Helena Blavatsky

Helena Petrovna Hahn (July 31, 1831 (O.S.) (August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) - May 8, 1891), better known as Madame Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy.

She was born in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), Ukraine, the daughter of Col. Peter Alexeivich von Hahn and Elena Fadeev. Her mother, also known as Helena Andreyvna Fadeyev, was a novelist, known as the "Russian George Sand", and died when Helena was eleven. Her father being in the armed forces, she was sent with her brother to live with her maternal grandmother, Helena Pavlovna de Fadeev, a princess of the Dolgorkuov family and a famous botanist. Both her mother and grandmother were strong role models that allowed H.P.B. to mature into a nonconformist.

She married, on July 7, 1849, Nikifor Vassilievitch Blavatsky. He died several years later and she soon married her second husband, Michael C. Betanelly on April 3, 1875. She maintained that neither marriage was consummated. She separated from Betanelly after a few months, and their divorce was legalized on May 25, 1878.

Madame Blavatsky traveled throughout the world, and resided in New York City from 1873 to 1878.

She then founded, with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others, the Theosophical Society, a modern day neo-platonean movement of the late nineteenth century that took its inspiration from Hinduism and Buddhism. Blavatsky claimed to have been given access to what she called a 'secret doctrine' that had been passed down the ages from ancient sages of a White Brotherhood. In this respect Blavatsky's ideas followed in the tradition of Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism. The difference was that Blavatsky's esoteric wisdom was supposed to be derived from Eastern sages, rather than from Egyptian or Judaic traditions. Furthermore, Blavatsy claimed that the ancient "Akashic" wisdom to which she had access was consistent with modern science, in particular with physics and evolutionary biology (for instance borrowing the name Lemuria from biologist P.L. Sclater as the name for the origin of her lost continent which would serve as the origin for her third root race). This claim that esoteric spiritual knowledge is consistent with new science may be considered to be the first instance of what is now called New Age thinking. In fact, many researchers feel that much of New Age-thought started with Blavatsky.

She died in London, England.

Her books included:

Isis Unveiled, a master key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology - 1877
The Secret Doctrine, the synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy - 1888
The Voice of the Silence - 1889
The Key to Theosophy - 1889

Her many articles have been collected in the H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings. This series has 14 volumes including the index.

Books about her include:

Madame Blavatsky's Baboon, by Peter Washington
The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky by Daniel Caldwell

External links

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Helena married the forty year old Nikifor (also Nicephor) V. Blavatsky at the age of seventeen, but they never consummated their marriage. Within a few months, she abandoned her husband.

She traveled the world from 1848 to 1858, claiming to have entered Tibet to study with the Masters for two years. She returned to Russia for a short stay in 1858 to soon leave with Italian opera singer Agardi Metrovich. 1871, a boat bound for Cairo an explosion claimed Agardi’s life, but H.P. Blavatsky continued on to Cairo herself. It was in Cairo that she formed the Societe Spirite for occult phenomena with Emma Cutting (later Emma Coulomb), which closed after dissatisfied customers complained of fraudulent activities.

It was in 1873 that she emigrated to New York. Impressing people with her psychic abilities she was spurred on to continue her mediumship. Throughout her career she claimed to be able to perform physical and mental psychic feats which included levitation, clairvoyance, out-of-body projection, telepathy, and clairaudience. Though she was apparently quite apt these feats, her interests were more in the area of theory and laws of how they work rather than performing them herself.

Helena met Henry Steel Olcott in 1874, he was a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena. September of 1875 the union of their life long friendship along with William Q. Judge, the Theosophical Society was formed. H.P. Blavatsky is well known for her writing, Isis Unveiled (1877), the Secret Doctrine (1888), The Key of Theosophy (1889), and The Voice of Silence (1889). By 1882 the Theosophical Society became an international organization and it was at this time that she moved the headquarters to Adyar near Madras India.

Suffering from heart disease, rheumatism, Bright’s disease of the Kidneys and complications of influenza, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died iat her home May 8, 1891. Her body was then cremated, one third of her ashes were sent to Europe, on third with William Judge to the United States, and one third to India where her ashes were scattered in the Ganges River. May 8 is celebrated by Theosophists, and it is called White Lotus Day.