her family (Ukraine)

In 1847, the family had moved from Saratov to Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), where Andrei Mikhailovich was invited to work at the Council of Senior Governance in the Transcaucasia region. H.F. Pisareva wrote in her biographic essay “Helena Petrovna Blavatsky”:

They who knew her … in youth remember with delight her inexhaustibly merry, cheerful, sparkling with wit. She liked jokes, teasing and to cause a commotion.

Nadejda Andreevna Fadeyeva, Helena’s aunt, remembered the following:

“As a child, as a young woman, as a woman, she always was so higher than her surroundings that she never was could not appreciate its true value. She was trained as a girl from good family … extraordinary wealth in the form of her intellectual faculties, fineness and quickness of thought, amazing understanding and learning of most difficult disciplines, unusually developed mind together with chivalrous, direct, energetic and open character – this is what raised her so high over the level of conventional society and could not help attracting the common attention and therefore the envy and hostility from these who with their nonentity can not stand of luster and gifts of this wonderful nature”.

In youth, Helena had a high life, often was in society, danced at the balls and visited the parties. But when she reached 16, she experienced a sudden inner change, and she began to study the books from her great-grandfather’s library more deeply.

“Margarita and Mephistopheles”. 1862. Drawing of H.P. Blavatsky made after visiting of the opera “Faustus”

In 1910, H.F. Pisareva, in her essay dedicated to Blavatsky, cited the reminiscences of Mary Grigor’evna Yermolova, the Tiflis governor’s wife: “Simultaneously with Fadeev’s family, in Tiflis lived a relation of the Caucasian Governor-general, prince Golitsin. He often visited Fadeyevs and was greatly interested by an original young woman”. Due to Golitsin (Yermolova did not cite his name) who, as it was rumored, was “either mason or magician or soothsayer” Blavatsky tried “to come into contact with a mysterious sage of the East where prince Golitsin was going to”. This version was further supported by many biographers of H. Blavatsky. According to A.M.Fadeyev and V.P. Jelihovsky, at the end of 1847, an old friend of Andrei Mikhailovich prince Vladimir Sergeevich Golitsin (1794–1861), Major General, Head of the Caucasian line centre and further privy councilor, arrived to Tiflis and lived there a few months. He almost daily visited Fadeyevs, and often with his young sons Sergei (1823–1873) and Alexander (1825–1864). Therefore, some researchers of H.P. Blavatsky consider the information from M. Yermolova about prince Golitsin improbable because the young Golitsin’s sons did not correspond to Yermolova’s description because of age, and aged prince Golitsin could not be “strongly interested for an original young woman” because of moral reasons. In addition, according to his biographers, prince Golitsin never was going to the East.

Striving for full independence during the winter of 1848/1849 at Tiflis, Helena Petrovna entered into a sham marriage with the vice-governor of Erevan, Nikifor Vladimirovich Blavatsky, who was much older than she. On 7 June 1849, their wedding ceremony took place. Soon after their wedding, Helena escaped from her husband and returned to her relatives. Further, she was going to Odessa and sailed away from Poti to Kerch in the English sailboat “Commodore”. Then she moved to Constantinople. There she met a Russian countess Kiseleva, and together they traveled over Egypt, Greece and Eastern Europe.

Travels

The next period of Blavatsky’s life is difficult for her biographers, as she did not keep diaries and there was nobody with her to tell about these events. In general, a picture of a route and course of the travels is based mainly on Blavatsky’s memoirs, which sometimes contain chronological contradictions. N.A. Fadeyeva reported that of all her relatives only her father knew where she was, and from time to time he sent money to her. It is known that Helena Blavatsky met an art student named Albert Rawson in Cairo. After Blavatsky’s death, Rawson, who by that time was a doctor of theology and of law at Oxford, described their meeting at Cairo. According to her memory, Blavatsky told him about her future participation in the work which some day would serve to liberate the human mind. Rawson wrote:

“

Her relation to her mission was highly impersonal because she often repeated: "This work is not mine, but he who sends me."

”

According to Blavatsky’s reminiscences, after leaving the Middle East she began to travel Europe with her father. It is known that at this time she learned to play piano with Ignaz Moscheles, the well-known composer and virtuoso pianist. Later she gave several concerts in England and other countries.

Drawing of H.P. Blavatsky made on 12 August 1851

In 1851, on her birthday (12 August), Blavatsky met her Teacher for the first time in Hyde Park in London. Previously, she had seen this Teacher in her dreams. Countess Konstanz Wachtmeister, widow of the Swedish ambassador at London, remembered the details of this conversation in which Blavatsky's Teacher said that he "needs her participation in the work he is going to undertake" and "she will live three years in Tibet to prepare for this important mission." After leaving England, H.P. Blavatsky went to Canada, then to Mexico, Central and South America. In 1852 she arrived in India, where she remembered, "I lived there about two years and received money monthly from [an] unknown person. I honestly followed the pointed route. I received letters from this Hindu but [have] not once seen him during these two years".

Before leaving India, Blavatsky tried to enter Tibet through Nepal but a British representative would not permit it.

From India, Blavatsky went back to London, where, according to V. Zhelihovsky, she acquired "fame by her musical talent. She was a member of the philharmonic society". Here, according to H.P. Blavatsky, she met her Teacher again. After this meeting she went to New York, where she again met A. Rawson. Then, according to A.P. Sinnett, she traveled to Chicago, and further, together with settler caravans, to the West through the Rocky Mountains. After this, she stayed some time in San Francisco. In 1855 (or 1856), she sailed across the Pacific Ocean to the Far East, via Japan and Singapore, to arrive in Calcutta.

In 1856, Blavatsky’s memories about living in India were published in the book From the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan. The book was composed of essays written from 1879 to 1886 under the pen name "Radda-Bay". In Russian, the essays were first published in the newspaper Moskovskie vedomosti, which was edited by Mikhail Katkov. The essays attracted great interest among the readership, so Katkov republished them as an attachment to Russkii vestnik and then published new letters written specially for this journal. In 1892, the book was partially translated into English; in 1975 it was fully translated into English.

The book From the Caves and Jungles of Hindustan describes the travels of Blavatsky and her Teacher, whom she named Takhur Gulab-Singh. Though the book was considered a novel, Blavatsky asserted that "the facts and persons that I cited are true. I simply collected to time interval in three-four months the events and cases occurring during several years just like the part of the phenomena that the Teacher has shown".

In 1857, Blavatsky repeatedly tried to pass to Tibet from India via Kashmir but shortly before the Mutiny she received instructions from her Teacher and sailed on a Holland ship from Madras to Java. Later she returned to Europe.

Blavatsky spent several months in France and Germany, and then she moved to Pskov to be with her relatives. She arrived on Christmas night of 1858. According to V. Jelihovsky, H.P. Blavatsky returned from the travels as "a human gifted by exceptional features and forces amazing [to] all the people around her".

In May 1859 Blavatsky moved with her family to the village Rugodevo in the Novorzhev district, where Blavatsky stayed for almost a year. This period ended with Blavatsky falling ill. In the spring of 1860, after she recovered, she, together with her sister, moved to Caucasus to visit her grandparents.

V. Jelihovsky reported that on the way to Caucasus, at Zadonsk, Blavatsky met the former exarch, Georgia Isidor. He was the Metropolitan of Kiev and then Novgorod, St-Petersburg and Finland. Isidor gave his blessing to H.P. Blavatsky. (Details see below). From Russia, Blavatsky began to travel again. Although her route is not known for certain, she probably visited Persia, Syria, Lebanon, Jerusalem and went multiple times to Egypt, Greece and Italy.

In 1867, she traveled through Hungary and Balkans for a few months. Then she visited Venice, Florence and Mentana. According to N. Fodor’s biography, in 17 November 1867 she took part in the Battle of Mentana on the side of Giuseppe Garibaldi. Her left hand was broken twice by saber stabs; in addition, she experienced two hard missile wounds in her right shoulder and leg. Initially, she was thought killed but later was picked up at the battlefield. Blavatsky told Olcott that she was a volunteer at Mentana along with other European women.

On the beginning of 1868, when Blavatsky recovered from her wounds, she moved to Florence. Then she traveled to Northern Italy and the Balkans and further to Constantinople, India and Tibet.

Later, when she answered to the question why she traveled to Tibet, H.P. Blavatsky wrote:

“

Really, it is quite useless to go to Tibet or India to recover some knowledge or power that are hidden in any human soul; but acquisition of higher knowledge and power requires not only many years of intensive studying under the guidance of higher mind together with a resolution that cannot be shaken by any danger, and as much as years of relative solitude, in communication with disciples only which pursue the same aim, and in such a place where both the nature and the neophyte preserve a perfect and unbroken rest if not the silence! There the air is not poisoned by miasmas around a hundreds miles, and there the atmosphere and human magnetism are quite clear and there the animal’s blood is never shed.

”

Palace of Panchen Lama at Tashilhunpo Monastery at Shigatse

According to biographers, H.P. Blavatsky’s path laid to Tashilunpo monastery (near Shigatse). A book "The Voice of the Silence", published for the request of Panchen Lama IX in 1927 by Chinese society for Buddhism study at Peking, reports that H. Blavatsky during several years was studied in Tashilunpo and knew well Panchen Lama VIII Tenpay Vangchug. Blavatsky also confirmed her living at Tashilunpo and Shigatse. In a letter, she depicted her correspondent a solitary temple of Tashi Lama near Shigatse.

S. Cranston asserts that, according to H.P. Blavatsky, it is not known would she was at Lhasa in that time, but V. Jelihovsky affirmed the follows: "It is reliably that she (Blavatsky) sometimes was at Lhasa, capital of Tibet, and also at Shigatse, main Tibetan religious centre … and at Karakoram mountains in Kunlun Shan. Her living stories about this proved that for me many times".

According to the biographers, last period of her living at Tibet H.P. Blavatsky has conducted in the home of her Teacher Koot Hoomi (K.H.). He helps Blavatsky to get to several lamaseries where any European was not before her. In the letter from 2 October 1991 (?) she wrote to M. Hillis-Billing that the house of Teacher K.H. "is in the region of Karakoram mountains beyond Ladakh which is at minor Tibet and related now to Kashmir. This is a large wooden building in China style looking like to pagoda located between lake and a nice river".

Researchers believe that just at this time (during living in Tibet) Blavatsky began to study the texts which later will come to the book "The Voice of the Silence".

In 1927, one of the eminent explorers of Tibet and its philosophy W.Y. Evans-Wentz wrote in introduction to his translation of "The Tibetan Book of the Dead": "As concerning an esoteric meaning of forty ninth day of Bardo, please see about this in H.P. Blavatsky’s “The Secret Doctrine” (London, 1888, v.1, P.238, 411; v.2, p. 617,628). Late lama K.D. Samdup believed that in spite of malevolent critics of Blavatsky’s works, this author has undisputable proofs that she was well acquainted with the highest lamaist teaching, and for this she needs to get an initiation". Doctor Malalasekera, founder and President of the World Buddhist brotherhood, wrote about Blavatsky in a monumental "Buddhism Encyclopedia": "Her acquaintance with Tibetan Buddhism and also with esoteric Buddhism practices is indubitable". Thus, Japan philosopher and Buddhologist D. T. Suzuki supposes that

H.P. Blavatsky. 1876-1878

“

"undoubtedly Ms. Blavatsky somehow or other was initiated into deeper propositions of the Mahayana teaching".

”

After almost three years living at Tibet, Blavatsky began to travel through Middle East. Then she visited Cyprus and Greece.

In 1871, during the travel from Piraeus to Egypt at the ship "Evnomia" the powder magazine blew up and the ship was destroyed. Thirty passengers died. H.P. Blavatsky escaped but lost her luggage and money.

In 1871, Blavatsky arrived to Cairo where she has founded a Spiritualistic society (Societe Sirite) aimed on studying of mental phenomena. However, soon the society turned out in centre of financial scandal and was disbanded.

On July 1872, after leaving of Cairo, Blavatsky came to Odessa through Syria, Palestine and Constantinople where she lived during nine months.

S.Yu. Witte remembered that Blavatsky "when settled at Odessa, <…> firstly opened a shop and factory for ink and then a flower shop (for artificial flowers). At this time she often visited my mother. … When I make the acquaintance of her, I was surprised by her colossal talent to grasp any thing very quickly. … Many times before my very eyes she wrote the longest letters to her friends and relatives. … In the main, she was very not unkindly woman. She has so huge blue eyes that I never see in my life".

On April 1873, Blavatsky moved from Odessa to Bucharest to visit her friend. Then she came to Paris where she lived with her first cousin Nikolai Hahn. In the end of July, she purchased a ticket to New York. H. Olcott and Countess K. Vahtmeister reported that when H.P. Blavatsky saw a poor woman with two children who could not pay the fare, she changed her first-class ticket for four third-class tickets and traveled the Pacific Ocean for two weeks in third-class.

Main Creative Period

Helena Blavatsky

In 1873, Blavatsky moved to Paris and further to the USA where she met colonel Henry Steel Olcott. In 1875, they established the Theosophical Society. In 3 April 1875, in New York, Blavatsky formally married Michael Betanelly, a Georgian living in America. The marriage dissolved after several months, and in 8 July 1878 she became an American citizen.

In February 1879, Blavatsky and Olcott left for Bombay. In 1882, they founded a headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, in the southern suburbs of Madras, which still exists today. From 1879 to 1888 Blavatsky edited the magazine The Theosophist.

Soon they met Alfred Sinnett, editor of the government Allahabad’s newspaper The Pioneer. Sinnett was seriously interested in the activity of the Society. Using H. Blavatsky’s mediation, he began to correspond with Mahatmas. While Sinnett was against the publication of these letters in total volume, he did selected for publication some fragments which, as he believed, reflected the Mahatmas thoughts exactly enough. The full correspondence was published by Alfred Barker in 1923, after Sinnett’s death.

Blavatsky left India in 1885, making her way to Germany and Belgium, where she lived for some time. She later moved to London where she was occupied with writing of the books. She then wrote The Voice of the Silence (1889), The Secret Doctrine (1888), The Key to Theosophy (1889).

Death

On 8 May 1891 Blavatsky died after she was down with flu. Her body was cremated at Woking Crematorium and the ashes were divided between three centers of the theosophical movement: London, New York and Adyar (near Madras). The day of her death is observed by the followers as “day of the white lotus”.

The Theosophical Society

Main article: Theosophical Society

Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott in 1888

Blavatsky helped found the Theosophical Society in New York City in 1875 with the motto, "There is no Religion higher than Truth". Its other principal founding members include Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), and William Quan Judge (1851–1896). After several changes and iterations its declared objectives became the following:

1. To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.
2. To encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy, and Science.
3. To investigate the unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.

The Society was organized as a non-proselytizing, non-sectarian entity. Blavatsky and Olcott (the first President of the Society) moved from New York to Bombay, India in 1878. The International Headquarters of the Society was eventually established in Adyar, a suburb of Madras. Following Blavatsky’s death, disagreements among prominent Theosophists caused a series of splits and several Theosophical Societies and Organizations emerged. As of 2011 Theosophy remains an active philosophical school with presences in more than 50 countries around the world.

Theosophy

Blavatsky is most well known for her promulgation of a theosophical system of thought, often referred to under various names, including: The Occult Science, The Esoteric Tradition, The Wisdom of the Ages, etc., or simply as Occultism or Theosophy.

Definition and Origin

Theosophy was considered by Blavatsky to be “the substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies” In her book “The Key to Theosophy”, she stated the following about the meaning and origin of the term:

ENQUIRER. Theosophy and its doctrines are often referred to as a new-fangled religion. Is it a religion?
THEOSOPHIST. It is not. Theosophy is Divine Knowledge or Science.
ENQUIRER. What is the real meaning of the term?
THEOSOPHIST. "Divine Wisdom," (Theosophia) or Wisdom of the gods, as (theogonia), genealogy of the gods. The word theos means a god in Greek, one of the divine beings, certainly not "God" in the sense attached in our day to the term. Therefore, it is not "Wisdom of God," as translated by some, but Divine Wisdom such as that possessed by the gods. The term is many thousand years old.
ENQUIRER. What is the origin of the name?
THEOSOPHIST. It comes to us from the Alexandrian philosophers, called lovers of truth, Philaletheians, from phil "loving," and aletheia "truth." The name Theosophy dates from the third century of our era, and began with Ammonius Saccas and his disciples, who started the Eclectic Theosophical system.

According to her, all real lovers of divine wisdom and truth had, and have, a right to the name of Theosophist. Blavatsky discussed the major themes of Theosophy in several major works, including The Secret Doctrine, Isis Unveiled, The Key to Theosophy, and The Voice of the Silence. She also wrote over 200 articles in various theosophical magazines and periodicals. Contemporaries of Blavatsky, as well as later theosophists, contributed to the development of this school of theosophical thought, producing works that at times sought to elucidate the ideas she presented (see Gottfried de Purucker), and at times to expand upon them. Since its inception, and through doctrinal assimilation or divergence, Theosophy has also given rise to or influenced the development of other mystical, philosophical, and religious movements.

Scope

Broadly, Theosophy attempts to reconcile humanity's scientific, philosophical, and religious disciplines and practices into a unified worldview. As it largely employs a synthesizing approach, it makes extensive use of the vocabulary and concepts of many philosophical and religious traditions. However these, along with all other fields of knowledge, are investigated, amended, and explained within an esoteric or occult framework. In often elaborate exposition, Theosophy's all-encompassing worldview proposes explanations for the origin, workings and ultimate fate of the universe and humanity; it has therefore also been called a system of "absolutist metaphysics".

Methodology

According to Blavatsky, Theosophy is neither revelation nor speculation. It is portrayed as an attempt at gradual, faithful reintroduction of a hitherto hidden science, which is called in Theosophical literature The Occult Science. According to Blavatsky, this postulated science provides a description of Reality not only at a physical level, but also on a metaphysical one. The Occult Science is said to have been preserved (and practiced) throughout history by carefully selected and trained individuals. Theosophists further assert that Theosophy's precepts and their axiomatic foundation may be verified by following certain prescribed disciplines that develop in the practitioner metaphysical means of knowledge, which transcend the limitations of the senses. It is commonly held by Theosophists that many of the basic Theosophical tenets may in the future be empirically and objectively verified by science, as it develops further. In this sense, the Theosophical literature has predicted some findings which were later corroborated by modern science. For example, the accepted model of the atom in the 19th century resembled that of a billiard ball - a small, solid sphere. It was only in 1897 that J. J. Thomson discovered the electron suggesting that the atom was not an "indivisible" particle, as John Dalton had suggested, but a jigsaw puzzle made of smaller pieces. Nine years before, in 1888, Blavatsky had written:

The atom is elastic, ergo, the atom is divisible, and must consist of particles, or of sub-atoms. And these sub-atoms? They are either non-elastic, and in such case they represent no dynamic importance, or, they are elastic also; and in that case, they, too, are subject to divisibility. And thus ad infinitum. But infinite divisibility of atoms resolves matter into simple centers of force, i.e., precludes the possibility of conceiving matter as an objective substance.

—Helena Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine Volume I, p. 519

Law of Correspondences

In The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky spoke of a basic item of cosmogony reflected in the ancient saying: “as above, so below”. This item is used by many theosophists as a method of study and has been called “The Law of Correspondences”. Briefly, the law of correspondences states that the microcosm is the miniature copy of the macrocosm and therefore what is found “below” can be found, often through analogy, “above”. Examples include the basic structures of microcosmic organisms mirroring the structure of macrocosmic organisms (see septenary systems, below). The lifespan of a human being can be seen to follow, by analogy, the same path as the seasons of the Earth, and in theosophy it is postulated that the same general process is equally applied to the lifespan of a planet, a solar system, a galaxy and to the universe itself. Through the Law of Correspondences, a theosophist seeks to discover the first principles underlying various phenomenon by finding the shared essence or idea, and thus to move from particulars to principles.

Applications

Applied Theosophy was one of the main reasons for the foundation of the Theosophical Society in 1875 (see below); the practice of Theosophy was considered an integral part of its contemporary incarnation. Theosophical discipline includes the practice of study, meditation, and service, which are traditionally seen as necessary for a holistic development. Also, the acceptance and practical application of the Society's motto and of its three objectives are part of the Theosophical life. Efforts at applying its tenets started early. Study and meditation are normally promoted in the activities of the Theosophical Society, and in 1908 an international charitable organization to promote service, the Theosophical Order of Service, was founded.

Terminology

Despite extensively using Sanskrit terminology in her works, many Theosophical concepts are expressed differently than in the original scriptures. To provide clarity on her intended meanings, Blavatsky's The Theosophical Glossary was published in 1892, one year after her death. According to the editor, G.R.S. Mead, in his Preface to the Glossary, Blavatsky wished to express her indebtedness to four works: the Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary, the Hindu Classical Dictionary, Vishnu-Purana, and the Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia.

Basic Tenets

Three Fundamental Propositions

Blavatsky explained the essential component ideas of her cosmogony in her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine. She began with three fundamental propositions, of which she said: “Before the reader proceeds … it is absolutely necessary that he should be made acquainted with the few fundamental conceptions which underlie and pervade the entire system of thought to which his attention is invited. These basic ideas are few in number, and on their clear apprehension depends the understanding of all that follows…”

The first proposition is that there is one underlying, unconditioned, indivisible Truth, variously called "the Absolute", "the Unknown Root", "the One Reality", etc. It is causeless and timeless, and therefore unknowable and non-describable: "It is 'Be-ness' rather than Being". However, transient states of matter and consciousness are manifested in IT, in an unfolding gradation from the subtlest to the densest, the final of which is physical plane. According to this view, manifest existence is a "change of condition" and therefore neither the result of creation nor a random event.

Everything in the universe is informed by the potentialities present in the "Unknown Root," and manifest with different degrees of Life (or energy), Consciousness, and Matter.

The second proposition is "the absolute universality of that law of periodicity, of flux and reflux, ebb and flow". Accordingly, manifest existence is an eternally re-occurring event on a "boundless plane": "'the playground of numberless Universes incessantly manifesting and disappearing,'" each one "standing in the relation of an effect as regards its predecessor, and being a cause as regards its successor", doing so over vast but finite periods of time.

Related to the above is the third proposition: "The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul... and the obligatory pilgrimage for every Soul — a spark of the former — through the Cycle of Incarnation (or 'Necessity') in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term." The individual souls are seen as units of consciousness (Monads) that are intrinsic parts of a universal oversoul, just as different sparks are parts of a fire. These Monads undergo a process of evolution where consciousness unfolds and matter develops. This evolution is not random, but informed by intelligence and with a purpose. Evolution follows distinct paths in accord with certain immutable laws, aspects of which are perceivable on the physical level. One such law is the law of periodicity and cyclicity; another is the law of karma or cause and effect.

Cosmic Evolution

Items of Cosmogony

In the recapitulation of The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky gave a summary of the central points of her system of cosmogony. These central points are as follows:

1. The first item reiterates Blavatsky’s position that The Secret Doctrine represents the “accumulated Wisdom of the Ages”, a system of thought that “is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity.”
2. The second item reiterates the first fundamental proposition (see above), calling the one principle “the fundamental law in that system [of cosmogony]”. Here Blavatsky says of this principle that it is “the One homogeneous divine Substance-Principle, the one radical cause. … It is called “Substance-Principle,” for it becomes “substance” on the plane of the manifested Universe, an illusion, while it remains a “principle” in the beginningless and endless abstract, visible and invisible Space. It is the omnipresent Reality: impersonal, because it contains all and everything. Its impersonality is the fundamental conception of the System. It is latent in every atom in the Universe, and is the Universe itself.”
3. The third item reiterates the second fundamental proposition (see above), impressing once again that “The Universe is the periodical manifestation of this unknown Absolute Essence.”, while also touching upon the complex Sanskrit ideas of Parabrahmam and Mulaprakriti. This item presents the idea that the One unconditioned and absolute principle is covered over by its veil, Mulaprakriti, that the spiritual essence is forever covered by the material essence.
4. The fourth item is the common eastern idea of Maya (illusion). Blavatsky states that the entire universe is called illusion because everything in it is temporary, i.e. has a beginning and an end, and is therefor unreal in comparison to the eternal changelessness of the One Principle.
5. The fifth item reiterates the third fundamental proposition (see above), stating that everything in the universe is conscious, in its own way and on its own plane of perception. Because of this, the Occult Philosophy states that there are no unconscious or blind laws of Nature, that all is governed by consciousness and consciousnesses.
6. The sixth item gives a core idea of theosophical philosophy, that “as above, so below”. This is known as the “law of correspondences”, its basic premise being that everything in the universe is worked and manifested from within outwards, or from the higher to the lower, and that thus the lower, the microcosm, is the copy of the higher, the macrocosm. Just as a human being experiences every action as preceded by an internal impulse of thought, emotion or will, so too the manifested universe is preceded by impulses from divine thought, feeling and will. This item gives rise to the notion of an “almost endless series of hierarchies of sentient beings”, which itself becomes a central idea of many theosophists. The law of correspondences also becomes central to the methodology of many theosophists, as they look for analogous correspondence between various aspects of reality, for instance: the correspondence between the seasons of Earth and the process of a single human life, through birth, growth, adulthood and then decline and death.

Esotericism and Symbolism

In the first book of The Secret Doctrine Blavatsky drew an "analogy between the Aryan or Brahmanical and the Egyptian esotericism." She said that the "seven rays of the Chaldean Heptakis or Iao, on the Gnostic stones" represent the seven large stars of the Egyptian "Great Bear" constellation, the seven elemental powers, and the Hindu "seven Rishis." Blavatsky saw the seven rays of the Vedic sun deity Vishnu as representing the same concept as the "astral fluid or 'Light' of the Kabalists," and said that the seven emanations of the lower seven sephiroth are the "primeval seven rays," and "will be found and recognized in every religion."

Theosophy holds that the manifested universe is ordered by the number seven, a common claim among Esoteric and mystical doctrines and religions. Thus, the evolutionary "pilgrimage" proceeds cyclically through seven stages, the three first steps involving an apparent involution, the fourth one being one of equilibrium, and the last three involving a progressive development.

There are seven symbols of particular importance to the Society's symbology: 1) the seal of the Society, 2) a serpent biting its tail, 3) the gnostic cross (near the serpent's head), 4) the interlaced triangles, 5) the cruxansata (in the centre), 6) the pin of the Society, composed of cruxansata and serpent entwined, forming together "T.S.", and, 7) Om (or aum), the sacred syllable of the Vedas. The seal of the Society contains all of these symbols, except aum, and thus contains, in symbolic form, the doctrines its members follow.

Septenary Systems

In the Theosophical view all major facets of existence manifest following a seven-fold model: "Our philosophy teaches us that, as there are seven fundamental forces in nature, and seven planes of being, so there are seven states of consciousness in which man can live, think, remember and have his being."

Seven Cosmic Planes

Main article: Planes of existence

The Cosmos does not consist only of the physical plane that can be perceived with the five senses, but there is a succession of seven Cosmic planes of existence, composed of increasingly subtler forms of matter-energy, and in which states of consciousness other than the commonly known can manifest. Blavatsky described the planes according to these states of consciousness. In her system, for example, the plane of the material and concrete mind (lower mental plane) is classified as different from the plane of the spiritual and holistic mind (higher mental plane). Later Theosophists like Charles Webster Leadbeater and Annie Besant classified the seven planes according to the kind of subtle matter that compose them. Since both the higher and lower mental planes share the same type of subtle matter, they regard them as one single plane with two subdivisions. In this later view the seven cosmic planes include (from spiritual to material):

1. - Adi (the supreme, a divine plane not reached by human beings)
2. - Anupadaka (the parentless, also a divine plane home of the divine spark in human beings, the Monad)
3. - Atmic (the spiritual plane of Man's Higher Self)
4. - Buddhic (the spiritual plane of intuition, love, and wisdom)
5. - Mental (with a higher and lower subdivisions, this plane bridges the spiritual with the personal)
6. - Emotional (a personal plane that ranges from lower desires to high emotions)
7. - Physical plane (a personal plane which again has two subdivisions the dense one perceivable by our five senses, and an etheric one that is beyond these senses)

Seven Principles and Bodies

Main article: Subtle body

Just as the Cosmos is not limited to its physical dimension, human beings have also subtler dimensions and bodies. The "Septenary Nature of Man" was described by Blavatsky in, among other works, The Key to Theosophy; in descending order, it ranges from a postulated purely spiritual essence (called a "Ray of the Absolute") to the physical body.

The Theosophical teachings about the constitution of human beings talk about two different, but related, things: principles and bodies. Principles are the seven basic constituents of the universe, usually described by Mme. Blavatsky as follows:

1. - Physical
2. - Astral (later called etheric)
3. - Prana (or vital)
4. - Kama (animal soul)
5. - Manas (mind, or human soul)
6. - Buddhi (spiritual soul)
7. - Atma (Spirit or Self)

These Principles in Man may or may not form one or more bodies. Mme. Blavatsky's teachings about subtle bodies were few and not very systematic. In an article she described three subtle bodies:

• Linga Sharira - the Double or Astral body
• Mayavi-rupa - the "Illusion-body."
• Causal Body - the vehicle of the higher Mind.

The Linga Sharira is the invisible double of the human body, elsewhere referred to as the etheric body or doppelgänger and serves as a model or matrix of the physical body, which conforms to the shape, appearance and condition of his "double". The linga sarira can be separated or projected a limited distance from the body. When separated from the body it can be wounded by sharp objects. When it returns to the physical frame, the wound will be reflected in the physical counterpart, a phenomenon called "repercussion." At death, it is discarded together with the physical body and eventually disintegrates or decomposes. This can be seen over the graves like a luminous figure of the man that was, during certain atmospheric conditions.

The mayavi-rupa is dual in its functions, being: "...the vehicle both of thought and of the animal passions and desires, drawing at one and the same time from the lowest terrestrial manas (mind) and Kama, the element of desire."

The higher part of this body, containing the spiritual elements gathered during life, merges after death entirely into the causal body; while the lower part, containing the animal elements, forms the Kama-rupa, the source of "spooks" or apparitions of the dead.

Therefore, besides the dense physical body, the subtle bodies in a human being are:

• Etheric body (vehicle of prana)
• Emotional or astral body (vehicle of desires and emotions)
• Mental body (vehicle of the concrete or lower mind)
• Causal body (vehicle of the abstract or higher mind)

These bodies go up to the higher mental plane. The two higher spiritual Principles of Buddhi and Atma do not form bodies proper but are something more like "sheaths".

Rounds and Races

Main article: Root races

It follows from the above that to Theosophy, all Evolution is basically the evolution of Consciousness, physical-biological evolution being only a constituent part. All evolutionary paths involve the serial immersion (or reincarnation) of basic units of consciousness called Monads into forms that become gradually denser, and which eventually culminate in gross physical matter. At that point the process reverses towards a respiritualization of consciousness. The experience gained in the previous evolutionary stages is retained; and so consciousness inexorably advances towards greater completeness.

All individuated existence, regardless of stature, apparent animation, or complexity, is thought to be informed by a Monad; in its human phase, the Monad consists of the two highest-ordered (out of seven) constituents or principles of human nature and is connected to the third-highest principle, that of mind and self-consciousness (see Septenary above).

Theosophy describes humanity's evolution on Earth in the doctrine of Root races. These are seven stages of development, during which every human Monad evolves alongside others in stages that last millions of years, each stage occurring mostly in a different super-continent – these continents are actually, according to Theosophy co-evolving geological and climatic stages. At present, humanity's evolution is at the fifth stage, the so-called Aryan Root race, which is developing on its appointed geologic/climatic period. The continuing development of the Aryan stage has been taking place since about the middle of the Calabrian (about 1,000,000 years ago). The previous fourth Root race was at the midpoint of the sevenfold evolutionary cycle, the point in which the "human" Monad became fully vested in the increasingly complex and dense forms that developed for it. A component of that investment was the gradual appearance of contemporary human physiology, which finalized to the form known to early 21st century medical science during the fourth Root race. The current fifth stage is on the ascending arc, signifying the gradual reemergence of spiritualized consciousness (and of the proper forms, or "vehicles", for it) as humanity's dominant characteristic. The appearance of Root races is not strictly serial; they first develop while the preceding Race is still dominant. Older races complete their evolutionary cycle and die out; the present fifth Root race will in time evolve into the more advanced spiritually sixth.

Humanity's evolution is a subset of planetary evolution, which is described in the doctrine of Rounds, itself a subject of Theosophy's Esoteric cosmology. Rounds may last hundreds of millions of years each. Theosophy states that Earth is currently in the fourth Round of the planet's own sevenfold development. Human evolution is tied to the particular Round or planetary stage of evolution – the Monads informing humans in this Round were previously informing the third Round's animal class, and will "migrate" to a different class of entities in the fifth Round.

Racial theories

Regarding the origin the human races on earth, Blavatsky in The Secret Doctrine argued for polygenism —"the simultaneous evolution of seven human groups on seven different portions of our globe".

The Secret Doctrine (II, 610) states:

Mankind did not issue from one solitary couple. Nor was there ever a first man—whether Adam or Yima—but a first mankind. It may, or may not, be "mitigated polygenism." Once that both creation ex nihilo—an absurdity—and a superhuman Creator or creators—a fact—are made away with by science, polygenism presents no more difficulties or inconveniences (rather fewer from a scientific point of view) than monogenism does.

Blavatsky used the compounded word Root race to describe each of the seven successive stages of human evolution that take place over large time periods in her cosmology. A Root-race is the archetype from which spring all the races that form humanity in a particular evolutionary cycle. She called the current Root-race, the fifth one, "Aryan,".

The present Root-race was preceded by the fourth one, which developed in Atlantis, while the third Root-race is denominated "Lemurian". She described the Aryan Root-race in the following way:

“

The Aryan races, for instance, now varying from dark brown, almost black, red-brown-yellow, down to the whitest creamy colour, are yet all of one and the same stock – the Fifth Root-Race – and spring from one single progenitor, (...) who is said to have lived over 18,000,000 years ago, and also 850,000 years ago – at the time of the sinking of the last remnants of the great continent of Atlantis.

”

Her evolutionary view admits a difference in development between various ethnic groups:

“

The occult doctrine admits of no such divisions as the Aryan and the Semite, accepting even the Turanian [as part of the same language group] with ample reservations. The Semites, especially the Arabs, are later Aryans – degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality."

”

She also states that:

“

There are, or rather still were a few years ago, descendants of these half-animal tribes or races, both of remote Lemurian and Lemuro-Atlantean origin ... Of such semi-animal creatures, the sole remnants known to Ethnology were the Tasmanians, a portion of the Australians and a mountain tribe in China, the men and women of which are entirely covered with hair.

”

Blavatsky's teachings talk about three separate levels of evolution: physical, intellectual, and spiritual. Blavatsky states that there are differences in the spiritual evolution of the Monads (the "divine spark" in human beings), in the intellectual development of the souls, and in the physical qualities of the bodies. These levels of evolution are independent. A highly evolved Monad may incarnate, for karmic reasons, in a rather crude personality. Also, a very intellectual person may be less evolved at the spiritual level than an illiterate.

She also states that cultures follow a cycle of rising, development, degeneration, and eventually disappear. Also, according to her there is a fixed number of reincarnating souls evolving, all of which are beyond sex, nationality, religion, and other physical or cultural characteristics. In its evolutionary journey, every soul has to take birth in every culture in the world, where it acquires different skills and learns different lessons.

Even though she declares that at this point of their cultural evolutionary cycle the Semites, especially the Arabs, are "degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality," she also stated that there were wise and initiated teachers among the Jews and the Arabs, some of them were Blavatsky's teachers early in her life.

Blavatsky does not claim that the present Aryan Root-race is the last and highest of them all. The Indo-European races will also eventually degenerate and disappear, as new and more developed races and cultures develop on the planet:

“

Thus will mankind, race after race, perform its appointed cycle-pilgrimage. Climates will, and have already begun, to change, each tropical year after the other dropping one sub-race, but only to beget another higher race on the ascending cycle; while a series of other less favoured groups – the failures of nature – will, like some individual men, vanish from the human family without even leaving a trace behind. Such is the course of Nature under the sway of KARMIC LAW: of the ever present and the ever-becoming Nature.

”

The first aim of the Theosophical Society she founded is "To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour", and her writings also include references emphasizing the unity of humanity: "all men have spiritually and physically the same origin" and that "mankind is essentially of one and the same essence".

Influence

Following

During the 1920s the Theosophical Society Adyar had around 7,000 members in the USA. According to a Theosophical source, the Indian section in 2008 was said to have around 13,000 members while in the US the 2008 membership was reported at around 3,900.

Indian Independence Movement

Some early members of the Theosophical Society were closely linked to the Indian independence movement, including Allan Octavian Hume, Annie Besant and others. Hume was particularly involved in the founding of the Indian National Congress.

Anthroposophy

Rudolf Steiner, head of the German branch of the Theosophical Society in the early part of the 20th-century, disagreed with the Adyar-based international leadership of the Society over several doctrinal matters including the so-called World Teacher Project (see above). Steiner left the Theosophical Society in 1913 to promote his own Theosophy-influenced philosophy, which he called Anthroposophy through a new organization, the Anthroposophical Society; the great majority of German-speaking Theosophists joined him in the new group.

Ariosophy

Austrian/German ultra-nationalist Guido von List and his followers such as Lanz von Liebenfels, selectively mixed Theosophical doctrine on the evolution of Humanity and on Root races with nationalistic and fascist ideas; this system of thought became known as Ariosophy, a precursor of nazism.

New Age Movement

The present-day New Age movement is said to be based to a considerable extent on the Theosophical tenets and ideas presented by Blavatsky and her contemporaries. "No single organization or movement has contributed so many components to the New Age Movement as the Theosophical Society. ... It has been the major force in the dissemination of occult literature in the West in the twentieth century."

Other organizations loosely based on Theosophical texts and doctrines include the Agni Yoga, and a group of religions based on Theosophy called the Ascended Master Teachings: the "I AM" Activity, The Bridge to Freedom and The Summit Lighthouse, which evolved into the Church Universal and Triumphant.

Scholarship

Scholar Alvin Boyd Kuhn wrote his thesis, Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom, on the subject – the first instance in which an individual obtained his doctorate with a thesis on Theosophy.

Science

Very few scientists have been Theosophists, though some notable exceptions have included the chemists William Crookes and Ernest Lester Smith who were elected members of the British Royal Society and I. K. Taimni a professor of Chemistry at the Allahabad University in India.

Art, music and literature

Artists and authors who investigated Theosophy include Talbot Mundy, Charles Howard Hinton, Geoffrey Hodson, James Jones, H. P. Lovecraft, Sun Ra, and L. Frank Baum. Composer Alexander Scriabin was a Theosophist whose beliefs influenced his music, especially by providing a justification or rationale for his chromatic language. Scriabin devised a quartal synthetic chord, often called his "mystic" chord, and before his death Scriabin planned a multimedia work to be performed in the Himalayas that would bring about the armageddon; "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world." This piece, Mysterium, was never realized, due to his death in 1915.

Leo Tolstoy

Portrait of Tolstoy in 1887, by Ilya Repin

The book The Voice of the Silence presented by H.P. Blavatsky to Leo Tolstoy

An inscription on a gift on the book presented to Leo Tolstoy

It is known that H.P. Blavatsky presented her book The Voice of the Silence. The Seven gates. Two ways to Tolstoy. On the first page of the book she made the inscription:

“

To count Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, “one of the few”, from author H. Blavatsky.

”

According to reminiscences of D.P. Makovitsky, on October 1906 L. Tolstoy said that H.P. Blavatsky "wrote to him from England about fifteen years ago", which suggests that H.P. Blavatsky sent the book to Tolstoy soon after it was published in 1889. On 16 August 1909, Tolstoy made a note on the envelope of the letter sent to I. Lavrov, regarding Blatavsky's works - particularly "The Voice of the Silence. The Seven Gates. Two Ways." (from the sacred Indian writings. Translation from English of H.P. Blavatsky, Kaluga, 1908).

“

The books are well known. They contain a lot of good, but they are wrong only in that they talk about what humans do not have to know.

”

Dicta from the book, presented by H.P. Blavatsky, Leo Tolstoy has used in her books "The thoughts of wise people", "For every day", “A circle of reading”. He signed them as "Brahmin’s wisdom". Comments to Tolstoy’s complete set of works contain explanation that redaction has made an addition to manuscript, giving the source as follows: “Brahmin’s wisdom. From the Voice of the Silence”.

Let’s cite a book of L. Tolstoy “For every day”:

“

Mar 3. If you want grasp the cognition of a comprehensive “I”, you must, first of all, to know yourself. In order to know yourself you must to sacrifice your “I” to universal “I”. Sacrifice your life if you want live in spirit. Move off your thoughts from external things and all that is received from without. Try to separate the arising images from yourself in order they not cast a shadow on your soul. Your shadows live and disappear. What is eternal into you, what understand, do not belongs to transient life. This Eternal is this human who was, is and will and the time of which has never was struck. The Brahmin' wisdom”.

”

Also Leo Tolstoy, in his works, used the dicta from the theosophical journal “Teosophisner Wegwiser”. In his diary, on 12 February 1903 he made a following writing:

“

I am writing a beautiful theosophical journal and find many common with my understanding”.

”

On his copy, L. Tolstoy had marked aphorisms of Ramakrishna, St. Thomas Aquinas, H.P. Blavatsky from “The Voice of the Silence”.

Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin

Authors of the biographies of a prominent Russian composer and pianist Alexander Scriabin give many mentions concerning to Scriabin’s deep liking for the theosophical ideas and his respect to H.P. Blavatsky.

Leonid Sabaneev, in his book “Reminiscences about Scriabin” (1925), wrote that Blavatsky’s “The Secret Doctrine” and journals “Bulletin of theosophy” constantly were on Scriabin’s work table]. Scriabin reread the “Secret Doctrine” very carefully and marked the most important places by a pencil.

L. Sabaneev wrote: “Blavatsky has for him more sacred authority than any Gospel.

“He believed <…> Blavatsky like as a child believes his parents”. In Scriabin’s presence, “nobody can argue against Blavatsky”.

Another Scriabin’s biographer, philosopher Boris de Schloezer wrote in 1923:

“

I not remember who from his friends once pointed him to that he spike about a Mystery, confluence of all and return of the world to unity is many common with a theosophical doctrine, and advised him to read Blavatsky’s books. Here, probably, we can talk about the influence. Few months ago I see Scriabin at Switzerland, where he was reading Blavatsky and <…> constantly uses in talk the theosophical terms. He said about plans, seven races, manvantaras and so on as about self-evident things, very clear and undisputable, and strongly rises against the doubts that I speak concerning to truth of one or another Blavatsky’s statement, and objects me with persistence and zeal of neophyte. One can really think that he became a true theosophist. However, when under influence of his persuasions I begin to read the theosophical books, soon I got evidence that Scriabin uses the theosophical terms to express his own thoughts, expectations and striving <…>”

”

“

In general, for the rest of her live, he was nice to Blavatsky. As he owned, Blavatsky and her books attract him due to bold attempt of grandiose synthesis, breadth and depth of her views and all that he highly appreciated in another field, and in Wagner’s creativity”.

”

Criticism

Well-known and controversial during her life, Blavatsky was influential on spiritualism and related subcultures: "The western esoteric tradition has no more important figure in modern times." She wrote prolifically, publishing thousands of pages and debate continues about her work. She taught about very abstract and metaphysical principles, but also sought to denounce and correct superstitions that, in her view, had grown in different esoteric religions. Some of these statements are controversial. For example, she quotes Dr. A. Kingsford’s book "Perfect Way" (section "The Secret of Satan"): "It is Satan who is the god of our planet and the only god" and adds "and this without any allusive metaphor to its wickedness and depravity." In this reference Blavatsky explains that he whom the Christian dogma calls Lucifer was never the representative of the evil in ancient myths but, on the contrary, the light-bringer (which is the literal meaning of the name Lucifer). According to Blavatsky the church turned him into Satan (which means "the opponent") to misrepresent pre-Christian beliefs and fit him into the newly framed Christian dogmas. A similar view is also shared by the Christian Gnostics, ancient and modern.

Throughout much of Blavatsky's public life her work drew harsh criticism from some of the learned authorities of her day, as for example when she said that the atom was divisible, and other controversial statements that were later found true. There are, however, many statements that remain to be verified.

Critics pronounced her claim of the existence of masters of wisdom to be utterly false, and accused her of being a charlatan, a false medium, evil, a spy for the Russians, a smoker of cannabis, a spy for the English, a racist and a falsifier of letters. Most of the accusations remain undocumented.

In The New York Times Edward Hower wrote, "Theosophical writers have defended her sources vehemently. Skeptics have painted her as a great fraud." The authenticity and originality of her writings were questioned. Blavatsky was accused of having plagiarized a number of sources, copying the texts crudely enough to misspell the more difficult words. See: The Sources of Madame Blavatsky's Writings by William Emmette Coleman from Modern Priestess of Isis by Vsevolod Sergyeevich Solovyoff (author), Walter Leaf (translator).

In his 1885 report to the Society for Psychical Research (SPR), Richard Hodgson concluded that Blavatsky was a fraud. However, in a 1986 press release to the newspapers and leading magazines in Great Britain, Canada and the USA, the same SPR retracted the Hodgson report, after a re-examination of the case by the Fortean psychic Dr. Vernon Harrison, past president of The Royal Photographic Society and formerly Research Manager to Thomas De La Rue, an expert on forgery, as follows: "Madame Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society, was unjustly condemned, new study concludes."

René Guénon wrote a detailed critique of Theosophy titled Theosophy: history of a pseudo-religion (1921). In the book Guenon claimed that Blavatsky had acquired all her knowledge naturally from other books not from any supernatural masters. Guenon points out that Blavatsky spent a long time visiting a library at New York where she had easy access to the works of Jacob Boehme, Eliphas Levi, the Kabbala and other Hermetic treatises. Guenon also wrote that Blavatsky had borrowed passages taken from a translation of extracts from the Kanjur and Tanjur published in 1836 in the twentieth volume of the Asiatic Researchers of Calcutta by Sándor Kőrösi Csoma an eccentric orientalist.

Robert Todd Carroll in his book The skeptic's dictionary (2003) wrote that Blavatsky used trickery into deceiving others into thinking she had paranormal powers. Carroll wrote that Blavatsky had faked a materialization of a tea cup and saucer as well as written the messages from her masters herself. Mattias Gardell in Gods of the blood: the pagan revival and white separatism (2003) has documented how the Aryan race ideas of Blavatsky and other Theosophists have influenced esoteric racialist groups such as Ariosophy and scientific racism.

Others' comments about H.P. Blavatsky

«I admire a great spirit and fiery heart of our great compatriot, and I know that in future Russia her name will be put up to the proper mark of honoring. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky is really our national pride. She was a great Martyr for the Light and True. Eternal glory to her!

— Helena Roerich, a Russian philosopher

«The more of just and good words will be said about a Great Russian woman [H.P. Blavatsky], the more necessary it is now. Recently, we have heard again that some people do not read books but at once, they say gloatingly and with injustice of ignorance about that they do not know and do not wish to know. It is sad that certain people wish to fight but only at all not there where their struggle is needed. Helena Ivanovna [Roerich] is convinced that an institute named after H.P. Blavatsky will be established at her Motherland».

— Nicholas Roerich, a Russian painter, philosopher and scientist

«Whatever the critics said about m-me Blavatsky or colonel Olcott or Bezant, their contribution to development of humanism will already be very important».

— Mahatma Gandhi, one of the leaders and ideologists of the movement for India independence, philosopher

«Perhaps, H.P. Blavatsky, after her long stay in India, firstly established a strong connection between these “barbarians” and our culture. This gives rise to one of the greatest spiritual movements which unites today (1910) many peoples in Theosophical society».

— Wassily Kandinsky, a Russian painter, graphic artist, one of the founders of abstract art.

«Here, near Madras, at a suburb Adyar (near a little river with the same name), a center of new original brotherhood has been established. An American colonel Olcott was a friend and active assistant of H.P. Blavatsky, known in Russian literature as Radda-Bay. […] Some periodicals were especially dedicated to statements of inexplicable psychic phenomena related to yogism, i.e. magical acts of the human’s will which ignore the conditions of space and time. Blavatsky has drawn a storm of charges in charlatanism and nearly because of suspiciousness of the English had forever leaved this loved by her and full of miracles peninsula. But her art to excite the disinterested liking and devotion of the natives, their dim thirst for unity under the banner of this strange northern woman from the people which is quite alien to England, her regular travels over the country in order to draw closer to Magi for the purpose of getting of right to access to various hidden secrets of Brahmans and Jainism – all this together creates for Blavatsky an exclusive position which nobody has from the ancient times, perhaps, from the distant days when, at the turn of the 19th to 20th century, the clairvoyants said with their primitively thinking congeners in the language of Gods. For the present and future India, Blavatsky is not died and will not die never».

— Prince Esper Ukhtomsky, diplomat, poet, near to Emperor Nicholas II.

Works

The books written by Madame Blavatsky included:

• Blavatsky, H P (1877), Isis unveiled, J.W. Bouton, OCLC 7211493, http://isisunveiled.net
• Blavatsky, H P (1880), From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan, Floating Press, ISBN 1-77541-603-8, http://www.virtuescience.com/caves-and-jungles.html
• Blavatsky, H P (1888), The Secret Doctrine, Theosophical Publ. Co, OCLC 61915001, http://secretdoctrine.net
• Blavatsky, H P (1933) [1889], The Voice of the Silence, Theosophy Co. (India) Ltd, OCLC 220858481, http://voiceofthesilence.net
• Blavatsky, H P (1889), The key to theosophy, Theosophical Pub. Co, OCLC 612505, http://keytotheosophy.net
• Blavatsky, H P (1892), Nightmare tales, London, Theosophical publishing society, OCLC 454984121, http://www.archive.org/details/nightmaretales01blavgoog
• Blavatsky, H P; Neff, Mary Katherine (1937), Personal memoirs, London, OCLC 84938217
• Blavatsky, H P; Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2004), Helena Blavatsky, Western esoteric masters series, North Atlantic Books, ISBN 978-1-55643-457-0, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/53992973

Her many articles have been collected in the Collected Writings of H. P. Blavatsky. An alternative link is: http://collectedwritings.net This series has 15 numbered volumes including the index.

Books about Blavatsky

• Bleiler, Everett Franklin (1948), The checklist of fantastic literature; a bibliography of fantasy, weird and science fiction books published in the English language, Chicago, Shasta Publishers, OCLC 1113926
• Caldwell, Daniel H (2000), The esoteric world of Madame Blavatsky : insights into the life of a modern sphinx, Theosophical Pub. House, ISBN 978-0-8356-0794-0, http://esotericworld.net
• Cranston, S L (1994) [1993], HPB : the extraordinary life and influence of Helena Blavatsky, founder of the modern Theosophical movement, Putnam, ISBN 978-0-87477-769-7, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28666454
• Guénon, René (2001), Theosophy : history of a pseudo-religion, Sophia Perennis, ISBN 978-0-900588-80-8, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/46364622, retrieved 26 November 2009
• Hanson, Virginia (1988), H.P. Blavatsky and The secret doctrine, A Quest book, Theosophical Pub. House, ISBN 978-0-8356-0630-1, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/17477685, retrieved 26 November 2009
• Harrison, Vernon (1997), H.P. Blavatsky and the SPR : an examination of the Hodgson report of 1885, Theosophical University Press, ISBN 978-1-55700-118-4, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/36565944, retrieved 26 November 2009
• Meade, Marion (1980), Madame Blavatsky, the woman behind the myth, Putnam, ISBN 978-0-399-12376-4
• Ryan, Charles J; Knoche, Grace F (1937), H.P. Blavatsky and the theosophical movement : a brief historical sketch, Theosophical University Press, ISBN 978-1-55700-090-3, http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/hpb-tm/hpbtm-hp.htm
• Solovyov, Vsevolod Sergyeevich (1895), A Modern Priestess of Isis London, http://ia310817.us.archive.org/0/items/amodernpriestes00britgoog/amodernpriestes00britgoog.pdf
• Symonds, John (2006) [1959], The lady with the magic eyes : Madame Blavatsky, medium and magician, Kessinger Pub, ISBN 978-1-4254-8709-6, http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/122353386
• Thibaux, Jean-Michel (1992) [1992], Héléna Blavatsky, les sept esprits de la révolte, Edition 1, ISBN 2-86391-500-2

See also

• Anthroposophy
• Coulomb Affair
• Hodgson Report
• Isis Unveiled
• Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Koot Hoomi
• Morya
• Schola Philosophicae Initiationis
• Thevetat
• Tulpa
• Violet Tweedale, close associate of Blavatsky.

Sources

• Blavatsky, Helena P. (1888). The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. London: The Theosophical Publishing Company. OCLC 8129381.
• —— (2002) [First published 1889]. The Key to Theosophy (Reprint ed.). Pasadena, California: Theosophical University Press. ISBN 978-0-911500-07-3.
• Olcott, Henry S. (January 1891). "Constitution and Rules of the Theosophical Society". The Theosophist 12 (4): 65–72. ISSN 0040-5892. "As Revised in Session of the General Council, all the Sections being represented, at Adyar, December 27, 1890."
• Melton, J. Gordon (1990). J. Gordon Melton. ed. New Age Encyclopedia. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Research. ISBN 0-8103-7159-6.
• Pearsall, Ronald (1972), The Table-Rappers, Michael Joseph, ISBN 978-0-7181-0645-4
• Wakoff, Michael B. (1998). "Theosophy". In Edward Craig. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 9. New York: Routledge. pp. 363–366. ISBN 0-415-18714-1.
• Tillet, Gregory J. (1986). Charles Webster Leadbeater 1854-1934: A Biographical Study (PhD thesis). Sydney: Department of Religious Studies, University of Sydney. OCLC 271774444.
• "Theosophical Society Membership Statistics 2007/2008". teozofija.info. Theosophy in Slovenia. January 2009. http://teozofija.info/Teozofsko_gibanje/Membership_Statistics_2007-08.htm. Retrieved 22 June 2011.
• Spielvogel, Jackson; David Redles (1986). "Hitler's Racial Ideology: Content and Occult Sources". Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual 3: Chapter 9. ISSN 0741-8450. http://motlc.wiesenthal.com/site/pp.asp?c=gvKVLcMVIuG&b=395043. Retrieved 22 August 2007.
• Melton, J. Gordon (1990). J. Gordon Melton. ed. New Age Encyclopedia. Farmington Hills, Michigan: Gale Research. ISBN 0-8103-7159-6.
• Kuhn, Alvin Boyd (1992) [Originally published 1930]. Theosophy: A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom (PhD thesis). American religion series: Studies in religion and culture. Whitefish, Montana: Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-56459-175-3. http://www.archive.org/details/TheosophyAModernRevivalOfAncientWisdom. Retrieved 22 June 2011.
• Minderovic, Zoran (2011). "Alexander Scriabin (Biography)". AllMusic. All Media Guide. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/q7982/biography. Retrieved 18 June 2011.
• Carter, Steven R. (1998). James Jones: An American Literary Orientalist Master. Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02371-4.

External links

• Tingley, Katherine (1921). Helene Petrovna Blavatsky. The Woman's International Theosophical League, Point Loma, California. http://www.archive.org/stream/helenapetrovnabl00tingrich.
• The Blavatsky Study Center / Blavatsky Archives
• Early Theosophical Publications Online
• A pictorial look at H.P. Blavatsky - Family and Life
• Open Questions in H. P. Blavatsky's Genealogy
• Works by or about Helena Blavatsky in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

• Helena Petrovna Blavatsky at the Open Directory Project