Editing Helena Blavatsky (section)

== Theories and doctrines ==

According to Meade, Blavatsky assembled her theories and doctrines gradually, in a piecemeal fashion.{{sfn|Meade|1980|p=80}} Blavatsky claimed that these Theosophical doctrines were not her own invention, but had been received from a brotherhood of secretive spiritual adepts whom she referred to as the "Masters" or "Mahatmas".{{sfn|Johnson|1994|p=1}}

=== Theosophy, the Masters, and the "Ancient Wisdom" ===

[[File:Emb logo.png|thumb|200px|right|The logo for the Theosophical Society brought together various ancient symbols]]

Blavatsky was the leading theoretician of the Theosophical Society,{{sfnm|1a1=Santucci|1y=2006b|1p=1114|2a1=Lachman|2y=2012|2pp=135–136}} responsible for establishing its "doctrinal basis".{{sfn|Bednarowski|1980|p=221}} The ideas expounded in her published texts provide the basis from which the Society and wider Theosophical movement emerged.{{sfn|Santucci|2006b|p=1114}} Blavatsky's Theosophical ideas were a form of ''[[occultism]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Morrison |first=Mark S. |date=1 December 2007 |title=The Periodical Culture of the Occult Revival: Esoteric Wisdom, Modernity and Counter-Public Spheres |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236723827 |access-date=7 May 2024}}</ref> She subscribed to the anti-Christian current of thought within Western esotericism which emphasized the idea of an ancient and universal "occult science" that should be revived.{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2013|p=40}} Blavatsky stated that the Theosophical teachings were passed on to her by adepts, who lived in various parts of the world.{{sfn|Cranston|1993|p=xix}}

Fundamentally, the underlying concept behind Blavatsky's Theosophy was that there was an "ancient wisdom religion" which had once been found across the world, and which was known to various ancient figures, such as the Greek philosopher [[Plato]] and the ancient Hindu sages.{{sfnm|1a1=Campbell|1y=1980|1p=36|2a1=Goodrick-Clarke|2y=2008|2p=216}}
Blavatsky connected this ancient wisdom religion to Hermetic philosophy, a worldview in which everything in the universe is identified as an emanation from the Godhead.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=216}} Blavatsky believed that all of the world's religions developed from this original global faith.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=216}}
Blavatsky understood her Theosophy to be the heir to the Neoplatonist philosophers of [[Late Antiquity]], who had also embraced Hermetic philosophy.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=217}} Blavatsky claimed that due to [[Christianization]] in Europe, this magical tradition was lost there, but it persisted in modified form in India and Africa, promoting a self-consciously magical [[disenchantment]] narrative.{{sfn|Josephson-Storm|2017|p=117}} In turn, Blavatsky believed that the Theosophical movement's revival of the "ancient wisdom religion" would lead to it spreading across the world, eclipsing the established world religions.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=216}}
Thus, in bringing these Theosophical ideas to humanity, Blavatsky viewed herself as a [[messiah|messianic]] figure.{{sfn|Meade|1980|p=7}}

According to Goodrick-Clarke, the Theosophical Society "disseminated an elaborate philosophical edifice involving a cosmogony, the macrocosm of the universe, spiritual hierarchies, and intermediary beings, the latter having correspondences with a hierarchical conception of the microcosm of man."{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=220}}
Officially, the Society based itself upon the following three 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.
# To investigate the unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in man.{{sfnm|1a1=Washington|1y=1993|1p=69|2a1=Goodrick-Clarke|2y=2004|2p=11|3a1=Lachman|3y=2012|3p=134}}

Washington believed that the purpose of these three precepts was to lead to the "discovery of the powers latent in man through the occult study of science, philosophy and religion [which] shall be the preferred route to the social harmony and equality which will prefigure{{spnd}}and perhaps become{{spnd}}the divine harmony."{{sfn|Washington|1993|p=69}}

While living in New York City, Blavatsky had referred to herself as a "Buddhist",{{sfn|Godwin|1994|p=322}} although officially embraced Buddhism only while in Ceylon.{{sfn|Godwin|1994|pp=321–322}} However, Lachman stated that her Buddhism was "highly eccentric and had little to do with the Buddhism of scholars like {{bracket|Max}} Müller or that of your average Buddhist".{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=202}} Blavatsky argued that [[The Buddha]] had sought to return to the teachings of the [[Vedas]], and that Buddhism therefore represented a more accurate survival of ancient [[Brahmanism]] than modern Hinduism.{{sfn|Bevir|1994|p=757}}
Although critical of [[Catholicism]] and [[Protestantism]], and opposing their growth in Asia, throughout her life she remained highly sympathetic to the [[Russian Orthodox Church]], commenting that "with the faith of the Russian Church I will not even compare Buddhism".{{sfn|Hutton|1999|p=19}}

[[G. R. S. Mead]] proclaimed, "Two things in all the chaos of her {{bracket|Blavatsky's}} cosmos stood firm in every mood{{spnd}}that her Teachers existed and that she had not cheated."{{sfn|Mead|1920}}

=== Theology, cosmogony, and the place of humanity ===

{{quote box|width=25em|align=right|quote=Blavatsky's writings garnered the materials of Neoplatonism, Renaissance magic, Kabbalah, and Freemasonry, together with ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman mythology and religion, joined by Eastern doctrines taken from Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta to present the idea of an ancient wisdom handed down from prehistoric times.|source=—Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, 2008.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=212}}}}

Blavatsky expounded what has been described as a "monotheistic, immanentist, and mystical cosmology".{{sfn|Bevir|1994|p=759}}
Blavatsky was a [[pantheism|pantheist]],{{sfn|Godwin|1994|p=328}} and emphasized the idea of an impersonal divinity, referring to the Theosophical God as a "universal Divine Principle, the root of All, from which all proceeds, and within which all shall be absorbed at the end of the great cycle of being".{{sfn|Bednarowski|1980|p=221}} She was dismissive of the Christian idea of God in the Western world, describing it as "a bundle of contradictions and a logical impossibility."{{sfn|Bednarowski|1980|p=221}} She stated that the universe emanated from this Divine Principle, with each particle of matter being infused with a spark of the divine.{{sfn|Bevir|1994|p=753}} Lower Orders emanated from higher ones, before becoming increasingly dense and being absorbed back into the Divine Principle.{{sfn|Bevir|1994|p=753}}
This cosmology exhibited commonalities with the scientific discoveries of geology and biological evolution, both of which had been revealed by scientific inquiry during the 19th century.{{sfn|Bevir|1994|p=753}}

In ''The Secret Doctrine'', Blavatsky articulated the belief that in the beginning of time there was absolute nothingness. This primordial essence then separated itself into seven Rays, which were also intelligent beings known as the Dhyan Chohans; these Seven Rays then created the universe using an energy called ''Fohat''.{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=255}}{{sfn|Kuhn|1992|p=199}} The Earth was created and underwent seven Rounds, in each of which different living beings were created.{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=255}}

Blavatsky advocated the idea of "[[Root Race]]s", each of which was divided into seven Sub-Races.{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=256}}
In Blavatsky's cosmogony, the first Root Race were created from pure spirit and lived on a continent known as the "Imperishable Sacred Land".{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=255}}{{sfn|Kuhn|1992|p=222}} The second Root Race, known as the Hyperboreans, were also formed from pure spirit and lived on a land near to the North Pole, which then had a mild climate.{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=255}} The third lived on the continent of [[Lemuria (continent)|Lemuria]], which Blavatsky alleged survives today as Australia and Rapa Nui.{{sfn|Lachman|2012|pp=255–256}}{{sfn|Kuhn|1992|p=224}} Blavatsky alleged that during the fourth Round of the Earth, higher beings descended to the planet, with the beginnings of human physical bodies developing and the sexes separating.{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=256}} At this point, the fourth Root Race appeared, living on the continent of [[Atlantis]]; they had physical bodies but also psychic powers and advanced technology.{{sfn|Kuhn|1992|p=225}} She claimed that some Atlanteans were giants and built such ancient monuments as [[Stonehenge]] in southern England and that they also mated with "she-animals", resulting in the creation of gorillas and [[Common chimpanzee|chimpanzees]].{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=256}} The Atlanteans were decadent and abused their power and knowledge, so Atlantis sunk into the sea, although various Atlanteans escaped and created new societies in Egypt and the Americas.{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=256}}

The fifth Root Race to emerge was the Aryans and was found across the world at the time she was writing.{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=256}}{{sfn|Kuhn|1992|p=226}} She believed that the fifth Race would come to be replaced by the sixth, which would be heralded by the arrival of [[Maitreya]], a figure from Mahayana Buddhist mythology.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=223}} She further believed that humanity would eventually develop into the final, seventh Root Race.{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=256}}<ref>Blavatsky 1888. [http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/SDVolume2.htm ''Volume II: Anthropogenesis''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903045243/http://www.phx-ult-lodge.org/SDVolume2.htm |date=3 September 2019 }}. [[Phoenix, Arizona]]: [[United Lodge of Theosophists]]. 2005. Retrieved 29 January 2011. The entire volume constitutes a detailed description of the Theosophical doctrines of the evolution of Humankind, and related subjects. ([[Chakras]] references: pp. 465, 466, 483, 546).</ref>
Lachman suggested that by reading Blavatsky's cosmogonical claims as a literal account of history, "we may be doing it a disservice."{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=256}} He instead suggested that it could be read as Blavatsky's attempt to formulate "a new myth for the modern age, or as a huge, fantastic science fiction story".{{sfn|Lachman|2012|p=256}}

Blavatsky taught that humans composed of three separate parts: a divine spark, an astral fluid body, and the physical body.{{sfn|Bevir|1994|p=755}} Later Blavatsky proclaimed the septenary of Man and Universe.{{sfn|Blavatsky|1962|loc=sect. vi}} According to Blavatsky, man is composed of seven parts: [[Ātman (Hinduism)|Atma]], [[Buddhi]], [[Mental body|Manas]], [[Kama]] rupa, [[Astral body|Linga sharira]], [[Prana]], and [[Physical body|Sthula sharira]].{{sfn|Blavatsky|1962|loc=sect. vi}} In ''Isis Unveiled'', Blavatsky denied that humans would be [[reincarnation|reincarnated]] back on the Earth after physical death.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=221}} However, by the time that she had authored ''The Secret Doctrine'', she had changed her opinion on this issue, likely influenced by her time in India.{{sfn|Hanegraaff|2013|p=135}} Here, she stated that the law of reincarnation was governed by [[karma]], with humanity's final purpose being the emancipation of the soul from the cycle of death and rebirth.{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=225}} She believed that knowledge of karma would ensure that human beings lived according to moral principles, arguing that it provided a far greater basis for moral action than that of the Christian doctrine.{{sfn|Bevir|1994|p=761}}
Blavatsky wrote, in ''Isis Unveiled'', that Spiritualism "alone offers a possible last refuge of compromise between" the "revealed religions and materialistic philosophies". While she acknowledged that fanatic believers "remained blind to its imperfections", she wrote that such a fact was "no excuse to doubt its reality" and asserted that Spiritualist fanaticism was "itself a proof of the genuineness and possibility of their phenomena".{{sfn|Blavatsky|1877a|loc=x–xi}}

Goodrick-Clarke noted that Blavatsky's cosmology contained all four of the prime characteristics of Western esotericism that had been identified by the scholar [[Antoine Faivre]]: "(a) correspondences between all parts of the universe, the macrocosm and microcosm; (b) living nature as a complex, plural, hierarchical, and animate whole; (c) imagination and mediations in the form of intermediary spirits, symbols, and mandalas; and (d) the experience of transmutation of the soul through purification and ascent."{{sfn|Goodrick-Clarke|2008|p=224}}