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Roots -

Helena Petrovna Hahn was born on August 12, 1831, in Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (modern-day Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine).

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Her parents were aristocrats -

Her mother, writer Helena Andreyevna Hahn von Rottenstern (pictured with her daughter Helena), was a Russian aristocrat. As for Helena Blavatsky’s father, Pyotr Alexeyevich Hahn von Rottenstern, he came from the German Hahn aristocratic family.

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Baptism -

While Blavatsky would steer away from the path of Christianity later in life, as a child she was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church.

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She moved a lot as a child -

Helena Blavatsky’s father was a captain in the Russian Royal Horse Artillery, so her family moved a lot when she was younger. They moved from Yekaterinoslav to Romankovo, then to Odessa, and later to Saint Petersburg (pictured), Poltava, and Saratov.

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She married young -

Helena was 17 when she married a vice governor named Nikifor Vladimirovich Blavatsky. They eventually separated a few months later.

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Travels -

Helena Blavatsky traveled extensively from 1849 to 1869. After separating from her husband, Blavatsky reached Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul), and from there she proceeded to Egypt, Greece, France, and England. Throughout her travels Blavatsky met several people who influenced and fed her appetite for knowledge and all things esoteric.

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Travels -

From Europe, Helena Blavatsky traveled to Canada, the United States, and to the West Indies, from where she embarked on a trip towards the East, where she visited Sri Lanka and India. From there, Blavatsky traveled back to Europe, and then again to the US and India. Pictured is the drawing of a boat made by Blavatsky in 1855.

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Paranormal abilities -

By the time Blavatsky returned home in 1858, she was reportedly exhibiting paranormal abilities. She further developed these years later as she traveled throughout Europe and then Tibet.

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Tibet -

Helena Blavatsky claimed to have spent time in Tibet studying Buddhism, where she had learned a number of things from the “masters,” including psychic abilities.

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Henry Steel Olcott -

After years learning about and fully embracing new theological and philosophical concepts, in 1873 Blavatsky traveled to New York City, where she met journalist Henry Steel Olcott, who wrote an article about her. The two became friends and established the Miracle Club, where lectures on esoteric themes would take place.

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The birth of the Theosophical Society -

At a meeting on September 7, 1875 at the Miracle Club, Blavatsky, Olcott, and Irish spiritualist William Quan Judge (pictured), decided to call their organization the Theosophical Society.

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‘Isis Unveiled’ -

In 1877, Helena Blavatsky published her most famous book, ‘Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology,’ where she argues that all religions stemmed from one common "ancient wisdom."

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‘Isis Unveiled’ -

Blavatsky advocated for esoterism and the mystical experience as key. She also criticized the lack of spirituality in science.

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The Theosophical Society expands -

In 1879, Blavatsky and Olcott moved to India and set their headquarters in Adyar, Madras (modern-day Chennai). The Society began publishing the journal The Theosophist, and the movement grew in the country.

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The mission -

The mission of the Theosophical Society “is to serve humanity by cultivating an ever-deepening understanding and realization of the Ageless/Ancient Wisdom, spiritual self-transformation, and the unity of all life.”

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Motto -

The motto of the Theosophical Society is: "There is no religion higher than truth."

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Objectives -

The first of the Three Objects of the Theosophical Society is “to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, orientation, caste, or color.”

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Objectives -

The second is “to encourage the study of Comparative Religion, Philosophy and Science.” And the third and last is “to investigate unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.”

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Inclusive -

The Society advocated for freedom of thought, and according to their constitution everyone is welcomed. Article 1 states that the Society is “absolutely unsectarian, and no assent to any formula of belief, faith or creed shall be required as a qualification of membership.”

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Freedom of thought -

The Theosophical Society advocated freedom of thought. They say that “there is no doctrine, no opinion, by whomsoever taught or held, that is in any way binding on any member of the Society, none which any member is not free to accept or reject.”

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Freedom of thought -

And the same applies to authority, as “no teacher, or writer, from H.P. Blavatsky onwards, has any authority to impose his or her teachings or opinions on members. Every member has an equal right to follow any school of thought, but has no right to force the choice on any other.”

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The emblem of the Theosophical Society -

The emblem of the Theosophical Society is composed of a number of ancient religious symbols “to express profound spiritual and philosophical concepts about the human being and the universe.”

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The emblem of the Theosophical Society -

The emblem contains the Ankh (resurrection), interlaced triangles (Trinity), the serpent (wisdom), the swastika (movement and energy), and the Aum (Om of Hinduism in Sanskrit).

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Theosophy -

Theosophy, which comes from the Greek words “theos” (god) and “sophia” (wisdom), refers to the universal ancient wisdom underlying all religions. It combines elements of European philosophies such as Neoplatonism, Asian religions such as Buddhism and Hinduism, and elements of Gnosticism.

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Mystical experience -

According to the Society, “theosophia refers to a Divine Wisdom, that is, a state of consciousness in which the sage or mystic goes beyond his or her mind and gets a direct, supra-conceptual, perception of Truth.”

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Madame Blavatsky became a celebrity -

Helena Blavatsky started traveling to Europe promoting the Theosophical ideology and drawing crowds as a result.

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The Hodgson Report -

But then, in 1884, the Indian press accused Blavatsky of being a fraud, which was duly investigated by the London Society for Psychical Research (SPR). In 1885, Blavatsky was declared a fraud in what became known as the Hodgson Report.

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Rebuttal -

A century later, in 1986, the SPR published an article debunking the old committee report and saying that Madame Blavatsky had been unjustly condemned.

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Move to Europe and writings -

In the following years, Blavatsky moved back to Europe, where she wrote more books, namely the famous ‘The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy’ (1888), ‘The Voice of the Silence’ (1889) and ‘The Key to Theosophy’ (1889).

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Late years -

Madame Blavatsky lived in Germany, Belgium, and finally settled in London, where she died on May 8, 1891, aged 59.

Sources: (TS Adyar) (Theosophical Society in America) (Britannica) (CBC) (JSTOR Daily)

See also: Secret sects rejected by early Christianity

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