An Appreciation of HP Blavatsky and the Occult

In 1987 I was browsing through a used book store in Kansas City. I came across a series of six volumes of writings by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891). Her story, documented in five volumes of information gleaned from a lifetime of mystical adventure that fascinated me from the first page I turned.

Blavatsky’s story reads like an 18th century Indiana Jones, only instead of artifacts she searched for the mysteries of the Occult. She was born is Russia and at 18 traveled to Europe, from there to Turkey, Greece, Egypt, and France. Then to London, England where in 1851 she met her spiritual mentor. Next it was off to Canada, New Orleans, Mexico, South America, and the West Indies. Next was Ceylon and India. In America she crossed the Rockies with a caravan of emigrants, then on to Japan, back to India, Kashmir, parts of Tibet, Burma, finally returning to Europe via Java. Finally after nine years of travel was back in Russia in 1858. She resumed her to travel; in 1860 she went on to Caucasus and traveled with native tribes for three years. At that point she gained control over her occult powers. Then in 1863 she traveled into the Balkans, Egypt, Syria, and Italy.

Then Blavatsky started her literary career about her spiritual experience, in 1875 she founded the Theosophical Society in New York City and by 1877 published her first great works: - 1877 Isis Unveiled - 1879 The Theosophist magazine

With the seeds planted in the USA and rapid growth of the movement a new headquarters was established in Adyar, India. The headquarters remained in India, However, war in India prompted Blavatsky to move to Germany where she wrote her second large volume. Her final personal move was to London in 1887 where she published: - 1888 The Secret Doctrine - 1887 The magazine Lucifer - 1889 The Key to Theosophy - 1889 The Voice of Silence

Blavatsky’s Society picked up steam around the world with three objectives that still live today.

1. To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color

2. To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science.

3. To investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in man. The years of travel were not without trials. Blavatsky had been ill several times and when she died at 60 she was still working hard to transmit her experience.

The society became somewhat fragmented after Blavatsky died but continued in India with Anne Besant as Theosophical Society-Adyar, India and led in the USA by Katherine Tingley in Pasadena, California, USA. Other groups are in Germany, England and Canada. The philosophy is well founded and although I found her books a bit hard to read I feel truth in the postulate that the invisible side of nature creates the physical side of nature.

An Appreciation of HP Blavatsky and the Occult