Blavatsky and the Thomas Taylor Revival

Thomas Taylor is a regular subject of discussion in Alexander Wilder’s letters in Letters to the Sage, Vol.2. Ralph Waldo Emerson was already quite familiar with him (see http://thefintrytrust.org.uk/shrineofwisdom.org.uk/SoW102.htm). Wilder’s interest in Taylor spread to theosophical circles and this interest continued in esoteric circles with people such as Manly Hall and Samuel Weiser, and there have been some more mainstream reprints as well. Since Prometheus Trust launched their complete works of Thomas Taylor series, there has been a renewed interest in his life, works and influence. Besides his monumental corpus of translations of ancient Greek writings, his own original writings are full of interest, showing an erudition and insight that are difficult to match. Below is a brief introductory selection of some of his main writings, of which the liberal reader may perhaps wish to investigate for their own noetic effulgence.

 

A Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries (1790)

A masterful piece of research into Greek mysticism; still the most insightful work on the subject; a classic.

http://www.iapsop.com/ssoc/1875__taylor___eleusinian_and_bacchic_mysteries.pdf

 

Theoretic Arithmetic, in three books, containing the substance of all that has been written on this subject by Theo of Smyrna, Nicomachus, Iamblicus, and Boetius (1816)

A concise, clear presentation of ancient numerology and number mysticism, a classic in the genre.

http://djm.cc/library/Theoretic_Arithmetic_Thomas_Taylor.pdf

 

A Dissertation on the Philosophy of Aristotle (1812)

Besides his encyclopedic knowledge of Plato and the neoplatonists, Taylor was also thoroughly fluent in all the technicalities of Aristotelian philosophy (and the commentaries of Simplicius), as this massive original work shows.

https://archive.org/details/adissertationon00taylgoog/page/n6

 

A History of the Restoration of the Platonic Theology by the later Platonists (1789)

Taylor gives a very esoteric and perennialist take on Greek philosophical history, making this a unique and insightful introduction to Neoplatonism.

https://archive.org/details/philosophicalan00marigoog/page/n220

 

The Allegory of the Wanderings of Ulysses (1823)

An erudite study on Homer’s Odyssey, which gives a clear overview of the esoteric symbolism of the neoplatonists.

http://www.philaletheians.co.uk/study-notes/hellenic-and-hellenistic-papers/taylor-on-the-wanderings-of-ulysses.pdf

 

The Triumph of the Wise Man over Fortune & The Creed of the Platonic Philosopher (1805)

The first is a fine piece of inspirational philosophy and the second is a nice, concise overview of the principles of Neoplatonism.

https://archive.org/details/miscellaniesinp01taylgoog/page/n4

 

A Vindication of the Rights of Brutes (1792)

A wonderfully buddhistic and pioneering piece on animal rights.

http://www.philaletheians.co.uk/study-notes/down-to-earth/taylor%27s-vindication-of-the-rights-of-brutes.pdf

 

List of Writings:

https://www.universaltheosophy.com/writings-taylor/

Blavatsky, Alexander Wilder and Thomas Moore Johnson

Following up our review of Letters to the Sage, Vol. 2, I thought it might be useful to present a brief summary of some of the writings of Alexander Wilder and Thomas Moore Johnson:
Wilder began editing reprints of works on ancient religious symbolism for publisher James W Bouton,. (ca 1831-1902) just around the time the Theosophical Society was forming. Blavatsky was interested in the vogue for this type of literature and wanted to present a more spiritual interpretation, so there was a common interest between her and Wilder. It was therefore logical for Bouton to have Wilder work on Isis Unveiled. She would refer to these types of works extensively, starting with Isis Unveiled.

Ancient symbol worship : Influence of the phallic idea in the religions of antiquity.

(New York, J. W. Bouton ; London, Trübner & co., 1874), by Hodder M. Westropp and C. Staniland Wake)

Serpent and Siva worship and mythology,

(New York, J. W. Bouton, 1877), by Hyde Clarke and C. Staniland Wake)

The symbolical language of ancient art and mythology; an inquiry,

(New York, J.W. Bouton, 1892), by Richard Payne Knight

Wilder and Bouton were early champions of the great neoplatonic scholar, Thomas Taylor with a reprint of his classic Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries in 1876. Blavatsky appreciated Wilder’s platonic knowledge and jumped on the Thomas Taylor bandwagon (although the entry on Thomas Taylor in her Theosophical Glossary is from Kenneth MacKenzie and is not very good, he didn’t perform animal sacrifices):

The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries: A Dissertation  (1876)
by Thomas Taylor , Alexander Wilder , Albert Leighton Rawson https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=ha001392221

In his letters, Wilder often discusses his translation of Iamblichus’ On the Mysteries, an important mystical text that he worked on sporadically for thirty years and sadly, was not published in book form in his lifetime. Presumably he left the copyrights and manuscript with Edmund Whipple. In his letters, we see that Blavatsky encouraged him with this work and Olcott offered to publish it (and it was serialized in The Theosophist magazine, beginning with the July, 1881 issue):

Theurgia, Or, The Egyptian Mysteries
by Iamblichus , Alexander Wilder Publication date 1911 Publisher W. Rider & son ltd .; Metaphysical Pub. Co
https://archive.org/details/theurgiaoregypt00wildgoog/page/n8

This nice edition presents both the Wilder and Thomas Taylor translations side-by-side:
On the mysteries =​ De mysteriis Aegyptiorum /​
Iamblichus of Chalcis ; edited by Stephen Ronan with the translations of Thomas Taylor &​ Alexander Wilder ; together with two extracts from lost works of Proclus, On the sacred art &​ On the signs of divine possession. Hastings, E. Sussex, England : Chthonios Books, 1989.

Iamblichus’ Exhortation to Philosophy is part of his ten-volume neo-Pythagorism project, of which four volumes have come down to us. Johnson did a nice translation, which was later reprinted by David Fideler’s Phanes Press:
Iamblichus' Exhortation to the Study of Philosophy (1908):
Phanes Press, 1988 - Philosophy - 128 pages https://books.google.ca/books/about/Iamblichus_the_exhortation_to_philosophy.html?id=N3AEAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

There’s a whole blog devoted to this work (a new edition is due to appear in 2020): http://blog.protrepticus.info/2016/07/the-first-english-translation-of.html

Johnson also did a translation of Proclus’ Elements of Theology. This is a very influential philosophical work. An Arabic version was known as the Liber de Causis (the Book of Causes) of Aristotle. It was translated into Latin and Thomas Aquinas wrote a commentary on it. E. R. Dodds did a landmark translation of the work in 1934, setting a standard for thorough  manuscript research, although his translation is a little quirky, making Johnson’s translation still relevant:

Metaphysical elements (1909)
by Proclus, ca. 410-485; Johnson, Thomas M
https://archive.org/details/metaphysicalelem00procuoft/page/n3

Extracts from the Ronnie Pontiac Wilder/Johnson bio:

http://realitysandwich.com/323328/alexander-wilder-blavatsky-and-the-sunset-of-american-platonism/

Short Jay Bregman text on Johnson from the Prometheus Trust anthology:

http://platonic-philosophy.org/platonica.php?pg=Platoneia

Short text by Wilder on Pagan Religion :
https://theamericanminvra.com/2016/05/19/alexander-wilder-on-pagans-and-the-value-of-the-classical-religions/

Blavatsky Book Review: Letters to the Sage: Selected Correspondence of Thomas Moore Johnson: Volume Two: Alexander Wilder, the Platonist

K. Paul Johnson (Contributor, Editor), Patrick D. Bowen (Editor), Ronnie Pontiac (Introduction), Erica Georgiades (Contributor),

 

This 438 page tome is well-stocked, dealing mainly with Alexander Wilder’s letters to Thomas Moore Johnson. Wilder gives a few intriguing but minimal anecdotes concerning Blavatsky (mention is made to the typically colorful, picturesque and erudite Blavatsky letter published in The Word, July 1908) , with a little more on Olcott. William Q. Judge, J.D. Buck and Abner Doubleday also get a few mentions. Wilder is interesting, not only because of his learned Platonic and Theosophical writings, but because he was involved with a wide variety of circles in the effervescent alternative spirituality movement of the nineteenth century for over fifty years. He was very much committed to the cause of alternative medicine, was acquainted with the mystic Andrew Jackson Davis, the American Platonist movement of Amos Bronson Alcott, Hiram K. Jones and William Torrey Harris , with the Concord School of Philosophy, and the later American Akademe   as well as the new thought movement with Leander Edmund Whipple’s Metaphyscial Magazine. His commitment and contributions to these causes are impressive. The correspondence gives a privileged view of the American alternative spirituality scene of the era and it is good to see a rediscovery of his works along with a recent four-volume anthology of his writings, edited by Mark Jaqua.

 

There are a total of 167 letters to Johnson, a hundred of which are from the 1881 to 1888, a period corresponding to the main years of publication of the Platonist magazine and forms the meat of the book. There is a solid 70-page biography of Wilder, a glossary of Ancient Greek terms used in the letters, a summary of the letters, a good index, an interesting biography of Sarah Stanley Grimke related to Christian Science and the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, and some added miscellania.

One is impressed with Wilder’s remarkable work ethic and accomplishments, but at the same time, one can notice a certain aloofness, a reluctance to commit wholeheartedly in one direction, a cautious wariness to join a cause. It is interesting to look into the reasons for this, not to condemn Wilder, but inasmuch as it shines light on the problems the alternative spirituality movement was faced with. We see how Wilder a) had domineering parents who tried to push him into the clergy; b) had a bad experience in a culty commune with dubious practices; c) was very much steeped in the individualism philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson ; d) despite his mystic bent, was steeped in the dry empirical intellectualism of the era; e) his professional commitments made him very cautious about his personal reputation. And it is likely that for these reasons that, although the vitality of the movement assured him a steady outlet for his writing efforts, his considerable output was never collected into book form in his lifetime and he had become a somewhat forgotten figure.

 

What strikes me about the eclectic, individualistic nature of the period is how similar it is to the more modern new age movement of the later twentieth century. And so looking back at Wilder’s era with a work such as this gives us an opportunity to do, one can sense that the new age movement did not necessarily begin with Alice Bailey, Carl Jung, Jack Kerouac, Carlos Castaneda, Alan Watts, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi et al, but this type of bold, eclectic, experimental, individualistic, modernistic, protean spiritual searching already had a certain development formed in the 19th century currents of spiritualism, new thought, and alternative Christianity, a discernable proto-new age outlook. In that sense, Wilder can be seen as a kind of intellectual new age precursor to the likes of a Ken Wilber.

 

The Theosophical Society can be seen to have attempted to unify things intellectually, with its international, esoteric and eastern outlook, into a more cohesive movement. Although it was only partially successful, it did manage to introduce more traditional, esoteric and eastern influences into the alternative spirituality mix. And Wilder himself accepted and even influenced certain aspects of Theosophy while rejecting others. This could be indicative of the general lack of success that Theosophy had with intellectual mystical writers (such as James Ralston Skinner, Anna Kingsford, William Stainton Moses, Alfred Percy Sinnett, Gerald Massey, Laura Holloway, Mabel Collins, and Frederick Myers) despite some initial promising collaborations and it is possible that they changed their strategy in the mid-1880s, aiming for a more popular approach. It seems that Theosophy was just too new and different for the time to make much of an intellectual impact.

Despite this, Johnson and Wilder’s platonic enterprise seems to have coincided with the Theosophical Society’s ‘golden era’ (1875-1995) and so one suspects a certain productive synergy at work between the two movements (Ultimately, the death’s of Alcott and Jones spelt the end of the movement). Moreover, it now becomes more apparent that Johnson and Wilder’s platonic publishing efforts had an appreciable influence on the considerable revival of interest of Plato and Neoplatonism that was to develop in the twentieth century, a work that is still in progress. Wilder can be seen here to be situated in a central American intellectual current  of the era (call it later Transcendentalism). It will be interesting to see what the significant relation between Theosophy and Platonism will be in the twenty-first century.

On a critical note, the letter of August 1, 1907 (p.303) is one of the more candid ones, coming at a complicated historical juncture, notably with mention of the likes of the under-studied neo-theosophist Harold Percival and G.R.S. Mead, but it unfortunately receives no end note explanations, which are otherwise plentiful.
ps. see recent four volume Collected Writings of Alexander Wilder:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/search.ep?contributorId=1462412

Blavatsky's Influence and the Blavatsky Revival 1/3

News Brief:  Helena Blavatsky - Ultimate Collection (link is external),  download the whole Collected Writings of H.P.B (and all major books) for free as PDF (link is external)'s (85 MB) in TXT (link is external)-Format (30 MB)


This is a revised, tweeked and generally cleaned-up version of a previously posted article, although with no claims to being systematic or thorough:
Blavatsky's Influence and the Blavatsky Revival

Since the new millennium, after a century of persistent slander, marginilization and seriously confused portrayals, the recognition of Russian theosophist Helena Blavatsky has grown immensely, and so this text merely aims at skimming the surface of what has become a considerable body of historical research concerning her and theosophy. It seems that 20th century modern mainstream thinking was largely inimical to Blavatsky. Significantly perhaps, it was when a major crisis occurred in the modernist ideal in the mid-80s that Blavatsky finally started getting some wider recognition for her influence on contemporary spirituality, although the spiritual revival of the 1960s must have surely paved the way. I think she is much more suited to a post-modern perspective, and possibly one of the first signs of the turning tide in her favor can be found with none other than Kurt Vonnegut, who dubbed her “the Founding Mother of the Occult in America.” (“The Mysterious Madame Blavatsky,” McCalls, March 1970). That is not to say that her reputation has been completely rehabilitated; unfair, innacurate, and distorted ideas about Blavatsky still abound. Moreover, she remains a controversial figure and it seems that every positive reapppraisal is accompanied by a negative backlash. This study will focus on the positive aspects.

The early 1980s

It seems that the renewed interest in Blavatsky happened quite swiftly. Bruce F. Campbell’s 1980 Ancient Wisdom Revived: A History of the Theosophical Movement (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.) is quite a solid pioneering study on Blavatsky and theosophy. In 1983, Robert Ellwood in his essay, “The American Theosophical Synthesis” in the anthology The Occult in America (University of Illinois Press, 1983) wrote a perceptive review of Blavatsky's contributions :"Theosophy’s program was through rational but not reductionist means to restore consciousness as a pervasive presence to the world described by science, and to liberate religion to enjoy its worldwide heritage and its ultimate compatibility with all that science discovers. To do so it must, HPB believed, draw models for reality undogmatically but forcefully from the wisdom of those the wisest in spirituality’s worldwide past. Something had once been known, she was convinced, that was lost amide the rise of competitive religion and one-dimensional science in historical times. We have seen what some of those models were, and what the more immediate sources for them were in traditions she thought be in touch with that past and its hidden but living present. The details are perhaps less important than the program in understanding the appeal of Theosophy, and its initial emergence as a synthesis attempting to contain an epochal crisis in the human spirit". (130-31) Then in 1985, with the completion of her fourteen-volume Collected Writings, spearheaded by Boris de Zirkoff, her stock was on the rise. 1985 also saw the creation of a theosophical history journal, founded by Leslie Price (http://www.theohistory.org/) . Sylvia Cranston's 1985 biography, H.P.B. The Extraordinary Life & Influence of Helena Blavatsky, is a thorough, well-researched work that gives Blavatsky due credit and clarifies many a misconception. It remains, arguably, the finest Blavatsky biography to date. Since then, the growth of historical studies on theosophy has continued to expand appreciably. 

The Coulomb-Hodgson Affair reappraisal

Another major step in rehabilitating her much-maligned reputation occurred in 1986, when a work by Vernon Harrison, a research worker of disputed documents, was published (S.P.R. Journal (Vol.53 April 1986)).  It was a thorough study of the notorious Hodgson report, issued by the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) in 1885 and has since been the primary source of misunderstandings concerning Blavatsky. Harrison concluded that the report's "errors of procedure, its inconsistencies, its faulty reasoning and bias, its hostility towards the subject and its contempt for the 'native' and other witnesses, would have become apparent; and the case would have been referred back for further study." Since Blavatsky "was the most important occultist ever" investigated by the SPR, the process was a “wasted opportunity”.(p33) (http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/hpb-spr/hpbspr-h.htm#author).

The SPR also issued an accompanying press release in which a long-standing member of the S.P.R., Dr. Beloff states: "Whether readers agree or disagree with his conclusions, we are pleased to offer him the hospitality of our columns and we hope that, hereafter, Theosophists, and, indeed, all who care for the reputation of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, will look upon us in a more kindly light." (http://www.blavatsky.net/index.php/9-theosophy/history/382-spr-pres...)

The New Millenium

After this early watershed which witnessed a major paradigm shift, interest in Blavatsky continues to grow steadily. The new millenium kicked off a spate of Blavatsky publications, including Daniel Caldwell's anthology The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky (2001), her Collected Letters, Vol. 1(2003), and the Esoteric Instructions (2005). Since 2006, Daniel Caldwell has been curating the Blavatsky Study Center web site (http://blavatskyarchives.com/index.htm), an exhaustive archive of all things Blavatsky. Michael Gomes' 2004 abridgement of her Secret Doctrine by Penguins books brought this esoteric classic to a wider audience. In 2011, the publication of a lost transcription of Blavatsky's London study classes gave us a greater glimpse into Blavatsky's personality than ever before  (http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/SD-Diialogues.htm). Gary Lachman's 2012 biography is arguably the first reasonably neutral and objective mainstream Blavatsky biography. He states in an interview:"I think people think they know who and what HPB was about already, and accept the cliches and stereotypes about her, without really looking into who she actually was. She’s as important in the shaping of the modern world as Darwin, Marx or Freud, but the myths and half-truths that have been repeated over and over prevent us from seeing this. My book tries to redress this misunderstanding." (http://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2014/05/20-questions-with-ga...)  Some have used the term 'Blavatsky Revival', such as in an interview with Michael Gomes (https://www.theosophical.org/publications/quest-magazine?id=2749). Joy Dixon refers to an “explosion” in theosophical studies in academia (https://www.york.ac.uk/history-of-art/newyork-theosophy-conference/resources/Conference%20Abstracts%20Booklet%20-%20July%2024%20-%20Final.pdf)

A selective survey of areas of influence

Due to the broad, erudite, universalist, international, multi-cultural, comparative perspective, Blavatsky’s influence has been noted in a wide range of areas. What follows is an attempt at a brief sketch of some of the main areas.

Gnosticism

For her contributions to the field of Gnosticism, Richard Smith (The Nag Hammadi Library in English, 1977, Brill, p.537) notes that: "It was Madame Blavatsky who first claimed the Gnostics as precursors for the occult movement. In her program to divide speculative learning into esoteric and exoteric, truth and religion, the Gnostics were an obvious opposition to what she called "Churchianity." She absorbed the Gnostics, in her universal free-associative style, into a great occult synthesis."

Kabbalah

For her contributions to the field of the Kabbalah, Moshe Idel, a scholar of Jewish mysticism, mentions Blavatsky In his book, Old Worlds, New Mirrors: On Jewish Mysticism and Twentieth-Century Thought, (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009, p. 85): "Scholem’s emphasis on the role of symbolism in a preeminently medieval literature such as Kabbalah is corroborated by other scholars dealing with medieval material in general, with Christian mysticism, and even with Kabbalah. So, for example, we find similar views, expressed long before Scholem’s characterization quoted above, in the writings of G.G. Coulton, W.R. Inge, and Madame Blavatsky. For our purpose it is sufficient to quote Madame Blavatsky, a follower of the Renaissance Christian kabbalists who formulated their conception of the Kabbalah in a way accepted and further developed by many modern scholars of the Kabbalah: “The Kabbalist is a student of ‘secret science,’ one who interprets the hidden meaning of the Scriptures with the help of the symbolical Kabbalah, and explains the real one of these meanings.”
Astrology

Her use of astrology in her cosmology was innovative (beginning with her interpretation of “Ezekiel’s Wheel” in Isis Unveiled) and influential astrologer Sepharial (Walter Old) was a student of hers. Major astrology figure Alan Leo was a theosophist and met Blavatsky as well. According to Michael R. Meyer, the “re-establishment of astrology that took place during the last quarter of the 19th century and the first part of the twentieth century was promoted largely by theosophists including Sepharial, Alan Leo, Max Heindl, Charles Carter, Marc Edmund Jones, and Dane Rudhyar. (The Astrology of Relationships,London Continuum, p. 2009)

Influential and innovative astrologer and composer Dane Rudhyar, who was associated with diverse theosophical currents, observes: ”it may be sufficient to show that the one fundamental factor in trying to reach a deep understanding of the meaning and purpose of that life is the meaning and purpose of the occult trans-Himalayan Brotherhood whose agent she claimed to be. It may be impossible scientifically to prove the validity of that claim; it is as impossible to prove it was a hoax, considering the quite outstanding individuals who had firsthand experiential knowledge of the validity of her assertions. Even more convincing is the astounding character of the contents of her large books, especially The Secret Doctrine, which no ordinary mind could have produced without passing dozens of years studying and collating an immense mass of verifiable documents in many great libraries. At the same time, it is evident that H. P. Blavatsky, the woman, spent her life away from universities and national libraries.” (Occult Preparation for the New Age, Wheaton, Quest, 1975 - http://www.khaldea.com/rudhyar/op/op_c3_p1.php)

Buddhism
Blavatsky has received a number of endorsements from several noted Asian Buddhists and scholars. Anagarika Dharmapala (1864-1933) was a prominent Sri Lankan Buddhist revivalist and writer who collaborated extensively with the theosophical movement and was highly appreciative of his contact with Blavatsky:”The path of perfection was shown to me by Mme Blavatsky in my 21st year”. (Diary, December 20, 1930); “Blavatsky gave me the key to opening the door to my spiritual nature”. (Diary, March 10, 1897) (quoted in Steven Kemper, Rescued from the Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World, University of Chicago, 2015. pp.53, 59)

According to Walter Evans-Wentz: “The late Kazi Dawa Samdup was of the opinion that there is adequate internal evidence in them  [her writings] of their author’s intimate acquaintance with the higher lamaistic teachings into which she claimed to have been initiated.” (The Tibetan Book of the Dead,  Oxford University Press, 1927, p. 7 footnote.) In 1927 the staff of the 9th Panchen Lama Tub-ten Cho-gyi Nyima helped Theosophists put out the "Peking Edition" of The Voice of the Silence and he wrote a short dedication. (Blavatsky H.P. The Voice of the Silence, ed. Alice Cleather and Basil Crump. Peking: Chinese Buddhist Research Society, 1927. – P. 113) Zen Buddhism scholar D. T. Suzuki wrote: “The Voice of the Silence is true Mahayanistic doctrine. Undoubtedly, Madame Blavatsky had in some way been initiated into the deeper side of Mahayana teachings and then gave out what she deemed wise to the Western world as theosophy." (“The Eastern Buddhist” vol. V no.4 July 1931) The 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso wrote:"I believe that this book has strongly influenced many sincere seekers and aspirants to the wisdom and compassion of the Bodhisattva Path." (Blavatsky Helena The Voice of the Silence. Centenary edition. Santa Barbara: Concord Grove Press, 1989. // Foreword by the 14th Dalai Lama). Sri Lankan academic, scholar and diplomat, Dr G.P. Malalasekera wrote that her “familiarity with Tibetan Buddhism as well as with esoteric Buddhist practices seems to be beyond doubt.” (Encyclopedia of Buddhism I, Taylor & Francis, 1973, p. 539).

Peter Harvey's An Introduction to Buddhism (Cambridge University Press, 1990) has become a major textbook on Buddhism, and Blavatsky gets her fair share of credit: "An important event occurred in 1880, when Colonel H.S. Olcott (1832-1907), and Madame H. P. Blavatsky (1831-91) arrived in Colombo. In 1875, this American journalist and Russian clairvoyant had founded the Theosophical Society in New York. In 1879, they established the headquarters of this syncretistic religious movement in India. On arriving in Colombo, they appeared to embrace Buddhism publicly taking the refuges and precepts, thus giving a great confidence-boost to some Buddhists, due to their being Westerners". (pp. 290-91) "The Society had, however, been successful in introducing a number of key Buddhsit and Hindu concepts to people unfamiliar with scholarly writings". (p. 304)

Hinduism

Blavatsky and the early Theosophical helped popularize two ubiquitous texts of Hindu philosophy: the Bhagavad Gita and Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.  According to J. Barton Scott:”The allegorical method of interpretation that that they developed for the Bhagavad Gita in particular would, moreover, eventually shape the larger global reception of the textual corpus. (Spiritual Despots: Modern Hinduism and the Genealogies of Self-Rule. University of Chicago press 2016, p. 192). Moreover, Gordon White observes: “In spite of its founders’ misadventures, the Theosophical Society may be credited with having projected yoga onto the magnetosphere of the late nineteenth- century Indian and Western consciousness” (The "Yoga Sutra of Patanjali": A Biography. Princeton University Press, 2014, p 105)


Part 2

Blavatsky's Influence and the Blavatsky Revival 2/3

Theosophical History
Regarding the early theosophical movement, esoteric historian Joscelyn Godwin states that it “ is a complex story, involving many nations and characters, but they all revolve around Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891), the prime mover of the Society and one of the most influential women of all time”. (“Blavatsky and the First Generation of Theosophy”, Handbook of the Theosophical Current, Leiden, Brill, 2013, p.15)

Religious historians Olav Hammer and Mikael Rothstein contend that: “ the formation of the Theosophical Society (henceforth abbreviated TS), and the main events linked to the fate of this organization, its key figure Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), and her immediate successors also belong to the short list of pivotal chapters of religious history in the West...These facts place Theosophy and its multiple off-shoots as one of the modern world’s most important religious traditions.” (“Introduction”, Handbook of the Theosophical Current, Leiden, Brill, 2013, pp. 1-2)”.

Western Esotericism

There was a bit of a breakthrough academic work on Blavatsky, in the field of western esotericism, by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke: "Widespread dissatisfaction with the hegemony of science in Western culture and its preoccupation with the concrete, the factual, and the substantive interacted with a lack of confidence in traditional Christianity, itself undermined by the very progress of scientific explanation. Theosophy, in the strict meaning of the movement founded by H.P. Blavatsky, addressed these concerns in a progressive way. Adapting contemporary scientific ideas to posit the idea of spiritual evolution through countless worlds and time-eras, Theosophy supplied dignity and purpose to man’s earthly life within a cosmic context. While spiritualism (a major movement from the mid-1950s) alleged survival after death, Theosophy located human destiny in an emanationist cosmology and anthropology that have their roots in both Neo-Platonism and Oriental religions." (Helena Blavatsky,  North Atlantic Books 2004, pp.1-2)

New Age / Alternative Spirituality

She is considered an important figure in the history of alternative spirituality: "...Helena Petrovna Blavatsky... is surely among the most original and perceptive minds of her time ... Buried in the sprawling bulk of her two major books ... there lies, in rudimentary form, the first philosophy of psychic and spiritual evolution to appear in the modern West ... With all criticisms weighed up against her, HPB stands forth as a seminal talent of our time ... Above all, she is among the modern world’s trailblazing psychologists of the visionary mind. At the same historical moment that Freud, Pavlov, and James had begun to formulate the secularized and materialist theory of mind that has so far dominated modern Western thought, HPB and her fellow Theosophists were rescuing from occult tradition and exotic religion a forgotten psychology of the superconscious and the extrasensory.  Madame Blavatsky may be credited with having set the style for modern occult literature." (Theodore Roszak, The Unfinished Animal: The Aquarian Frontier and the Evolution of Consciousness, New York, Harper and Row, 1975, pp. 118, 124-125).

"... Madame Blavatsky ... stands out as the fountainhead of modern occult thought, and was either the originator and/or popularizer of many of the ideas and terms which have a century later been assembled within the New Age Movement. The Theosophical Society, which she cofounded, has been the major advocate of occult philosophy in the West and the single most important avenue of Eastern teaching to the West." (J. Gordon Melton, Jerome Clark and Aidan A. Kelly, editors, New Age Almanac, Detroit, Michigan, Gale Research Inc., 1991, p. 16)

Comparative Religion / Perennialism / Traditionalism

Esoteric Historian James Santucci explains the value of the Blavatskian theosophical approach to perennialist comparative religion: “Although non-theosophists may not agree to the proposition of an underlying Wisdom-Religion, the comparative study of religion in a sympathetic and open manner is an idea whose time has already come, and this in part through the efforts and accomplishments of the Theosophical Society…following the inspiration of Madame Blavatsky and later leaders, that humans of whatever race, creed, sex, caste, or color are equal, that all ·the world religions contain the same essential message reflecting the Wisdom of the Ages, and that this Wisdom resides in all the nations of the world, reveal a cosmopolitan and universalism in the purist sense of the terms. (Theosophy and the Theosophical Society, London, Theosophical History Centre, 1985 - http://www.theohistory.org/THC/Theosophy%20and%20the%20Theosophical...)

Moreover, William Quinn, in his The Only Tradition, gives a solid overview of Blavatsky’s important contributions to perennialist comparative religion, noting that “Blavatsky was the prime mover in the creation of the Theosophical Society and consequently modern Theosophy as a restatement of theosophia via her published doctrinal corpus and commitment to the movement.” (SUNY Press, 1997, p. 104).

Interfaith Dialogue

Marcus Braybrooke, a historian of the interfaith movement, appreciates the theosophical contribution to inter-faith dialogue: “Theosophists can claim to have been amongst the first to suggest a unity of religions.The society insists that it is not offering a new system of thought, but merely underscoring certain universal concepts of God, nature and man that have been known to wise men in all ages and that may be found in the teachings of all the great religions. Emphasis is placed on mystical experience. A distinction is made between inner, or esoteric, and outer, or exoteric, teaching. It is said that all the historic world religions contain inner teaching which is essentially the same, despite external differences. This teaching is monistic in character, suggesting an underlying all-encompassing unity. (Pilgrimage of Hope: One Hundred Years of Global Interfaith Dialogue, Crossroad, 1992, p. 266)

Alternative Science
Religious historian Olav Hammer discusses Blavatsky’s influence in the area of alternative sciences in his comparison of her scientific writings with Fritjof Capra’s The Tao of Physics: “Presumably less familiar is the fact that the broad outlines of Capra’s views on science are structurally similar to arguments made by Blavatsky almost a century earlier…The similarity with Capra is nevertheless most clearly apparent in another major facet of her discussion: the claim that the modern physical sciences point to the same reality as Oriental or occultist beliefs. As Blavatsky puts it, “all comes to science from ancient notions, all is based on the conceptions of archaic nations” (Blavatsky 1888, vol. I:506–7). This modern and inclusive science is thus merely rediscovering what ancient sages already knew; insights that they expressed, for instance, through the cryptic symbolism that one finds in Indian scriptures. (“Theosophical Elements in New Age Religion”, Handbook of the Theosophical Current, Leiden, Brill, 2013, p. 250)

Atlantis and Ancient Civilisations

“The new religious movement that has spawned most speculation about lost civilisations is the Theosophical Society (founded 1875), especially as a result of teachings about the ancient and antediluvian civilisations of the Hyperboraeans, Lemurians, and Atlanteans, discussed in co-founder Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine (1888). ”. (Garry W. Trompf and Lauren Bernauer “Producing lost civilisations: Theosophical concepts” in Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production, BRILL, 2012, p. 101-102)

Part 3 

Blavatsky Influence and the Blavatsky Revival 3/3

Feminism & Victorian Studies

The importance of Blavatsky and the early Theosophical Society in the feminist movement has been the subject of a ground-breaking study by Victorian Studies scholar Joy Dixon entitled Divine Feminine: Theosophy and Feminism in England (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001). According to religious historian Siv Ellen Kraft: “Theosophy downplayed the importance of marriage, insisted upon the spiritual independence of women, included women on all levels of the organization, and – last but not least – upheld the theological authority of a woman. Theosophy offered the historically rare case of a male founder being overshadowed by his female counterpart, and the equally rare case of women having formal religious authority. Henry Steel Olcott was the first president of the TS, but there would have been no Theosophy without the fertile mind of his co-founder Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. (Theosophy, Gender and the “New Woman”, Handbook of the Theosophical Current, Leiden, Brill, 2013,p. 357) She notes that: “Blavatsky was clearly familiar with the writings of liberal Christian theologians in regard to “the woman’s question.” Like these theologians and other Theosophical feminists, she blamed Christianity and its male god for social corruption and the suppression of women. More specifically, she describes the suppression of women as typical of all religions, but as taken to the extreme by Christianity.(p. 368)

Social Causes

Kraft also notes that the early movement was involved with various socialist causes related to the feminist movement: “Several studies have described an overlap between these movements and also with Theosophy. Historian Diana Burfield, in an early article about Theosophy and gender, notes that Theosophical notions of brotherhood, sexual equality, progress, perfectibility, and tolerance were in harmony with socialist and feminist ideals (Burfield 1983: 35). There were “elective affinities between these groups, which were quite pronounced up to the First World War” (p. 359)

They were also concerned with food reform and animal welfare: “Theosophical interests in vegetarianism further strengthened the bonds to feminism and socialism. There is “plenty of evidence for vegetarianism within WFL [Women’s Freedom League] and the WSPU [Women’s Social and Political Union]” (Leneman 1997: 274). Many women in the latter group were also anti-vivisectionists (ibid: 277), and their ideological angle towards food reform and animal welfare overlapped with that of Theosophy, which promoted a “universal kinship” of living beings and a “practical desire to alleviate the wrongs of society” (ibid.: 282). Theosophists also tended to support social purity organizations, which in turn were supported by temperance workers, and overlapped extensively with women’s rights movements.” (p. 360)

Politics

Historian K. Paul Johnson observes that “Political activism in colonial India and Ceylon owed an immense debt to Theosophical influence. In the West, many social movements such as educational reform, women’s suffrage, and abolition of capital punishment were advanced by the efforts of early Theosophists. But in no field of endeavor has Theosophy’s influence been as great as in introducing Eastern religious ideas to the Western public.” (Initiates of Theosophical Masters, State University of New York Press, 1995, p. 113). Mohandas K. Gandhi met Blavatsky offered this reminiscence: “Theosophy is the teaching of Madame Blavatsky. It is Hinduism at its best. Theosophy is the Brotherhood of Man. … I recall having read … Madame Blavatsky’s Key to Theosophy. This book stimulated in me the desire to read books on Hinduism, and disabused me of the notion fostered by the missionaries that Hinduism was rife with superstition.” (An Autobiography, Boston, Beacon Press, 1957, p. 68.) According to Isaac Lubelsky: “there is no denying the contribution it made to India’s national movement. The history of the Theosophical Society is interwoven with modern Indian history – for a fairly short but significant period” (Celestial India, Madame Blavatsky and the Birth of Indian Nationalism, 2012. pp. 321-22)

Art, Music, Literature

Johnson continues: “ Blavatsky’s ideas inspired leading figures in the development of modern art, most notably Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondrian. Theosophical influence in literature affected the Irish Literary Renaissance, in which William Butler Yeats and AE (George Russell) were prominent” (p. 113).  Nobel Prize laureate William Butler Yeats knew Blavatsky and wrote the following reminiscences: ““I remember how careful she was that the young men about her should not overwork. … I overheard her saying to some rude stranger who had reproved me for talking too much, ‘no, no, he is very sensitive’. … [She was] humorous, unfanatical, and displaying always, it seemed, a mind that seemed to pass all others in her honesty.”(Memoirs, MacMillan, p.26)

In the world of music, the great Russian composer Alexander Scriabin was inspired by Blavatsky; according to Scriabin biographer Boris de Schloezer: “[Scriabin] felt greatly beholden to Mme. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine in his own development; indeed he felt tremendous admiration for Mme. Blavatsky to the end of his life. He was particularly fascinated by her courage in essaying a grandiose synthesis and by the breadth and depth of her concepts, which he likened to the grandeur of Wagner's music dramas. . . . The theosophic vision of the world served as an incentive for his own work. "I will not discuss with you the truth of theosophy," he declared to [de Schloezer] in Moscow, "but I know that Mme. Blavatsky's ideas helped me in my work and gave me power to accomplish my task" (Scriabin: Artist and Mystic, University of California Press, 1987).

Science Fiction and Fantasy Literature

The big three of pulp fiction magazine Weird Tales and the Lovecraft Circle most popular works seem to be the most-theosophically influenced ones:“The starting point of our examination of fictions dealing with ‘lost worlds’as cultural productions drawing on Theosophical ideas is the publication of Weird Tales, an American horror and fantasy pulp fiction magazine of the 1920s, which was the vehicle for distributing the works of Howard Philips (H. P.) Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith. These were the three main contributors to Weird Tales evidencing Theosophical influences in their fiction”. (Garry W. Trompf and Lauren Bernauer “Producing lost civilisations: Theosophical concepts” in Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production, BRILL, 2012, p. 113)

Video Games

Some very popular video games have noticeable theosophical themes: “1996 saw the release of Eidos Interactive’s Tomb Raider, an action game that follows the adventures of British archaeologist Lara Croft…Blizzard Entertainment’s Warcraft franchise (comprised of Real Time Strategy Games, a Massively Multiplayer Online Game, and other media) also contains allusions to the Theosophical Atlantis.” (Garry W. Trompf and Lauren Bernauer “Producing lost civilisations: Theosophical concepts” in Handbook of New Religions and Cultural Production, BRILL, 2012, p. 122-23). Blavatsky appears as a manga/anime type character in the Fate/Grand Order role-playing mobile game. “The game is very popular in Japan and reports indicate that the level is comparable to the success of Pokémon Go. FGO is also gaining traction in other parts of the world such as in U.S. and Canada where it already surpassed 1 million downloads after its June 2017 Android release there.”(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate/Grand_Order). Blavatsky is described as “a Caster-class Servant able to be summoned by Ritsuka Fujimaru in the Grand Orders of Fate/Grand Order” (http://typemoon.wikia.com/wiki/Caster_(Fate/Grand_Order_-_Blavatsky)

Overall impact
The influence of Blavatsky and the early theosophical movement is actually quite mind-blogging and, judging from the quantity and quality of recent important historical studies one could say that an ever-increasing understanding of this reality has been consolidating since the beginning of the new millennium. Astrologer Michael R. Meyer  observes: “The society’s revolutionary impact is central to any real understanding  of the fin de siècle, the gestation of Modernism, the ideology of the counter-culture of the 1960s and the late-twentieth century flowering of New Age and alternative spiritualities” (The Astrology of Relationships, Continuum, 2009, p. 229.)  In conclusion, the last forty years have witnessed a stunning turnaround in Blavatsky’s reputation and many people now agree that her contribution to and influence on modern spiritual thought has been important and considerable. 

Part 1