[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
then, that its founder should have been regarded as exemplifying the possession
of that capacity in her own person.
50
CHAPTER IV
FROM SPIRITUALISM TO THEOSOPHY
Nothing seems more certain than that Madame Blavatsky had no definite idea of
what the finished product was to be when she gave the initial impulse to the
movement. She knew the general direction in which it would have to move and also
many objectives which it would have to seek. In her mind there had been
assembled a body of material of a unique sort. She had spent many years of her
novitiate in moving from continent to continent1 in search of data having to do
with a widespread tradition as to the existence of a hidden knowledge and secret
cultivation of man's higher psychic and spiritual capabilities. Supposedly the
wielder of unusual abilities in this line, she was driven by the very character
of her endowment to seek for the deeper science which pertained to the evolution
of such gifts, and at the same time a philosophy of life in general which would
explain their hidden significance. To establish, first, the reality of such
phenomena, and then to construct a system that would furnish the possibility of
understanding this mystifying segment of experience, was unquestionably the main
drive of her mental interests in early middle life. Already well equipped to be
the exponent of the higher psychological and theurgic science, she aimed to
become its philosophic expounder.
But the philosophy Madame Blavatsky was to give forth could not be oriented with
the science of the universe as then generally conceived. To make her message
intelligible she was forced to reconstruct the whole picture of the cosmos. She
had to frame a universe in which her doctrine would be seen to have relevance
and into whose total order it would fall with perfect articulation. She felt
sure that she had in her possession an array of vital facts, but she could not
at once discern the total implication of those facts for the cosmos which
explained them, and which in turn they tended to explain. We may feel certain
that her ideas grow more systematic from stage to stage, whether indeed they
were the product of her own unaided intellect, or whether she but transcribed
the knowledge and wisdom of more learned living men, the Mahatmas, as the
Theosophic legend has it.
Guided by the character of the situation in which she found herself, and also,
it seems, by the advice of her Master, she chose to ride into her new venture
upon the crest of the Spiritualist waves. America was chosen to be the hatching
center of Theosophy because it was at the time the heart and center of the
Spiritualist movement. It was felt that Theosophy would elicit a quick response
from persons already imbued with spiritistic ideas. It cannot be disputed that
Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott worked with the Spiritualists for a brief
period and launched the Society from within the ranks of the cult. As a matter
of fact it was the work of this pair of Theosophists that gave Spiritualism a
fresh impetus in this country after a period of waning interest about 1874. Col.
Olcott's letters in the Daily Graphic about the Eddy phenomena, and his book,
51
People From the Other World, did much to revive popular discussion, and his
colleague's show of new manifestations was giving encouragement to
Spiritualists. But the Russian noblewoman suddenly disappointed the expectations
thus engendered by assigning a different interpretation and much lower value to
the phenomena. Before this she and Col. Olcott not only lent moral support to a
leading Spiritualist journal, The Spiritual Scientist, of Boston, edited by Mr.
E. Gerry Brown, but contributed its leading editorials and even advanced it
funds.
The motive behind their participation in a movement which they so soon abandoned
has been misconstrued.
Spiritualists, and the public generally, assumed that of course their activity
indicated that they subscribed to the usual tenets of the sect; that they
accepted the phenomena for what they purported to be, i.e., actual
communications in all cases from the spirits of former human beings. However
true this estimate may have been as appertaining to Col. Olcott-and even to him
it had a fast diminishing applicability after his meeting with H.P.B.-it was
certainly not true of her. Madame Blavatsky shortly became the mark of
Spiritualistic attack for the falsification of her original attitude toward the
movement and her presumed betrayal of the cause.
Her ill-timed attempt to launch her Société Spirite at Cairo in 1871
foreshadowed her true spirit and motive in this activity. It is evident to the
student of her life that she felt a contempt for the banal type of séance
phenomena. She so expressed herself in writing from Cairo at the time. She felt [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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then, that its founder should have been regarded as exemplifying the possession
of that capacity in her own person.
50
CHAPTER IV
FROM SPIRITUALISM TO THEOSOPHY
Nothing seems more certain than that Madame Blavatsky had no definite idea of
what the finished product was to be when she gave the initial impulse to the
movement. She knew the general direction in which it would have to move and also
many objectives which it would have to seek. In her mind there had been
assembled a body of material of a unique sort. She had spent many years of her
novitiate in moving from continent to continent1 in search of data having to do
with a widespread tradition as to the existence of a hidden knowledge and secret
cultivation of man's higher psychic and spiritual capabilities. Supposedly the
wielder of unusual abilities in this line, she was driven by the very character
of her endowment to seek for the deeper science which pertained to the evolution
of such gifts, and at the same time a philosophy of life in general which would
explain their hidden significance. To establish, first, the reality of such
phenomena, and then to construct a system that would furnish the possibility of
understanding this mystifying segment of experience, was unquestionably the main
drive of her mental interests in early middle life. Already well equipped to be
the exponent of the higher psychological and theurgic science, she aimed to
become its philosophic expounder.
But the philosophy Madame Blavatsky was to give forth could not be oriented with
the science of the universe as then generally conceived. To make her message
intelligible she was forced to reconstruct the whole picture of the cosmos. She
had to frame a universe in which her doctrine would be seen to have relevance
and into whose total order it would fall with perfect articulation. She felt
sure that she had in her possession an array of vital facts, but she could not
at once discern the total implication of those facts for the cosmos which
explained them, and which in turn they tended to explain. We may feel certain
that her ideas grow more systematic from stage to stage, whether indeed they
were the product of her own unaided intellect, or whether she but transcribed
the knowledge and wisdom of more learned living men, the Mahatmas, as the
Theosophic legend has it.
Guided by the character of the situation in which she found herself, and also,
it seems, by the advice of her Master, she chose to ride into her new venture
upon the crest of the Spiritualist waves. America was chosen to be the hatching
center of Theosophy because it was at the time the heart and center of the
Spiritualist movement. It was felt that Theosophy would elicit a quick response
from persons already imbued with spiritistic ideas. It cannot be disputed that
Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott worked with the Spiritualists for a brief
period and launched the Society from within the ranks of the cult. As a matter
of fact it was the work of this pair of Theosophists that gave Spiritualism a
fresh impetus in this country after a period of waning interest about 1874. Col.
Olcott's letters in the Daily Graphic about the Eddy phenomena, and his book,
51
People From the Other World, did much to revive popular discussion, and his
colleague's show of new manifestations was giving encouragement to
Spiritualists. But the Russian noblewoman suddenly disappointed the expectations
thus engendered by assigning a different interpretation and much lower value to
the phenomena. Before this she and Col. Olcott not only lent moral support to a
leading Spiritualist journal, The Spiritual Scientist, of Boston, edited by Mr.
E. Gerry Brown, but contributed its leading editorials and even advanced it
funds.
The motive behind their participation in a movement which they so soon abandoned
has been misconstrued.
Spiritualists, and the public generally, assumed that of course their activity
indicated that they subscribed to the usual tenets of the sect; that they
accepted the phenomena for what they purported to be, i.e., actual
communications in all cases from the spirits of former human beings. However
true this estimate may have been as appertaining to Col. Olcott-and even to him
it had a fast diminishing applicability after his meeting with H.P.B.-it was
certainly not true of her. Madame Blavatsky shortly became the mark of
Spiritualistic attack for the falsification of her original attitude toward the
movement and her presumed betrayal of the cause.
Her ill-timed attempt to launch her Société Spirite at Cairo in 1871
foreshadowed her true spirit and motive in this activity. It is evident to the
student of her life that she felt a contempt for the banal type of séance
phenomena. She so expressed herself in writing from Cairo at the time. She felt [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]