The writer Helena Blavatsky was born on July 31, 1831 in the city of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk). She had a distinguished pedigree. Her ancestors were diplomats and famous officials. Elena's cousin, Sergei Yulievich Witte, served as Minister of Finance of the Russian Empire from 1892 to 1903.
Family and childhood
At birth, Helena Blavatsky had the German surname Gan, which she inherited from her father. Due to the fact that he was a military man, the family had to constantly move around the country (St. Petersburg, Saratov, Odessa, etc.). In 1848, the girl was engaged to Nikifor Blavatsky, the governor of the Erivan province. However, the marriage did not last long. A few months after the wedding, Helena Blavatsky ran away from her husband, after which she went to wander around the world. Her first stop was Constantinople (Istanbul).
Helena Blavatsky remembered Russia and her childhood years at home with warmth. The family provided her with everything she needed, providing a quality education.
Journeys in youth
In the Turkish capital, the girl was engaged in performing in the circus as a rider. When due to an accidentshe broke her arm, Elena decided to move to London. She had money: she herself earned money and received transfers sent to her by her father, Pyotr Alekseevich Gan.
Since Helena Blavatsky did not keep a diary, her fate during her travels is rather indistinctly tracked. Many of her biographers disagree on where she managed to visit, and what routes remained only in rumors.
Most often, researchers mention that in the late 40s the writer went to Egypt. The reason for this was the passion for alchemy and Freemasonry. Many members of the lodges had books in their libraries that were required reading, among which were volumes of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Code of the Nazarenes, the Wisdom of Solomon, etc. There were two main spiritual centers for Freemasons - Egypt and India. It is with these countries that Blavatsky's numerous researches are connected, including Isis Unveiled. However, she wrote books at an advanced age. In her youth, the girl gained experience and practical knowledge, living directly in the environment of different world cultures.
Arriving in Cairo, Elena went to the Sahara desert to study the Ancient Egyptian civilization. This people had nothing to do with the Arabs, who had ruled the banks of the Nile for several centuries. The knowledge of the ancient Egyptians extended to a variety of disciplines - from mathematics to medicine. It was they who became the subject of scrupulous study by Helena Blavatsky.
After Egypt was Europe. Here she devoted herself to art. In particular, the girl took lessons in the gameon the piano with the famous Bohemian virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles. Having gained experience, she even gave public concerts in European capitals.
In 1851, Helena Blavatsky visited London. There she managed to meet a real Hindu for the first time. It was Mahatma Morya. True, to this day no evidence of the existence of this person has been found. Perhaps he was an illusion of Blavatsky, who practiced various esoteric and theosophical rites.
One way or another, Mahatma Morya became a source of inspiration for Elena. In the 50s, she ended up in Tibet, where she studied local occultism. According to various researchers, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky stayed there for about seven years, periodically traveling to other parts of the world, including the United States.
Formation of Theosophical Teaching
It was during these years that the doctrine that Helena Petrovna Blavatsky professed and propagated in her works was formed. It was a peculiar form of theosophy. According to her, the human soul is one with the deity. This means that there is some knowledge in the world outside of science that is available only to the elite and enlightened. It was a form of religious syncretism - a mixture of many cultures and myths of different peoples in one teaching. This is not surprising, because Blavatsky absorbed the knowledge of many countries where she managed to visit in her youth.
Helena's greatest influence was Indian philosophy, which developed in isolation over many millennia. Blavatsky's theosophy also included Buddhism and Brahmanism, popular among the nationsIndia. In her teaching, Elena used the terms "karma" and "reincarnation". Theosophy has influenced such famous people as Mahatma Gandhi, Nicholas Roerich and Wassily Kandinsky.
Tibet
In the 50s, Helena Blavatsky visited Russia from time to time (so to speak, on short visits). The woman's biography surprised the local public. She held crowded séances, which became popular in St. Petersburg. In the early 60s, the woman visited the Caucasus, the Middle East and Greece. Then she tried for the first time to organize a society of followers and like-minded people. In Cairo, she set to work. This is how the "Spiritual Society" was born. However, it did not last long, but it became another useful experience.
Followed by another long journey to Tibet - then Blavatsky visited Laos and the Karakorum mountains. She managed to visit closed monasteries, where not a single European has set foot. But such a guest was Helena Blavatsky.
The woman's books contained many references to the culture of Tibet and life in Buddhist temples. It was there that the valuable materials included in the publication "Voice of Silence" were obtained.
Meet Henry Olcott
In the 70s, Helena Blavatsky, whose philosophy became popular, began her work as a preacher and spiritual teacher. Then she moved to the United States, where she received citizenship and went through the naturalization procedure. At the same time, Henry Steel becomes her main colleague. Olcott.
He was a lawyer who had been promoted to colonel during the American Civil War. He was appointed to the post of special commissioner of the War Department to investigate corruption in companies supplying ammunition. After the war, he became a successful lawyer and a member of the New York Collegium, which enjoys authority. His specialization included taxes, duties, and property insurance.
Alcott's acquaintance with spiritualism happened as early as 1844. Much later, he met Helena Blavatsky, with whom he went to travel the world and teach. He also helped launch her writing career when she began writing the manuscripts for Isis Unveiled.
Theosophical Society
November 17, 1875 Helena Blavatsky and Henry Olcott founded the Theosophical Society. His main goal was the desire to unite like-minded people around the world, regardless of race, gender, caste and faith. For this, activities were organized to study and compare various sciences, religions and philosophical schools. All this was done in order to know the laws of nature and the universe unknown to mankind. All these purposes were enshrined in the charter of the Theosophical Society.
In addition to the founders, many famous people joined it. For example, it was Thomas Edison - entrepreneur and inventor, William Crookes (president of the Royal Society of London, chemist), French astronomer Camille Flammarion, astrologer and occultist Max Handel, etc. The Theosophical Society became a platform for spiritual disputes anddisputes.
Begin writing
To spread the teachings of their organization, Blavatsky and Olcott traveled to India in 1879. At this time, Elena's writing activity is flourishing. First, the woman regularly publishes new books. Secondly, she has established herself as a deep and interesting publicist. Her talent was also appreciated in Russia, where Blavatskaya was published in Moskovskie Vedomosti and Russkiy Vestnik. At the same time, she was the editor of her own journal, The Theosophist. For example, it contained the first translation into English of a chapter from Dostoevsky's novel The Brothers Karamazov. It was a parable about the Grand Inquisitor - the central episode of the last book of the great Russian writer.
Blavatsky's travels formed the basis of her memoirs and travel notes, published in various books. As an example, one can cite the works “Mysterious tribes on the blue mountains” and “From the caves and wilds of Hindustan”. In 1880, Buddhism becomes a new object of research conducted by Helena Blavatsky. Reviews of her work were published in a variety of newspapers and collections. In order to learn as much as possible about Buddhism, Blavatsky and Olcott went to Ceylon.
Isis Unveiled
Isis Unveiled was the first major book published by Helena Blavatsky. It appeared in two volumes in 1877 and contained a huge layer of knowledge and reasoning about esoteric philosophy.
The author tried to compare the numerous teachings of Antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The text contained a large number of references to the works of Pythagoras, Plato, Giordano Bruno, Paracelsus, etc.
Besides this, "Isis" considered religious teachings: Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Zoroastrianism. At first, the book was conceived as a survey of Eastern schools of philosophy. The work began on the eve of the founding of the Theosophical Society. The organization of this structure delayed the release of the work. It was not until the founding of the movement was announced in New York that the intensive work of writing the book began. Blavatsky was actively assisted by Henry Olcott, who at that time became her main ally and associate.
As the former lawyer himself recalled, never before had Blavatsky worked with such diligence and endurance. In fact, she summarized in her work all the multifaceted experience gained over many years of travel to different parts of the world.
At first, the book was supposed to be called "The Key to the Mysterious Gates", as the author reported in a letter to Alexander Aksakov. It was later decided to title the first volume as The Veil of Isis. However, the British publisher who worked on the first printing found out that a book with that title had already been published (it was a common Theosophical term). Therefore, the final version of "Isis Unveiled" was adopted. It reflected Blavatsky's youthful interest in the culture of Ancient Egypt.
The book had many ideas and goals. Over the years, scholars of Blavatsky's work have formulated them in different ways. For example, the first publication in the UK containedpublisher's preface. In it, he informed the reader that the book contains the largest number of sources on theosophy and occultism that has ever existed in literature before. And this meant that the reader could get as close as possible to answering the question about the existence of secret knowledge, which served as the source of all religions and cults of the peoples of the world.
Alexander Senkevich (one of the most authoritative researchers of Blavatsky's bibliography) formulated the main message of "Isis Unveiled" in his own way. In his work on the biography of the writer, he explained that this book is a model of criticism of the church organization, a collection of theories about mental phenomena and the secrets of nature. "Isis" analyzes the secrets of the Kabbalistic teachings, the esoteric ideas of the Buddhists, as well as their reflection in Christianity and other world religions. Senkiewicz also noted that Blavatsky managed to prove the existence of non-material substances.
Special attention is paid to secret communities. These are Masons and Jesuits. Their knowledge became the fertile soil that Helena Blavatsky enjoyed. Quotations from Isis later began to appear in large numbers in the occult and theosophical writings of its followers.
If the first volume of the publication was focused on the study of science, then the second, on the contrary, considered theological issues. In the preface, the author explained that the conflict between these two schools is the key to understanding the world order.
Blavatsky criticized the thesis of scientific knowledge that there is no spiritual principle in man. The writer tried to find it with the help of variousreligious and spiritual teachings. Some researchers of Blavatsky's work note that in her book she offers the reader indisputable evidence of the existence of magic.
The second theological volume analyzes various religious organizations (for example, the Christian Church) and criticizes them for their hypocritical attitude to their own teachings. In other words, Blavatsky claimed that the adepts betrayed their origins (Bible, Koran, etc.).
The author examined the teachings of famous mystics, which contradicted world religions. Exploring these philosophical schools, she tried to find a common root. Many of her theses were both anti-scientific and anti-religious. For this, "Isis" was criticized by a variety of readers. But that hasn't stopped her from gaining cult following with a different part of the audience. It was the success of Isis Unveiled that allowed Blavatsky to expand her Theosophical Society, which has members in every corner of the world, from America to India.
Voice of Silence
In 1889, the book "The Voice of Silence" was published, the author of which was the same Helena Blavatsky. The biography of this woman says that it was a successful attempt to combine numerous theosophical researches under one cover. The main source of inspiration for "Voice of Silence" was the writer's stay in Tibet, where she got acquainted with the teachings of Buddhists and the isolated life of local monasteries.
This time, Blavatsky did not compare or evaluate several philosophical schools. She set to work on a textured description of Buddhist teachings. It contains a detailed analysisterms such as "Krishna" or "Higher Self". Most of the book was in Buddhist style. However, it was not an orthodox exposition of this religion. There was a mystical component familiar to Blavatsky in it.
This work has become especially popular with Buddhists. It went through many editions in India and Tibet, where it became a reference book for many researchers. She was highly regarded by the Dalai Lamas. The last of them (who is still alive, by the way) wrote the foreword for The Voice of the Silence on the hundredth anniversary of the first edition. This is an excellent foundation for those who want to learn and understand Buddhism, including the Zen school.
The book was presented by the writer Leo Tolstoy, who in his last years intensively studied a variety of religions. The gift copy is still kept in Yasnaya Polyana. The author captioned the cover, calling Tolstoy "one of the few who can comprehend and understand what is written there."
The count himself spoke warmly about the gift in his publications, where he compiled wise excerpts from the books that influenced him ("For Every Day", "Thoughts of Wise People", "Reading Circle"). Also, the writer in one of his personal letters said that "The Voice of Silence" contains a lot of light, but also touches on issues that a person is not able to know at all. It is also known that Tolstoy read the Theosophist by Blavatsky, who greatly appreciated what he said in his diary.
The Secret Doctrine
The Secret Doctrine is considered the last work of Blavatsky, in which she summed up everythingtheir knowledge and insights. During the lifetime of the writer, the first two volumes were published. The third book was published after her death in 1897.
The first volume analyzed and compared various views on the origin of the universe. The second considered human evolution. It touched upon racial issues, as well as explored the development of humans as a biological species.
The last volume was a collection of biographies and teachings of some occultists. The Secret Doctrine was greatly influenced by stanzas - verses from the Book of Dzyan, which were often quoted on the pages of the work. Another source of texture was the previous book, The Key to Theosophy.
The new publication had a special language. The writer used a huge number of symbols and images generated by various religions and philosophical schools.
The Secret Doctrine was the sequel to Isis Unveiled. In fact, it was a deeper look at the issues outlined in the first book of the writer. And in the work on the new edition of Blavatsky, her Theosophical Society helped.
Work on writing this monumental work was the most difficult test that Helena Blavatsky endured. Books published earlier did not take as much strength as this one. Numerous witnesses later noted in their memoirs that the author drove herself into a complete frenzy, when one page could correspond up to twenty times.
Huge assistance in publishing this work was provided by Archibald Keightley. He was a member of the Theosophical Society from 1884years, and at the time of writing he was General Secretary of its branch in the UK. It was this man who personally edited a stack of sheets a meter high. Basically, the corrections affected punctuation and some points important for the future edition. Its final version was presented to the writer in 1890.
It is known that the "Secret Doctrine" was enthusiastically reread by the great Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. At one time the theosophical ideas of Blavatsky were close to him. The man constantly kept the book on his desk and publicly admired the knowledge of the writer.
Recent years
Blavatsky's activities in India were crowned with success. There were opened branches of the Theosophical Society, which was popular among the local population. In her last years, Elena lived in Europe and stopped traveling due to deteriorating he alth. Instead, she began to actively write. That's when most of her books come out. Blavatsky died on May 8, 1891 in London, after suffering from a severe form of influenza.
