Blavatsky, Sri Lanka & India

Sri Lanka, ambassador for Buddhism over the years
Randima Attygalle - Sunday, May 07, 2017
The establishment of the Buddhist Theosophical Society of Ceylon by Colonel Henry Olcott and Madame Blavatsky was a turning point as this became a voice for the Sinhala Buddhists. “Since the architects of this society and later their follower, Anagarika Dharmapala were fluent English speakers, they could lobby for the Buddhist interests in this country, by being heard by the British rulers,” says the scholar who cites the feats such as gaining recognition for Vesak as a national holiday for the first time and creating a Buddhist flag, facilitated by this forum.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/170507/plus/sri-lanka-ambassador-for-buddhism-over-the-years-239091.html
Critical discussion of Dharmapala biography:
Anagarika Dharmapala Revisited
Charles Ponnuthurai Sarvan - May 11 2017
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/anagarika-dharmapala-revisited/
Science and religion in theosophy
Sri-Aurobindo  - 12th April 2017
The Theosophical Society was the first body of inquirers which started with the set & clear profession of bringing out this great mass of ancient truth into public notice and establishing it in public belief. Instead of bringing them out into public notice they have withdrawn them into the shrouded secrecy of the Esoteric society; instead of establishing them to public belief.
http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/bengaluru/2017/apr/12/science-and-religion-in-theosophy-1592924.html
Forgotten American Religion Finds Home in India: Selective Consciousness and Increased Awareness at the Theosophical Society in Pune
04/14/2017 -  Michael Hall,
Some occult groups, such as the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (E.G.C.), traced their roots to a Gnostic form of Catholicism, while the most popular occult movement, the Theosophical Society, combined Western and Eastern tantric traditions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/forgotten-american-religion-finds-home-in-india-selective_us_58f11a95e4b0156697224f01

Blavatsky and Modernism

Theosophy and the Rise of the Modern
July 7, 2017 by Philip Jenkins
A major theme of the first volume of Isis Unveiled was to mock "The ‘Infallibility’ of Modern Science." In the early twentieth century, esoteric thinkers claimed that insights like those of Einstein and Heisenberg provided glimpses into these higher realities. To borrow the phrase of Arthur C. Clarke, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2017/07/theosophy-rise-modern/
　
Europe and World Federation
Carlos Cardoso Aveline - May 9, 2017
Nationalism, which Helena Blavatsky praises in her book "The Key to Theosophy" [2], is a natural feeling. It must be noble and world-friendly. A healthy individual has concentric circles of love for his family, his city, his country, for the continent where he usually lives, for other countries around the world and humanity. He also loves his planet and the entire Universe. These concentric feelings are inseparable from each other.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/europe-and-world-federation/

This one’s a little old, but a nice article:
The Strange Theosophical Connection to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement
John L. Crow - January 30, 2013
Yet, had Gandhi not engaged in Theosophy in his college years, discovering the Gita, and had Theosophy not initiated the organizations that later led Indians to realize their independence, there might not have been a non-violent resistance model for the U.S. Civil Rights advocates to emulate.
http://usreligion.blogspot.ca/2013/01/the-strange-theosophical-connection-to.html
　
Wesak at the United Nations
May 3, 2017 - editor, 2017-05-03 08:57 — editor
Over the years, many national leaders have clamoured to make Wesak an internationally recognized day and a holiday. Anagarika Dharmapala, American Civil War veteran Henry Steel Olcott, theosophist Madame Blavatsky, educationist Museus Higgins and others were at the forefront of this effort. They succeeded in having Wesak declared a national holiday during the colonial period (in May 1885) and were also responsible for the adoption of the Buddhist flag (1885).
http://www.asiantribune.com/node/90411
　
The next two are Christian Fundamentalist, but well-researched:
Occult evolution: Antediluvian, Babylonian, and modern expressions
Linda Kimball - April 30, 2014
According to Helena Blavatsky, one of the key architects of Luciferian New Age pantheism, Kabalah derived,
".... from the older secret doctrines concerning divine things and cosmogony, which were combined into a theology after the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. All the works that fall under the esoteric category are termed Kabalistic." (Blavatsky, Theosophical Glossary, p. 168)
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/kimball/140430

The information about hpb is wrong in this, good research otherwise:
Occult America?
April 29, 2017 Michael H. Brown
As author Mitch Horowitz has written, "Indeed, the robust growth of occult and mystical movements can be traced through to nineteenth-century America — aided by the influence of Freemasonry and Transcendentalism — helped transform the young nation into a laboratory for religious experiments and a launching pad for the revolutions in alternative and New Age spirituality that eventually swept the globe. In the early twentieth century, the new spiritual therapies — from meditation to mind-body healing to motivational thinking — began revolutionizing how religion was understood in contemporary times: not only as a source of salvation but as a means of healing. In this sense, occult America had changed our world."　
http://spiritdaily.org/blog/uncategorized/occult-america

Blavatsky & the Gnostics, Gnosticism

The Septenary Cosmology of Tayyibi and Blavatskyan Gnosis
June 18, 2017 by harvardtheosophicalsociety
One of the groups that she lived with, the Druze of Lebanon, were an off-shoot of Syrian Isma’ili. Though the evidence is little more than conjecture, the similarities of cosmologies between the Isma’ili and Theosophy are tantalizing. https://harvardtheosophicalsociety.wordpress.com/2017/06/18/the-septenary-cosmology-of-tayyibi-and-blavatskyan-gnosis/

Alternative Scriptures: Melville’s "Lost Gnostic Poem"
June 19, 2017 by Philip Jenkins
Another author who was very widely read in these years was Helena Blavatsky, co-founder (in 1875) of the Theosophical movement. In her Isis Unveiled (1877), she wrote that "The votaries of the ancient worship were persecuted and put to death on charges of witchcraft. The Albigenses, descendants of the Gnostics, and the Waldenses, precursors of the Protestants, were hunted and massacred under like accusations."
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2017/06/fragments-lost-gnostic-poem/

Alternative Scriptures: Theosophy and the Esoteric Tradition
June 23, 2017 By Philip Jenkins
In presenting her picture, Blavatsky drew on the scholarship on Gnostic and early Christian heresy available in her own day, and Isis Unveiled borrows extensively from King’s The Gnostics and Their Remains (1864). Following the Gnostics of old with remarkable fidelity, Blavatsky and her contemporaries interpreted Christ’s death and resurrection as a symbolic and psychological reality, that reflected transformations within the soul of the believer.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2017/06/alternative-scriptures-esoteric-world/

The Case for Gnosticism, Part 4: What Happens After We Die?
Scott S. Smith- 05/30/2017
Madame Blavatsky, who popularized the Hindu version of reincarnation in the West, came to believe at the end of her life that it happened only rarely due to some special attachment to this world. If she could be so open-minded, then New Age enthusiasts ought to consider other explanations for the phenomena attributed to past lives.  

The quote above is not very accurate... (part 5 is better - it recaps what Blavatsky had already stated 140 years earlier:''The many striking and instructive passages referring to reincarnation from the writings and teachings of the Gnostic Heresiarchs have yet to be collected....An authoritative volume, however, has yet to be written on the subject, supported by the citation of the innumerable passages that are to be found in the writings of the Gnostics, Neo-platonists and early Church Fathers.''(Blavatsky, CW13, p.79) 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-case-for-christian-gnosticism-part-iv-what-happens_us_592d8afee4b08861ed0ccc11
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-case-for-christian-gnosticism-part-v-the-dead_us_596791fee4b07b5e1d96edcb

Nice Italian article, mentions Theosophy influence  L’antica disputa tra Cristianesimo e Gnosticismo Yuri Leveratto
http://www.mondoraro.org/archives/138907

Deconstructing Gurdjieff on Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio https://thegodabovegod.com/deconstructing-gurdjieff-2/

also check out the fun show on Blavatsky with special astral guest Gary Lachman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9WRwf_rMcs

Blavatsky on the Gnostics- Moe -April2 2015
https://gnosticwarrior.com/h-p-blavatsky-on-the-gnostics.html

Blavatsky and the Once and Future Gnosis - Stephen Hoeller July22, 2106
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcNkoQXUbWA

Summary of Blavatsky’s Commentary on the Pistis Sophia: https://theosophyproject.blogspot.ca/2018/02/introduction-to-gnosticism-pistis.html

Recent Blavatsky Books - Reincarnation in America: An Esoteric History - Lee Irwin etc...

Reincarnation in America: An Esoteric History - Lee Irwin
2017 - Lexington books – Chapter 9 deals with Theosophy
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/reincarnation-in-america-lee-irwin/1126411437
http://religiousstudies.cofc.edu/about/faculty-staff-listing/irwin-lee.php

The Assimilation of Yogic Religions through Pop Culture – Paul G. Hackett –ed.
2017 - Lexington books
2. Supermen, Mystical Women, and Oriental Others: Dynamics of Race and Gender in Pop Cultural Yogis and the Universal Superhuman
Anya P. Foxen
4. "I’ll See You Again in Twenty-Five Years:" Tibetan Buddhism in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks and American Pop Culture in the 90s
Adam C. Krug
http://readingreligion.org/books/assimilation-yogic-religions-through-pop-culture

Satanic Feminism: Lucifer as the Liberator of Woman in Nineteenth-Century Per Faxneld
Oxford University Press – 2017 - Chapter 4 deals with Theosophy
https://www.su.se/english/profiles/prfa7044-1.185092 http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/oso/9780190664473.001.0001/oso-9780190664473

Spiritual Despots: Modern Hinduism and the Genealogies of Self-Rule - J. Barton Scott
University of Chicago Press - 2016 - Chapter 6 deals with Theosophy http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo23467739.html

Masculine Identity in Modernist Literature - Castration, Narration, and a Sense of the Beginning, 1919-1945 - Allan Johnson
Palgrave Macmillan 2017 – Chapter 1 deals with Jessie Weston’s From Ritual to Romance
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319655086

Blavatsky and Modern Occultism

And now for something completely different - This analyses Crowley’s commentary on the Voice of the Silence (among lots of other things… not as bad as the title suggests, I think, or maybe I had too much coffee)
Secrets of the Sex Magic Space Lamas Revealed! Tibetan Buddhist Aliens and Religious Syncretism
October 23, 2015 - Joffre
We know that Crowley regarded Blavatsky not merely as a fraud but as someone with real spiritual realization, so such analogies are about more than just debunking a skilled con-woman. Crowley here implies that historical cultural traditions are a means to an end, a strategic springboard for capturing and articulating a higher more transcendent Gnosis or Truth.
https://savageminds.org/2015/10/23/secrets-of-the-sex-magic-space-lamas-revealed-tibetan-buddhist-aliens-and-religious-syncretism/

Katy Perry will mess your mind, and it's all Blavatsky's fault, Miley Cyrus will wreck your mind like a wrecking ball (and it’s all Aleister Crowley’s fault)
Katy Perry SNL Performance Proves Crowley’s Eastern Mysticism has Invaded
By Emily -05/22/2017
The very founder of the new age movement created "the perfect blend of Hinduism and Buddhism." This is vital evidence in proving that the mixture of beliefs and practices we see in people like Katy Perry’s life aren’t incidental, they are following mystic leaders such as Blavatsky.
https://christiantruther.com/exposed/secret-societies/katy-perry-snl-performance-proves-crowleys-eastern-mysticism-has-invaded/

How St-Germain became a rock star… because of Blavatsky
The Immortal Ones
Posted on February 9, 2017 by Earth Energy Reader
The spiritual stories about him as an immortal didn’t really take off until Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical movement got a hold of it. Between 1880 and 1900 it was admitted among all theosophists, that the Comte de Saint-Germain was still alive, that he was still engaged in the spiritual development of the West, and that those who sincerely took part in this development had the possibility of meeting him.
https://earthenergyreader.wordpress.com/category/ascension/

Sports section: The second biggest boxing match of all time inspired by Blavatsky:
The Secret That Led Conor McGregor to Fame, Fortune and Floyd Mayweather
Jeremy Botter MMA August 25, 2017 The first instance of the "law of attraction" phrase appearing in print came in 1877's　Isis Unveiled, a dense two-volume book by Russian occultist and theosophist Helena Blavatsky:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2728822-the-secret-that-led-conor-mcgregor-to-fame-fortune-and-floyd-mayweather

Not terribly accurate, but a positive appreciation:
No Religion Higher Than Truth; or, Why Theosophy Matters
June 30, 2017 by Philip Jenkins
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2017/06/why-theosophy-matters/

Blavatsky & Annie Besant

Annie Besant: Theosophist who inspired Indian nationalism
DECCAN CHRONICLE. | M R VENKATESH - Aug 15, 2017
And this year, as we celebrate the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence, it will be special for another reason too. It brings home memories of the confluence of another centenary of the first Woman President the Indian National Congress saw in Mrs Annie Besant in 1917.
http://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/150817/theosophist-who-inspired-indian-nationalism.html
　
70 Years of Independence: Remembering Annie Besant, a 'Diamond Soul'
2017-08-09
A Diamond Soul' who played a crucial role in shaping independent India, Annie Besant was a famous Theosophist, orator, author as well as the supporter of the Irish and Indian self-rule.
http://www.newsnation.in/india-news/70-years-of-independence-remembering-annie-besant-a-diamond-soul-article-179070.html
　
Take a walk to reconnect with reformers who changed Mumbai's social landscape
Apr 18, 2017 - Krutika Behrawala
Fondekar says, "We will cover roughly 15 spots, including Blavatsky Lodge that is associated with social activist Dr Annie Besant, along with certain roads named after social reformers." Post its debut this week, the walking experience will be held every Sunday at 8 am.
http://www.mid-day.com/articles/lifestyle-news-take-a-walk-to-reconnect-with-reformers-who-changed-mumbais-social-landscape/18173188
　
She’s number one, but only because it’s in alphabetical order:
10 Important Women in Goddess Spirituality
May 21, 2014 by Jason Mankey
Besant is best known as the President of the Theosophical Society, one of the most influential groups ever in the history of the occult and the New Age movements.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/panmankey/2014/05/10-important-figures-in-goddess-spirituality/
　
English version of Besant biography
Muriel Pécastaing-Boissière – Annie Besant Struggles and Quest
https://www.facebook.com/pecastaingboissiere/posts/1692719254128847
https://www.facebook.com/vilevictorians/posts/1901924720118558?pnref=story

Blavatsky Biographical

I forgot to include this in my Lachman post, nice article:

Who was Madame Blavatsky?

Gary Lachman - Friday 13th, March 2015

Colin Wilson once remarked about Rasputin, Blavatsky’s countryman, that he seemed “to possess the peculiar quality of inducing shameless inaccuracy in everyone who writes about him.” The same could be said for Madame Blavatsky.

http://www.watkinsmagazine.com/who-was-madame-blavatsky

 

New World Encyclopedia entry (they publish cleaned-up wikipedia articles), not bad, fairly balanced:

Helena Blavatsky

Helena Petrovna Hahn (also Hélène) (July 31, 1831 (O.S.) (August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) - May 8, 1891 London), better known as Helena Blavatsky (Russian: Елена Блаватская) or Madame Blavatsky, born Helena von Hahn, was a founder of the Theosophical Society. Although her role as a medium would prove controversial and the Theosophical Society would split following her death, her writing represents a significant contribution to the development of reformist and universal tendencies within Indian thought. Mahatma Gandhi wrote that her Key to Theosophy was one of the texts that stimulated him to ‘read books on Hinduism’ and ‘disabused [him] of the notion fostered by the missionaries that Hinduism was rife with superstition.’ ^[1] Perhaps the fact that Blavatsky was not in any way affiliated with the imperial project in India freed her of the obligation to value everything European at the cost of everything Indian.

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Helena_Blavatsky

Nice bio post:

H. P. Blavatsky: Her Extraordinary Life and Influence

May 5, 2017 - Theosophy Watch |

“The portrayal of Blavatsky is neutral, though more sympathetic than works of this kind. The index contains 16 references to her. What Horowitz manages to do, and successfully so, is to show the contribution to the inner life of America by these often disparate figures who were united in their vision of a world made better by better people.”

https://theosophywatch.com/2017/05/05/h-p-blavatsky-her-extraordinary-life-and-influence/

Well-intentioned, but less than accurate posts: Helena P. Blavatsky - 

Theosophical Society Sue and Michael Treanor

http://supernaturalmagazine.com/articles/helena-p.-blavatsky-theosophical-society

The Mysterious Madame Blavatsky – Psychic or Charlatan?

Paul Andrews  July 23, 2017

https://paulwandrews.wordpress.com/2017/07/23/the-mysterious-madame-blavatsky-psychic-or-charlatan/

The Astral Visions of Madame Blavatsky

April 22, 2017 - Sara Marie Hogg

https://calebandlindapirtle.com/82007-2/

Someone made an audio version of the Secret Doctrine – wow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcU1JdbZjJg