Constance Wachtmeister

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Constance Wachtmeister. Xylography 1893.

Constance Georgina Louise Wachtmeister , Countess of, mostly just Countess Wachtmeister (born March 28, 1838 in Florence , Italy , † September 23, 1910 in Los Angeles ; born Constance Georgina Louise Bourbel de Montpinçon ) was a Franco-English theosophist .

life and work

Constance Wachtmeister was born on March 28, 1838 in Florence as the daughter of the Marquis de Bourbel and Constance Bulkley (1806 / 7–1831). The father was a diplomat in the French service. Both parents died shortly after their birth, after which she was placed in the care of her aunt Mrs. Bulkley in Linden Hill (now Kiln Green , Berkshire , England), where she grew up, attended local schools and lived until 1863.

On August 15, 1863, she married her cousin in London, the Swedish Count Carl Wachtmeister (1823–1871). The son Raoul-Axel Wachtmeister (1865–1947) emerged from the marriage.

Her husband had been ambassador for Sweden and Norway to the Court of St. James’s in the United Kingdom since 1861 , became ambassador for these countries to Denmark in 1865 and was Swedish Foreign Minister from 1868 until his death in 1871. Accompanied by her husband, Constance Wachtmeister lived in Copenhagen and Stockholm during this time .

In 1879 she began to be interested in spiritualism .

From 1881 she was a member of the Theosophical Society (TG). In April 1884 she met Helena Blavatsky in London. In 1887 she was a co-founder of Blavatsky Lodge , where she was treasurer. For a time she was Blavatsky's travel companion and secretary, for whom she arranged for the fair copy of the Secret Doctrine . Wachtmeister worked for the theosophical publishing house Theosophical Publishing Society .

From 1888 to 1895 she was editor of the magazine Theosophical Siftings (literally: Theosophical sifted ). In 1893 she accepted Annie Besant's invitation to India to work for the TG. When the TG split into two competing organizations in 1895, it joined the Adyar Theosophical Society .

Together with Alfredo Pioda , Franz Hartmann and R. Thurman , Wachtmeister wanted to establish a theosophical lay monastery on Monte Verità in 1889 . For this purpose, she took a share in a joint-stock company founded specifically for this purpose called Fraternitas . However, the project did not get beyond the planning phase and was not implemented in a modified form without theosophy until 1900.

In her book Reminiscences of HP Blavatsky and The secret doctrine , she describes her visits to Blavatsky in Elberfeld , Würzburg and Ostend .

Works (selection)

  • HPB and the present crisis in the Theosophical Society . Women's printing society, London 1895.
  • Practical vegetarian cookery . Mercury Publishing Co., San Francisco 1897.
  • Reminiscences of HP Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine . Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton 1976, ISBN 0835604888 .

Web links

Commons : Constance Wachtmeister  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ UCR : Los Angeles Herald, Volume 37, Number 358, September 24, 1910
  2. ↑ Ursula Keller, Natalja Sharandak: Madame Blavatsky. A biography. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, p. 241.
  3. ↑ http://www.austheos.org.au/indices/THSIFT.HTM
  4. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from November 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.monteverita.org
personal data
SURNAME Sergeant, Constance
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Constable, Countess; Bourbel de Montjunçon, Constance Georgina Louise
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French-English theosophist
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Florence
DATE OF DEATH September 23, 1910
Place of death los Angeles