Blavatsky - 17/aug/2024

IT IS BLAVATSKY TIME

Baboon-owner, world-traveling perennial syncretist, self-admitted huckster, protofeminist marajuana icon, occult trendsetter, and innovative antisemite, Mme Helena Blavatsky would combine the mythology of spiritualism with the doctrine of western esoterica.

(She combined Spiritualism with the doctrine of Western Esotericism)

-(biggest knock-on effect of this was a significant secularization of western esotericism)

(She was the first big East-West syncretist)

Born August 12 1831 to a mishmash of European nobility, Blavatsky herself is our only source for her early life. I will get this out of the way early: She is a fantastic liar, in every sense of the word. Her lies are both skillful, and damn entertaining. She would claim to have psychic abilities, and that her grandfather was a high-ranking mason who gave her access to his vast occult library. But regardless of her access to magical libraries, she was a strange young woman with an interest in the religious and esoteric. 

As a young woman, Blavatsky had an unprecedented level of freedom for a woman. She was married at 17 to Nikifor Blavatsky, a man significantly older than her. She made so many attempts to escape and return to her family at Tiflis (modern Tbilisi) that Nikifor eventually relented and let her go. The result was a young, married, woman with access to significant wealth and social currency. Blavatsky could effectively travel anywhere she liked, whenever she liked. Over the course of her life, she would damn near circumnavigate the globe several times over. She ended up everywhere from North Africa to India to Canada to South America. If Blavatsky claimed to have visited someplace, she had probably been there.

Cairo was a particular early favorite for her. Here, she supposedly met with a Coptic mage and the pair founded her first esoteric society, the Société Spirite. Which is initially a more “scientific” occult investigation group that rapidly became a magical society for doing wizard stuff. This would be the blueprint for the Theosophical Society

Around 1873 she would travel to the United States, where she became popular on a Victorian form of Social Media known as the newspaper. Through this, she would meet a man named Henry Steele Olcott. The two would become fast and lifelong friends. Though, understand that a lifelong friendship with Mme. Blavatsky is a “high drama” ordeal, one plagued with constant infighting, disagreements, and public conflicts. Blavatsky was not one for criticism. 

Spiritualism was the hot topic of the day. (there will be a spiritualism section before this dw) While Blavatsky would initially gain popularity defending spiritualism, she would gain more attention by turning against the grain. Where Spiritualism accentuated a scientific approach to the magical, Blavatsky emphasized the opposite. Her conception of Occultism was in part a reaction to the scientific trappings of spiritualism. Blavatsky would emphasize the esoteric, hidden, inner teachings she claimed were present within all religious doctrine. 

The idea of western esotericism having some form of shared hidden doctrine is nothing new. The Renaissance Esotericists loved some comparative religious study. But when Pico Della Mirandola looks at the hidden inner doctrine present in pagan texts, the result looks suspiciously like Christianity. 

Blavatsky’s Occult doctrine is secular, in the sense that it does not belong to any particular sect. It is a vichyssoise of Greek, Egyptian, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic, concepts. Plus, an innovative new ingredient. Blavatsky was one of the first westerners to incorporate (dubiously understood) concepts from eastasian religions like Hinduism and Buddhism. Given that she was one of the only occultists who had actually been to east asia, she had a significant degree of authority over western occult conceptions of Hinduism and Buddhism. The local library probably didn’t have a comprehensive translation of the Pali Canon, or the Bhagavad Gita. People had to take Blavatsky at her word, and Blavatsky’s world was odd.

When it comes to world religion, Blavatsky posited the existence of secret occult brotherhoods that passed down knowledge of the hidden original religion. Evidence of these secret brotherhoods could be found through esoteric analysis of scripture from around the world. While this theory was not out-of-step with the occult thought of the time, Blavatsky was eye-catchingly radical in her preaching. Where most spiritualists were content to simply compare the religions of the world, Blavatsky would they were all branches of the same ancient, esoteric, tree, but she wouldn’t stop there. She would claim to be in contact with an Ascended Master, an ancient, immortal priest of this lost religion who would appear to her in spirit form. His name was Koot Hoomi.

From a cynical point of view, these fantastical claims of ghost mentorship were just the hook. They got people in the door. What put Blavatsky above the pack of spiritualist celebrities was her ability to keep people in the door. She lived an interesting life. She had stories to tell. (give us some flavor here, add the anecdote about cornering the ostrich feather market or some shit). 

The door, in this case, was Blavatsky’s New York apartment. Interested parties would regularly drop by to discuss the progress on her first major work: Isis Unveiled. These impromptu salons would eventually become the Theosophical Society. 

On September 7th 1875, a man named George Henry Felt was giving a lecture to the local spiritualist community. It was titled “The Lost Canon of Proportion of the Egyptians”. Felt used the Egyptian zodiac to prove the existence of numerous elemental spirits present in all things. He claimed that these elemental spirits could potentially be harnessed to supernatural effect. The legend goes that during the lecture, Olcott passed Blavtsky a note that said “[would it] not be a good thing to form a society for this kind of study” Hanegraaf 180. (There was something about Felt being a grifter who ran off with a bunch of money but I need to find the citation for that.)

In 1875 the Theosophical Society is co-founded by Olcott and Blavatskty. Two years later, Blavatsky publishes Isis Unveiled. It sells like hotcakes. (discuss how it effected people, how and why was it popular)

Blavatsky had talked quite a bit about her theories on an Ancient Wisdom Religion identified with magic and the occult, but the text provided a much more substantial, digestible version of it. (This honestly deserves a whole sidebar of its own. IU is a watershed text for Occultism.)

In 1879, Bavatsky moves to India. She will never return to the United states. In many ways, this is a smart move. She was explosively popular in the west, but she had fans in India. Her arrival in Delhi is given press attention, as the editor of a local newspaper was a follower. And yes, she would almost immediately start a newsletter of her own; The Theosophist, which is still in print today. This choice to move would prove a double-edged sword. 

On one hand, being closer to the oriental wellspring of magical knowledge will be a massive source of clout for her followers. On the other hand, magical societies are not known for internal discipline. The Theosophical Society was already suffering from internal fractures. Without Blavatsky to assert direct control, the Theosophical Society would suffer near constant infighting. 

In 1880, two important things happen. Blavatsky and Olcott would accept the Five Precepts and Three Gems, effectively becoming buddhists, (Although Blavatsky had been calling herself a buddhist for some time) and they would receive a series of letters from the Ascended Masters, who tell them the Theosophical Society is the true inheritor of the secret wisdom religion. 

By this point, the Theosophical Society is at the peak of its popularity. It is knocking on the door of mainstream popularity, but it shall not pass without scrutiny from the gatekeepers. Here, many of the choices Blavatsky made earlier in her life come back to bite her. Initially, her attempt to promote Occultism along the same “scientific” line as spiritualism gave her a battering ram of credibility. Under scrutiny from her detractors, it became a glaring weakness. 

In 1884, Blavatsky and Olcott agreed to travel to England to meet with the Society for Psychical Research. In terms of actual scientific approaches to the magical and esoteric, the SPR are the gold standard. They are initially impressed with Blavatsky, but this will not last. 

That same year, the Madras Christian Collective (fact check this, it could be Collective or College) would publish a scathing expose. The contents were largely based on correspondences between Blavatsky and Emma Coulomb, a former accomplice in many of Blavatsky’s scams, now turned traitor. The details of the so-called “Coulomb Affair” are hotly contested, but the end result was strong, public, evidence that Blavatsky was a huckster who knowingly falsified her supernatural abilities. The effects were, to say the least, disastrous. 

“For our own part, we regard her neither as the mouthpiece of hidden seers, nor as a mere vulgar adventuress; we think that she has achieved a title to permanent remembrance as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting impostors in history”

Blavatsky left for India in disgrace, but became ill, and was forced to return to Europe. She would settle in Wurtzburg for a short while but loyal Theosophists eventually convinced her to return to London. She would cloister herself in this London apartment, and begin work on her next great work: The Secret Doctrine. This apartment would become known as The Blavatsky Lodge. (fact check: was it an apartment? Or was she staying with some wealthy theosophist?) Once she was all settled in, she would do what she did best; establish a small newspaper. This one was called Lucifer. This publication was essentially a vehicle to build hype for the release of The Secret Doctrine. 

In 1890 she meets Annie Besant, a fascinating woman even by Blavatsky standards. It is a shame I do not have time to discuss her further in this text. Under Blavatsky’s guidance, Besant would found the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society, an even more explicitly magical sub-group. Later that year, Secret Doctrine is published. 

SIDEBAR: THE SECRET DOCTRINE

The Secret Doctrine is an occult text par excellence. It claims to be sourced from “hitherto unknown” Tibetan texts called the Book of Dyzan and the Golden Precepts respectively. These books likely never existed. 

In a nutshell: The Secret Doctrine is a syncretic text between Biblical and Vedic theology. A text like this was inevitable. Stick a Victorian theologian in a room with the Bible and the Upanishads, it’s only a matter of time until things get syncretic. To her credit, Blavatsky is an admirable syncretist. The Secret Doctrine may be a Frankenstein, but its a walking Ffrankenstein. To the Victorian theologian, it would be fascinating. To the aspiring Victorian occultist, it would be revelatory. (move this to why the book was popular)

The Secret Doctrine comes in two volumes. Volume one deals with cosmogenesis, it lays out the structure and origin of the universe. Volume two deals with anthropogenesis, the origins and role of humanity in that cosmology. 

To summarize volume one: One, the Theosophical Society is the inheritor of the ancient wisdom religion. History is filled with enlightened seers who transmit this doctrine, and convey wisdom from the higher beings watching over the “childhood of humanity.” Two, there is a single divine principal who manifests as the myriad divinities of world religion. One god, many faces. Three, the world follows the eastern concept of Maya. The world is illusory, like a great dream, its nature is that of thought and consciousness. Four, the world follows the spiritual-alchemical Law of Correspondences, as above, so below. (There’s technically 6 stanzas here, but two of them are just reinforcing the earlier stanzas.)

To summarize volume two: This is the one with all the weird race science. If you’ve ever heard the term “Root Race” this is where it comes from. This section is an explicit rejection of darwinian evolution. (this would be a huge platform for the nazis and reinforced eugenecist ideas)

What’s more, the book fell under criticism from fellow occultist William Emmette Coleman, who claimed the book was plagiarized from contemporary occult sources. He names over one hundred sources that Blavatsky copied from without credit. While the book is undoubtedly a tower of plagiarism, it is unclear whether or not Blavatsky actually intended to plagiarize. None of the authors she plagiarized from ever called her out. It is entirely possible she was simply unconcerned with proper citation. But plagiarism is plagiarism, intentional or not. 

On May 8th, 1891, after years of grappling with a toxic reputation, Mme Blavatsky would kick the bucket. She died in disgrace, but also as one of the most influential occult writers of all time. While lacking in originality, she was undeniably a skilled syncretist. Her influence can be seen in everything from the New Age, to Nazi race science, to the science fiction and fantasy novels of the early 20th century. 

(give us a little blavatsky retrospective. How do we evaluate her career at the end of her life.)

ToDo:

• Add to the sidebars about her two major texts

Roots:

• A generalized western mysticism

• James Fenimore Cooper novels about native americans

• Reacting to Spiritualism

• Before her we need a section on spiritualism.

• Raymond Lull, Robert Fludd, Henry More

• Karl Von Eckhartschausen

Notable Ideas:

• Occultism v spiritualism

• Ancient Wisdom Religion

• The Theosophical Society

• Ascended Masters

Influenced:

• I mean basically everyone

General Outline:

ERA 1: YUNG VATSKY

• Born August 12 1831 to a mishmash of european nobility.

• Supposedly a medium at a young age

“I remember that when addressed as a medium, she (Mme. Blavatsky) used to laugh and assure us she was no medium, but only a mediator between mortals and beings we knew nothing about’.” - Blavatsky’s Sister speaking about her quoted in Hanegraaf 178

• Claimed that her grandfather was a mason who gave her access to a grand occult library

• In 1849, at the age of 18, she was married to Nikofor Blavatsky, and left him 3 months later

• She had an unprecedented level of freedom at that point in history, much less for a woman. She had access to essentially bottomless wealth and complete freedom of movement. 

• She traveled the world, circumnavigating the globe several times. This bitch was everywhere. 

• FIRST KOOT HOOMI LETTER

• Around 1871 she arrives in Cairo and founded the Societe Spirite. Which is initially a more “scientific” occult investigation group that rapidly just becomes a magical society. This would be the blueprint for the Theosophical Society

ERA 2: VATSKY AND OLCOTT

• July 7th 1873 she arrives in the US. iN 1874 She meets Henry Steel Olcott. The two rapidly become BFFS and lifelong creative partners. 

• Blavatsky loves getting involved in the local newspaper scene

• Here, we get the first peek into her views on Occultism vs Spiritualism

  • Spiritualism: Concerned with the investigation of psychic phenomena, but devoid of doctrine.

  • Occultism: Spiritualism + the doctrine of Western Esotericism

• Her theory being that all these seemingly unconnected organizations in history actually have a common doctrinal thread. 

• So she makes a name for herself by publishing a lot about eastasian religions and her theories on these ancient “Occult Brotherhoods” this makes her pretty popular. 

• Shes working on her first big work. People come to visit her at her apartment while she works, and these meetings eventually become the Theosophical Society.

“On September 7, a lecture was given here by George Henry Felt (1831-1906) entitled “The Lost Canon of Proportion of the Egyptians”. In which he proved the existence of numerous elemental spirits within the Egyptian zodiac, and implied that these spirits could be invoked through ritual and chemical means. 

• Olcott reportedly passed Blavatsky a note that posed “[would it] not be a good thing to form a society for this kind of study” hanegraaf 180

ERA 3 - THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

1875 the Theosophical Society is founded in America by Olcott and Blavatskty

• 1877, Isis Unveiled is published. This is basically Blavatsky’s thesis for the existence of the “ancient wisdom religion” identified with magic and the occult

SIDEBAR: ISIS UNVEILED

• We gotta talk about this its a watershed text of western esotericism

• Heavily criticized for Plagarism and yeah

• 1879 she moves to India and never returns to the US. Her arrival in India gets a ton of favorable press attention. The editor of one magazine was even a fan. 

• 1879 they start publishing a monthly magazine called The Theosophist (I have some issues of this lol)’

• 1880 two important things happen:

  • Blavatsky and Olcott accept the five precepts and three gems, becoming buddhists. Although Blavatsky already kinda called herself a buddhist.

  • They get a long series of letters from the AMs who tell them the Theosophical Society is the inheritor of the secret wisdom religion

• Also around this time. We should mention that the Theosophical Society is CONSTANTLY fracturing, or threatening to fracture.

• The Theosophical Society is also now popular enough that it is coming under fire from other groups. The fact that Blavatsky is attempting to sell Occultism with an edge of science opens it to more scrutiny than usual. 

• 1884 Blavatsky and Olcott agree to a meeting with the Society for Psychical Research, who are generally impressed with her, but that will not last. 

• The Madras Christian Collective publishes a SCATHING expose in 1884, based on some correspondences B had with Emma Coulomb. This was essentially an accusation of fraud.

• 1885 the SPR sends an observer to India to do some investigation into the fraud. Specifically, to investigate the competency of the witnesses. The findings could not be more damming. 

‘For our own part, we regard her neither as the mouthpiece of hidden seers, nor as a mere vulgar adventuress; we think that she has achieved a title to permanent remembrance as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting impostors in history’.

ERA 4 - THE BLAVATSKY LODGE

• Leaves in relative disgrace for India, becomes Ill, heads back to europe, floats around Wurtzburg for a bit, ends up in London working on Secret Doctrine. In 1887 she becomes the Blavatsky Lodge.

• Establishes a magazine called Lucifer as public propaganda for Secret Doctrine

• 1890 we meet Annie Besant

• 1890 B establishes the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society, a few days later, Secret Doctrine is published

  • Much of SD is based on translations of a “hitherto unknown” tibetan text called the Book of Dyzan, and later The Golden Precepts. These books almost definitely never existed lol. 

• Now, plenty of people criticized her, but the most damning was actually fellow Occultist William Emmette Coleman, who claimed she plagarized contemporary sources like “Ennemoser’s History of Magic and Demonologia, Dunlap’s Sod: The Son of Man and Sod: The Mysteries of Adoni, King’s Gnostics, Jacolliot’s Christna et le Christ and Le Spiritisme dans le monde. He goes on to name about ONE HUNDRED secondary sources. Though to be fair, none of the living authors who she plagarized ever indicted her. Editorial position: Its likely she never actually intended to plagarize. She is not the sort of person who cares overmuch for formal citation standards, but plagiarism is plagiarism. 

• When she died, Theosophists described her significant achievements as lying not in her mediumship, but in her skill as a syncretist. I am inclined to agree.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

• Described as a “magpie” for spiritualism

• Start with Orientalism?

  • In the 1600s, Egypt is kinda the center of the ideas of magic

  • But eventually it moves to India, thats largely because of Voltaire, specifically in The Princess of Babylon, which has a golden age civilization on the banks of Ganghes

  • Probably the most influential orientalist of his day, (1694-1778)

  • “On The Spirit of Nations” which lists China and India as the oldest. This wasn’t an archealogical argument, it was for DIFFUSIONISM

DIFFUSIONISM: Its the Atlantis myth. The idea that all culture and technology are descendant from a few ancient civilizations. Radical diffusionists believe in the Atlantis myth.

• Voltaire was arguing against the primacy of Judeo-christian ideas as the progenitor of all wisdom. By arguing that China and India were older, he’s making a pretty big claim for the time.

• He also argues the jews stole their culture from other people whoops

Dan Eddlestien. Blavatsky and the Hyperborean Atlantis

https://scholar.google.com/citations?view_op=view_citation&hl=en&user=gs3RA3QAAAAJ&citation_for_view=gs3RA3QAAAAJ:zYLM7Y9cAGgC 

https://pismin.com/10.1353/sec.2010.0055 

Okay. Her defenders will say that she was simply echoing the mentality of her time. Her detractors will say that she was not just a mirror, she contributed something new. She combined two previously disconnected ideas; antisemitism and the new atlantis theory. She gave antisemitism “cosmological importance.” The jews were now an inevitable enemy on a cosmic scale. Although, to be fair, the Jews as some ultimate spiritual enemy is nothing new. One need only look at the history of christian polemics. The greatest effect here is, I think, the secularization of a previously christian idea. 

Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality by Gary Lachman

https://www.amazon.com/Madame-Blavatsky-Mother-Modern-Spirituality/dp/1585428639/ref=asc_df_1585428639?tag=bngsmtphsnus-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=80814225697823&hvnetw=s&hvqmt=e&hvbmt=be&hvdev=c&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4584413753927889&psc=1 

• Europeans see themselves as conquering the whole world and they’re like damn maybe this happened before. Hence the Atlantis myth becomes pretty popular

Jean Sylvane Bailey tries to find atlantis.

• In bailey we see a new appreciation for mythology. Previously seen as the purview of “pre rational” civilizations, 

• The idea being that there’s truth in a lot of myths so we should study them. But many scholars decide that they are all branches of a great historical truth that has been corrupted or fallen. 

• Imagine. IF you think that Atlantis was just like you but in the past. Your civilization is kinda the inheritor of their mythology. Thats YOUR mythology. 

• Bailey is who MOVED atlantis. He read old greek mythology and theorized that based on the position and occurrences of an eclipse, that Atlantis was actually closer to the north pole. In Hyperborea.

• His argument is not terribly popular. 20,000 leagues under the sea is kinda Verne mocking Bailey. 

• Blavatsky’s dad is a military guy. So she is moving all the time

• Blavatsky’s dad is a celebrated novelist. All her books are a bout unhappy women in marriages to brutes

• Blavatsky gets to spend time with the Kalmuk (a nomadic russian steppe tribe who are buddhist) bc a family member i

s appointed some position of ambassadorship or something idk check the Lachman biography

• Blavatsky was friends with a Wizard-Prince named Alexsander Gollittzin maybe

• Who was apparently friends with KARL VON ECKHARTSCHAUSEN

• Blavatskys favorite Bullwer-lytton book was Zononi, which is about the rosicrucians

• A big part of theosophy is Aeceticism. So its worth discussing her apparent asexuality.

https://www.amazon.com/Madame-Blavatsky-Woman-Behind-Myth-ebook/dp/B00J2IK7YK 

Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth