Talk:Helena Blavatsky

Influences and the Influenced

"Satan, the Serpent of Genesis, is the real creator and benefactor, the Father of Spiritual mankind (Brooke, Harvest House Publishers, 1989, pg 175-176)." I put that quote into the main bio and had it deleted several times. When I first read Madame Blavatsky's bio, it read more like a fanpage. I felt that it was only fair to present an alternative. The way it read, there was nary a negative piece of information. I never inserted name-calling into the bio. I simply referenced a quote from her writings to add to discussion.

As for my additions to the list of those influenced by Madame Blavatsky: I did add Adolf Hitler, Alfred Kinsey, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant, and deleted Van Morrison. The reasons why are that the use of the swastika and colors of the Nazi flag are an undeniable link to the works of Madame Blavatsky. I added Kinsey because Blavatsky heavily influenced Alleister Crowley's writings on sex, which in turn influenced Alfred Kinsey. Robert Plant and Jimmy Page were added because one only need look to their body of musical work to see the influences of the occult and religious relativism. I removed Van Morrison because he often pronounces his faith in God during concerts, so it seemed pointless to have Van Morrison on the list when there is no real discussion in Morrison's page on his religious beliefs.

Sources on mother

In Sylvia Cranston's huge book on HPB she lists in her notes a work "Helena Andreevna Hahn" by Bobritsky. No author named Bobritsky however appears in her subsequent bibliography, and I cannot find a book by this name or an author named this who work a book on her mother either. Very frustrating! If anyone recognizes this work, can you give a full citation? Thanks. Wjhonson 01:07, 6 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

grandmother's name

In her book "Priestess of the Occult", Gertrude Marvin Williams does a very fine and very well researched (in my opinion) biography of Helena's early years. Although the book is antagonistic to Helena's alledged powers, there is no reason in my mind why Gertrude would mis-state her ancestry. In this book, Gertrude, states the name of the grandmother was "Pricess Helene Dolgoruki" and the grandfather "Andrez Mikhailovich Fadeev, Privy Councillor of the Caucasus". I'm assuming from this, that the grandmother retained her family name, in spite of being married.

If someone has a SOURCE which states overwise, please put it here so we can review it. Wjhonson 17:27, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Due to grammar of the Russian language, Russian female names in most cases have different endings, thus the name of the grandmother should be Helena Andreyevna Fadeyeva. The exception made for Helena Blavatskaya is probably determined by the fact she became famous abroad. Anyway to be sure check a guide on how to write Russian names. 7even 09:20, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

mini bio

Blavatsky, Helena Paulovna (1831-1891), Russian theosophist, was born at Ekaterinoslav, Russia, 31st July (O.S.) 1831. She is stated to have been the daughter of Peter Hahn, a Russian officer. An unruly girl, she sought emancipation from family ties by marrying in her 17th year (7th July 1848) Nicephore Blavatsky, a Russian official in Caucasia, from whom she was separated after a few months of stormy conjugal life. In later days, when seeking to invest herself with a halo of virginity, she described the marriage as a nominal one, and her bridegroom as “a plumeless raven nearer seventy than sixty.” If this statement were true, M. Blavatsky, who was reported as still living in 1895, would then have been considerably over 110 years of age. During the twenty years that followed the separation from her husband, Mme. Blavatsky travelled and probably gained experience as a spiritualistic medium in large cities, among which it is believed that she visited Paris, Cairo, New Orleans, Tokio, and Calcutta. The period 1848-58 was alluded to subsequently as the veiled period of her life, and she spoke vaguely of a seven years’ sojourn in “Little and Great Tibet” or preferably of a “Himalayan retreat.” In 1858 she revisited Russia, where she created a considerable sensation as a spiritualistic medium. Early in the 'seventies she acquired prominence among the spiritualists of the United States, and was mixed up in the Eddy Brothers and Katie King frauds. Her leisure was occupied with the study of occult and cabalistic literature, to which was soon to be added that of the sacred writings of India, though these had to be approached through the medium of translations. In 1875 she conceived the plan of combining the spiritualistic “control” with the Buddhistic legends about Tibetan sages or wonder-working adepts. Henceforth she determined to exclude all control save that of two Tibetan adepts or “mahatmas,” called respectively Koot Hoomi and Morya. The mahatmas exhibited their “astral bodies” to her, “precipitated” messages which reached her from the confines of Tibet in an instant of time, supplied her with sound doctrine, and incited her to perform tricks for the conversion of sceptics. At New York, in October 1875, with the aid of Colonel Olcott, she definitely launched the “Theosophical Society,” which was formed out of a group of disillusioned spiritualists, and had for its avowed objects to put down spiritualism, to convert the materialists, and to prove the existence of the Tibetan brothers. The Brahmanic and Buddhistic literatures supplied the society with a technical vocabulary, and its doctrines were a curious amalgam of Egyptian, cabalistic, occultist, Indian, and modern spiritualistic ideas and formulas. The two leading text-books, Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888), both compiled by Madame Blavatsky, are a mosaic of unacknowledged quotations from well-known works, as Mackenzie’s Masonic Cyclopaedia, King’s Gnostics, Zeller’s Plato, the works on magic by Dunlop, Salverte, Ennemoser, and Des Mousseaux, but above all from the mystical writings of Eliphas Levi. She took great pains with A Glossary of Theosophical Terms (1890-92), compiled for the benefit of the “flap-doodles,” as in moments of candour she called her disciples. But the appearance of Home’s Lights and Shadows of Spiritualism (1877) had a prejudicial effect upon the propaganda, and Heliona P. Blavatsky (as she began to style herself) sought temporary obscurity in India. Thence she contributed some clever papers, “From the Cave and Jungles of Hindostan,” to the Russky Vyestnik. Defeated in her object of obtaining employment in the Russian secret service, she resumed her efforts to gain converts to theosophy. For this purpose the exhibition of “physical phenomena” was found necessary. The jugglery which she practised was cleverly conceived, but carelessly executed, and on three distinct occasions the elaborate system of trickery to which she resorted was exposed in the most conclusive manner. Nevertheless, Madame Blavatsky’s extraordinary cleverness, volubility, energy, and will power enabled her to maintain her ground, and when she died on 8th May 1891 (White Lotus Day), at the Theosophical headquarters in Avenue Road, Regent’s Park, London, she was the acknowledged head of a community numbering not far short of 100,000, with journals in London, Paris, New York, and Madras. Much information respecting her will be found in Solovyoff’s Modern Priestess of Isis, translated b Walter Leaf (1895), in Arthur Lillie’s Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy (1895), and in the report made to the Society for Psychical Research by the Cambridge graduate despatched to investigate her doings in India. In personal appearance the “old one,” as Madame was familiarly called by her following, has been described as globular in shape, with a dull gray complexion, a far from attractive physiognomy, and eyes like discolored turquoises. Yet she certainly fascinated those who came in contact with her, even those of her colleagues whom her “fibs” and indiscretions kept in a continual state of uneasiness.

[Reprinted from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1902 edition. ]

HPB -> Helena Petrovna Blavatsky?

This article is currently redirected to from HPB. Unfortunately, the same acronym is linked to elsewhere as meaning "High Ping Bastards" (see the second paragraph of Quake#QuakeWorld.) Should there be some sort of disambiguation page? --Ciaran H 10:30, Apr 9, 2005 (UTC)

Piet Mondriaan is an Author? What did he write?

This "influences" section seems to be held together with conjecture, I don't know how one would cite sources on this. Original research? Theory? Zosodada 9 July 2005 00:09 (UTC)

Spiritualism or spiritism?

Quote:

In 1874, Helena met Henry Steel Olcott; he was a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena.

Was it really spiritualism and not spiritism he covered? Nixdorf 22:23, August 15, 2005 (UTC)

Gertrude Marvin Williams, in her book "Priestess of the Occult" uses the word spiritualism. If you check the page of spiritism it mentions the Fox sisters but not the Eddy brothers. That is confusing to me. I'm not at all sure the two pages themselves are not confused as to who is what and which is where. Wjhonson 17:32, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Works / Books about her / "Madame Blavatsky's Baboon"

Under "Works", "Books about her", regarding the book "Madame Blavatsky's Baboon". I have changed the description of the link from "Review" to "Rebuttal/Review". The article is hardly unbiased, certainly not just a review, and the description of the article on that page even describes it as "not so much a book review as a remedial essay."

Before removing the link to Amazon please post your reference for "we don't link to bookstores". This is the first time I've seen this statment and I challenge it's validity. In my experience, wiki links to anywhere it feels like linking. Thanks.Wjhonson 18:28, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]