Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00375)

Sounds like an Obituary Notice! I must say she didn't have much taste in Men. And where's her Red Shirt?


Cass
H P Blavatsky & Guiseppe Garibaldi
The Battleof Mentana
Â
Guiseppe Garibaldi (1807 â 82)
Regarded as the most significant figure in the struggle for Italian independence
Â
Return to Homepage
Â
Â
Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was not just an intellectual or theoretical "warrior for light." In 1867 she spent several months traveling in Europe. On November 3 she was in the town of Mentana, north and east of Rome. On that day the Battle of Mentana was fought between the Italian patriot Garibaldi and the French. The battle was one of a number of fights fought in Italy's struggle for independence. Blavatsky participated, with other women, in the battle in support of Garibaldi.
Â
The Battleof Mentana 1867
H P Blavatsky apparently sustained five wounds including being shot in the right shoulder and a broken left arm. (Garibaldi's force, some 4,000 strong, was beaten at Mentana by a combined French and papal force of some 5,000 soldiers, primarily because the French troops made use of the new breech-loading Chassepot musket. This weapon gave them a distinct advantage over Garibaldi's Redshirts. However it is not known if Madame Blavatsky was wounded by such a rifle.)
Â
H P Blavatsky often wore the Red Shirt of the Garibaldi followers for many years after the battle and was wearing it when she met Colonel Olcott.
Â
Â
Return to Homepage



----- Original Message ----
From: "Drpsionic@aol.com" <Drpsionic@aol.com>
To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wednesday, 15 October, 2008 4:08:23 PM
Subject: Theos-World Countess Blavatskaya


It was impossible to grow up in the US in the 1960s and have any interest in 
the Occult without running into references to HPB but I pretty much passed 
them over as stuff from a previous century. And somewhere along the line I 
ran into a letter my family has written by my great great grandfather when he 
was fighting with Garibaldi about a strange Russian noblewoman who ran the 
brothel.

Anyway, after a rather convoluted series of events I found myself in the TS 
and paying a bit more attention to the biography of HPB and there was this 
story about Garibaldi. And I wonder how many Russian noblewomen were with 
Garibaldi and maybe someone was changing the story a bit.

But hell, no one ever accused me of being a prude, not with my lifestyle, 
and the story I think is true only makes her more interesting to me for a simple 
reason. Blavatsky was not a statue in a church, not a saint, not a 
goddess. She was a living, breathing human being.

And in my decades in the TS I keep hearing stuff claimed about her that sort 
of makes my head spin. There are people who will go berserk at the thought 
that she might have had, gasp, sex. And there is the little matter of the 
drug use, even though it was a pain killer and she needed pain killers. Her 
body did not like her in her later years.

She never intended that her ideas be holy writ, though she could get 
downright abusive to those who had the temerity to remind her of that. And she 
could be wrong, dead wrong about some things. And being a person of her time she 
would naturally have ideas that would not stand the test of time. Her words 
are to be taken as what they are, words, to be studied, questioned and in 
the end either accepted or not. They are not golden drippings from the nose of 
god, in spite of the ravings of the Judge worshippers. And they are not the 
last word for the simple reason that there is no last word. And those who 
regard her in that way do her a great disservice because when her human 
weaknesses are discovered, there are people who get very disappointed. Better to 
know that there is no idol than to have it fall over on you.

Better to admire her for what she was, a person of extraordinary energy and 
knowledge whose presence still looms over the world, who is a source of 
inspiration for us and of horror to our enemies. Let us honor her for that and at 
the same time have a good laugh at the extreme gravity of her person which 
could break chairs and capsize boats if she looked over the side. (I used to 
joke that she was the reason my family ended up in America because she caused 
the Great Pasta Famine.)

And let us never, ever forget her humanity.

Chuck the Heretic


************ **New MapQuest Local shows what's happening at your destination. 
Dining, Movies, Events, News & more. Try it out 
(http://local. mapquest. com/?ncid= emlcntnew0000000 2)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

 


      Make the switch to the world&#39;s best email. Get Yahoo!7 Mail! http://au.yahoo.com/y7mail

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]