Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna (1831-91)

	Helena Petrovna Blavatsky Russian Mystic Writer Circa 1889. . .  —  Buy this art print at AllPosters.com

One of the most influential occult thinkers of the nineteenth century and cofounder of the Theosophical Society, Blavatsky was a Russian-born (July 31, 1831, German parents in Yekaterinoslav) American woman who left behind conflicting images of adventuress, author, mystic, guru, occultist, and charlatan.

Originally named Helena Hahn, she was an enigmatic personality, brought up in an atmosphere saturated with superstition and fantasy. She was married briefly in her teens to a Russian general, but left him and traveled widely in the East, including Tibet, in search of mysteries.

Returning to Russia after ten years of wanderings, Blavatsky supposedly exhibited various psychic powers. Allegedly, raps, whisperings, and other mysterious sounds were heard all over the house, objects moved about in obedience to her will, their weight decreased and increased as she wished, and winds swept through the apartment, extinguishing lamps and candles. She gave exhibitions of clairvoyance, discovered a murderer for the police, and narrowly escaped being charged as an accomplice.

Blavatsky traveled to Paris in 1858 and was introduced to the internationally famous medium Daniel Dunglas Home (1833–1886) and was so impressed by his paranormal abilities that she became a Spiritualist. When Blavatsky, in turn, sought to impress him with her own mediumistic talents, Home ignored her and informed her that she was a cheat.

In 1860 Blavatsky became severely ill. A wound below the heart, which she received from a sword cut in magical practice in the East, opened again, causing her intense agony, convulsions, and trance. After her recovery, friends and acquaintances claimed that her spontaneous physical phenomena had disappeared, but she insisted that, after the illness, they only occurred in obedience to her will.

Blavatsky again went abroad, and, disguised as a man, she fought under Garibaldi and was left for dead in the battle of Mentana. She fought back to life, had a miraculous escape at sea on a Greek vessel that was blown up, and, in 1871 in Cairo, she founded the short lived Societé Spirite. She then went to America in 1873, and in 1875, with Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, founded the Theosophical Society in New York. It professed to expound the esoteric tradition of Buddhism and aimed at forming a universal brotherhood of man; studying and making known the ancient religions, philosophies, and sciences; investigating the laws of nature; and developing the divine powers latent in man. It was claimed to be directed by secret Mahatmas, or Masters of Wisdom.

Throughout her career Blavatsky claimed to perform feats of medium-ship, levitation, telepathy and clairvoyance. Her psychic powers were widely acclaimed and attracted many converts to Theosophy, including Annie Besant, who's home became the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in London. In 1885 the Society for Psychical Research published a damning report (The Hodgson Report) alleging fraud and trickery by Blavatsky and her associates.

The Hodgson Report left a deep shadow over Blavatsky’s final years. Annie Besant’s conversion to Theosophy resulted after she had been requested by W. T. Stead to review The Secret Doctrine in 1889. Blavatsky suggested that she read the Hodgson Report before forming any firm conclusions, but Besant was not adversely affected and requested to be Blavatsky’s pupil. Thereafter Besant provided a secure refuge for the aging Theosophist at her own home in London. In her last years here, Blavatsky became the center of a memorable group of talented individuals. She died peacefully May 5, 1891.

Blavatsky’s detractors considered her to have been a hoaxster, a fraud, and a deceiver, while her followers revered her as a genius, a veritable saint, and a woman of monumental courage who had struggled against an incredible array of adversities and adversaries to fashion a modern mystery school without equal. Foe and follower alike conceded that she was a unique, sometimes overpowering, personality who had apparently traveled the world in search of spiritual truths and who had survived physical crises and challenges that would certainly have discouraged — or killed — a less indomitable individual.

Blavatsky writings include Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888). She had no problem with Christianity, but she preferred focusing on its esoteric traditions, which united it with all other religions. She popularized the study of reincarnation and past lives in Europe and the United States and introduced many occult and metaphysical concepts which flourished in the New Age Movement of the 1970s.

See Annie Besant, Theosophy, The Chakra Store, Casting Black Magic Spells, Commanding Spirits, The Tarot Store and Divination & Scrying Tools and Supplies.

Sources: (1) Shepard, Leslie (editor), Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology, Thomson Gale; (2) Dictionary of the Occult, Caxton Publishing; (3) Steiger, Brad and Sherry Hansen, The Gale Encyclopedia of the Unusual and Unexplained, Thomson Gale.
 

 

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-- Riding The Medicine Wheel: Beginning Shamanism.

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Suggested Art Prints and Posters:

"The Theosophist" Cover of the First Number of Madame Blavatsky's House Journal Giclee Print Buy this Art Print			Theosophy Chakras 1696 Giclee Print Buy this Art Print
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky Russian Mystic Writer, Circa 1889, by H. Schmiechen Buy this Photographic Print			Elena Petrovna Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott Giclee Print American School Buy this Photographic Print
Annie Besant English Theosophist and Indian Political Leader Giclee Print Buy this Photographic Print			Annie Besant English Theosophist and Indian Political Leader Giclee Print Buy this Photographic Print

Theosophy: An Introduction to the Supersensible Knowledge of the World and the Destination of Man Buy this Book

Suggested Books:

-- 100 Years of Theosophy: A History of the Theosophical Society in America.

-- A Garden of Pomegranates: Skrying on the Tree of Life.

-- An Abridgment of the Secret Doctrine.

-- An Invitation to the Secret Doctrine.

-- Annie Besant: An Autobiography.

-- At the Feet of the Master.

-- Beauties of Islam.

-- Choices of Love.

-- Christian Hermetic Astrology: The Star of the Magi and the Life of Christ.

-- Clairvoyant Investigations.

-- Collected Writings of H.P. Blavatsky: 1886-1887 Vol 7.

-- Culture, Crisis, and Creativity.

-- Dharma.

-- Death and After.

-- Dialogues With a Modern Mystic.

-- Doctrine of the Heart.

-- Edgar Cayce's Story of Jesus.

-- From the Outer Court to the Inner Sanctum.

-- Giordano Bruno: Theosophy's Apostle in the Sixteenth Century - 1913.

-- Hidden Side of Things.

-- Hidden Wisdom in the Holy Bible (Theosophical Heritage Classics).

-- How the World Can Be the Way It Is: An Inquiry for the New Millennium into Science, Philosophy, and Perception.

-- How to Know Higher Worlds (Classics in Anthroposophy).

-- Hpb: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement.

-- H.P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine.

-- Initiates of the Theosophical Masters (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions).

-- Isis Unveiled.

-- Isis Unveiled: Collected Writings/Boxed Set.

-- Isis Unveiled: Secrets of the Ancient Wisdom Tradition, Madame Blavatsky's First Work.

-- Jesus Christ, Sun of God: Ancient Cosmology and Early Christian Symbolism.

-- Jesus, Teacher and Healer.

-- Karma: Rhythmic Return to Harmony.

-- Key to Theosophy.

-- Kingdom of the Gods.

-- Life Streams: Journeys into Meditation and Music.

-- Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America.

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-- Man Visible and Invisible.

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-- Neurospeak: Transforms Your Body, While You Read!

-- 'No Religion Higher Than Truth': A History of the Theosophical Movement in Russia, 1875-1922.

-- Ocean of Theosophy.

-- On Spiritual Unity: A Slavophile Reader (Library of Russian Philosophy).

-- Practical Occultism.

-- Rebirth for Christianity.

-- Reincarnation in Modern Life: Towards a New Christian Awareness.

-- Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine.

-- Rhythm of Wholeness: A Total Affirmation of Being.

-- Rules for Spiritual Initiation.

-- Shadows of the Sacred: Seeing Through Spiritual Illusions.

-- Son of Man: The Mystical Path to Christ.

-- Studies in Occultism.

-- The Adept.

-- The Adepts in the Eastern Esoteric Tradition: The Arhats of Buddhism.

-- The Altitude of Prayer (Collector's Edition Set of Books).

-- The Aspiring Adept: Robert Boyle and His Alchemical Quest: Including Boyle's 'Lost' Dialogue on the Transmutation of Metals.

-- The Bhagavad Gita; The Lord's Song.

-- The Book of Dzyan.

-- The Edgar Cayce Bible Companion : Biblical Treasure from the Edgar Cayce Readings.

-- The Essential Mystics: Selections from the World's Great Wisdom Traditions.

-- The Etheric Double: The Health Aura of Man (Theosophical Classics Series).

-- The Key to the Kalevala.

-- The Masters.

-- The Masters and the Path.

-- The Masters Revealed: Madam Blavatsky and the Myth of the Great White Lodge (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions).

-- The Millennium Myth: Love and Death at the End of Time.

-- The Pilgrim Self: Traveling the Path from Life to Life.

-- The Secret Doctrine: Collected Writings 1888: Cosmogenesis/Anthropogenesis/Index/Boxed Set.

-- The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy.

-- The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy (Volumes 1 and 2).

-- The Seven Rays.

-- The Spiritual Life.

-- The Theosophical Enlightenment (Suny Series in Western Esoteric Traditions).

-- The Voice of the Silence.

-- The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (Religion in North America).

-- Theosophia: Hidden Dimensions of Christianity.

-- Theosophy: A Modern Expression of the Wisdom of the Ages.

-- Theosophy: An Introduction to the Spiritual Processes in Human Life and in the Cosmos (Classics in Anthroposophy).

-- Theosophy Simplified.

-- Thought Forms.

-- Thought Power (1908): Its Control and Culture.

-- Thought Power, Its Control and Culture.

-- Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti.

-- When Daylight Comes; A Biography of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.

-- Yankee Beacon of Buddhist Light (Life of Col. Henry S. Olcott).