Historical Figures Codexery

Helena Blavatsky

Russian and American mystic and writer who co-founded the Theosophical Society.

Blavatsky described Theosophy as "the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy" and claimed it revived an "Ancient Wisdom" underlying all world religions.[1] In 1875, Blavatsky, together with Olcott and William Quan Judge, established the Theosophical Society in New York City.[1] Her 1877 book Isis Unveiled set forth her Theosophical perspective.[1]

Quick Facts

Birth name
Yelena Petrovna von Hahn
Born
12 August, 1831, 31 July
Birthplace
Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire
Died
8 May 1891
Place of death
London, England
Citizenship
Russian Empire (until 1878), U.S. (from 1878)
Era
Modern philosophy; 19th-century philosophy
School of thought
Theosophy

Facts from the source article.

Life and work

After her mother's death, Blavatsky and her surviving siblings were sent to live with their maternal grandparents in Saratov.[2] At age 17 she married Nikifor Vladimirovich Blavatsky, a man in his forties, on 7 July 1849.[3] She claimed to have entered Tibet in 1856, where she was taught an ancient language called Senzar and translated texts preserved by monks.[3][4] In October 1874 she met reporter Henry Steel Olcott while investigating spiritual phenomena in Chittenden, Vermont.[5]

Biographers find constructing a trustworthy biography of Blavatsky challenging because she intentionally gave false and contradictory information about her earlier years.[6] Because her father Pyotr's career required the family to relocate often across the Empire, this peripatetic upbringing may have shaped her later wandering existence.[3] She stated that after bribing a ship's captain to escape her escorts, she reached Constantinople, beginning nine years of global travel that her father may have funded.[3] On 8 July 1873 she reached New York City, a point after which historians can again access detailed records of her life.[7][8]

During 1880, she and Olcott relocated to India and, while in Ceylon, became the initial U.S. citizens to formally adopt Buddhism.[1]

What the cited sources add

Biographer Marion Meade commented that "hardly a word of this appears to be true" regarding Blavatsky's tales of Tibet and other adventures.[9] One scholar of Buddhism, D. T. Suzuki, suggested that Blavatsky later exhibited an advanced knowledge of Mahayana Buddhism consistent with her having studied in a Tibetan monastery.[10]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lori Pierce, "Origins of Buddhism in North America", in Encyclopedia of Women and Religion in North America, Rosemary Skinner Keller, Rosemary Radford Ruether, (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Davenport-Hines 2011; Lachman 2012, p. xii–xiii; Lachman 2012, p. xii–xiii (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lachman 2012, p. xii–xiii (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lachman 2012, p. xii–xiii; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The Countess Blavatsky's Visitors", The Springfield Daily Republican, 9 December 1874, p. 4; "African Jugglery", The Marion Commonwealth, 17 December 1874, p. 1 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lachman 2012, p. xii–xiii; Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 23; Lachman 2012, p. xii–xiii (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Higgins, S. (2018). From the Seventh Arrondissement to the Seventh Ward: Blavatsky's Arrival in America 1873. Theosophical History: A Quarterly Journal of Resea (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Washington 1993, p. 30–31; Lachman 2012, p. xii–xiii (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Lachman 2012, p. xii–xiii; Lachman 2012, p. xii–xiii; Meade 1980, p. 69 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. Wikipedia, "Helena Blavatsky" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Goodrick-Clarke 2004, p. 23 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Helena Blavatsky (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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