Theos-Talk Archives (August 2008 Message tt00183)

Hi,

The married part is true - to Betanelly  that is. Not sure about the
dates, but that can be found in the first volume of the Blavatsky
Collected Writings <http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/>  
(unfortunately that chronology didn't make it onto my site
<http://www.katinkahesselink.net/blavatsky/>    - I guess Ton didn't
find it on the cd rom or something? If anyone would volunteer to
digitalize that and send it to me, I'd be very grateful)

Most theosophists consider the suggestion that she was married to
Metrovich, or had his kid, a blatent lie. She did take care of the child
Yuri though. There is a medical certificate from years later that not
only had  Blavatsky never had a child, but she would also never have
been ABLE to have a child.

Katinka Hesselink

Religion and Spirituality Resources <http://www.katinkahesselink.net/>

All Considering - theosophical blog <http://www.allconsidering.com/>

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Morten Nymann Olesen"
<global-theosophy@...> wrote:
>
> Dear friends
>
>
> 1. Are any of you able to confirm this statement?
>
> "She married her second husband, Michael C. Betanelly on April 3, 1875
> in New York City. She separated from Betanelly after a few months,
> and their divorce was legalized on May 25, 1878."
>
>
> 2.  Maybe Metrovich lied heavily?
>
> "Metrovich considered himself Helena's husband at this point."
>
>
>
> M. Sufilight
>
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Richard Semock
>   To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
>   Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2008 5:18 AM
>   Subject: Theos-World HPG vs HPB
>
>
>   Elena Petrovna Gan, also Hélène, 12 August [O.S. 31 July]
1831,
>   Yekaterinoslav, Ukraine, Russian Empire died May 8, 1891, London,
>   better known as Helena Blavatsky or Madame Blavatsky, born Helena
von
>   Hahn, was a founder of the Theosophical Society
>
>   Her parents were Colonel Pyotr Alekseyevich Gan or Peter von Hahn
>   (1798-1873) of ancient (Uradel) German nobility from Basedow
>   (Mecklenburg) - and Elena Andreyevna Fadeyeva 1814-1843), the
author,
>   under the pen-name "Zeneida R-va", of a dozen novels. Described by
>   Belinsky as the "Russian George Sand", she died at the age of 28,
>   when Helena was eleven. Helena's sister Vera Zhelikhovsky was a
>   writer of occult/fantastic fiction. Sergei Witte - Russian Minister,
>   and then Prime Minister in the reign of Tsar Nicholas II - was her
>   first cousin. In his memoirs count Witte recalls his encounters with
>   Elena.
>
>   Elena's maternal grandparents were Andrey Mikhailovich Fadeyev,
>   Governor of Saratov, later of Tbilisi, and his wife Helene (nee
>   Princess Dolgoruky) - prominent figures of the age of Russian
>   enlightenment. Elena grew up amid a culture rich in spirituality and
>   traditional Russian mythologies, which introduced her to the realm
of
>   the supernatural.
>
>   Elena's great-grand nephew Boris de Zirkoff, 1902-1981 was an active
>   member of Theosophical Society and the editor of the Blavatsky
>   Collected Writings; her great-grand niece, also Elena (1935), lives
>   in Moscow - her resemblance to HPB is striking.
>
>   First marriage
>   She was married four weeks before she turned seventeen, on July 7,
>   1848, to the forty-year old Nikifor (also Nicephor) Vassilievich
>   Blavatsky, vice-governor of Erivan. After three unhappy months, she
>   stole a horse, and escaped back over the mountains to her
grandfather
>   in Tbilisi. Her grandfather shipped her off immediately to her
father
>   who was retired and living near Saint Petersburg. He travelled two
>   thousand miles to meet her at Odessa, but she wasn't there. She had
>   missed the steamer, and sailed away with the skipper of an English
>   bark bound for Istanbul. According to her account, they never
>   consummated their marriage, and she remained a virgin her entire
life.
>
>   Wandering years
>   According to her own story as told to a later biographer, she spent
>   the years 1848 to 1858 traveling the world, and is said to have
>   visited Egypt, France, Canada (Quebec), England, South America,
>   Germany, Mexico, India, Greece and especially Tibet to study for two
>   years with the men she called Brothers. She claimed to have become
>   Buddhist while in Sri Lanka[2] and to have been initiated in Tibet.
>   She returned to Russia in 1858 and went first to see her sister
Vera,
>   a young widow living in Rugodevo, a village which she had inherited
>   from her husband.
>
>   Agardi Metrovitch
>   About this time, she met and left with Agardi Metrovich, an Italian
>   opera singer. Some sources say that she had several extramarital
>   affairs, became pregnant, and bore a deformed child, Yuri, whom she
>   loved dearly. She wrote that Yuri was a child of her friends the
>   Metroviches. To balance this statement, Count Witte, her first
cousin
>   on her mother's side, stated in his memoirs (as quoted by G.
>   Williams), that her father read aloud a letter in which Metrovich
>   signed himself as "your affectionate grandson". This is evidence
that
>   Metrovich considered himself Helena's husband at this point. Yuri
>   died at the age of five, and Helena said that she ceased to believe
>   in the Russian Orthodox God at this point.
>
>   Madame Helena Petrova Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer,
>   agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist
>   phenomena.
>
>   New York
>   It was in 1873 that she emigrated to New York City. Impressing
people
>   with her supposed psychic abilities, she was spurred on to continue
>   her mediumship. Mediumship (among other psychical and spiritual
>   sciences of the time), based upon the quasi-religion known as
>   Spiritualism having began at Rochester, NY, was a widely popular and
>   fast-spreading field upon which Blavatsky based her career.[3]
>
>   Throughout her career she claimed to have demonstrated physical and
>   mental psychic feats which included levitation, clairvoyance,
out-of-
>   body projection, telepathy, and clairaudience. Another claim of hers
>   was materialization, that is, producing physical objects out of
>   nothing, though in general, her interests were more in the area
>   of 'theory' and 'laws' rather than demonstration.
>
>   In 1874 at the farm of the Eddy Brothers, Helena met Henry Steel
>   Olcott, a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered
the
>   Spiritualist phenomena. Soon they were working together in
>   the "Lamasery" where her book Isis Unveiled was written.
>
>   She married her second husband, Michael C. Betanelly on April 3,
1875
>   in New York City. She separated from Betanelly after a few months,
>   and their divorce was legalized on May 25, 1878. On July 8, 1878,
she
>   became a naturalized citizen of the United States.
>
>   Foundation of Theosophical Society
>   Living in New York City, she founded the Theosophical Society in
>   September 1875, with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and
>   others.
>
>   Madame Blavatsky wrote that all religions were both true in their
>   inner teachings and problematic or imperfect in their external
>   conventional manifestations. Her writings connecting esoteric
>   spiritual knowledge with new science may be considered to be the
>   first instance of what is now called New Age thinking. In fact, many
>   researchers feel that much of New Age thought started with
Blavatsky.
>
>   She also lived in Philadelphia for part of 1875, where she resided
at
>   3420 Sansom Street, now home of the White Dog Cafe. While living on
>   Sansom Street, Madame Blavatsky became ill with an infected leg. She
>   claimed to have undergone a "transformation" during her illness
which
>   inspired her to found the Theosophical Society. In a letter dated
>   June 12, 1875, she described her recovery, explaining that she
>   dismissed the doctors and surgeons who threatened amputation. She is
>   quoted as saying "Fancy my leg going to the spirit land before me!,"
>   and had a white dog sleep across her leg by night <hence white dog
>   cafe>.
>
>   India
>   She had moved to India, landing at Bombay on 16 February 1879 where
>   she first made the acquaintance of A.P. Sinnett. In his book Occult
>   World he describes how she stayed at his home in Allahabad for six
>   weeks that year, and again the following year.
>
>   Sometime around December 1880, while at a dinner party with a group
>   including A.O. Hume and his wife, she is claimed to have been
>   instrumental in causing the materialization of Mrs. Hume's lost
>   brooch. By 1882 the Theosophical Society became an international
>   organization, and it was at this time that she moved the
headquarters
>   to Adyar near Chennai, India (then known as Madras).
>
>   The society headquartered here for some time, but she later went to
>   Germany for a while, in between she stayed at Ostend (15 July 1886 -
>   1 May 1887) where she could easily meet her English friends. She
>   wrote a big part of the Secret Doctrine in Ostend and there she
>   claimed a revelation during an illness telling her to continue the
>   book at any cost. Finally she went to England. A disciple put her up
>   in her own house in England and it was here that she lived until the
>   end of her life.
>
>   Final years
>   In August, 1890 she formed the "Inner Circle" of 12
>   disciples: "Countess Constance Wachtmeister, Mrs Isabel Cooper-
>   Oakley, Miss Emily Kislingbury, Miss Laura Cooper, Mrs Annie Besant,
>   Mrs Alice Cleather, Dr Archibald Keightley, Herbert Coryn, Claude
>   Wright, G.R.S. Mead, E.T. Sturdy, and Walter Old".
>
>   Suffering from heart disease, rheumatism, Bright's disease, and
>   complications from influenza, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died
>   at 19 Avenue Road, St Johns Wood, the home she shared, in England on
>   May 8, 1891. Her last words in regard to her work were: "Keep the
>   link unbroken! Do not let my last incarnation be a failure."
>
>   Her body was cremated; one third of her ashes were sent to Europe,
>   one third with William Quan Judge to the United States, and one
third
>   to India where her ashes were scattered in the Ganges River. May 8
is
>   celebrated by Theosophists, and it is called White Lotus Day.
>
>   She was succeeded as head of one branch of the Theosophical Society
>   by her protégé, Annie Besant. Her friend, W.Q. Judge, headed
the
>   American Section.
>
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blavatsky#Family
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>



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