| Helena Petrovna Blavatsky | |
|---|---|
Helena Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society |
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| Born | 12 August 1831 Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (now Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) |
| Died | 08 May 1891 (aged 59) London, United Kingdom |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | German/Russian |
| Occupation | Spiritualist Author |
| Known for | Theosophical Society Occultism |
| Religion | Buddhism, Theosophy |
| Spouse | Nikifor Vassilievich Blavatsky |
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 theosophist, writer and traveler. Between 1848 and 1875 Blavatsky went around the world three times. In 1875 Blavatsky, together with Colonel H. S. Olcott, established the Theosophical Society. One of the main purposes of this Society was “to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color”.[1]
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Maternally H.P. Blavatsky’s lineage goes back through Prince Michael of Chernigov to Rurik, Norse founder of the Russian state at Novgorod. Maternally the direct ancestor of H. Blavatsky 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.[2]
H.P. Blavatsky’s 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 [3] and was a companion in arms of Kutuzov.[4] His wife was Henrietta de Bandre Plessy Duc de, a daughter of Adolf Frantcevich, who had command of an army corps during the Crimea campaign and, according to A.M. Fadeyev, was a favorite of Suvorov.[5]
A daughter of Pavel Vasilievich and Henrietta Adolfovna was Princess Helena Pavlovna, H.P. Blavatsky’s grandmother. She received a versatile home education, spoke in five languages, and focused her studies on the fields of 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 Humboldt; English geologist and founder of Geographic Society, R. Merchison; 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.
In 1813, Princess married Andrew 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. Andrew Mikhailovich’s grandfather, Peter Mikhailovich Fadeyev, was a captain in the army of Peter the Great. Helena Pavlovna and Andrew Mikhailovich had four children. The eldest daughter, Helena Hahn, was a well-known writer; she made a name for herself as a Russian George Sand. She was the mother of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Vera Petrovna Jelihovsky and Leonid Hahn. Their son, Rostislav Fadeyev, was a general, army writer and reformer. Their daughter, Ekaterina Andreevna, was the mother of the well-known Russian statesman, Sergei Witte. Lastly, 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 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 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 May 31, 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.
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was born on July 31 (August 12 for new style) 1831 at Yekaterinoslav (from 1926 Dnepropetrovsk) in the family of well-known writer Helena Andreevna Hahn (Fadeyeva) and an officer of horse-artillery battery Peter Alekseevich Hahn.
Because of her father’s profession, the family often chose the place of abode. A year later after Helena’s birth, the family moved to Romankovo (now it enters Dneprodzerzhinsk), and in 1835 they moved to Odessa, where Helena’s sister, Vera (future writer Jelihovsky), was born. Further the family lived in Tula and Kursk and in spring 1836 arrived to St. Petersburg where lived until May 1837. From Petersburg Helena Petrovna along with her sister, mother and grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev moved to Astrakhan. There, Andrei Mikhailovich worked a main relieving officer over Kalmyk people and local German colonists.[6] In 1838, mother moved with the little girls to Poltava where Helena began to take dance lessons and learned to play the piano, taught by her mother.
In spring 1839, the family moved to Odessa because of Helena’s wealth aggravation. There Helena Andreevna found the governess for her children which had taught them English.[7] In November, Helena’s Grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich was assigned for a governor of Saratov by approval of Emperor’s Nikolai I. After this, Helena Andreevna and her children moved to live with him. In June 1840, at Saratov her son, Leonid, was born. Helena Petrovna was then nine years old. Nadejda Fadeyeva, Helena’s aunt, wrote to A.Sinnett her memory of her niece:
“In childhood, all [Helena’s] the likings and interests were concentrated on the people from lower estates. She preferred to play with domestic’s children but not with equals. <…> She always needs for attention to prevent her escape from home and meetings with street ragamuffins. And at mature age she irrepressibly reached out to them whose status was lower than her own, and displayed a marked indifference to the “nobles”, to which she belongs by birth”.[8]
At ten years old, Helena began to study German. Her progress was so appreciable that, according to V. Jelihovsky, 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 another language besides German."
In 1841, the family returned to Ukraine, where Helena contracted Herpes. On July 6, 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 Jelihovsky, Helena's mother, at the time, was worried about the destiny of her elder daughter, “gifted from childhood by outstanding features”.[9] 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”.[10]
After her mother’s death, Helena’s grandfather Andrei Mikhailovich and Grandmother Helena Pavlovna had taken the children to Saratov, where they had quite a different life. Fadeyev’s house was visited by Saratov’s intellectuals. A known historian, Kostomarov, and writer, Mary Zhukova, were among them.[2] Her grandmother and three teachers were occupied with the children’s upbringing and education, therefore, Blavatsky received a solid home education.[11][12]
Helena’s favorite place in the house was her grandmother’s library which Helena Pavlovna inherited from her father.[12] In this voluminous library, Helena Petrovna paid special attention to the books whose subject was medieval occultism.[13]
In 1847, the family had moved from Saratov to Tiflis (now Tbilisi, Georgia), where Andrei Mikhailovich was invited to work in the Council of Senior Governance of Transcaucasia region.[14] 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 talk. She liked jokes, teasing and to cause a commotion” [26].
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”.[15]
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 has experienced sudden inner change, and she began to study the books from great grandfather’s library more deeply.[16]
In 1910 H.F.Pisareva, in her essay dedicated to H.P. Blavatsky, cited the reminiscences of Mary Grigor’evna Yermolova, 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”. Just due to Golitsin (Yermolova did not cited his name) which, 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”.[15] This version was further supported by many biographers of H. Blavatsky.[17] 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,[18] 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).[19] 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.[18]
Striving for full independence during the winter of 1848/1849 at Tiflis, Helena Petrovna entered into a sham marriage with vice-governor of Erevan Nikifor Vladimirovich Blavatsky, who was much older than Helena. In June 7, 1849 their wedding ceremony took place. Soon after their wedding, Helena escaped from the husband and returned to her relatives.[20] Further, she was going to Odessa and sailed away from Poti to Kerch at English sailboat “Commodore”. Then she moved to Constantinople. There she met a Russian countess Kiseleva, and together they leaved to travel over Egypt, Greece and Eastern Europe.[21]
Next period of H.P. Blavatsy’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 own memories which sometimes contain the chronological contradictions. N.A. Fadeyeva reported that over all her relatives the father only knows where his daughter is, and from time to time he sent money to her. It is known that Helena Blavatsky met Albert Rawson at Cairo. At that time he was the student learned the art. After H. Blavatsky’s death, A. Rawson, already a doctor of theology and doctor of law in Oxford described their meeting at Cairo. According to her memory, Blavatsky told him about her future participation in the work which some day will serve to liberation of the human mind. Rawson wrote:
| “ | Her relation to her mission was highly impersonal because she often repeated: "This work is not my but he who sends me." | ” |
According to H. Blavatsky’s reminiscences, after leaving the Middle East, she together with her father began to travel over the Europe. It is known, that at this time she learned to play piano with I. Mosheles, well-known composer and virtuoso pianist. Later she gave several concerts in England and other countries.
In 1851, on her birthday (August 12), Blavatsky for the first time met her Teacher in Hyde Park at London. Previously, she saw the Teacher in her dreams. Countess Konstanz Wahtmeister, widow of Sweden ambassador at London, remembered the details of this talk in which Teacher said that he "needs her participation in the work he is going to undertake" and "she will live three years at Tibet to prepare for carrying out of this important mission". After leaving England, H.P. Blavatsky had gone to Canada, then to Mexico and Central and Southern America. In 1852 she arrived to India. Helena Petrovna remembered: "I lived there about two years and monthly received money from unknown person. I honestly followed the pointed route. I received the letters from this Hindu but not once seen him during these two years".
Before leaving India, Blavatsky tried to pass to Tibet through Nepal but Britain representative broken her plans.
From India, H.P. Blavatsky came back to London, where, according to V. Jelihovsky, "acquiring a fame by her music talent. She was a member of philharmonic society". Here, according to H.P. Blavatsky, she met her Teacher another time. After this meeting she came to New York, where resumed to met A. Rawson. Then, according to A.P. Sinnett, H.P. Blavatsky came to Chicago, and further, together with settler caravans, to Far West through the Rocky Mountains. After this, she stayed some time at San Francisco. In 1855 (or 1856), she sailed through the Pacific Ocean to the Far East. Then she via Japan and Singapore arrived to Calcutta.
In 1856, H. Blavatsky’s memories about her living in India were published in the book "From caves and jungles of Hindustan". In that book Blavatsky has displayed an eminent literature talent. The book was composed from essays written from 1879 to 1886 under the pen name "Radda-Bay". In Russian, the essays firstly published in newspaper “Moskovskie vedomosti” which was edited by known publicist M.N. Katkov. The essays attracted a great interest of the readership so Katkov republished them at 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" in a literature style describes the travels of H. Blavatsky and her Teacher which she named Takhur Gulab-Singh. In spite of that the book was considered as 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 got the instructions from her Teacher and sailed at a Holland ship from Madras to Java. Later she returned to Europe.
Further Blavatsky during several months was in France and Germany, and then she moved to Pskov to her relatives. She arrived to him in the 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 all the people around her".
On May, 1859 Blavatsky with her family moved to village Rugodevo of Novorzhev district where Blavatsky lived almost one year. This period finished by her strong illness. On spring 1860, when she got well she, together with her sister, moved to Caucasus to visit her grandparents.
As V. Jelihovsky has reported, on the way to Caucasus, at Zadonsk, Blavatsky met the former exarch of the Georgia Isidor. Further he was the metropolitan of Kiev and then Novgorod, St-Petersburg and Finland. Isidor gave one’s blessing to H.P. Blavatsky. (Details see below). From Russia, Blavatsky began to travel again. Although her further route is not known for certain, probably, she visited Persia, Syria, Lebanon, Jerusalem and more than once was at Egypt, Greece and Italy.
In 1867, she traveled through Hungary and Balkans during a few months. Then she visited Venice, Florence and Mentan. According to N. Fodor’s biography, in November 17, 1867 she took part in the battle near Mentan on Garibaldi’s side. Her left hand was twice broken by saber stabs; in addition, she got two hard missile wounds in right shoulder and leg. Initially, she was considered as killed but further she was picked up at the battlefield. Blavatsky told Olcott that she was a volunteer at Mentan together with other European women.
On the beginning of 1868, when Blavatsky recovered from the wounds she moved to Florence. Then she traveled to North Italy and 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. | ” |
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 October 2, 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
| “ | "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 which can not to pay the fare, she have changed her first-class ticket for four third-class tickets and traveled through the Pacific Ocean during two weeks under third-class.
In 1873, Blavatsky moved to Paris and further to USA where she met a colonel Henry Steel Olcott. In 1875, they established the Theosophical Society [100]. In April 3, 1875, in New York, Blavatsky formally has married with a Georgian living in America Michael Betanelly. The marriage had broken after several months [78]. In July 8, 1878 she became an American citizen [101].
In February 1879, Blavatsky and Olcott leaved for Bombay. In 1882, they founded a headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Adyar near Madras [100].
Soon they met Alfred Sinnett, editor of the government Allahabad’s newspaper “The Pioneer”. Sinnett was seriously interested in activity of the Society. Using H. Blavatsky’s mediation, he began to correspond with Mahatmas. Sinnett was against the publication of the letters in total volume. He selected for publication some fragments which, as he believed, reflected the Mahatmas thoughts exactly enough. For all that, the correspondence was published by Alfred Barker in 1923, after the Sinnett’s death. [102].
The Theosophical Society has many followers in India [96].
From 1879 to 1888 Blavatsky edited the magazine “The Theosophist” [96].
In 1885, Blavatsky left India because of the aggravation. After this, she lived some time in Germany and Belgium. Then she moved to London where she was occupied with writing of the books [96]. Then she wrote “The Voice of the Silence” (1889), “The Secret Doctrine” (1888), “The Key to Theosophy” (1889). On May 8, 1891 Blavatsky died after she was down with flu. Her body was burned 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”.
Blavatsky helped found the Theosophical Society in New York City in 1875 with the motto, "There is no Religion higher than Truth".[22] 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:[23]
The Society was organized as a non-proselytizing, non-sectarian entity.[24] 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[update] Theosophy remains an active philosophical school with presences in more than 50 countries around the world.[25]
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.
Theosophy was considered by Blavatsky to be “the substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies”[26] 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.[27]
According to her, all real lovers of divine wisdom and truth had, and have, a right to the name of Theosophist.[28] 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.[29] 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.[30] 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.[31]
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".[32][33]
According to Blavatsky, Theosophy is neither revelation nor speculation.[34] 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.[35] 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 nineteenth 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
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.
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.[36] 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.
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.[37]
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…”[38]
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".[39] 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.[40] According to this view, manifest existence is a "change of condition"[41] 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.[42]
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,'"[43] each one "standing in the relation of an effect as regards its predecessor, and being a cause as regards its successor",[44] doing so over vast but finite periods of time.[45]
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.[46]
In the recapitulation of The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky gave a summary of the central points of her system of cosmogony.[47] These central points are as follows:
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."[48]
Theosophy holds that the manifested universe is ordered by the number seven,[49] 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.[50]
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."[51]
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):
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.[52]
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:
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: [53]
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." [54]
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:
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".
It follows from the above that to Theosophy, all Evolution is basically the evolution of Consciousness, physical-biological evolution being only a constituent part.[55] 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.[56]
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.[57] 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.[58] 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.[59] The continuing development of the Aryan stage has been taking place since about the middle of the Calabrian (about 1,000,000 years ago).[60] 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.[61] 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.[62]
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.[63] 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.[64]
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".[65]
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,".[66]
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.[67] | ” |
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."[68] | ” |
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.[69] | ” |
Blavatsky's teachings talk about three separate levels of evolution: physical, intellectual, and spiritual.[70] 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.[71]
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,[72] 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.[73] |
” |
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".[74]
During the 1920s the Theosophical Society Adyar had around 7,000 members in the USA.[75] 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.[76]
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.
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.
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.[77]
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."[78]
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.
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.[79]
Artists and authors who investigated Theosophy include Talbot Mundy, Charles Howard Hinton, Geoffrey Hodson, James Jones[80], H. P. Lovecraft, 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."[81] This piece, Mysterium, was never realized, due to his death in 1915.
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."[82] 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."[83] 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,[84] that the Bodhisattvas choose to give up Nirvana in order to help humanity[85] 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.[86][87][88][89]
H. P. Blavatsky herself said, that one of the main reasons for the many attacks on her and on the Theosophical Society, which she was a co-founder of was:
"you must bear in mind how many powerful adversaries we have aroused ever since the formation of our Society. As I just said, if the Theosophical movement were one of those numerous modern crazes, as harmless at the end as they are evanescent, it would be simply laughed at― as it is now by those who still do not understand its real purport ― and left severely alone. But it is nothing of the kind. Intrinsically, Theosophy is the most serious movement of this age; and one, moreover, which threatens the very life of most of the time-honoured humbugs, prejudices, and social evils of the day ― those evils which fatten and make happy the upper ten and their imitators and sycophants, the wealthy dozens of the middle classes, while they positively crush and starve out of existence the millions of the poor. Think of this, and you will easily understand the reason of such a relentless persecution by those others who, more observant and perspicacious, do see the true nature of Theosophy, and therefore dread it." [90]
In The New York Times Edward Hower wrote, "Theosophical writers have defended her sources vehemently. Skeptics have painted her as a great fraud."[91] 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).[92] However, the cosmogony and anthropogenesis described in her major work, the Secret Doctrine, contains many important elements not to be found in any other philosophy currently known.
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."[93]
The books written by Madame Blavatsky included:
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.