Theos-Talk Archives (November 2012 Message tt00015)

An interesting approach, like what Gary already made with his Rudolf Steiner's biography some times ago. Interesting from the fact that, being neither a pro nor an anti-HPB (which seems to be rare by these days), he has done a serious study, using most of the already published biographies and writings about HPB, including recent ones like S.Cranston or P.Johnson. In his introduction, he gives an overall feeling about the contribution of HPB to spirituality and occultism : "But one doesn't need to be a Thesophist to have felt Blavatsky's considerable presence. Her contribution to modern spirituality thought, and to modern culture in general, is so great that it can easily be overlooked, in the way that some prominent feature of the landscape can be overlooked-that is to say, taken for granted. Yet if Blavatsky's offering to our modern spiritual consciousness was to be suddenly removed, it would drag along with it practically everything we associate with the very notion of modern spirituality. And those of us who had taken Blavatsky's contribution for granted would certainly notice the loss...It's been said that all of modern Russian literature emerged from Nikolai Gogol's short story "The Overcoat". It can equally be said that practically all modern occultism and esotericism emerged from the ample bosom of his younger countrywoman and contemporaray, HPB."