Theos-Talk Archives (August 2004 Message tt00459)

Hi Paul,

Here in the Netherlands Steiner is more popular than HPB because he
gave more details on life (health, cooking, gymnastics, farming, you
name it - Steiner wrote about it). Blavatsky is more abstract and
philosophical something that is perceived as 'unpractical' for some
reason. 

You have a good point. We seem to limit ourselves to
'incrowd-discussion'. Like protestants fighting amongst themselves. 

Katinka
--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "kpauljohnson" <kpauljohnson@y...>
wrote:
> Hey,
> 
> In the process of searching amazon.com, I've noticed a pattern that 
> appears to have gone unremarked among Theosophists. This is the 
> overwhelming domination of Steiner books over those of HPB or any 
> other of her successors, attested by these statistics:
> 
> 1) 2242 books mentioning Rudolf Steiner vs. 1429 mentioning Blavatsky
> 
> 2) 10 of the top 30 bestselling books classified as Theosophy are by 
> Steiner; 3 each are by Blavatsky and CWL (one of the latter co-
> authored by Besant)
> 
> Over the years I've noticed a lot more comment here about other 
> figures seen as distracting from Blavatskian Theosophy than about 
> Steiner. Yet in terms of publications, Steiner blows them all out of 
> the water-- not just CWL and Besant but Blavatsky herself. 
> Theosophists don't seem to be bothered by this or even to notice it-- 
> yet worry about the much less influential Bailey for example.
> 
> Can anyone offer any theories about why Steiner has been so 
> successful? I find his writings to be full of unsupported assertions 
> and claims to occult authority, and less entertaining reading than 
> other such claimants. But obviously, somebody somewhere finds his 
> writings to be of great value-- more than appreciate HPB it seems.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Paul