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Wednesday 28 March 2018

Blavatsky and Modernism


Theosophy and the Rise of the Modern
July 7, 2017 by Philip Jenkins
A major theme of the first volume of Isis Unveiled was to mock "The ‘Infallibility’ of Modern Science." In the early twentieth century, esoteric thinkers claimed that insights like those of Einstein and Heisenberg provided glimpses into these higher realities. To borrow the phrase of Arthur C. Clarke, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2017/07/theosophy-rise-modern/
 
Europe and World Federation
Carlos Cardoso Aveline - May 9, 2017
Nationalism, which Helena Blavatsky praises in her book "The Key to Theosophy" [2], is a natural feeling. It must be noble and world-friendly. A healthy individual has concentric circles of love for his family, his city, his country, for the continent where he usually lives, for other countries around the world and humanity. He also loves his planet and the entire Universe. These concentric feelings are inseparable from each other.
http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/europe-and-world-federation/

This one’s a little old, but a nice article:
The Strange Theosophical Connection to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement
John L. Crow - January 30, 2013
Yet, had Gandhi not engaged in Theosophy in his college years, discovering the Gita, and had Theosophy not initiated the organizations that later led Indians to realize their independence, there might not have been a non-violent resistance model for the U.S. Civil Rights advocates to emulate.
http://usreligion.blogspot.ca/2013/01/the-strange-theosophical-connection-to.html
 
Wesak at the United Nations
May 3, 2017 - editor, 2017-05-03 08:57 — editor
Over the years, many national leaders have clamoured to make Wesak an internationally recognized day and a holiday. Anagarika Dharmapala, American Civil War veteran Henry Steel Olcott, theosophist Madame Blavatsky, educationist Museus Higgins and others were at the forefront of this effort. They succeeded in having Wesak declared a national holiday during the colonial period (in May 1885) and were also responsible for the adoption of the Buddhist flag (1885).
http://www.asiantribune.com/node/90411
 
The next two are Christian Fundamentalist, but well-researched:
Occult evolution: Antediluvian, Babylonian, and modern expressions
Linda Kimball - April 30, 2014
According to Helena Blavatsky, one of the key architects of Luciferian New Age pantheism, Kabalah derived,
".... from the older secret doctrines concerning divine things and cosmogony, which were combined into a theology after the time of the captivity of the Jews in Babylon. All the works that fall under the esoteric category are termed Kabalistic." (Blavatsky, Theosophical Glossary, p. 168)
http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/kimball/140430

The information about hpb is wrong in this, good research otherwise:
Occult America?
April 29, 2017 Michael H. Brown
As author Mitch Horowitz has written, "Indeed, the robust growth of occult and mystical movements can be traced through to nineteenth-century America — aided by the influence of Freemasonry and Transcendentalism — helped transform the young nation into a laboratory for religious experiments and a launching pad for the revolutions in alternative and New Age spirituality that eventually swept the globe. In the early twentieth century, the new spiritual therapies — from meditation to mind-body healing to motivational thinking — began revolutionizing how religion was understood in contemporary times: not only as a source of salvation but as a means of healing. In this sense, occult America had changed our world." 
http://spiritdaily.org/blog/uncategorized/occult-america


Wednesday 7 March 2018

Blavatsky & the Gnostics, Gnosticism

The Septenary Cosmology of Tayyibi and Blavatskyan Gnosis
June 18, 2017 by harvardtheosophicalsociety
One of the groups that she lived with, the Druze of Lebanon, were an off-shoot of Syrian Isma’ili. Though the evidence is little more than conjecture, the similarities of cosmologies between the Isma’ili and Theosophy are tantalizing. https://harvardtheosophicalsociety.wordpress.com/2017/06/18/the-septenary-cosmology-of-tayyibi-and-blavatskyan-gnosis/

Alternative Scriptures: Melville’s "Lost Gnostic Poem"
June 19, 2017 by Philip Jenkins
Another author who was very widely read in these years was Helena Blavatsky, co-founder (in 1875) of the Theosophical movement. In her Isis Unveiled (1877), she wrote that "The votaries of the ancient worship were persecuted and put to death on charges of witchcraft. The Albigenses, descendants of the Gnostics, and the Waldenses, precursors of the Protestants, were hunted and massacred under like accusations."
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2017/06/fragments-lost-gnostic-poem/

Alternative Scriptures: Theosophy and the Esoteric Tradition
June 23, 2017 By Philip Jenkins
In presenting her picture, Blavatsky drew on the scholarship on Gnostic and early Christian heresy available in her own day, and Isis Unveiled borrows extensively from King’s The Gnostics and Their Remains (1864). Following the Gnostics of old with remarkable fidelity, Blavatsky and her contemporaries interpreted Christ’s death and resurrection as a symbolic and psychological reality, that reflected transformations within the soul of the believer.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/anxiousbench/2017/06/alternative-scriptures-esoteric-world/

The Case for Gnosticism, Part 4: What Happens After We Die?
Scott S. Smith- 05/30/2017
Madame Blavatsky, who popularized the Hindu version of reincarnation in the West, came to believe at the end of her life that it happened only rarely due to some special attachment to this world. If she could be so open-minded, then New Age enthusiasts ought to consider other explanations for the phenomena attributed to past lives.
 

The quote above is not very accurate... (part 5 is better - it recaps what Blavatsky had already stated 140 years earlier:''The many striking and instructive passages referring to reincarnation from the writings and teachings of the Gnostic Heresiarchs have yet to be collected....An authoritative volume, however, has yet to be written on the subject, supported by the citation of the innumerable passages that are to be found in the writings of the Gnostics, Neo-platonists and early Church Fathers.''(Blavatsky, CW13, p.79) 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-case-for-christian-gnosticism-part-iv-what-happens_us_592d8afee4b08861ed0ccc11
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-case-for-christian-gnosticism-part-v-the-dead_us_596791fee4b07b5e1d96edcb

Nice Italian article, mentions Theosophy influence  L’antica disputa tra Cristianesimo e Gnosticismo Yuri Leveratto
http://www.mondoraro.org/archives/138907

Deconstructing Gurdjieff on Aeon Byte Gnostic Radio https://thegodabovegod.com/deconstructing-gurdjieff-2/

also check out the fun show on Blavatsky with special astral guest Gary Lachman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9WRwf_rMcs

Blavatsky on the Gnostics- Moe -April2 2015
https://gnosticwarrior.com/h-p-blavatsky-on-the-gnostics.html


Blavatsky and the Once and Future Gnosis - Stephen Hoeller July22, 2106
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcNkoQXUbWA

Summary of Blavatsky’s Commentary on the Pistis Sophia: https://theosophyproject.blogspot.ca/2018/02/introduction-to-gnosticism-pistis.html