Blavatsky's influence on modern Yoga

According to Yoga and Tantra scholar David Gordon White, Blavatsky played a seminal role in the development of modern Yoga:
“As for “Classic” or “Raja” yoga, this “ancient tradition” is really only about 150 years old. As White has shown, the main promulgator of Raja Yoga, Swami Vivekananda, was strongly influenced by the spiritualism of groups like the Theosophical Society, which was co-founded by the Russian-born Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Blavatsky believed that the Yoga Sūtras, which had been largely forgotten in India by the 19th century, would lead one on a contemplative path to the supreme self, or god-self within, itself part of a mysterious universal “oversoul”. Vivekananda first introduced his concept of “Raja Yoga” to the Occidental world at the 1892 World Parliament of Religions at Chicago and he found such success in the West that he stayed in America until his death in 1902.”
http://www.popmatters.com/column/on-evil-yogis-and-the-icy-silence-of-yogas-post-disintegration/#ixzz4ISdRbloo

Ayuverdic writer David Frawley on Annie Besant's influence on India:

“Annie Besant, who followed Blavatsky, was the most prominent of the Western Theosophical leaders in India. She served as the head of the Theosophical Society from 1907 up to her death in in 1933. Of Irish origin, she was a visionary and social reformer, claimed clairvoyant powers, was a prolific author, charismatic speaker, and staunch proponent of women's rights.
http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyle/annie-besant-theosophical-society-spirituality-humanity-india-vivekananda-home-rule-indian-freedom-struggle/story/1/6586.html

Hollywood journalist mentions importance of Blavatsky in modern Yoga:

“Theosophy had a Hindu bent, with a large nod to Yoga. It was big in Europe, the United States and India. India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, as well as Ghandi and such assorted personages as Oscar Wilde and W.B. Yeats, were influenced by Theosophy. Ghandi credited Blavatsky with making him study his own Hinduism.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lionel-rolfe/indra-devi-was-not-just-a_b_7078842.html

Blavatsky and Multimedia Installation Art Exhibitions

Goshka Macuga’s Madame Blavatsky -(Saatchi Exhibiti)

Blavatsky Multimedia project in Vancouver:

"Recently, Gruben’s interests in experimental narrative led her to conceive of an immersive transmedia experience inspired by the famed 19th century Russian occultist Madame Helena Blavatsky. One part play, The Secret Doctrine, and one part multi-media installation The Veil of Nature: Museum of Liminal Science, her project was a collaboration with Martin Gotfrit, composer, instructor, and Associate Dean of FCAT Undergraduate Studies, and Toronto-based designer Marian Wihak. "
http://www.the-peak.ca/2015/06/sfu-professor-patricia-gruben-wins-woman-of-the-year-award/

Blavatsky featured in Indonesian installation art by Multimedia artist Lenny Ratnasari Weichert:
In "Dinner's Club," Lenny hosts an imaginary dinner with nine women, a feast of female misery and hope. Lenny's nine guests are: Venus, the Roman goddess of love; Guanyin, the Buddhist goddess of mercy; Dewi Sri, the Javanese goddess of life and fertility; Khadijah, the first wife of the Islamic prophet Muhammad; Mother Teresa, a Catholic nun and missionary; Malahayati, a 15th century Aceh Sultanate warrior; Colliq Pujie, a 19th century Bugis intellectual and writer; Helena Blavatsky, a Russian occultist whose theosophy reached Java in the early 20th century; and Aung San Suu Kyi, a Burmese political leader and Nobel laureate.
http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/arts/ratnasari-weicherts-multimedia-pilgrimage-womanhood/

 A thatched roof modern architectural installation named after Blavatsky:

"In their quest to find a universal visual language at the dawn of the 20th century, artists such as Piet Mondrian and Wassily Kandinsky drew inspiration from, amongst other things, the writings of esoteric thinkers," explained the team.
http://www.dezeen.com/2016/04/27/mental-image-blavatsky-observatory-santiago-borja-thatched-roof-installation-1930s-sonneveld-house-rotterdam-netherlands/

 Blavatsky sculpture in new London art exhibition Dead: A Celebration of Mortality Charles Saatchi:

http://thelondondead.blogspot.ca/2015/10/dead-celebration-of-mortality-charles.html
http://www.standard.co.uk/goingout/exhibitions/dead-a-celebration-of-mortality-saatchi-gallery-review-going-face-to-face-with-the-grim-reaper-10384693.html      

Theatrical cabaret show inspired by Blavatsky:
Perhaps the most prominent spiritualist of the era was Helena Blavatsky, founder of the esoteric movement called theosophy. Her Theosophical Society was based in an apartment on West 47th Street less than a five-minute walk from Ms. Sinclair’s place, filled with what an 1877 Times article called “elegant and curious bric-a-brac,” like a miniature crocodile swinging from the ceiling.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/03/nyregion/conjuring-the-magic-in-new-yorks-past.html

Blavatsky and Spiritualism

Richard Smoley article - Blavatsky and Spiritualism article in the New Dawn:

“To dismiss these ideas out of hand would, in my view, be foolish. On the other hand, to verify them would require an intense training in esoteric practices that is difficult to come by. For our purposes, though, the essential point is clear. There is a middle ground between the allegations of the skeptics – that all spiritualistic phenomena are simply fraudulent – and the beliefs of the credulous, who take everything at face value. While there have been fraudulent mediums, it would be overhasty to dismiss every spiritualistic experience as a fraud. At least some of the phenomena associated with Spiritualism seem to be the play of forces in the astral realm, that domain of thoughts and images that is as plastic as the figments of our imaginations – and indeed contains them.”
http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/madame-blavatsky-the-spirit-world

A lengthy, well-researched piece on Blavatsky by James Galant in the Fortnightly Review  focusing on supernatural and spiritualistic aspects:

“The Russian Blavatsky, in her forties at the time, had spent most of her mature life traveling the world in exploration of esoteric spiritual practices. She had supposedly studied with both an Egyptian magician and a New Orleans voodoo doctor, and when she left Paris for New York in 1873 it was at the behest of Tibetan monks in the Himalayas. The monks, alarmed by the sway of materialism both East and West, hoped to create a lay society, with chapters worldwide, for the study ancient Asian spirituality. Blavatsky was to be their agent in New York.”
http://fortnightlyreview.co.uk/2016/04/madame-blavatsky/

Philadelphia spiritualist travel stop linked to Blavatsky:

https://www.amandalinettemeder.com/blog/mediumship-travel-spots-in-the-us

A nice article on the Fox sisters, the pioneers of American spiritualism:http://www.salon.com/2015/09/14/the_sisters_who_founded_spiritualism_and_punkd_america_partner/


Doukhobors like their Blavatsky (plus an excellent recipe for Doukhobor borscht soup):
"A Doukhobor source claims, “The Bible scriptures can be considered to be inspired of God, but no more so than any other written work of great dedication or inspiration, be it other great religious texts, such as the Tao Te Ching, Bhagavad-Gita, Upanishads, Koran, etc. or the inspiring writings of many great teachers and leaders such as Gibran, Thoreau, Tolstoy, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Helena Blavatsky, Helen Caldicott, Eckhart Tolle and countless others.”
http://www.cdapress.com/news/life_styles/article_9dc0d4a6-7aab-11e5-b43e-c7523d24113b.html

Blavatsky and Pop Culture

A young Blavatsky as anime character

A young Blavatsky is a Japanese animation character with purple hair:

http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2016/09/02/illyasviel-meets-her-new-rivals-in-animated-commercial-for-fategrand-order-x-fatekaleid-liner-prisma-illya-event

Sleepy Hollow TV Series has a powerful item known as the Blavatsky Map:

http://www.buddytv.com/articles/sleepy-hollow/sleepy-hollow-season-4-finale-59550.aspx

 Blavatsky in Hellboy creator Mike Mignola comic book series, Abe Sapien:

Annotating The Secret History of 'Abe Sapien' #30 | http://comicsalliance.com/secret-history-abe-sapien-annotations-santiago-caruso/?trackback=tsmclip

Blavatsky inspires gothic TV series set in late-nineteenth century:

That’s pretty heady stuff for emo horror, but it reflected the conflict of the times the series is set. The late nineteenth century was a high point in spiritualist history. Madame Helena Blavatsky of the Theosophical Society died in 1891. Arthur Conan Doyle was attending séances and founding the Fortean Society. Bram Stoker, H. G. Wells, Jules Verne and Robert Louis Stevenson were all busy turning future movie ideas into novels. Inventing science fiction. Inventing horror. Oscar Wilde was reinventing Goth fashion.
http://www.denofgeek.com/us/tv/penny-dreadful/256456/penny-dreadful-season-4-could-have-happened-but-why

Katherine Howe short story features a character named Madame Blavatsky:

“Spirits who are at peace cannot be disturbed,” the woman goes on, trying to talk over our whispering. “Anyone we reach will have a purpose for being here. It’s our job to determine what that purpose is. To help them. Bringing them peace will bring us peace, too.”
http://www.ew.com/article/2015/07/06/excerpt-appearance-annie-van-sinderen-katherine-howe
 

New Mexican  novel by Hipolito Calle with theosophical themes titled, Blavatsky, the secret circle:

“Blavatsky, el círculo secreto” es una novela con toques de esoterismo, simbologías ocultas, filosofía y misticismo, como puede deducirse de su alusión directa a la teósofa rusa del s.XIX, Helena Blavatsky. Tres jóvenes personajes de la actualidad se enredan en un misterio que les lleva al Madrid antiguo, con sus calles empedradas, sus soportales misteriosos y sus librerías con pasillos angostos que esconden no pocos secretos.
http://www.guadaque.com/blavatsky-el-circulo-secreto-una-novela-para-conocer-lo-desconocido
 

Mexican language novel, Spectres of New York by José Ricardo Chaves has a theosophical setting, author discusses Blavatsky influence:
http://www.nacion.com/ocio/literatura/Jose-Ricardo-Chaves-Helena-Blavatsky_0_1522447783.html