Theos-Talk Archives (October 2008 Message tt00384)

She certainly ended up preaching them.
 
The peculiar social positions of not only HPB but Col. Olcott as well  
created all manner of trouble for the British.  They did not want them in  India but 
they could not throw them out because they were there with US  diplomatic 
passports and in those days wars started over that sort of  thing.  HPB herself 
had family connections that made her more than a little  relative (and the word 
"little" applied to HPB is peculiar to say the  least.  She would only be 
considered little in relation to an aircraft  carrier.), her cousin, Count Witte 
became Prime Minister of Russia.  Col.  Olcott was a drinking buddy of the US 
President and when they arrived in Ceylon,  the US consul in Colombia had been 
under Olcott during the Civil War.  (Or,  as we Northerners call it, The War 
of the Slaveholders'  Rebellion)   I've always found it more than a little 
amusing that their biographers tend to  overlook the importance of those 
connections.
 
The situation of a Russian noblewoman with her family connections, even  
though now a US citizen, and someone who had been really highly placed in US  
politics, combined with the close diplomatic ties between Russia and the US at  
that time must have driven the British mad with paranoia. We tend to look at  
these things through the lens of the Cold War, but during most of the 19th  
Century Russia and US were very closely aligned and during the Civil War Russia  
had been a de-facto ally of the Union.  At the close of the Civil War, the  
British were terrified that the Union Navy, whose effective combat  strength at 
that time actually dwarfed the British Navy and could have  easily swept the 
Union Jack from the seas, would join with the Russians to seize  India in 
retaliation for Britain's role on the side of the rebels.  (This  became on odd 
theme in Europe and as late as WW2, Goebbels wrote in his diary  that the US was 
going to demand India as payment from the British for saving  their skins.  
Nonsense of course, but the idea was still floating around  even then.(
 
So the "trade mission" of Blavatsky and Olcott to India looked a lot  
different to the Brits than it did to anyone else.  They saw it is a  prelude to 
something very bad but they were not quite sure what.
 
Chuck the Heretic
 
 
In a message dated 10/15/2008 7:09:25 P.M. Central Daylight Time,  
silva_cass@yahoo.com writes:

 
 
 
I imagine she was regarded by the Victorian British Aristocracy at the time  
as that meddling little relative of the Tsar causing nothing but trouble and  
dissention in the Empire - I imagine she operated in the Victorian system -  
well there was nothing outside of it to operate under - but as far as  
embracing it - I say no - I say she didn't appear to follow the social morays  of her 
day.

Cass

----- Original Message ----
From: "_Drpsionic@aol.Drp_ (mailto:Drpsionic@aol.com) " <_Drpsionic@aol.Drp_ 
(mailto:Drpsionic@aol.com) >
To: _theos-talk@yahoogrotheos-t_ (mailto:theos-talk@yahoogroups.com) 
Sent:  Thursday, 16 October, 2008 2:37:58 AM
Subject: Re: Theos-World Re: "...we  have to preach and popularise a 
knowledge of theos...

That's just what  I said!

Chuck the Heretic

In a message dated 10/15/2008 8:33:09  A.M. Central Daylight Time, 
silva_cass@yahoo. com writes:

Well  Chuck, you can't get away from the rellies no matter how hard you try. 
If  she drew on her own inheritance I don't see a problem with it, at least 
it  didn't come out of the public coffers. 

She wasn't bringing these  teachings as a missionary but to well educated - 
well connected victorian  intellectuals - how else would her works have been 
published had she been  a little unknown russian gypsy fortune teller?

Cass

-----  Original Message ----
From: "_Drpsionic@From: "_Drpsionic@<WBR>aol. Drp_From: 
"_Drps<_Drpsionic@_Drpsionic@<WB
(mailto:Drpsionic@(mailto:Dr>
To: _theos-talk@ yahoogrotheos-  t_ (mailto:theos-To: _theos-talk@ yahoog
Sent: Wednesday, 15 October,  2008 3:35:54 PM
Subject: Re: Theos-World Re: "...we have to preach and  popularise a 
knowledge of theos...

Hardly. That is the image. The  real HPB was always Countess Yelena 
Petrovna Blavatskaya, and although she  dropped the Countess when she became 
an 
American citizen, she was  always able to draw funds from the Russian 
government 
set aside by her  family and her social rank opened a lot of doors that 
otherwise would have  been slammed in her face. And that standing enabled her 
to get 
away  with what she did.

She was a character, but she was very very much a  part of her time even 
though she made fun of it, just like I am a part of  my time even though I 
make 
fun of everything.

Now understand  that I am not attacking HPB for any of this. It is merely 
important that  we realize the essentials of her humanity and how they 
impacted 
her  work. 

Chuck the heretic

In a message dated 10/14/2008 5:58:02  P.M. Central Daylight Time, 
silva_cass@yahoo. com writes:

But  Chuck, HPB sat outside the Victorian system and in fact mocked it 
through  its religion and its social morays - smoking being a minor but prime 
 
example of not conforming to the 'ladylike" victorian  image.

Cass

----- Original Message ----
From: "_Drpsionic@  From: "_Drpsionic@ <WBR>aol. Drp_From: 
"_Drps<_Drpsionic@  _Drpsionic@ <WB
(mailto:Drpsionic@ (mailto:Dr>
To: _theos-talk@  yahoogrotheos- t_ (mailto:theos- To: _theos-talk@ yahoog
Sent: Wednesday,  15 October, 2008 2:32:32 AM
Subject: Re: Theos-World Re: "...we have to  preach and popularise a 
knowledge of theos...

I am saying that HPB  was clearly wrong and when she said that she was merely 
being a person of  her time and culture. She was being a good Victorian, 
wanting to create a  social system for other people to live in. It was a sort 
of 
weird blip  in the zeitgeist.

As to how, there are any number of systems, Zen  coming to mind immediately.

Chuck the Heretic

In a message dated  10/14/2008 9:15:41 A.M. Central Daylight Time, 
adelasie@sbcglobal. net  writes:

Assuming you are making a serious statement, may I suggest that  
behavior is the path to enlightenment? When HPB said that (and I  
paraphrase) occultism is altruism, wasn't she suggesting that it is  
how we behave more than what we read that determines our progress in  
the evolution of consciousness? How does a person attain 
enlightenment  in a material form without regard to behavior? 

Adelasie

On 13  Oct 2008 at 22:37, _Drpsionic@aol. Drp_ (mailto:Drpsionic@ On 13 Oct  
wrote:

> 
> No, it really doesn't. It just gets in the way  at all kinds of 
> levels. And
> in regard to the nature of the  cosmos it really does not matter. When 
> the
> Sun goes nova, the  just and the unjust will fry alike.
> 
> We really need to  separate behavior from enlightenment, otherwise we 
> will
> keep  tripping over Musashi, who attained enlightenment by the process 
>  of
> killing sixty three men in single combat.
> 
> Chuck  the heretic

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