Theos-Talk Archives (April 2005 Message tt01239)

Thanks Dallis
A lot of paperwork, more then in my work, but I take it to my bed
because it is not so heavy as a whole book.
Interesthing, things I think after the Chat of food.

By the way I go to put my initials, for the time of flying over.
It cost a lot of time to scroll back all the messages and brings me 
and others a whipless and RSI arm( Mouse arm)And a squareface of 
looking to the radiand screen.

TL




--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "W.Dallas TenBroeck" 
<dalval14@e...> wrote:
> Apl 19 2005
> 
> Dear C and friends:
> 
> Here's how a brother theosophist viewed H P B
> 
> 
>  
> THE ESOTERIC SHE
> 
> The Late Mme. Blavatsky - A Sketch of Her Career
> 
> By William Quan Judge
> 
> 
> A WOMAN who, for one reason or another, has kept the world - first 
her
> little child world and afterward two hemispheres - talking of her, 
disputing
> about her, defending or assailing her character and motives, 
joining her
> enterprise or opposing it might and main, and in her death being as 
much
> telegraphed about between two continents as an emperor, must have 
been a
> remarkable person. such was Mme. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, born 
under the
> power of the holy Tzar, in the family of the Hahns, descended on 
one side
> from the famous crusader, Count Rottenstern, who added Hahn, a 
cock, to his
> name because that bird saved his life from a wily Saracen who had 
come into
> his tent to murder him.
> 
> Hardly any circumstance or epoch in Mme. Blavatsky's career was 
prosaic. She
> chose to be born into this life at Ekaterinoslaw, Russia, in the 
year 1831,
> when coffins and desolation were everywhere from the plague of 
cholera. The
> child was so delicate that the family decided upon immediate 
baptism under
> the rites of the Greek Catholic Church. This was in itself not 
common, but
> the ceremony was - under the luck that ever was with Helena - more
> remarkable and startling still. 
> 
> At this ceremony all the relatives are present and stand holding 
lighted
> candles. As one was absent a young child, aunt of the infant 
Helena, was
> made proxy for the absentee, and given a candle like the rest. 
Tired out by
> the effort, this young proxy sank down to the floor unnoticed by 
the others,
> and, just as the sponsors were renouncing the evil one on the 
babe's behalf,
> by three times spitting on the floor, the sitting witness with her 
candle
> accidentally set fire to the robes of the officiating priest, and 
instantly
> there was a small conflagration, in which many of those present were
> seriously burned. 
> 
> Thus amid the scourge of death in the land was Mme. Blavatsky 
ushered into
> our world, and in the flames baptized by the priests of a Church 
whose
> fallacious dogmas she did much in her life to expose.
> 
> She was connected with the rulers of Russia. Speaking in 1881, her 
uncle,
> Gen. Fadeef, joint Councillor of State of Russia, said that, as 
daughter of
> Col. Peter Hahn, she was grand-daughter of Gen. Alexis Hahn von 
Rottenstern
> Hahn of old Mecklenburg stock, settled in Russia, and on her 
mother's side
> daughter of Héléne Fadeef and grand-daughter of Princess Helena 
Dolgorouky. 
> 
> Her maternal ancestors were of the oldest families in Russia and 
direct
> descendants of the Prince or Grand Duke Rurik, the first ruler of 
Russia.
> Several ladies of the family belonged to the imperial house, 
becoming
> Czarinas by marriage. One of them, a Dolgorouky, married the 
grandfather of
> Peter the Great, and another was betrothed to Czar Peter II. 
Through these
> connections it naturally resulted that Mme. Blavatsky was acquainted
> personally with many noble Russians. 
> 
> In Paris I met three princes of Russia and one well-known General, 
who told
> of her youth and the wonderful things related about her then; and 
in Germany
> I met the Prince Emile de Wittgenstein of one of the many Russo-
German
> families, and himself cousin to the Empress of Russia and aide-de-
camp to
> the Czar, who told me that he was an old family friend of hers, who 
heard
> much about her in early years, but, to his regret, had never had 
the fortune
> to see her again after a brief visit made with her father to his 
house. But
> he joined her famous Theosophical Society by correspondence, and 
wrote,
> after the war with Turkey, that he had been told in a letter from 
her that
> no hurt would come to him during the campaign, and such turned out 
to be the
> fact.
> 
> As a child she was the wonder of the neighborhood and the terror of 
the
> simpler serfs. Russia teems with superstitions and omens, and as 
Helena was
> born on the seventh month and between the 30th and 31st day, she was
> supposed by the nurses and servants to have powers and virtues 
possessed by
> no one else. And these supposed powers made her the cynosure of all 
in her
> early youth. She was allowed liberties given none others, and as 
soon as she
> could understand she was given by her nurses the chief part in a 
mystic
> Russian ceremony performed about the house and grounds on the 30th 
of July
> with the object of propitiating the house demon. 
> 
> The education she got was fragmentary, and in itself so inadequate 
as to be
> one more cause among many for the belief of her friends in later 
life that
> she was endowed with abnormal psychic powers, or else in verity 
assisted by
> those unseen beings who she asserted were her helpers and who were 
men
> living on the earth, but possessed of developed senses that laughed 
at time
> and space. In girlhood she was bound by no restraint of 
conventionality, but
> rode any Cossack horse in a man's saddle, and later on spent a long 
time
> with her father with his regiment in the field, where, with her 
sister, she
> became the pet of the soldiers. In 1844, when 14, her father took 
her to
> London and Paris, where some progress was made in music, and before 
1848 she
> returned home.
> 
> Her marriage in 1848 to Gen. Nicephore Blavatsky, the Governor of 
Erivan in
> the Caucasus, gave her the name of Blavatsky, borne till her death. 
This
> marriage, like all other events in her life, was full of 
pyrotechnics. Her
> abrupt style had led her female friends to say that she could not 
make the
> old Blavatsky marry her, and out of sheer bravado she declared she 
could,
> and sure enough, he did propose and was accepted. Then the awful 
fact
> obtruded itself on Helena's mind that this could not - in Russia - 
be
> undone. They were married, but the affair was signalized by Mme. 
Blavatsky's
> breaking a candlestick over his head and precipitately leaving the 
house,
> never to see him again. 
> 
> After her determination was evident, her father assisted her in a 
life of
> travel which began from that date, and not until 1858 did she 
return to
> Russia. Meanwhile her steps led her to America in 1851, to Canada, 
to New
> Orleans, to Mexico, off to India, and back again in 1853 to the 
United
> States. Then her relatives lost sight of her once more until 1858, 
when her
> coming back was like other events in her history. 
> 
> It was a wintry night, and a wedding party was on at the home in 
Russia.
> Guests had arrived, and suddenly, interrupting the meal, the bell 
rang
> violently, and there, unannounced, was Mme. Blavatsky at the door.
> 
> From this point the family and many friends testify, both by letter 
and by
> articles in the Rebus, a well-known journal in Russia, and in other 
papers,
> a constant series of marvels wholly unexplainable on the theory of 
jugglery
> was constantly occurring. They were of such a character that 
hundreds of
> friends from great distances were constantly visiting the house to 
see the
> wonderful Mme. Blavatsky. 
> 
> Many were incredulous, many believed it was magic, and others 
started
> charges of fraud. The superstitious Gooriel and Mingrelian nobility 
came in
> crowds and talked incessantly after, calling her a magician. They 
came to
> see the marvels others reported, to see her sitting quietly reading 
while
> tables and chairs moved of themselves and low raps in every 
direction seemed
> to reply to questions. 
> 
> Among many testified to was one done for her brother, who doubted 
her
> powers. A small chess table stood on the floor. Very light - a 
child could
> lift it and a man break it. One asked if Mme. Blavatsky could 
fasten it by
> will to the floor. She then said to examine it, and they found it 
loose.
> After that, and being some distance off, she said, "Try it again." 
They then
> found that no power of theirs could stir it, and her brother 
supposing from
> his great strength that this "trick" could easily be exposed, 
embraced the
> little table and shook and pulled it without effect, except to make 
it groan
> and creak. 
> 
> So with wall and furniture rapping, objects moving, messages about 
distant
> happenings arriving by aerial port, the whole family and 
neighborhood were
> in a constant state of excitement. Mme. Blavatsky said herself that 
this was
> a period when she was letting her psychic forces play, and learning 
fully to
> understand and control them.
> 
> But the spirit of unrest came freshly again, and she started out 
once more
> to find, as she wrote to me, "the men and women whom I want to 
prepare for
> the work of a great philosophical and ethical movement that I 
expect to
> start in a later time." Going to Spezzia in a Greek vessel, the 
usual
> display of natural circumstances took place, and the boat was blown 
up by an
> explosion of gunpowder in the cargo. Only a few of those on board 
were
> saved, she among them. 
> 
> This led her to Cairo, in Egypt, where, in 1871, she started a 
society with
> the object of investigating spiritualism so as to expose its 
fallacies, if
> any, and to put its facts on a firm, scientific, and reasonable 
basis, if
> possible. But it only lasted fourteen days, and she wrote about it 
then: "It
> is a heap of ruins - majestic, but as suggestive as those of the 
Pharoahs'
> tombs."
> 
> It was, however, in the United States that she really began the 
work that
> has made her name well known in Europe, Asia, and America; made her
> notorious in the eyes of those who dislike all reformers, but great 
and
> famous for those who say her works have benefited them. 
> 
> Prior to 1875 she was again investigating the claims of 
spiritualism in this
> country, and wrote home then analyzing it, declaring false its 
assertion
> that the dead were heard from, and showing that, on the other hand, 
the
> phenomena exhibited a great psycho-physiological change going on 
here,
> which, if allowed to go on in our present merely material 
civilization,
> would bring about great disaster, morally and physically.
> 
> Then in 1875, in New York, she started the Theosophical Society, 
aided by
> Col. H. S. Olcott and others, declaring its objects to be the 
making of a
> nucleus for a universal brotherhood, the study of ancient and other
> religions and sciences, and the investigation of the psychical and 
recondite
> laws affecting man and nature. 
> 
> There certainly was no selfish object in this, nor any desire to 
raise
> money. She was in receipt of funds from sources in Russia and other 
places
> until they were cut off by reason of her becoming an American 
citizen, and
> also because her unremunerated labors for the society prevented her 
doing
> literary work on Russian magazines, where all her writings would be 
taken
> eagerly. 
> 
> As soon as the Theosophical Society was started she said to the 
writer that
> a book had to be written for its use. ISIS UNVEILED was then begun, 
and
> unremittingly she worked at it night and day until the moment when a
> publisher was secured for it.
> 
> Meanwhile crowds of visitors were constantly calling at her rooms 
in Irving
> Place, later in Thirty-fourth street, and last in Forty-seventh 
street and
> Eighth avenue. The newspapers were full of her supposed powers or of
> laughter at the possibilities in man that she and her society 
asserted. 
> 
> A prominent New York daily wrote of her thus: 
> 
> "A woman of as remarkable characteristics as Cagliostro himself, 
and one who
> is every day as differently judged by different people as the 
renowned Count
> was in his day. By those who know her slightly she is called a 
charlatan;
> better acquaintance made you think she was learned; and those who 
were
> intimate with her were either carried away with belief in her power 
or
> completely puzzled." 
> 
> ISIS UNVEILED attracted wide attention, and all the New York papers 
reviewed
> it, each saying that it exhibited immense research. 
> 
> The strange part of this is, as I and many others can testify as
> eyewitnesses to the production of the book, that the writer had no 
library
> in which to make researches and possessed no notes of investigation 
or
> reading previously done. All was written straight out of hand. And 
yet it is
> full of references to books in the British Museum and other great 
libraries,
> and every reference is correct. Either, then, we have, as to that 
book, a
> woman who was capable of storing in her memory a mass of facts, 
dates,
> numbers, titles, and subjects such as no other human being ever was 
capable
> of, or her claim to help from unseen beings is just.
> 
> In 1878, ISIS UNVEILED having been published, Mme. Blavatsky 
informed her
> friends that she must go to India and start there the same movement 
of the
> Theosophical Society. So in December of that year she and Col. 
Olcott and
> two more went out to India, stopping at London for a while. 
> 
> Arriving in Bombay [Feb. 1879], they found three or four Hindoos to 
meet
> them who had heard from afar of the matter. A place was hired in 
the native
> part of the town, and soon she and Col. Olcott started the 
Theosophist, a
> magazine that became at once well known there and was widely bought 
in the
> West.
> 
> There in Bombay and later in Adyar [Dec. 1882], Madras, Mme. 
Blavatsky
> worked day after day in all seasons, editing her magazine and 
carrying on an
> immense correspondence with people in every part of the world 
interested in
> theosophy, and also daily disputing and discussing with learned 
Hindoos who
> constantly called. 
> 
> Phenomena occurred there also very often, and later the society for
> discovering nothing about the psychic world [SPR] investigated 
these, and
> came to the conclusion that this woman of no fortune, who was never 
before
> publicly heard of in India, had managed, in some way they could not 
explain,
> to get up a vast conspiracy that ramified all over India, including 
men of
> all ranks, by means of which she was enabled to produce pretended 
phenomena.
> I give this conclusion as one adopted by many. For any one who knew 
her and
> who knows India, with its hundreds of different languages, none of 
which she
> knew, the conclusion is absurd. The Hindoos believed in her, said 
always
> that she could explain to them their own scriptures and 
philosophies where
> the Brahmins had lost or concealed the key, and that by her efforts 
and the
> work of the society founded through her, India's young men were 
being saved
> from the blank materialism which is the only religion the West can 
ever give
> a Hindoo.
> 
> In 1887 Mme. Blavatsky returned to England, and there started 
another
> theosophical magazine, called LUCIFER, and immediately stirred up 
the
> movement in Europe. 
> 
> Day and night there, as in New York and India, she wrote and spoke,
> incessantly corresponding with people everywhere, editing Lucifer, 
and
> making more books for her beloved society, and never possessed of 
means,
> never getting from the world at large anything save abuse wholly 
undeserved.
> THE KEY TO THEOSOPHY [1889] was written in London, and also THE 
SECRET
> DOCTRINE [1888], which is the great text book for Theosophists. 
> 
> THE VOICE OF THE SILENCE [1889] was written there too, and is 
meant for
> devotional Theosophists. Writing, writing, writing from morn till 
night was
> her fate here. Yet, although scandalized and abused here as 
elsewhere, she
> made many devoted friends, for there never was anything half way in 
her
> history. Those who met her or heard of her were always either 
staunch
> friends or bitter enemies.
> 
> THE SECRET DOCTRINE led to the coming into the society of Mrs. 
Annie Besant,
> and then Mme. Blavatsky began to say that her labors were coming to 
an end,
> for here was a woman who had the courage of the ancient reformers 
and who
> would help carry on the movement in England unflinchingly. The 
Secret
> Doctrine was sent to Mr. Stead of the Pall Mall Gazette to review, 
but none
> of his usual reviewers felt equal to it and he asked Mrs. Besant if 
she
> could review it. She accepted the task, reviewed, and then wanted an
> introduction to the writer. 
> 
> Soon after that she joined the society, first fully investigating 
Mme.
> Blavatsky's character, and threw in her entire forces with the 
Theosophists.
> Then a permanent London headquarters was started and still exists. 
And there
> Mme. Blavatsky passed away, with the knowledge that the society she 
had
> striven so hard for at any cost was at last an entity able to 
struggle for
> itself.
> 
> In her dying moment she showed that her life had been spent for an 
idea,
> with full consciousness that in the eyes of the world it was 
Utopian, but in
> her own necessary for the race. 
> 
> She implored her friends not to allow her then ending incarnation 
to become
> a failure by the failure of the movement started and carried on 
with so much
> of suffering. 
> 
> She never in all her life made money or asked for it. Venal writers 
and
> spiteful men and women have said she strove to get money from so-
called
> dupes, but all her intimate friends know that over and over again 
she has
> refused money; that always she has had friends who would give her 
all they
> had if she would take it, but she never took any nor asked it. 
> 
> On the other hand, her philosophy and her high ideals have caused 
others to
> try to help all those in need. Impelled by such incentive, one rich
> Theosophist gave her $5,000 to found a working girls' club at Bow, 
in
> London, and one day, after Mrs. Besant had made the arrangements 
for the
> house and the rest, Mme. Blavatsky, although sick and old, went 
down there
> herself and opened the club in the name of the society.
> 
> The aim and object of her life were to strike off the shackles 
forged by
> priestcraft for the mind of man. She wished all men to know that 
they are
> God in fact, and that as men they must bear the burden of their own 
sins,
> for no one else can do it. 
> 
> Hence she brought forward to the West the old Eastern doctrines of 
karma and
> reincarnation. Under the first, the law of justice, she said each 
must
> answer for himself, and under the second make answer on the earth 
where all
> his acts were done. 
> 
> She also desired that science should be brought back to the true 
ground
> where life and intelligence are admitted to be within and acting on 
and
> through every atom in the universe. Hence her object was to make 
religion
> scientific and science religious, so that the dogmatism of each 
might
> disappear.
> 
> Her life since 1875 was spent in the unremitting endeavor to draw 
within the
> Theosophical Society those who could work unselfishly to propagate 
an ethics
> and philosophy tending to realize the brotherhood of man by showing 
the real
> unity and essential non-separateness of every being. And her books 
were
> written with the declared object of furnishing the material for 
intellectual
> and scientific progress on those lines. 
> 
> The theory of man's origin, powers, and destiny brought forward by 
her,
> drawn from ancient Indian sources, places us upon a higher pedestal 
that
> that given by either religion or science, for it gives to each the
> possibility of developing the godlike powers within and of at last 
becoming
> a co-worker with nature.
> 
> As every one must die at last, we will not say that her demise was 
a loss;
> but if she had not lived and done what she did humanity would not 
have had
> the impulse and the ideas toward the good which it was her mission 
to give
> and to proclaim. 
> 
> And there are today scores, nay, hundreds, of devout, earnest men 
and women
> intent on purifying their own lives and sweetening the lives of 
others, who
> trace their hopes and aspirations to the wisdom-religion revived in 
the West
> through her efforts, and who gratefully avow that their dearest 
possessions
> are the result of her toilsome and self-sacrificing life. If they, 
in turn,
> live aright and do good, they will be but illustrating the doctrine 
which
> she daily taught and hourly practised.
> 
> WILLIAM Q. JUDGE
> NEW YORK SUN, Sept. 26, 1892
>  
> ============================
>  
> Best wishes,
> 
> 
> Dallas
> 
> ===========================
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ] Cass Silva
> Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2005 1:35 AM
> To: 
> Subject: World ISIS
> 
> 
> Dear Leon and others,
> 
> If we are really going to venture along with this, do you think it 
might be
> a good idea to use another email address, as it may not be of any 
interest
> to those who have no interest in it.? There are some very good 
creative
> minds in this group that could at least begin brainstorming the 
idea for a
> synopsis. I think your idea of an Indianna Blavatsky is 
brilliant. Like
> you said she was a wonder woman, and a great role model for women 
in a man's
> world.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Cass