#theosophy

[theoptia]

H.P. Blavatsky, from Isis Unveiled (Vol. 1 & 2): A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology

Text ID: As above, so it is below. That which has been, will return again. As in heaven, so on earth.

[thedrownedcathedral]

Hilma af Klint (Swedish, 1862-1944), The Parsifal Series, Group I, No 1. 2 October 1916. Watercolour and graphite on paper, 25 x 26cm.

[themusewithinthemusewithout]

The Rose, Nr4, by Hilma af Klint, 1907.

[tyger-land]

𝗛𝗶𝗹𝗺𝗮 𝗮𝗳 𝗞𝗹𝗶𝗻𝘁 Botanical Drawing. 1890.

[cryptotheism]

That same year, the Madras Christian Collective (fact check this, it could be Collective or College) would publish a scathing expose. The contents were largely based on correspondences between Blavatsky and Emma Coulomb, a former accomplice in many of Blavatsky’s scams, now turned traitor. The details of the so-called “Coulomb Affair” are hotly contested, but the end result was strong, public evidence that Blavatsky was a huckster who knowingly falsified her supernatural abilities. I could spend pages cataloging her parlor tricks. Most of them involved bribing servants to hide notes ahead of time, so they could be dramatically revealed –as if summoned from thin air– by the mark. And shock of all shocks: Koot Humi wasn’t real. He was a fiction. 

Blavatsky’s detractors, and even her sycophants, will point to her frauds as evidence of her fundamental deceit. As if her fraud makes her unqualified, undeserving, of being an influential occultist. On this point, I see no reason why a woman can’t be a con artist, and an influential theologian. I am an American. We love a grift. 

The decline of Bavatsky, today on Patreon

[creature-wizard]

HP Lovecraft does not get enough recognition for thrashing the hell out of Theosophy's mythology, tbh. Real "worst person you know made a good point" kind of situation, but damn, he really caught the stench of bullshit from Blavatsky's writings and felt compelled to write something about it.

[doppeldan]

Cover of The Soul and How it Found Me (1877) by Edward Maitland

[neoclassicalblobphilosopher]

Some lantern slides from Clement Wragge's lectures on astronomy, meteorology and Theosophy, from the Auckland Museum NZ. 1890-1922