After nearly two years of reporting about Blavatsky's historical impact, in May of 2018,
I began to contend with the fact that her name was increasingly
appearing in the context of contemporary politics and offshoot
conspiracy theories. Shortly after, for unrelated reasons, I decided to phase out the recent
news coverage in favour of a mix of editorials, book reviews, and
research notes. Little did I realize that these issues (the relation of
esoteric thought and right-wing politics) would continue to be a factor
in mainstream preoccupations and figure in some dramatic events on the
worldwide political stage. As Blavatsky is of course, Russian, and also
born in Ukraine, with her house of birth now a Museum dedicated to her located there, events have become particularly poignant. So I once
again don my reporter's hat on a weekly basis for the next month, with a
series of posts that attempts to grapple with the complex question of
theosophical influences in current affairs.
The Occult & Fascism: A Brief Comment
Mitch
Horowitz May 14, 2022
But to conclude that a rightwing connection is foundational to or
defining of occultism’s political influence is to proffer a preconceived
thesis, which finds ready confirmation in anecdote.
Conspiracism & Cowardice: A Brief Comment
Mitch
Horowitz July 29, 2022
Peter McLaren, 2022
Bannon is too
obsessed with traditional institutions plump with the promise of motivating the
country into a state of transcendence, but in reverse direction – a move
backwards from democratic urban spaces to a medieval caste society of
neo-feudal fiefdoms where the pathogenic pressures of ritual and obedience keep
everything in place
Teitelbaum, an ethnomusicologist at the University of Colorado Boulder,
considers Traditionalism the "most transformative political movement of
the early 21st century." Acolytes associated with this way of thinking
have their claws deep in the leadership of at least three powerful
nations, he argues: Russia via Aleksandr Dugin; Brazil via Olavo de
Carvalho; and the United States via Bannon.
The Mystical Steve Bannon
Rod Dreher May 28, 2020
Good interview with Benjamin R. Teitelbaum
Gary
Lachman New York: TarcherPerigree, 2018
The movement started out in the 19th century and goes way back to the
American Transcendentalists and their romanticist Neo-Platonic notion of
the realm of ideas being primordial and absolutely superior to the
phenomenological world of mere matter. It was later tied in with a vast
spectrum of other influences as diverse as Mesmerism, auto-hypnosis,
Freudian depth-psychology, Theosophy, Eastern mantra techniques, Couéism
and social Darwinism, as well as encompassing elements of prosperity
Protestantism, Muscular Christianity and even puritan Calvinism.
The King in Orange: The Magical and Occult
Roots of Political Power
Both examine the magickal aspects of Trump’s election to US President,
but from very different perspectives. Lachman might be said to have
written more on the political dimension of magick, whereas Greer
addresses the magical dimension of politics.
Q Shaman’s New Age-Radical Right Blend
Hints at the Blurring of Seemingly Disparate Categories
Susannah Crockford January
11, 2021
The numerous elements he adopts from
neopaganism to core shamanism to Christian nationalism to QAnon makes
him seem like a fake. Embodying the cross-pollination of far-right
politics and New Age spirituality in America, he is all of the above. 
Dave
Troy Mar 16, 2021
QAnon combines LeFevre’s “I AM”, Freedom
School, and Rampart teachings into a cultish one-size-fits-all religion—modeled
on the Discordianism created by LeFevre’s student Kerry
Thornley in 1963, and pushed by Flynn and a network of former military and
intelligence officials.
https://davetroy.medium.com/the-big-history-behind-january-6th-part-5-molestation-cancel-culture-and-qanon-bac7f73c591c Who are the starseeds?
a journey into the esoteric faith shaping
the american fringe
Katherine Dee Mar
26, 2021
But I also believe it makes detours through
alchemy, theosophy, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1960s
contactees imbued with psychic powers, the work of Jacques Vallée, among many
other bizarre blips on the historical radar.
Beware of the Star Rishis
“Those who fall
off from our living human Mahatmas to fall into the Saptarishi
– the Star Rishis, are no Theosophists.”(Blavatsky) “The Saptarishis as meant
by H.P.B. are in a very advanced class of elementals, able sometimes to
communicate with man, and by their apparent knowledge to make him suppose them
to be high spiritual beings.” (W. Q. Judge)
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