Theosophy and Helena Blavatsky: The Secret Doctrine and the Roots of Modern Esotericism
In 1875, in a New York City apartment, a Russian noblewoman, an American Civil War colonel, and a small circle of seekers founded a society that would transform the landscape of Western spirituality more profoundly than almost any other single institution of the modern era. The woman was Helena Petrovna Blavatsky — known as HPB — arguably the most influential occultist of the nineteenth century, author of two of the most ambitious and controversial books in the history of esoteric thought, and the figure through whom much of what we recognize as New Age spirituality, modern Western esotericism, and the revival of interest in Eastern traditions in the West can be traced. The Theosophical Society she co-founded with Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge had three stated objectives: to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color; to encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science; and to inves...