Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: theosophy or trickery?

The first part comes from the Blavatsky Archives; many thanks. Russian Helena Petrovna von Hahn (1831-1891) was born at Ekaterinoslav, daughter of a Colonel and a writer. Her mat­er­nal grand-mother was Princ­ess Helena Dolgorukov, noted botanist-writer. After her mother’s early death in 1842, Helena was brought up with the grand­parents. This clever linguist was a sensitive child, soon aware of her psychic powers.

At 18 she married the elderly Nikifor Blavatsky, Vice-Governor of Yerivan Province. The marriage was never consummated and she soon escaped and travelled across Turkey, Egypt and Greece. Only 2 years later, in London in 1851, she met the Mahatma of her childhood visions, and fully accepted his guidance.

In 1852, Helena left for Canada, U.S, Mexico, South Am­erica and the West Indies, then went via the Cape to India and Tibet. She entered Tibet through Kashmir, undergoing part of her occult training with her Mahatma. Then again in Britain, France, Germany and Russia. From 1860-5, she lived in the Caucasus, suffering phys­ical and psychic crises. She travelled via the Balkans, Greece, Egypt, Syria and Italy. Then to India & Tibet, meeting the Mahatma Koot Hoomi. Then back to Cyprus, Greece and the Middle East.

 

The Extraordinary Life & Influence of Helena Blavatsky,  
by Sylvia Cranston, 
TarcherPerigee, 1993

Why the constant travel? In 1873, Helena was specifically told by her Teacher to go to New York to meet Col Henry Olcott. The Mahatmas believed Helena was the best means to offer the world the accum­ulated Wisdom of the Ages, verified by generations of Seers; that body of Truth of which all re­ligions were bran­ches of one parent-tree. They co-founded the Theos­ophical Society of America  in Nov 1875, where Olcott  became President for life.

The Theosophical Soc­iety's goals were to:
a] form the Universal Brother­hood of Humanity, regardless of race, creed, sex, caste or colour;
b] encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy and Science and
c] investigate the unexplained laws of Nature.

Helena’s first major work Isis Unveiled (1877) was published in N.Y, outlining the Occult Sciences and of Magic. Her task was to chal­lenge both the entrenched dogmas of Christian Theology and the dogmatic materialistic view of Science.

In Feb 1879, Helena and colleagues established the Theosophical Headquarters. The Found­ers started their first journal The Theosophist in Bombay with Helena as editor, and the Society experienced a rapid growth. Alfred Sinnett, editor of The Pioneer of Allahabad, and Helena wrote The Occult World 1881 and Esoteric Buddhism 1883, generating more public interest in Theos­ophy. In May 1882 a large estate was bought near Madras for the Theo­soph­ical HQ.

Helena was busy writing her next work,  but it didn’t save her. A vicious attack by staffers Alexis & Emma Coulomb erupted about Helena’s fraudulent product­ion of psychic phenom­ena. She returned to Madras on Dec 1884 to sue the couple, but they'd already left.  Alas Helena was overruled by the Theosophical Soc­iety committee and resigned in disgust. She left India for ever.

The Coulomb Attack was based on partially forged lett­ers, ?written by Helena, with instructions to arrange fraudulent psychic phenomena. So London’s Society for Psychical Res­earch app­ointed a special investigative committee. Rich­ard Hodgson arrived in India to report on the Coul­ombs’ allegations, which the research committee published in Dec 1885. Leading spiritualist William Emmette Coleman was also involved in the Coulomb case. He left the USA for London to obtain from the Scottish missionary Patterson the original Blavatsky-Coulomb letters, and published scathing denunciations of Theosophy and HPB in spiritualist journals.

Blavatsky was branded as one of the most acc­omp­lished impost­ors in history, and ?a Rus­sian spy. The Hodgson Report was the basis of later attacks on Helena’s and Theosophy’s honesty. Madame Blavatsky was soon called a plagiarist,  con artist, trickster and manipulator of males. Coleman focused on her plagiarism.

Madame Blavatsky and Colonel Henry Olcott

London, 1887 (Wiki)

Blavatsky’s health was damaged, so she focused on writing. The Secret Doctrine (1888) was the peak of her literary car­eer. Vol.I dealt with the evolution of the Universe, and the fundam­ental symb­ols of the world’s great religions. Vol.2 de­scribed humanity's evolution.  Then Blavatsky published the devotional mystical work called The Voice of the Silence, trans­lated from an Eastern scripture. 

Helena Blavatsky aged 60 died in London in 1891. Her ashes were divided between New York, London and Madras.

**

How important was Theosophy in modern history? Evidence suggested it significantly influenced the development of other mystical, phil­osophical and religious movements. And even psychological movements in the West. Supporters said Helena was among the mod­ern world’s innovative psychol­ogists of the visionary mind. At the same time that Freud and others were articulating their secularised theories, the Theosophists were rescuing a forgotten psych­ology of the extra-sensory from exotic religion.  Madame Blavatsky was setting the style for modern occult literature.

Theosophy also influenced the growth of Indian national con­scious­ness, inspiring key figures in India's independence move­ment. In Nov 1889 Gandhi met Blavatsky. He did not join the Theosophical Society because he did not want to belong to any religious body. However in March 1891, he became an associate member of the Blav­atsky Lodge. Three months later Gandhi returned to India. And Nehru learned the mys­terious philosophy of Theosophy with his childhood tutor Ferdinand Brooks. Young Nehru was initiated into the Theos­ophical Society in 1902 by Annie Besant, a Theosophist who supported home-rule for Ireland and India.

Was Theosophy the most important avenue of Eastern teaching to the West? Rudolf Steiner said yes. He first began speaking publicly about spiritual experiences in his 1899 lectures to the Theosophical Society. Steiner kept Helena’s original approach, replacing her terminology with his own. Sylvia Cranston noted theosophy’s influence on important cultural figures like TS Eliot, Wassily Kandinsky, Boris Pasternak, Paul Gauguin, James Joyce, William Butler Yeats and Jean Sibelius.

The Theosophist monthly journal, 1885
published in Madras 

edited by H.P Blavatsky

And consider the importance of Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society in the feminist movement, as described in Theosophy, Gender and the New Woman by Siv Ellen Kraft. Theosophy downplayed the importance of marriage, insisted upon women's spiritual independence, included women throughout the Society, and gave formal religious authority to women. Blavatsky described the suppression of women as typical of all religions.