Theos-Talk Archives (January 2008 Message tt00148)

In the overview to the collection, the CD has this to say about the 
founder:

Helena P. Blavatsky: A Brief Sketch

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky  is one of history's most extraordinary 
women. She is best known for having been the principal co-founder of 
the Theosophical Society in 1875, which has since become a worldwide 
movement. Her most important work is the 2-volume The Secret Doctrine, 
published in 1888. 

Born on August 12 (July 31, old Russian calendar), 1831, at 
Ekaterinoslav, Ukraine, Russia, Helena showed unusual faculties even at 
a young age. Her sister Vera Zhelihovsky, who later became herself an 
author, wrote: "For Helena, all nature seemed animated with a 
mysterious life of its own. She heard the voice of every object and 
form, whether organic or inorganic; and claimed consciousness and 
being, not only for some mysterious powers visible and audible to 
herself alone in what was to everyone else empty space."
 
Notable too was her strong personality. At the age of 18, she married 
40-year-old Nikifor Blavatsky as a reaction to her governess' challenge 
that she could not easily find a husband due to her temper and 
disposition. She later left him to travel to Constantinople and other 
parts of Eastern Europe.

In 1851, while she was in London, she met her Master, the Mahatma 
Morya, whom she recognized among the tall horsemen of the Nepali 
delegation during Queen Victoria's Great Exhibition. She talked with 
him in Hyde Park, during which she was offered to work for a noble 
cause for humanity but which will bring pain and suffering upon 
herself. She accepted the task, and thereafter commenced her travels 
that brought her to India, North, Central and South Americas, etc.  In 
1868, she went to Tibet, met other Adepts, and underwent training.

She came to New York in 1873 and met Col. Henry Steel Olcott, who was 
then investigating spiritualistic phenomena at the Eddy farmhouse in 
Vermont. Thus began a life-long partnership that gave birth to the 
modern Theosophical movement.

On September 7, 1875, seventeen people assembled in H.P.B.'s place in 
New York to listen to a lecture of George Felt on "The Lost Canon of 
Proportion of the Egyptians, Geeks, and Romans." The talk was so well 
received that Olcott proposed that a society be formed for such 
studies. The name Theosophical Society was only decided upon during a 
later meeting on September 13, while the inaugural address of its first 
President, Henry Olcott, was delivered on November 17, 1875, which has 
since become the official founding date of the Society.

When HPB included in her scrapbook the Preamble and By-Laws of the 
Theosophical Society, she appended these words: "The Child is Born! 
Hozannah!"

It was in summer of 1875, some months before the founding of the 
Theosophical Society, that HPB began writing what was to become Isis 
Unveiled. Showing Olcott some sheets of manuscripts, she told him, "I 
wrote these last night `by order,' but what the deuce it is to be, I 
don't know. Perhaps it is for a newspaper article, perhaps for a book, 
perhaps for nothing; anyhow, I did as I was ordered." Published two 
years later in September 1877, the book's initial printing of 1,000 
copies was sold out in 10 days, a remarkable phenomenon in bookselling 
in view of the abstruseness and erudition of the 2-volume work. 

Isis Unveiled contained an almost encyclopedic coverage of diverse 
subjects that span religion, science, mythology, symbolism, occultism, 
divination, etc. Its bibliography included more than 2,000 titles, many 
of which are hard to find and certainly not available to HPB in New 
York. The New York World described it as "an extremely readable and 
exhaustive essay upon the paramount importance of reestablishing the 
Hermetic Philosophy in a world which blindly believe that it has 
outgrown it."

In 1879, HPB and Olcott moved to India, where they resided in Bombay. 
By October of that year, they published a monthly magazine, The 
Theosophist, with HPB as editor. Later in December, they met Alfred P. 
Sinnett, the editor of the Pioneer, a leading newspaper in India. 
Sinnett was later to serve as Vice President of the Theosophical 
Society and play a major role in the early dissemination of the 
teachings of the Adepts.

It was during her stay in India that the remarkable paranormal powers 
of HPB became known to the public through the various reports of 
witnesses, such as the materialization of a matching tea-cup found 
among the roots of a tree, and the appearance of a missing brooch 
inside a pillow. But the most famous phenomena were the production of 
what became known as Mahatma letters. These were materialized letters 
addressed to various people and coming from either of the two 
Theosophical Adepts who may be hundreds of miles away at the time of 
writing. The letters may sometimes just appear in mid-air and fall into 
the midst of an assembled group in answer to a subject being discussed.

Much of the early theosophical teachings were derived from these 
letters. They were mostly addressed to A.P. Sinnett who organized the 
teachings and published them in two books, The Occult World and 
Esoteric Buddhism. The letters were preserved and were later published 
as The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett. The originals are now kept in 
the British Museum.

These letters aroused the interest of the newly formed Society of 
Psychical Research in London, which sent to India Richard Hodgson, a 
psychic investigator in his twenties. Hodgson came to the curious 
conclusion that HPB was a Russian spy, and that the Mahatma letters 
were forged by her. His report that HPB was an impostor was carried by 
many books and encyclopedias for many decades.

In 1986, 101 years after this report the SPR effectively published a 
new study that declared that HPB was "unjustly condemned" by Hodgson. 
This was the unequivocal conclusion of Dr. Vernon Harrison, who re-
examined the entire case and declared that the Hodgson report of 1885 
was "riddled with slanted statements, conjecture advanced a fact or 
probable fact, uncorroborated testimony of unnamed witnesses, selection 
of evidence and downright falsity."

HPB was in Europe when the Hodgson report was published. She had left 
India March 31, 1885, and settled in Würzburg, Austria, writing The 
Secret Doctrine. The report caused the resignations of the many members 
from the Theosophical Society. Countess Constance Wachtmeister, who was 
with HPB in Würzburg, wrote that "it seemed as if the Society had 
received its death blow." Even the writing of The Secret Doctrine "was 
brought to a standstill during these stormy days."

Despite the devastating turn of events, HPB continued with her work on 
The Secret Doctrine. She went to Ostend, Belgium, during the summer of 
1886, to escape the hot summer of Würzburg. While there, she became ill 
and would lapse into states of unconsciousness. She was found to have 
serious kidney disease. Despite the attempts of several physicians, it 
became evident that she was dying. She was visited by her Master and 
offered the choice to die or to continue with her work to finish the 
Secret Doctrine. She chose the latter. The next day, the sentinel who 
fell asleep was surprised to find HPB sitting on her bed and asking for 
breakfast.

On May 1, 1887, HPB moved to London, where she established a new 
magazine entitled Lucifer. A lodge was also established bearing her 
name. The following year, The Secret Doctrine was finally published, 
which attracted the attention of the English reformer, Annie Besant, 
who eventually became a staunch advocate of Theosophy and succeeded 
Col. Olcott as President of the Theosophical Society. In 1888, she also 
formed the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society. 

In April 1891, she became ill with influenza. It was the last sickness 
that she did not survive. She died on May 8, 1891 in the presence of 
Mrs. Isabel Cooper-Oakley, to whom she said: "Isabel, Isabel, keep the 
link unbroken; do not let my last incarnation be a failure."

After her death, the Theosophical Society grew and became a significant 
factor in the bringing to the western world not only the wisdom of the 
East, but also the tenets of the ageless wisdom. The Encyclopaedia 
Britannica ended a lengthy article on theosophy by stating:

In the estimation of some scholars, no other single organization has 
done more to popularize Asian religious and philosophical ideas in the 
West than the Theosophical Society.

In her last message to the American Convention, HPB wrote to members of 
the Theosophical Society:

My own span of life may not be long, and if any of you have learned 
aught from my teachings, or have gained by my help a glimpse of the 
True Light, I ask you in return, to strengthen the cause by the triumph 
of which, that True Light, made still brighter and more glorious 
through your individual and collective efforts, will lighten the 
world. . . .

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Semock" <semockr@...> wrote:
>
> I ran across this searchable CD collection in the quest bookstore in 
> Wheaton that has all of HPBs works on a CD. TUP in Pasadena has books 
> online and some zip files that can be downloaded for free but they 
dont 
> have searchable collections on CD. 
> 
> Members of this TS World group are well studied in TS lore and may 
have 
> recommendations about other CD collections or searchable online 
access 
> to them:
> 
> 978-0-8356-1950-9 Theosophical Classics: Electronic Book Edition 
$24.95
>