Madame Blavatsky, The Founder Of Theosophy
Born in what’s now Ukraine in 1831, Helena Blavatsky was raised in a Russian Orthodox family. It’s unclear exactly when she became interested in the occult, but by the 1870s, she was sharing her esoteric beliefs with others.
Public DomainMadame Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society, a religious movement purportedly based in ancient wisdom.
Madame Blavatsky had spent years traveling throughout Europe and Asia, but by 1875, she was living in the United States. There, she and her friend Henry Steel Olcott founded the Theosophical Society. This religious movement drew from Hinduism, Buddhism, and European philosophies, and Blavatsky stated in her 1889 book The Key to Theosophy that its aim was to “form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.”
Blavatsky also described Theosophy as “the archaic Wisdom-Religion, the esoteric doctrine once known in every ancient country having claims to civilization.” And in her 1877 book Isis Unveiled she declared that mysticism, not religion, was the key to true spiritual insight.
Public DomainMadame Helena Blavatsky in London. 1889.
In 1879, Blavatsky traveled to India and established a headquarters for the Theosophical Society in Madras. The movement became popular in the country, though Blavatsky also faced heavy criticism there for alleged fraud. While she claimed to be telepathic and clairvoyant, not everyone thought she was legitimate.
Regardless of the truth of her claims, Madame Blavatsky’s influence is indubitable. Some scholars have even claimed that all modern occultism can be traced back to her teachings about the “Masters of Ancient Wisdom.”
