Madame Blavatsky: Genius or Fraud?

[TemperanceAngel]

I am not sure if I am in the right Forum, please feel free to move this Zorya or Kiama!

Someone had to start this thread, so I will....

I know very little about Blavatsky and what I have read I haven't really retained. I could do a quick web search to turn up info, but what the hey, let's discuss it shall we and let's hope it's a mighty and passionate discussion...hoorah!!!!

I know Blavatsky has written a truck load of books and isn't she responsible for setting up the Theosophical Society? Wasn't she supposed to be a great clairvoyant and medium?

And wasn't it discovered that she was a fraud?

That's a pretty good place to start! I am looking forward to hearing from you all esp. Zorya or may have a few things to say.

XTAX

 

[zorya]

i think we have a lot to be grateful to her for, and that it would be fair to say that she can be credited with bringing and making eastern spirituality accessible to the western world.

yes, she was the founder of theosophy, influencing many others, such as rudolph steiner and edgar cayce. much of what we call new ageism can be linked to her, for example, most of what i read of doreen virtue was said by blavatsky over a century ago.

i have read the fraud claims, but would like to reread them before saying much about them. if i remember correctly, in her later days she did resort to tricks. does that mean she had no psychic abilities, who knows?

madame blavatsky was a woman ahead of her times, and at the same time, a woman of her times. while she opened herself and the world to other beliefs and traditions, and preached a universal brotherhood, she herself, held racial stereotypes. i have big BIG problems with her root race theories.

 

[TemperanceAngel]

yes, she was the founder of theosophy, influencing many others, such as rudolph steiner and edgar cayce. much of what we call new ageism can be linked to her, for example, most of what i read of doreen virtue was said by blavatsky over a century ago.

I had no idea she influenced Rudolph Steiner, how interesting! And it doesn't surprise me about Dorren Virtue, anything I read of hers is regurgatated info.

I suppose as a Philosopher, she affected many, which is great. But perhaps her own individual opinions were a little dubious....

I would love to read more about the fraud claims, and it also makes me wonder about that because people will always try and prove psychics wrong, and that kind of ability can't be switched on all the time.

A century ago seemed like a very exciting time in the Occult world, and it must of been difficult as a woman to have your voice heard then (not that it's always easy now!)

XTAX

 

[Red Emma]

Madam Blavatsky

Genius or fraud? Actually, guys, I don't think it matters.

Her work touched a lot of people, and brought meaning to their lives. The why or wherefore, I think, isn't important.

The tenor of the organization she founded (or was founded on her principles) was, and is, I guess, positive in that it helps people to live fuller, richer lives.

I did check out the local Theosophical organization, but I found it a place where the men ran the program and the women served coffee. As you can imagine, I never went back.

Fraud/genius matters when the purpose of the "spiritual" organization is to make rich men/women out of the founders. Or, as in the case of Jim Jones, destroys everyone it touches.

I don't know. It's late at night here. Maybe I'm just talking nonsense. If so, I'll be embarrassed tomorrow. Tonight I'm going to bed.

 

[kwaw]

According to Papus a lot of her work plagiarised kabbalistic texts available in French at the time, which is probably why she was never so popular in France as say England or Germany as people in France were more aware of her plagiarisms. She was very negative about Judaic kabbalah and discouraged its study amongst her students, and one wonders whether this was to conceal from others the source of most of her material and ideas. While I don't wish to condone plagiarism nonetheless I have to admit I am grateful for a lot of material that was [and still is] otherwise unavailable in English. The 'Book of Dyzan' on which much of the 'secret doctrine' is based is, according to G. Scholem, a ripp-off of Sefer de-Zeni'uta [Book of Concealment], one of the Zohar texts.

Kwaw

 

[mac22]

I am not sure if I am in the right Forum, please feel free to move this Zorya or Kiama!

Someone had to start this thread, so I will....

I know very little about Blavatsky and what I have read I haven't really retained. I could do a quick web search to turn up info, but what the hey, let's discuss it shall we and let's hope it's a mighty and passionate discussion...hoorah!!!!

I know Blavatsky has written a truck load of books and isn't she responsible for setting up the Theosophical Society? Wasn't she supposed to be a great clairvoyant and medium?

And wasn't it discovered that she was a fraud?

That's a pretty good place to start! I am looking forward to hearing from you all esp. Zorya or may have a few things to say.

XTAX

HPB was many things including a crackerjack medium and psychic. She did in fact found the TS which had many different sections. The TS was actually founded in the USA.

As for being a fraud, I think she enjoyed the hype & controversy.

As for her books most folks today don't know that the modern published works of HPB are HEAVILY REDACTED even by TS publishers...If u wanna know what she actually said read books published before 1920. They are eve openers...

 

[mac22]

I had no idea she influenced Rudolph Steiner, how interesting! And it doesn't surprise me about Dorren Virtue, anything I read of hers is regurgatated info.

I suppose as a Philosopher, she affected many, which is great. But perhaps her own individual opinions were a little dubious....

I would love to read more about the fraud claims, and it also makes me wonder about that because people will always try and prove psychics wrong, and that kind of ability can't be switched on all the time.

A century ago seemed like a very exciting time in the Occult world, and it must of been difficult as a woman to have your voice heard then (not that it's always easy now!)

XTAX

Steiner and many others were early TS members.

The 19 century was an exciting time in the occult.... as is today.

 

[jmd]

Blavatsky was not the one to introduce nor create theosophy. Rather, herself, H. Olcott and another person whose name escapes me at the moment, formed a society in New York in about 1875 using a term already in existence long before their usage - hence Theosophical Society.

At one stage, it was predominantly western oriented with regards to its esoteric views. When a Berlin branch was formed, it was headed by the Count and Countess Brockdorff (I hope to have spelled the name correctly) around the early 1890s.

Steiner was asked by them to give a series of lectures at the branch (1900) - as nowadays also non-TS members may be asked to speak to the various branches.

About two years later, as the count and countess 'retired', Steiner and Von Sivers (much much later to become husband and wife) took over as general secretary/librarian.

Steiner's main influences were not Blavatskian, but rather esoteric Christian thought, Goetheanian views and ways of working, and the likes of Trithemius, Agrippa, neo-platonic authors, and various other syncretic western esoteric movements.

Following the taking over of the Society by Leadbeater and Besant, the shift, which had already began, towards quite peculiar views and ways of interpreting both eastern and western spiritual and esoteric movements lead to further splinterings (there had already been a splitting during Blavatsky's life as her views were certainly not agreed upon by all within the Society).

Genius or Fraud? I suspect, in many ways, neither.