Everything about Madame Blavatsky totally explained
Elena Petrovna Gan (also Hélène,
July 30 -
July 31,
1831 (
O.S.)
(August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) Yekaterinoslav,
Russian Empire —
May 8,
1891 London), better known as
Helena Blavatsky or
Madame Blavatsky, born
Helena von Hahn, was a founder of the
Theosophical Society.
Biography
Family
Helena's parents were Colonel Piotr Alekseevich Gan / Peter von Hahn (Пётр Алексеевич Ган, 1798-1873) of "original" (Uradel) German nobility from
Basedow (
Mecklenburg) — and Elena Andreyevna Fadeyeva (Елена Андреевна Фадеева, 1814-1843), the author, under the pen-name "Zeneida R-va", of a dozen novels. Described by
Belinsky as the "Russian
George Sand", she died at the age of 28, when Helena was eleven. Helena's sister
Vera Zhelikhovsky was a writer of occult/
fantastic fiction.
Sergei Witte - Russian Minister, and then Prime-Minister in the reign of Tsar Nicholas II - was her first cousin. In his memoirs count Vitte recalls his encounters with Elena.
Elena's maternal grandparents were Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev (Andrey Fadeyev) Governor of Saratov, later of Tiflis (Tbilisi), and his wife Helene (nee Princess Dolgoruky) - prominent figures of the age of Russian enlightenment. Elena grew up amid a culture rich in spirituality and traditional Russian mythologies, which introduced her to the realm of the supernatural.
Elena's great-grand nephew Boris de Zirkoff (Борис Цирков, 1902-1981) was an active member of Theosophical Society and the editor of the Blavatsky Collected Writings; her great-grand niece, also Elena (1935), lives in Moscow - her resemblance to HPB is striking.
First marriage
She was married four weeks before she turned seventeen, on
July 7,
1848, to the forty-year old
Nikifor (also Nicephor) Vassilievitch Blavatsky, vice-governor of
Erivan. After three unhappy months, she stole a horse, and escaped back over the mountains to her grandfather in
Tiflis. Her grandfather shipped her off immediately to her father who was retired and living near
Saint Petersburg. He travelled two thousand miles to meet her at
Odessa, but she wasn't there. She had missed the steamer, and sailed away with the skipper of an English bark bound for
Constantinople. According to her account, they never consummated their marriage, and she remained a virgin her entire life.
Wandering years
According to her own story as told to a later biographer, she spent the years
1848 to
1858 traveling the world, and is said to have visited
Egypt,
France, Canada (
Quebec),
England,
South America,
Germany,
Mexico,
India,
Greece and especially
Tibet to study for two years with the men she called Brothers. She claimed to have become
Buddhist while in
Sri Lanka and being initiated in
Tibet. She returned to Russia in 1858 and went first to see her sister Vera, a young widow living in
Rugodevo, a village which she'd inherited from her husband.
Agardi Metrovitch
About this time, she met and left with
Italian opera singer Agardi Metrovich.
Some sources say that she'd several extramarital affairs, became pregnant, and bore a deformed child, Yuri, whom she loved dearly. She wrote that Yuri was a child of her friends the Metroviches
(C.W.I p. xlvi-ii, HPB TO APS p. 147). To balance this statement,
Count Witte, her first cousin on her mother's side, stated in his Memoirs (as quoted by
G. Williams), that her father read aloud a letter in which Metrovich signed himself as "your affectionate grandson". This is evidence that Metrovich considered himself Helena's husband at this point. Yuri died at the age of five, and Helena said that she ceased to believe in the
Russian Orthodox God at this point.
Two different versions of how Agardi died are extant. In one, G. Williams states that Agardi had been taken sick with a fever and delirium in
Ramleh, and that he died in bed
April 19,
1870. In the second version, while bound for
Cairo on a boat, the 'Evmonia', in
1871, an explosion claimed Agardi’s life, but H. P. Blavatsky continued on to Cairo herself.
Another unfounded account is that while in Cairo she formed the
Societe Spirite for
occult phenomena with Emma Cutting (later Emma Coulomb), which is said to have closed after dissatisfied customers complained of fraudulent activities.
To New York
It was in
1873 that she emigrated to
New York City. Impressing people with her supposed
psychic abilities, she was spurred on to continue her mediumship. Mediumship (other psychical and spiritual sciences of the time), based upon the quasi-religion known as
Spiritualism having began at
Rochester, NY, was a widely popular and fast-spreading field upon which Blavatsky based her career.
Throughout her career she claimed to have demonstrated physical and mental psychic feats which included
levitation,
clairvoyance, out-of-body projection,
telepathy, and
clairaudience. Another claim of hers was
materialization, that is, producing physical objects out of nothing, though in general, her interests were more in the area of '
theory' and '
laws' rather than demonstration.
In
1874 at the farm of the
Eddy Brothers, Helena met
Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the
Spiritualist phenomena. Soon they were working together in the "Lamasery" (alternate spelling: "Lamastery") where her book
Isis Unveiled was written.
She married her second husband, Michael C. Betanelly on
April 3,
1875 in New York City. She separated from Betanelly after a few months, and their divorce was legalized on
May 25,
1878. On
July 8,
1878, she became a
naturalized citizen of the
United States.
Foundation of Theosophical Society
Living in New York City, she founded the
Theosophical Society in September 1875, with
Henry Steel Olcott,
William Quan Judge and others. Madame Blavatsky wrote that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and problematic or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. Her writings connecting esoteric spiritual knowledge 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 also lived in Philadelphia for part of 1875, where she resided at 3420 Sansom Street, now home of the White Dog Cafe
(External Link
). While living on Sansom Street, Madame Blavatsky became ill with an infected leg. She claimed to have undergone a "transformation" during her illness which inspired her to found the Theosophical Society. In a letter dated June 12, 1875, Madame Helena Blavatsky described her recovery, explaining that she dismissed the doctors and surgeons who threatened amputation. She is quoted as saying "Fancy my leg going to the spirit land before me!," and had a white dog sleep across her leg by night.
To India
She had moved to India, landing at Bombay February 16 1879, where she first made the acquaintance of
A.P. Sinnett. In his book
Occult World he describes how she stayed at his home in
Allahabad for six weeks that year, and again the following year.
Sometime around December 1880, while at a dinner party with a group including
A.O. Hume and his wife, she's claimed to have been instrumental in causing the materialization of Mrs. Hume's lost brooch.
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.
The society headquartered here for some time, but she later went to Germany for a while, in between she stayed at
Ostend (15 July 1886 - 1 May 1887) where she easily could meet her English friends. She wrote a big part of the
Secret Doctrine in
Ostend and there she claimed a revelation during an illness telling her to continue the book at any cost. Finally she went to England.
A disciple put her up in her own house in England and it was here that she lived until the end of her life.
Final years
In August, 1890 she formed the "Inner Circle" of 12 disciples: "Countess
Constance Wachtmeister, Mrs
Isabel Cooper-Oakley, Miss Emily Kislingbury, Miss Laura Cooper, Mrs
Annie Besant, Mrs Alice Cleather, Dr
Archibald Keightley, Herbert Coryn, Claude Wright,
G.R.S. Mead, E.T. Sturdy, and Walter Old".
Suffering from heart disease,
rheumatism,
Bright's disease, and complications from
influenza, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died at 19 Avenue Road, St Johns Wood, the home she shared, in England on
May 8,
1891.
Her last words in regard to her work were: "Keep the link unbroken! Do not let my last incarnation be a failure."
Her body was
cremated; one third of her ashes were sent to
Europe, one third with
William Quan 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's called
White Lotus Day.
She was succeeded as head of one branch of the Theosophical Society by her protégé,
Annie Besant. Her friend, W.Q. Judge, headed the American Section.
Influences
Blavatsky was influenced by the following authors:
Blavatsky's works have shown their influence on the following leaders, authors, artists and musicians:
According to Jackson Spielvogel and David Redles of the Simon Wiesenthal Center,
Works
Her books included
Isis Unveiled, a master key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology (1877)Online version
From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan (1879-80) Online version
The Secret Doctrine, the synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (1888)Online version
The Voice of the Silence (1889) Online version
The Key to Theosophy (1889) Online version
Nightmare Tales (1892)
Personal Memoirs of H. P. Blavatsky. Autobiographic notes compiled by Mary K. Neff (1937)
Her many articles have been collected in the Collected Writings of H. P. Blavatsky. This series has 15 numbered volumes including the index.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Madame Blavatsky'.
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