Sneak Peek: MADAME BLAVATSKY
September 5, 2012 by Tarcher/Penguin
Filed under Books, DailyTarcher, In the News.
Pioneer. Visionary. Mystic. Provocateur. Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky—mystic, occult writer, child of Russian aristocrats, spiritual seeker who traveled five continents, and co-founder (with Henry Steel Olcott) of the Theosophical Society—is still being hailed as an icon and scorned as a fraud more than 120 years after her death. But despite perennial interest in her life, writings, and philosophy, no single biography has examined the controversy and legacy of this influential thinker who helped define modern alternative spirituality—until now with Gary Lachman’s Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality (Tarcher)
Gary Lachman, the acclaimed spiritual biographer behind volumes like Rudolf Steiner and Jung the Mystic, brings us an in-depth look at Blavatsky, objectively exploring her unique and singular contributions towards introducing Eastern and esoteric spiritual ideas to the West during the 19th century, as well as the controversies that continue to color the discussions of her life and work (that includes writing THE SECRET DOCTRINE–thought by many to be the most influential occult book ever written).
“The Founding Mother of Occult in America.”–Kurt Vonnegut
Read an excerpt HERE.
You can order a copy of this paperback original at
Madame Blavatsky was my initial guide into the wide world of occultism. In many ways her Secret Doctrine was an attempt to create a global Spirituality that brought to the surface the truth of world religons without all the special pleadings and turf wars we see in murderous sectarianisms of thw religions then and now. In her own time she became an antimissionary force that stood up for Hinduism and Buddhism and encouraged their movement in the West. Such people are never easy to put a box around and her relationship to Spiritualism was where people’s attentions was at the time.
I bet HPB would have been a flower child and ascidfreak a century later.
As an Occult student I was studying Alice Bailey, Annie Besant and Aleister Crowley before I finally read the works of Madame Blavatsky. Although the Secret Doctrine was difficult to comprehend my first read, the content was informative and far out of the mainstream of occultism. About 10 years into my Occult study I attended a lecture in physics at UCLA in Los Angeles. The guest Physicist made a statement to the fact that the Secret Doctrine is a must read for every open-minded Physicist. He quoted Blavatsky as stating that for every discovery of the smallest known particle science shall find, a smaller particle shall forever appear; and the meaning of infinity will deserve more respect. After the lecture I went back and read The Secret Doctrine again. My evolution as an Occultist had prepared me to grasp what this Physicist was so excited about Blavatsky’s visionary genius. I focused my attention on her complete work and discovered for myself what a brilliant mind and caliber of Soul this person possessed. All the controversy, slander and rumors of her and Henry never interfered with my thoughts about Helena! I don’t know of any other woman in history that can be compared to her intellect, genius and character!
SOUL LOVE, THE OMEGA MAN
She’s got beautiful eyes but She’s not the mother of modern spirituality for sure & she doesn’t explain much in her works. To much about nothing. I found the truth far away from her books.
Great book. Lachman, as always does a superb job of portraying a person who defies portrayal. With HP Blavatsky there is no in-between. Either she is the agent of holy masters or the greatest fraud of the 19th century.
With a depth of perception and a delightful sense of humor, Gary Lachman manages to tell a story that has been waiting for many years to be told in only the way that he can do it!
Just purchased this and looking forward to reading it. Lachman is the finest esoteric writer today and HPB is his greatest challenge.
Having been raised as a Catholic in 1960′s I’d always wondered and asked those questions that most Catholic’s do if they’re worth their salt. As a young man I was working in the closed stack section of our local library and found Madame Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine along with other Theosophical works as well as Science of Mind. But she opened up a whole new vista and a way of thinking that well, just gave me a deeper insight into my own spirituality. As I sit here and write, right in front of me are the two original volumes of the first edition of Isis Unveiled so I’m still a fan of her works.
Much what she wrote over 135 years ago may be taken for granted today by metaphysical students, only because the ideas she spread had firmly taken root. Much of what she said was considered far fetched in her own time. She went against the tides of religious dogma and brought forth a point of correlation between religion and science.
my favorite book of this genre is P. Yogananda’s AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YOGI. though i think he was quite deeply, and, in my opinion, wrongly, influenced by Orthodox Hinduism, which included his seemingly lifelong obsession with ‘Renunciation’,'asceticism’, and ‘monasticism’, the book, and most of his work contains some great stuff….i think this is evidence of the extent to which God has kept ITS secrets hidden, even from such highly evolved beings.
humans may the most difficult animals to retrain, as their big brain makes habits all the more intractable. i.e. it’s odd to me that the Christian World allows The Catholic Church to continue it’s blatantly misogynist philosophies, created at a time when most Men were certain the Earth was flat. i also find it very curious that Yogananda chose to dedicate his book to Luther Burbank….they were seen walking hand in hand in Santa Rosa, Ca. etc……..
Rudolph Steiner was right… Parsival has returned. Palrapar!