The Philosopher
Helena Blavatsky
The face
The background
- Nationality:
- Russian-American
- Schools:
- Theosophy
- Branchs:
- Western esotericism, Theosophy, mysticism
- Period:
- 19th-century
The synopsis
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, born Yelena Petrovna von Hahn, was a Russian and American mystic and writer who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the primary founder of Theosophy. Born into an aristocratic family in Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire, Blavatsky traveled widely. Largely self-educated, she developed an interest in Western esotericism. According to her later claims, she embarked on world travels, visiting Europe, the Americas, and India, encountering spiritual adepts who trained her in Tibet. Critics have questioned the veracity of these travels. By the early 1870s, she was involved in the Spiritualist movement, defending genuine phenomena but disagreeing with the idea that contacted entities were spirits of the dead. Relocating to the United States in 1873, she befriended Henry Steel Olcott. She rose to public attention as a spirit medium and faced accusations of being a charlatan. In 1875, in New York City, she co-founded the Theosophical Society with Olcott and William Quan Judge. In 1877, she published *Isis Unveiled*, outlining her Theosophical worldview, which she described as the synthesis of science, religion, and philosophy. In 1880, she moved to India, where Theosophy spread rapidly but faced internal problems after accusations of fraudulent paranormal phenomena. In 1885, she returned to Europe, published *The Secret Doctrine*, and died of influenza in 1891. Blavatsky was controversial, seen as both a sage and a charlatan. Her doctrines influenced Western esotericism, including the New Age Movement.
The works
Isis Unveiled
The Secret Doctrine
The Voice of the Silence
The Key to Theosophy
The quotes
The Path that leadeth on is lighted by one fire - the light of daring burning in the heart. The more one dares, the more he shall obtain.
It is on the acceptance or rejection of the theory of the Unity of all in Nature, in its ultimate Essence, that mainly rests the belief or unbelief in the existence around us of other conscious beings besides the Spirits of the Dead.
It is, then, by those shadows of the hoary Past and their fantastic silhouettes on the external screen of every religion and philosophy, that we can, by checking them as we go along, and comparing them, trace out finally the body that produced them.
Even in our day, science suspects beyond the Polar seas, at the very circle of the Arctic Pole, the existence of a sea which never freezes and a continent which is ever green.
Yet, the Universe is real enough to the conscious beings in it, which are as unreal as it is itself.
The Universe is the periodical manifestation of this unknown Absolute Essence.
As no outward motion or change, when normal, in man's external body can take place unless provoked by an inward impulse, given through one of the three functions named, so with the external or manifested Universe.
We see that every external motion, act, gesture, whether voluntary or mechanical, organic or mental, is produced and preceded by internal feeling or emotion, will or volition, and thought or mind.
The Secret Doctrine is the common property of the countless millions of men born under various climates, in times with which History refuses to deal, and to which esoteric teachings assign dates incompatible with the theories of Geology and Anthropology.
Everything in the Universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is conscious: i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind and on its own plane of perception.
To act wisely when the time for action comes, to wait patiently when it is time for repose, put man in accord with the tides. Ignorance of this law results in periods of unreasoning enthusiasm on the one hand, and depression on the other.
The chief difficulty which prevents men of science from believing in divine as well as in nature Spirits is their materialism.
But the first differentiation of its reflection in the manifested World is purely Spiritual, and the Beings generated in it are not endowed with a consciousness that has any relation to the one we conceive of.
Becoming is the mode of activity of the uncreate deity.
The whole order of nature evinces a progressive march towards a higher life.
If coming events are said to cast their shadows before, past events cannot fall to leave their impress behind them.
The Universe is worked and guided from within outwards.
The Occultists, however, know that the traditions of Esoteric Philosophy must be the right ones, simply because they are the most logical, and reconcile every difficulty.