Who Is Helena Petrovna Blavatsky?
Jan 13, 2008 06:16 PM
by nhcareyta
H. P. Blavatsky (1831-1891) was one of the most extraordinary and
controversial figures
of the 19th century. The influence of her life, writings and
teachings on world thought has
been significant. The following three quotations may help to indicate
the extent of Madame Blavatsky's influence:
"... Madame Blavatsky ... stands out as the fountainhead of modern
occult thought, and was
either the originator and/or popularizer of many of the ideas and
terms which have a century
later been assembled within the New Age Movement. The Theosophical
Society, which she
cofounded, has been the major advocate of occult philosophy in the
West and the single
most important avenue of Eastern teaching to the West."
J. Gordon Melton, Jerome Clark and Aidan A. Kelly, editors, New Age
Almanac, Detroit,
Michigan, Gale Research Inc., 1991, p. 16.
__________
"Theosophy occupies a central place in the history of new spiritual
movements, for the writings of Blavatsky and some of her followers
have had a great influence outside of her organization. ... The
importance of Theosophy in modern history should not be
underestimated. Not only have the writings of Blavatsky and others
inspired several generations of occultists, but the movement had a
remarkable role in the restoration to the colonial peoples of
nineteenth century Asia their own spiritual heritage."
Robert S. Ellwood and Harry B. Partin, Religious and Spiritual Groups
in Modern America, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Prentice Hall, 1988,
pp. 63, 79-80.
__________
"...Helena Petrovna Blavatsky... is surely among the most original
and perceptive minds of her time ... Buried in the sprawling bulk of
her two major books ... there lies, in rudimentary form, the first
philosophy of psychic and spiritual evolution to appear in the modern
West ... With all criticisms weighed up against her, HPB stands forth
as a seminal talent of our time ... Above all, she is among the
modern world's trailblazing psychologists of the visionary mind. At
the same historical moment that Freud, Pavlov, and James had begun to
formulate the secularized and materialist theory of mind that has so
far dominated modern Western thought, HPB and her fellow Theosophists
were rescuing from occult tradition and exotic religion a forgotten
psychology of the superconscious and the extrasensory. Madame
Blavatsky may be credited with having set the style for modern occult
literature."
Theodore Roszak, The Unfinished Animal: The Aquarian Frontier and the
Evolution of Consciousness, New York, Harper and Row, 1975, pp. 118,
124-125.
__________
Helena Petrovna von Hahn was born at Ekaterinoslav, a town on the
river Dnieper, in Southern Russia, on the 12th of August, 1831. She
was the daughter of Colonel Peter von Hahn, and Helena de Fadeyev, a
renowned novelist. On her mother's side, she was the granddaughter of
the gifted Princess Helena Dolgorukov, a noted botanist and writer.
After the early death of her mother in 1842, Helena was brought up in
her maternal grandparents' house at Saratov, where her grandfather
was Civil Governor.
Helena was an exceptional child, and at an early age was aware of
being different from those around her. Her possession of certain
psychic powers puzzled her family and friends. At once impatient of
all authority, yet deeply sensitive, she was gifted in many ways. A
clever linguist, a talented pianist and a fine artist, she was yet a
fearless rider of half-broken horses, and always in close touch with
nature. At a very early age she sensed that she was in some way
dedicated to a life of service, and was aware of a special guidance
and protection.
When almost eighteen, she married the middle-aged Nikifor V.
Blavatsky, Vice-Governor of the Province of Yerivan, in a mood of
rebellious independence and possibly with a plan to become free of
her surroundings. The marriage, as such, meant nothing to her and was
never consummated. In a few months she escaped and travelled widely
in Turkey, Egypt, and Greece, on money supplied by her father.
On her twentieth birthday, in 1851, being then in London, she met the
individual whom she had known in her psycho-spiritual visions from
childhood --- an Eastern Initiate of Rajput birth, the Mahatma Morya
or M. as he became known in later years among Theosophists. He told
her something of the work that was in store for her, and from that
moment she accepted fully his guidance.
Later the same year, Helena embarked for Canada, and after
adventurous travels in various parts of the U.S.A., Mexico, South
America and the West Indies, went via the Cape and Ceylon to India in
1852. Her first attempt to enter Tibet failed. She returned to
England via Java in 1853. In the Summer of 1854, she went to America
again, crossing the Rockies with a caravan of emigrants, probably in
a covered wagon.
In late 1855, she left for India via Japan and the Straits. On this
trip she succeeded in entering Tibet through Kashmir and Ladakh,
undergoing part of her occult training with her Master. In 1858 she
was in France and Germany, and returned to Russia in the late Fall of
the same year, staying a short time with her sister Vera at Pskov.
>From 1860 to 1865, she lived and travelled through the Caucasus,
experiencing a severe physical and psychic crisis which placed her in
complete control over her occult powers. She left Russia again in the
Fall of 1865, and travelled extensively through the Balkans, Greece,
Egypt, Syria and Italy and various other places.
In 1868 she went via India to Tibet. On this trip H.P.B. met the
Master Koot Hoomi (K.H.) for the first time and stayed in his house
in Little Tibet. In late 1870 she was back in Cyprus and Greece.
Embarking for Egypt, she was shipwrecked near the island of Spetsai
on July 4, 1871; saved from drowning, she went to Cairo where she
tried to form a Societe Spirite which soon failed. After further
travels through the Middle East, she returned for a short time to her
relatives at Odessa, Russia in July, 1872. In the Spring of 1873,
Helena was instructed by her Teacher to go to Paris, and on further
direct orders from him, left for New York City where she landed July
7, 1873.
H.P. Blavatsky was then forty-two years old and in controlled
possession of her many and most unusual spiritual and occult powers.
In the opinion of the Mahatmas, she was the best available instrument
for the work they had in mind, namely to offer to the world a new
presentation, though only in brief outline of the age-old
Theosophia, "The accumulated Wisdom of the ages, tested and verified
by generations of Seers...," that body of Truth of which religions,
great and small, are but as branches of the parent tree. Her task was
to challenge on the one hand the entrenched beliefs and dogmas of
Christian Theology and on the other the equally dogmatic
materialistic view of the science of her day. A crack, however, had
recently appeared in the twofold set of mental fortifications. It was
caused by Spiritualism, then sweeping America. To quote Helena's own
words: "I was sent to prove the phenomena and their reality, and to
show the fallacy of the spiritualistic theory of spirits."
In October, 1874, H.P.B. was put in touch by her Teachers with
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, a man of sterling worth who had acquired
considerable renown during the Civil War, had served the U.S.
Government with distinction, and was at the time practicing law in
New York. She also met William Quan Judge, a young Irish Lawyer, who
was to play a unique role in the future Theosophical work.
On September 7, 1875, these three leading figures, together with
several others, founded a society which they chose to call The
Theosophical Society, as promulgating the ancient teachings of
Theosophy, or the Wisdom concerning the Divine which had been the
spiritual basis of other great movements of the past, such as Neo-
Platonism, Gnosticism, and the Mystery-Schools of the Classical
world. The Inaugural Address by the President-Founder, Colonel
Olcott, was delivered November 17, 1875, a date which is considered
to be the official date of the founding of the Society. Starting from
a generalized statement of objectives, namely, "to collect and
diffuse a knowledge of the laws which govern the Universe," the
Founders soon expressed them more specifically. After several minor
changes in wording, the Objects stand today as follows:
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 unexplained laws of Nature, and the powers latent
in man.
In September 1877, a powerful impact was made upon the reading and
thinking public by the publication of H.P. Blavatsky's first
monumental work, Isis Unveiled, which was issued by J.W. Bouton in
New York City, the one thousand copies of the first printing being
sold within ten days. The New York Herald-Tribune considered the work
as one of the "remarkable productions of the century," many other
papers and journals speaking in similar terms. Isis Unveiled outlines
the history, scope and development of the Occult Sciences, the nature
and origin of Magic, the roots of Christianity, the errors of
Christian Theology and the fallacies of established orthodox Science,
against the backdrop of the secret teachings which run as a golden
thread through bygone centuries, coming up to the surface every now
and then in the various mystical movements of the last two thousand
years or so.
On July 8, 1878, H.P. Blavatsky was naturalized as a U.S. citizen, an
event which received publicity in various newspapers. In December of
the same year, H.P. Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott left for India via
England.
Arriving in Bombay in February, 1879, they established their
Theosophical Headquarters in that city. Soon after landing, they were
contacted by Alfred Percy Sinnett, then Editor of the Government
Paper, The Pioneer of Allahabad. This contact soon proved of the
utmost importance.
After a tour of northwestern India, the Founders returned to Bombay
and started, in October, 1879, their first Theosophical Journal, The
Theosophist (still published today), with H.P. Blavatsky as Editor.
The society experienced then a rapid growth, and some very remarkable
people were attracted to it both in India and elsewhere.
During May-July, 1880 the Founders spent some time in Ceylon (Sri
Lanka), where Colonel Olcott laid the foundations for his later work
to stimulate the revival of Buddhism. They both took "Pancha Sila" or
became officially Buddhists.
In September and October, 1880, H.P.B. and Colonel Olcott visited
A.P. Sinnett and his wife Patience at Simla in northern India. The
serious interest of Sinnett in the teachings and the work of the
Theosophical Society prompted H.P. Blavatsky to establish a contact
by correspondence between Sinnett and the two Adepts who were
sponsoring the Society, Mahatmas K.H. and M. From this correspondence
Sinnett wrote The Occult World (1881) and Esoteric Buddhism (1883),
both of which had an enormous influence in generating public interest
in Theosophy. The replies and explanations given by the Mahatmas to
the questions by Sinnett were embodied in their letters from 1880 to
1885 and were published in 1923 as The Mahatma Letters to A.P.
Sinnett. The original letters from these Teachers are preserved in
the British Library where they can be viewed by special permission in
the Department of Rare Manuscripts.
In May, 1882, a large estate was bought in southern India at Adyar,
near Madras, and the Theosophical Headquarters were moved there at
the end of the year. This center became soon the radiating point for
a world-wide activity. Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Olcott engaged in
trips to various outlying districts, founded Branches, received
visitors, conducted an enormous correspondence with inquirers, and
filled their Journal with most valuable and scholarly material the
main purpose of which was to revitalize the dormant interest on the
part of India in the spiritual worth of their own ancient Scriptures.
It is during this period that Colonel Olcott engaged in widespread
mesmeric healings until February, 1884, when he left for London to
petition the British Government on behalf of the Buddhists of Ceylon
(Sri Lanka). H.P. Blavatsky, then in rather poor health, went to
Europe with him.
After staying almost five months in Paris and London, H.P.B. visited
the Gebhard family in Elberfeld, Germany during the late Summer and
early Fall of 1884 and was busily engaged in writing her second work,
The Secret Doctrine.
Meanwhile, a vicious attack on her by Alexis and Emma Coulomb (two of
her staff members at Adyar) was rapidly building up. She returned to
Adyar on December 21, 1884 to learn the details of the situation. She
wished to sue the couple, already dismissed from Adyar for their
gross libel on her concerning the supposed fraudulent production of
psychic phenomena. H.P.B. was, however, overruled by a Committee of
leading T.S. members, and in disgust resigned as Corresponding
Secretary of the Society. On March 31, 1885, she left for Europe,
never to return to Indian soil.
The Coulomb attack, as was later proved, had no solid foundation
whatsoever. It was based on forged and partially forged letters,
purporting to have been written by H.P. Blavatsky, with instructions
to arrange fraudulent psychic phenomena of various kinds. A Christian
missionary magazine in Madras published the most incriminating
portions of these letters.
Meanwhile, the Society for Psychical Research (London) had appointed
a special committee to investigate Madame Blavatsky's claims. Then,
in December, 1884, Richard Hodgson, a member of this S.P.R.
committee, arrived in India to inquire into and report on the
Coulombs' allegations. Based upon Hodgson's findings, the S.P.R.
committee in its final report of December, 1885, branded Madame
Blavatsky "one of the most accomplished, ingenious and interesting
impostors in history." Mr. Hodgson also accused Madame Blavatsky of
being a Russian spy. This "S.P.R.-Hodgson" Report has been the basis
for most subsequent attacks on H.P. Blavatsky, as to her dishonesty,
the non-existence of her Masters, and the worthlessness of Theosophy.
In 1963, Adlai Waterman (pseudonym of Walter A. Carrithers, Jr.) in
his definitive work entitled Obituary: The "Hodgson Report" on Madame
Blavatsky, analyzed and refuted Hodgson's contentions against Madame
Blavatsky. A more recent refutation of some of Hodgson's charges
against H.P.B. is Vernon Harrison's book titled H. P. Blavatsky and
the SPR: An Examination of the Hodgson Report of 1885.
This vicious attack had a most unfavorable effect on H.P. Blavatsky's
health. Having left India for Europe, she settled first in Italy and
then in August, 1885 at Wurzburg, Germany, where she worked on The
Secret Doctrine. In July, 1886, she relocated to Ostend, Belgium, and
in May of 1887, at the invitation of English Theosophists, she moved
to a small house at Upper Norwood, London.
After her arrival in England, Theosophical activities immediately
began to move rapidly. The Blavatsky Lodge was formed and started
publicizing Theosophical ideas.
As H.P. Blavatsky had virtually lost control of The Theosophist, she
founded in September, 1887 Lucifer, a monthly magazine designed, as
stated on its title-page, "to bring to light the hidden things of
darkness." Also in the same month, H.P.B. moved to 17 Lansdowne Road,
Holland Park, London.
H.P.B. continued to write her great work which was finally completed
and published in two large volumes in October-December, 1888. Her
indefatigable helpers in the transcription and editing of the
manuscript were Bertram Keightley and Archibald Keightley, whose
financial backing was also of immense assistance.
The Secret Doctrine was the crowning achievement of H.P. Blavatsky's
literary career. Volume I is concerned mainly with the evolution of
the Universe. The skeleton of this volume is formed by seven Stanzas,
translated from the Book of Dzyan, with commentary and explanations
by H.P.B. Also in this volume is an extended elucidation of the
fundamental symbols contained in the great religions and mythologies
of the world. The second Volume contains a further series of Stanzas
from the Book of Dzyan, which describe the evolution of humanity.
Also in October, 1888, Madame Blavatsky formed the Esoteric Section
(or School) of the Theosophical Society for the deeper study of the
Esoteric Philosophy by dedicated students, and wrote for them her
three E. S. Instructions.
In 1889 H.P. Blavatsky published The Key to Theosophy, "a clear
Exposition, in the form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics,
Science and Philosophy for the study of which the Theosophical
Society has been founded," and the devotional mystical gem called The
Voice of the Silence, containing selected excerpts translated from an
Eastern scripture, The Book of the Golden Precepts, which she had
learnt by heart during her training in the East.
In July, 1890, H.P. B. established the European Headquarters of the
Theosophical Society at 19 Avenue Road, St. John's Wood, London. From
this address H.P. Blavatsky died on May 8, 1891, during a severe
epidemic of flu in England, and her remains were cremated at Woking
Crematorium, Surrey.
Against the background of her writings and teachings, her life and
character, her mission and occult powers, H.P. Blavatsky is destined
to be recognized in time as the greatest Occultist in the history of
Western civilization and a direct agent of the Trans-Himalayan
Brotherhood of Adepts.
For comprehensive information
on the life, work, writings and teachings of H.P. Blavatsky,
visit Blavatsky Study Center.
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/longseal.htm
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[The above sketch of Madame Blavatsky's life has been adapted (with
additions and deletions) from a biographical article on H.P.B.
written by Boris de Zirkoff and published in Theosophia (Los Angeles,
California), Summer 1968, pp. 3-8.]
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