New Gary Lachman book the Secret Teachers of the Western World - Blavatsky

Chapter 10 deals with Blavatsky and Chapter 11 explores the influence of Blavatsky and Theosophy.

“Although she remains to many outside the esoteric milieu a very secret teacher, to those who recognize her importance, she is as much a creator of the modern world as Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud. In many ways, were it not for Blavatsky’s impact, the rest of this book could not have been written, as many of its remaining figures emerged, one way or another, from the esoteric treasure chest she very energetically opened.”

 

“She may not have known it, but the eyars after her passing saw somehting like an esoteric Big Bang, the consequences of which we are still trying to understand.”

Publisher’s Page:

This epic study unveils the esoteric masters who have covertly impacted the intellectual development of the West, from Pythagoras and Zoroaster to the little-known modern icons Jean Gebser and Schwaller de Lubicz.

Running alongside the mainstream of Western intellectual history there is another current which, in a very real sense, should take pride of place, but which for the last few centuries has occupied a shadowy, inferior position, somewhere underground.
http://penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/314994/secret-teachers-western-world#9780399166808

From an interview with Richard Smoley of New Dawn:

“Or take Madame Blavatsky. If people know about her at all, she is chalked up to be an entertaining but fraudulent nineteenth-century spiritualist with a lot of chutzpah. But she was enormously influential on the modern world, in everything from art, religion, and science to what became known as the ‘counterculture’. I am not saying that everything she said about science or religion is ‘true’. That’s not the point. True or not – and she is more often on the ball than you might think – her ideas were tremendously influential, and I am amazed that feminists haven’t appropriated her. I suspect the occult connotations put them off. She isn’t secret, but her influence is not generally recognised.” http://www.newdawnmagazine.com/articles/freemasons-secret-societies-conspiracies-consciousness-the-hidden-masters-an-interview-with-gary-lachman

Audio Interview:
Gary Lachman discusses his latest book The Secret Teachers of the Western World. This epic study unveils the esoteric masters who have covertly impacted the intellectual development of the West. Running alongside the mainstream of Western intellectual history there is another current which, in a very real sense, should take pride of place, but which for the last few centuries has occupied a shadowy, inferior position, somewhere underground. In this clarifying, accessible, and fascinating study, Lachman explores the Western esoteric tradition as a thought movement with ancient roots and modern expressions, which, in a broad sense, regards the cosmos as a living, spiritual, meaningful being and humankind as having a unique obligation and responsibility within it. This is in stark contrast to much of modern science, which sees the universe as a meaningless flow of matter and energy, and human beings as pointless accidents.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztK_D6xylgg

Kirkus Review:

In the modern era, esotericism re-emerged as part of so-called New Age knowledge and practices involving, for example, tarot and astrology. The author’s conclusion—that the time has come for a synthesis of traditional and esoteric forms of knowledge—is fascinating. But where the author is most successful is in how he manages to make basic concepts in esoteric philosophies and history lively as well as readable. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/gary-lachman/the-secret-teachers-of-the-western-world/

Watkins Mind Body Spirit, issue 46.

Friday 20th, May 2016 by Gary Lachman Throughout history there have always been people who knew this. They are what I call our ‘secret teachers’. Their insights and intuitions about the cosmos and our place in it have informed our picture of ourselves, covertly balancing the mechanical, soulless, dead vision of the world that is rooted in our overly left brain orientated consciousness. From the beginning with Pythagoras and Plato, through the Alexandrian age, and inspiring the Gothic cathedrals, Renaissance culture, and the Romantic Revolution, ideas rooted in our ‘other’ way of knowing have played an indispensable part in forming the western mind. Some of the great figures of western culture – Dante, Newton, Goethe – have been its devotees, and it continues today in our own concern about our spiritual responsibilities and place in the cosmos. And, as I suggest in the book, it may be the case that we, now, in the early 21^st century, may be at a point when a creative collaboration between our two selves, rather than a hostile conflict, is on the cards. http://www.watkinsmagazine.com/the-secret-teachers-of-the-western-world

New York Journal of Books:  Karl Wolff

Occult means “hidden,” while esoteric means “obscure.” Due to the constant fear of persecution and the gravity of the knowledge involved, many seekers and practitioners wanted to keep the knowledge hidden. Whether as Gnostics, Freemasons, Illuminati, or Theosophists, those who are immersed in the secret knowledge are involved via a hierarchy of access. Only those deemed worthy can attain this philosophical enlightenment.
http://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/secret-teachers

Publishers Weekly:

Lachman’s book is most successful as a thoughtful history of “rejected knowledge” and its proponents, and on those terms it can be rich and rewarding.
https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-399-16680-8

Reality Sandich Interview:

And the English do like their ghosts and haunted houses and there is a long connection to esoteric history here – Madame Blavatsky lived not far from my flat. So I’ve found a good second home. http://realitysandwich.com/319976/our-secret-teachers-an-interview-with-gary-lachman/
A negative but thoughtful review of his Blavatsky biography in Harper’s: http://harpers.org/archive/2013/02/madame-and-the-masters/1/

Colin Wilson Interview
"Why do I suppose the book did so well? I feel I owe this partly to a curious historical phenomenon: that in the last decades of every century, there is a sudden revival of interest in the paranormal. In the last years of the 16th century it was John Dee; a century later (incredibly) Sir Isaac Newton, who was a dedicated alchemist; a century later came Cagliostro, and a century later still, a whole 19th-century movement that included Lord Lytton, Eliphaz Levi, Madame Blavatsky, Aleister Crowley and the Golden Dawn." https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/oct/27/the-occult-kind-of-awakening-colin-wilson

Blavatsky popular with UFO theorists:

"Secretly through the DNA of “Illuminati Bloodline” families and the passing on of secret knowledge and technology through secret societies which we document in our book, The Babylon Code, all of this knowledge, illumination, and occult technology developed into what became known as “Mystery Babylon.” Madame Blavatsky, the occult teacher whose disciple Alice Bailey set up Lucifer Publishing on the grounds of the UN and trained world leaders in the ways of the occult, commented upon “the Giants of Old” and the advanced science and technology they used in her book, The Secret Doctrine."

http://www.newswithviews.com/McGuire/paul272.htm