Madame Blavatsky

Biography

[edit] Family
Elena's parents were Colonel Piotr Alekseevich Gan / Peter von Hahn (Пётр Алексеевич Ган, 1798+1873) - of "original" (Uradel) German nobility form Basedow (Mecklenburg) - and Eelena Andreyevna Fadeyeva (Елена Андреевна Фадеева, 1814+1843) was the author, under the pen-name "Zinaida Rzheva", of a dozen novels. Described by Belinsky as the "Russian George Sand", she died at the age of 28, when Helena was eleven. Sergei Vitte - Russian Minister, and then Prime-Minister in the regn of Emperor Nickolas II - was her first cousin. In his memoirs count Vitte recalls his encounters with Elena.

Elena's maternal grandparents were Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev (Andrey Fadeyev) Governor of Saratov, later of Tiflis (Tbilisi), and his wife Helene (nee Princess Dolgoruky) - prominent figures of the age of Russian enlightenment. Elena grew up amid a culture rich in spirituality and traditional Russian mythologies, which introduced her to the realm of supernatural and irrational.

Elena's great-grand nephew Boris de Zirkoff (Борис Цирков, •1902+1981) was an active member of Theosophical Society and the editor of the Blavatsky Collected Writings; her great-grand niece, also Elena (•1935), lives in Moscow - her resemblance to HPB is striking.


[edit] First marriage
She was married three weeks before she turned seventeen, on July 7, 1848, to the forty-year old Nikifor (also Nicephor) Vassilievitch Blavatsky, vice-governor of Erivan. After three unhappy months, she stole a horse, and escaped back over the mountains to her grandfather in Tiflis. Her grandfather shipped her off immediately to her father who was retired and living near Saint Petersburg. He travelled two thousand miles to meet her at Odessa, but she wasn't there. She had missed the steamer, and sailed away with the skipper of an English bark bound for Istanbul. According to her account, they never consummated their marriage, and she remained a virgin her entire life. (For a counter-claim, see the section on Agardi Metrovitch.)


[edit] Wandering years
According to her own story as told to a later biographer, she spent the years 1848 to 1858 traveling the world, and is said to have visited Egypt, France, Canada (Quebec), England, South America, Germany, Mexico, India, Greece and especially Tibet to study for two years with the men she called Brothers. She claimed to have become Buddhist while in Sri Lanka[2] and being initiated in Tibet. She returned to Russia in 1858 and went first to see her sister Vera, a young widow living in Rugodevo, a village which she had inherited from her husband.


[edit] Agardi Metrovitch
About this time, she met and left with Italian opera singer Agardi Metrovich. Some sources say that she had several extramarital affairs, became pregnant, and bore a deformed child, Yuri, whom she loved dearly. She wrote that Yuri was a child of her friends the Metroviches (C.W.I p. xlvi-ii, HPB TO APS p. 147). To balance this statement, Count Witte, her first cousin on her mother's side, stated in his Memoirs (as quoted by G. Williams), that her father read aloud a letter in which Metrovich signed himself as "your affectionate grandson". This is evidence that Metrovich considered himself Helena's husband at this point. Yuri died at the age of five, and Helena said that she ceased to believe in the Russian Orthodox God at this point.

Two different versions of how Agardi died are extant. In one, G. Williams states that Agardi had been taken sick with a fever and delirium in Ramleh, and that he died in bed April 19, 1870. In the second version, while bound for Cairo on a boat, the 'Evmonia', in 1871, an explosion claimed Agardi’s life, but H. P. Blavatsky continued on to Cairo herself.

While in Cairo she formed the Societe Spirite for occult phenomena with Emma Cutting (later Emma Coulomb), which is said to have closed after dissatisfied customers complained of fraudulent activities.


Mme. Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena.
[edit] To New York
It was in 1873 that she emigrated to New York City. Impressing people with her psychic abilities, she was spurred on to continue her mediumship. Mediumship (other psychical and spiritual sciences of the time), based upon the quasi-religion known as Spiritualism having began at Rochester, NY, was a widely popular and fast-spreading field upon which Blavatsky based her career.[3]

Throughout her career she claimed to have demonstrated physical and mental psychic feats which included levitation, clairvoyance, out-of-body projection, telepathy, and clairaudience. Another claim of hers was materialization, that is, producing physical objects out of nothing, though in general, her interests were more in the area of 'theory' and 'laws' rather than demonstration.

In 1874 at the farm of the Eddy Brothers, Helena met Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena. Soon they were working together in the "Lamasery" (alternate spelling: "Lamastery") where her book Isis Unveiled was written.

She married her second husband, Michael C. Betanelly on April 3, 1875 in New York City. She separated from Betanelly after a few months, and their divorce was legalized on May 25, 1878. On July 8, 1878, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States.[4]

Theosophy


Category:Theosophy
Founders of the T. S.
Helena Blavatsky
William Quan Judge
Henry Steel Olcott

Personalities
Theosophists
Rudolf Steiner · Alice Bailey

Mysticism
Theosophical mysticism

Organisations
Theosophical Society
TS Adyar · TS Pasadena · ULT


Theosophical texts
Isis Unveiled
The Key to Theosophy
Mahatma Letters
The Secret Doctrine
The Voice of the Silence
More...

Other topics
Agni Yoga · Anthroposophy ·
Esotericism · Djwal Khul
Neo-Theosophy


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[edit] Foundation of Theosophical Society
While living in New York City, she founded the Theosophical Society in September 1875, with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. Madame Blavatsky wrote that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and problematic or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. Her writings connecting esoteric spiritual knowledge with new science may be considered to be the first instance of what is now called New Age thinking. In fact, many researchers feel that much of New Age thought started with Blavatsky.

She also lived in Philadelphia for part of 1875, where she resided at 3420 Sansom Street, now home of the White Dog Cafe[1]. While living on Sansom Street, Madame Blavatsky became ill with an infected leg. During her illness, she underwent a transformation which inspired her to found the Theosophical Society. In a letter dated June 12, 1875, Madame Blavatsky described her recovery, explaining that she dismissed the doctors and surgeons who threatened amputation. She is quoted as saying "Fancy my leg going to the spirit land before me!," and had a white dog sleep across her leg by night.


[edit] To India
She had moved to India, landing at Bombay February 16 1879,[5] where she first made the acquaintaince of A.P. Sinnett. In his book Occult World he describes how she stayed at his home in Allahabad for six weeks that year, and again the following year.[6]

Sometime around December 1880, while at a dinner party with a group including A.O. Hume and his wife, she is stated to have been instrumental in causing the materialization of Mrs Hume's lost brooch.[7]

By 1882 the Theosophical Society became an international organization, and it was at this time that she moved the headquarters to Adyar near Madras, India.

The society headquartered here for some time, but she later went to Germany for a while, in between she stayed at Ostend (15 July 1886 - 1 May 1887) where she easily could meet her English friends. She wrote a big part of the Secret Doctrine in Ostend [8] and there she had a revelation during an illness to continue the book at any cost. Finally she went to England.

A disciple put her up in her own house in England and it was here that she lived until the end of her life.


[edit] Final years
In August, 1890 she formed the "Inner Circle" of 12 disciples: "Countess Constance Wachtmeister, Mrs Isabel Cooper-Oakley, Miss Emily Kislingbury, Miss Laura Cooper, Mrs Annie Besant, Mrs Alice Cleather, Dr Archibald Keightley, Herbert Coryn, Claude Wright, G.R.S. Mead, E.T. Sturdy, and Walter Old".[9]

Suffering from heart disease, rheumatism, Bright's disease, and complications from influenza, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died at 19 Avenue Road, St Johns Wood,[10] the home she shared, in England on May 8, 1891.

Her last words in regard to her work were: "Keep the link unbroken! Do not let my last incarnation be a failure."

Her body was cremated; one third of her ashes were sent to Europe, one third with William Quan Judge to the United States, and one third to India where her ashes were scattered in the Ganges River. May 8 is celebrated by Theosophists, and it is called White Lotus Day.

She was succeeded as head of one branch of the Theosophical Society by her protege, Annie Besant. Her friend, W.Q. Judge, headed the American Section.


[edit] Influences
Blavatsky was influenced by the following authors:

Helene Fadeev, her mother
William Blake
Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Louis Jacolliot
Blavatsky's works have shown their influence on the following leaders, authors, artists and musicians:

Sir Edwin Arnold
Alice Bailey
L. Frank Baum
Annie Besant
Chris Carter (screenwriter)
Col. James Churchward
Aleister Crowley
Wayne Dyer
James Ensor
Dion Fortune
Mahatma Gandhi
Max Heindel
Adolf Hitler
Raghavan Iyer
James Joyce
Wassily Kandinsky
Alfred Kinsey
C.W. Leadbeater
Guido List
Sybil Leek
Piet Mondrian
Boris Pasternak
Nicholas Roerich
George W. Russell
Alexander Scriabin
Rudolf von Sebottendorf
Rudolf Steiner
Max Theon
Samael Aun Weor
The Mars Volta
William Butler Yeats
Ekkirala Krishnamacharya
Swami Sivananda[11]


According to Jackson Spielvogel and David Redles of the Simon Wiesenthal Center,[12] the influence of the root race teachings of H. P. Blavatsky, and the adaptations of her ideas by her followers in the German Theosophical Lodges, constituted a popularly unacknowledged but decisive influence over the developing mind of Hitler:[12]

"It is important to observe that there are also some striking differences between Blavatsky's doctrine and Hitler's later racial ideas. Blavatsky herself did not identify the Aryan race with the Germanic peoples. And although her racial doctrine clearly entailed belief in superior and inferior races and hence could be easily misused, she placed no emphasis on the domination of one race over another. She certainly did not advocate the use of force since human racial evolution was an inevitable process that operated primarily on the basis of spiritual laws." [12]


[edit] Works
Her books included

Isis Unveiled, a master key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology (1877)Online version
From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan (1879-80) Online version
The Secret Doctrine, the synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (1888)Online version
The Voice of the Silence (1889) Online version
The Key to Theosophy (1889) Online version
Nightmare Tales (1892)
Personal Memoirs of H. P. Blavatsky. Autobiographic notes compiled by Mary K. Neff (1937)
Her many articles have been collected in the Collected Writings of H. P. Blavatsky. This series has 15 numbered volumes including the index.


[edit] Notes
^ 1891 England Census, showing a household including "Constance Wachtmeister Manager of Publishing Office; G.R.S. Mead, Author Journalist; Isabel Oakley, Millener; Helena Blavatsky, Authoress; and others"
^ http://www.blavatsky.net/forum/taylor/tibetanSources2.htm
^ Blavatsky, Helena, Isis Unveiled, pg. xlv, Theosophical University Press: Pasadena, 1877.
^ Naturalization of Blavatsky
^ http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/mahatma/ml-ccpre.htm
^ Occult World, A. P. Sinnett. Boston, 1882. p 42
^ Occult World, A.P. Sinnett. Boston, 1882. p 80
^ Letter to mrs. Kingsford from Ostend, Aug. 23, 1886: "I am hard at work now, for I am afraid not to be able to finish my Secret Doctrine if I wait long."
^ Theosophy timeline
^ http://www.tphta.ws/TPH_OCIV.HTM
^ http://www.dlshq.org/download/modernsage.htm (In his early life, Swami Sivananda had read books from the Theosophical Society and of Blavatsky. Theosophical terminology is found throughout his writtings to translate difficult Sanskrit terms.)
^ a b c Spielvogel, Jackson; David Redles (1986). "Hitler's Racial Ideology: Content and Occult Sources.". Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual 3, chapter 9. Retrieved on 2007-08-22.

[edit] Books about her
Helena Blavatsky. Edited and introduced by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Western Esoteric Masters Series. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley 2006.
The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky by Daniel Caldwell ISBN 0-8356-0794-1
HPB: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky by Sylvia Cranston, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1993. ISBN 0-9662115-1-0
Theosophy: History of a pseudo-religion, by René Guénon
H. P. Blavatsky and the SPR by Vernon Harrison
Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine by Max Heindel (1933; from Max Heindel writings & with introduction by Manly Palmer Hall)
"Madame Blavastky, Medium and Magician", John Symonds, Odhams, 1959.
"Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth" by Marion Meade ISBN 0399123768
H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement by Charles Ryan ISBN 0-911500-80-4
Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America by Peter Washington ISBN 0-8052-4125-6
A review/rebuttal of Madame Blavatsky's Baboon
Priestess of the Occult by Gertrude Marvin Williams, Alfred A Knopf, 1946. OCLC 1162835
Critique of Williams' book by Walter A. Carrithers, Jr
Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers, 54.
Biographies / Biographical Studies on and about H. P. Blavatsky

[edit] See also
Anthroposophy
Constance Cumbey
Jiddu Krishnamurti
New Age
Religion and mythology
Coulomb Affair
Hodgson Report

[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Helena Petrovna BlavatskyWikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
Helena Petrovna BlavatskyBlavatsky Study Center
Books by H. P. Blavatsky
Writings by H. P. Blavatsky
H. P. Blavatsky's Collected Writings Online
Blavatsky Net
Loge Unie des Théosophes -Paris-
Theosophical Society
Madame Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine by Robert Blumetti from the Odinist Library
Works by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky at Project Gutenberg
Books by HP Blavatsky at Theosophical University Press
Links to books by HP Blavatsky
H. P. Blavatsky Articles
The Writings of H. P. Blavatsky
Articles and books by Helena Blavatsky and other theosophists
Articles on HP Blavatsky
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky at the Open Directory Project
Discussion of H. P. Blavatsky's Literary Influence
Biographical sketch of H. P. Blavatsky
Eastern Tradition Research Institute
Brief biography of Blavatsky with psychological insights and speculations about her childhood.
A current webpage by a distant cousin discusses her society and its goals