0:04

It takes a special kind of person to be called the most important impostor and all of a called history.

But also the person who ran interpreted spiritualism to the point that she inspired the West to look to ancient traditions for spiritual guidance, I’m already in awe of this person, quite a logline for one person.

0:23

It is it is this is going to be a very adventurous episode about Madame blavatsky and you can call Her a fraud, but what you can’t say is she wasn’t impactful and this is a wild story, okay?

I am buckling up and I am ready for an adventure, so take it away.

0:55

Hi everyone, and welcome to rituals a Spotify original from par cast.

I’m M Schultz and I’m Christine Schieffer.

Every week, we’ll explore the evolution of spiritualism and the Occult through stories practices and the impact on Modern culture.

We’re talking about Helena blavatsky today and she is a wild card.

1:12

She’s a troublemaker.

She’s an influence on the occult.

She is a Leo.

We’ve got a lot to cover.

So boy, let’s crack into it.

Oh she sounds like a handful.

Let’s do it.

1:39

All right, Christine.

I got asked what have been some of the most impactful stories that we’ve told on this show so far?

Oh man.

I mean, that’s a very broad question.

I’m trying to think like the park has team was like, we need to know what’s your favorite?

1:57

Yeah, that’s a lot of pressure.

Sure.

On the back we will give them a pat on the back because all of them is that okay, answer.

You know what, we just covered.

Isaac Newton.

I got to say that one really knocked the wind out of me.

That was pretty good.

That one was good.

I like the stories of people who who come from unassuming beginnings and then make big names for themselves.

2:18

I’m kind of getting the vibe.

This might be one of those.

Is that true?

I think so.

Yeah well I also want to say just because I like to make it about me so excuse me for a second but my Our topics are the concept of like Wicca and grimoires and crystal balls and all the other stuff that jazz is me to keep me going on my hobbies and my study.

2:39

Yeah.

Taro elements that make up the Greater whole of all of these spooky subjects.

But to get back to what you said about people with unassuming backstories ayase even though the Wicca and Witchcraft in general topics, gets me going the most stories about people, I don’t know anything about the The people like I feel like I get to learn with everybody.

3:01

I feel like with Wicca or witchcraft stuff in general, I already kind of have a sense of where we’re heading.

I’m always Blown Away with at least a few fun facts and there.

But I, at least kind of know going in, but write stories.

Like this, I learned for the first time last night when I was going through the note.

So I really do like those two because their topics I would never think the cover so.

3:19

Oh man, I can’t wait.

I can’t wait, you’ve piqued my interest.

I’m very excited to talk about this one today.

So how much do you know about Madame?

Blavatsky’s, story, do you Anything about her?

I’ve definitely heard about her and I know, she’s kind of a notorious figure so to speak, but I don’t know really much of her background at all.

3:38

That’s okay.

So her life story is actually all over the place.

So I think, even if you knew something about her it would be a drop in the bucket.

Okay great.

So this isn’t the first time we’ve said the sun ritual is about someone but information on Madame blavatsky’s Life as a little scarce and Scattered because sometimes it was during a time when we didn’t really keep good tabs on people.

3:58

But in this case for Helena petrovna blavatsky, it’s also because she decided later in life to literally mess with biographers by being contradictory about things and flat-out, making things up about her past.

So she is already a troublemaker in my book.

4:15

Whoa, so she’s bold, she’s like I know what I’m doing.

She was like, I don’t even want people to know the truth, so I think she would love that.

Now, all this time later in 2022, we’re still confused.

She believe I did that really well.

It’s amazing.

So what we do know is that before she got married and had the last name blavatsky she was Helena petrovna Von Han and she was born to a noble family and what is now Ukraine?

4:40

Which was then part of the Russian Empire.

And her father was a captain and the Russian royal horse artillery who became a colonel.

So Helena and her family, bounced around the Russian Empire and she was a bit of an army brat I guess I see her birthday was August, 12th 1831.

4:57

She’s a Leo.

Ha.

And in the old Julian calendar or the Roman Calendar, that Julius Caesar tried to make a thing.

Her August 12th birthday was technically July 30th, which still makes her Leo.

So, so she’s a Leo through and through and through.

And it was believed that, if you were born, during that time, you’d be born with the ability to control evil spirits.

5:19

So now I’m scared of all Leo’s me too.

I didn’t know, they had that in them.

Explains a lot about my mother though.

Oh, good to know.

I only know, one, Leo.

No, I know a few Leo’s, but they all intimidate me, but in very good ways.

5:35

I didn’t know that it was because they could control the evil spirits.

It doesn’t make sense though, doesn’t it?

Yeah, actually.

Now that I think about, it really does after her mother died of tuberculosis in 1842.

Helena went to live with her grandparents and this is where the story gets a culty.

So we jump in kind of right away.

5:51

Okay.

Under her grandparents house, this sounds like your childhood home.

So what’s under the house?

So nervous, I’m so nervous for reference.

If you don’t know anything about where Christine grew up, she literally grew up on a graveyard which is how I immediately knew we needed to be friends like a gargoyle if you will.

6:09

So too, similar to you, Helen old with her grandparents, and under her grandparents house, there were tunnels and abandoned passages that Helena would explore that.

Now, that think of the sleepovers, that’s the dream, that’s the dream, I would.

6:26

Oh, I would kill to be able to explore some Underground.

Passageways, I bet if she heard you grow up in a graveyard, she’d be like now that is where it’s meant to be.

We could do the joint sleepover lead.

Have so much fun Helena.

All I had at my grandparents was like, shuffleboard, but like, I love shuffleboard.

6:44

Okay, this is gonna be the perfect, perfect Triad of slumber party.

Oh, that’s sad.

I’m like, the extra.

I’m like, okay, you guys provide the, the Real Entertainment, I’ll carry on the shuffleboard for plan C, when we get bored later.

I bet your house as the goods.

Snacks though, I have the best snacks because I was it all I had to offer.

7:02

I didn’t have a great.

We had like granola and raisins so I feel like your house would have been the good snack house.

Yeah.

You’re not allowed to bring snacks.

That’s for sure.

I wasn’t planning.

Okay.

So it was in these tunnels where she started talking to imaginary friends and started telling scary stories to her real friends.

7:21

So says it’s immediately.

Sounding like my childhood.

Yes.

Okay, good because of what I was going to say is I am fearing for a little Until illness here but maybe oh, I see, I see.

But maybe not, maybe she’s just very influenced by the ghosts, you know?

I mean, listen imaginary friends.

7:38

I think a lot of kids had them.

Did you have one?

I think I did and then I got pulled out of me really quickly.

I think my mom was like, we won’t be standing for that this.

So you are an only child through and through, and don’t you forget it?

I think to her baby, it was like, I have, it was make your feel guilty that she didn’t give me a siblings.

7:55

She was like, ah, no.

You’re just drop it.

Drop it embraced.

What’s happening to you?

I didn’t have an imaginary friend, but you’re right that a lot of children do have imaginary friends, which by the way, not all imaginary friends are ghosts and I’ll go sir imaginary friends.

But I feel like in her case, if they’re in creepy, tunnels like this, I kind of wonder where they real.

8:15

It does make imaginary friends, or were they Spirits?

It’s like, why do they live in the tunnels?

That part is not super great.

Like my imaginary friend, like, went to school with me.

Sad the dinner table with me.

She didn’t live in a creepy tunnel.

Underground and if she did I think my parents should have been a little more concern.

8:32

Yeah I don’t love it.

I don’t love it.

The fact that they live in the tunnels and also if she’s just like if it really is something that she’s seeing and says like oh come hang out outside of the tunnels with me.

Now she’s welcoming them into the house and it becomes a thing forget it thing.

Okay.

Well anyway she also seemed to have some magical abilities to her on top of talking to these imaginary people, she would put pigeons to sleep using Solomon’s wisdom, a cake King Solomon, who claim to be so wise and Powerful.

8:58

Can get what?

What do you mean?

Like kill them.

She would put pigeons to sleep using Solomon’s wisdom or his teachings in the Bible.

Which sounds like maybe the pigeons were just exhausted from listening to her.

Talk about James.

Fowler.

Yeah, she was just reading the Bible and I fell asleep.

9:15

I don’t know.

But that sounds very alarming like to be able to put Birds to sleep and it sounds more ominous than it probably was.

But like who you know what the weird thing is?

It’d be one thing if it was like you put your dog to sleep.

Leap by talking to it.

It’s like, I’ve seen your dog fall asleep.

9:31

Me just walking into the room, like could not be less enthused.

It doesn’t take much, but it is weird that it’s pigeons because I don’t think I’ve ever seen a sleeping bird or sleeping pigeon at least, I’ve never seen a pigeon to sleep in the fact that she was putting many of them to sleep is very weird.

Right.

9:47

It’s a very creepy thought.

I have you ever seen a pigeon with its eyes closed?

Not me.

I guess.

Not.

I mean maybe like I’ve seen birds like in Nest sleeping.

I wish you’d just like going down the street and whatever bird she found she was like brothel sizing to them or something.

10:04

And there were like, take me out, just genuinely.

I genuinely wish I could have a little insight into what the hell.

She was telling these pigeons.

But I guess we’ll never really know for anyone who takes melatonin and maybe she just needed to tell you about Solomon’s wisdom and I’m gonna say, maybe I’ll just listen to this episode and see if it does the trick.

10:27

So anyway, she also talked about a protector that appeared in her dreams.

I don’t know, I don’t know how I feel about that.

Oh no.

This is what some would consider the very first appearance to her of her master’s, okay?

Okay.

And her master’s being more like Spirit guides essentially, sure.

10:44

So while living with her, Grandparents, she also claimed to have found her great-grandfather’s Library, which we don’t get totally more about.

I wonder why it was found.

Was that missing?

Was it in a tunnel?

Oh, let’s pretend.

Yes.

Because how cool would that be?

10:59

That makes it feel more adventurous.

So I’m going to say who needs a secret garden?

I want a secret library in a tunnel with Imaginary Friends blocking it.

Yeah, they will.

So her great-grandfather had.

Allegedly, been a rosicrucian Freemason around the time of the 1770s.

11:15

When secret societies were big around that time and he was also according to Helena a member of the right of strict observance.

And in this group you took a vow to obey.

Unknown superiors, seems like a really bold ask also a real dangerous game of.

11:34

Like if you don’t know who these superiors are like, how do you know that you’re listening to them?

How do you know that?

They’re right, how do you know that they’re good?

How do you know that you’re not going to harm somebody or yourself?

Just don’t I guess.

That seems like a really real gamble, why?

It’s not as King.

Solomon would never hook pigeons would never.

11:53

So needless to say, but we will because we can’t keep our mouths shut ever.

The library was full of books on Alchemy magic, and occult Sciences the dream.

So, I’m so jealous of Helena.

I’m so Joseph apparently everybody with an alchemist Library than a secret society.

12:11

Just so cool.

I wish I’m not like jealous of her.

I just wish she could have been a End of mine like we could have like an imaginary friend.

No, no, no soon.

Leona’s gonna start saying my friend Helena lives in the basement it’s gonna be like I go to Grandma’s and every one of the graveyard is so friendly and you’re going to go oh my God.

12:30

So there’s that she ended up finding his magical Library, which was so bananas, super casual.

And then we have to really quickly pivot into new information.

So when she was 17, she married 40-something nicephore blavatsky and this baffled.

A lot of Me included me.

12:46

Uh-huh.

Yeah, red flags all around and so people really couldn’t understand why these two got together.

So a bunch of rumors were born and that included.

One that said she was escaping her strict life with her grandparents.

Hmm.

So if that’s the case, at least there’s a reason but we really don’t know the truth.

13:04

But Helena said that she married him because he supported her magical beliefs instead of laughing at them.

Like other said, okay, which I guess both could be true.

Also, if that’s the only reason I’m sure there.

There was another guy near you that wouldn’t laugh.

Like this guy couldn’t have been the only one, right?

13:21

Maybe he just played his car, sorry.

You know, he was a smooth talker, I guess.

So.

But also remember she was a little troublemaker and she told people just random information, so I don’t even know if this is true.

Exactly.

It’s like at a certain point.

How much of this is even real.

So, either way, she married him and took his name and today, you’ll hear most people call her HP blavatsky or HPV, which sounds a lot like HPV.

13:43

Oh my God, I don’t does.

I don’t know.

She would have survived high school today.

I was about to say, wow, what a cool nickname HPB and then you said it and I can’t unhear it.

Yeah.

As a teenager, the nickname really I mean would have been rough what a reputation?

Yeah.

So sadly her Mary name, outlasted the marriage, she was only with her new husband for three months.

14:04

Oh, before he tried to send her back to her dad, because she was apparently difficult to deal with.

Oh, I knew he was a red flag from the beginning.

Yeah, big, yikes.

Big Humongous yikes.

Can you imagine?

Oh my god.

Well, so then her life takes a mysterious yet, possibly adventurous turn because instead of making it back to her family and living there, she instead somehow ended up on a boat to Constantinople which is modern-day Istanbul.

14:31

Istanbul, Constantinople amount.

I just need and I know everyone has that stuck in their head.

Now what I was going to say is I feel like you could tell me you somehow ended up on a boat to Constantinople and honestly, I believe it.

I really wish.

People outside of the podcast, new how freaky your life is because you do throw real zingers like that at me and real life.

14:53

And it’s already like, I’ve watched you call your mom for confirmation on things because well, they’re so unbelievable.

You know, I’ve never been on a boat to Constantinople nor is simple.

But like, I mean, one time I was trying to drive to school and they ended up in Western Indiana, which is like a four-hour, drive away to school.

15:12

You didn’t realize a minutes and that something was up.

Up.

I thought I was going the correct direction on the highway and our three and a half for you.

Like I’ve just never noticed how long the drive take, I was just crying because I didn’t know what to do it well.

15:30

And so anyway, Miss choir practice but you missed the whole thing.

A Christian and there’s no way you have got choir had to turn four hours in the other direction to the there’s no you did not bet.

You’re not get to school that day.

The problem was I kept, I kept calling Mom and saying, I need to figure out I get home, and she kept saying, you need to stop at a gas station and ask somebody, but I’m too antisocial for that.

15:52

I was like, I won’t do that.

So I just kept driving, but it was mental illness at its finest.

Everybody.

It wasn’t wise, but I can see how if somebody said, okay, now go back home from this place far away, I would have maybe ended up on a boat in the wrong direction.

16:08

Perhaps to Constantinople, if you were had access to a boat and not a car, the exact same thing would have happened.

And so it would have probably Worse, what’s four hours in the sea?

You would have definitely gotten out of the cover Munich triangle.

I think I probably just get vanished up by Nessie or something.

16:24

Well, okay, so now, again, this sounds like something that could happen to you.

And apparently did happen to Helena.

Because once she ended up on that boat somehow, she was also not heard of for years.

How scary?

She was probably still on her way to school or something.

16:40

She’s kept driving for years, afraid to ask for directions.

So apparently the only person who knew where she was for, all those years was her father because he allegedly sent her money at a few times.

So at least we know that she might have had a gas act.

16:55

That’s that’s good.

And I mentioned this earlier about HPV yikes but she liked to tell stories about her life that were either straight up lies or exaggerated in some way.

So take this part with a grain of salt, but during this time, period between 18-49, when she escaped on the boat, until 1873 she, apparently did a lot of traveling Okay, and here’s just some of the supposed events that happened on these trips.

17:20

Interesting.

I feel like you want your biography one day after death to read like this.

Yeah.

But I don’t want people to think I made it up, you know what I mean?

I promise I will be around to let them know.

It was all true.

Okay.

Thank you.

They’re gonna read this bitch.

17:36

Drove four hours of Indiana on the way to school.

No she didn’t.

And I’ll have to feel like I’m doing more than enough.

Yeah.

Unfortunately she was a dumb enough and Antisocial enough to actually do giving Amelia Bedelia, you know, it really is, that’s a great fit.

17:51

That’s a great fit.

Yeah.

Okay.

So here are some of the things that he’ll and apparently did on these trips when she was not heard from for a long time.

She may have visited spiritual Masters in Tibet.

She may have given birth to a child.

Which is weird to me that she refuses to confirm that one.

Yeah.

She’s like you’ll never know.

18:09

Well your child’s like where are you?

One story says that she worked in a circus.

Whoo.

Or maybe she earned a living as a medium in Paris.

Hmm, also probably D all the above, but most stories about her travels agree that she went to Egypt where she met the magician.

18:27

Paulose met him on.

Whoa, okay and HPB herself reports that on her travels.

She fought alongside and Italian revolutionary.

She sought out Native American Magicians in Quebec and studied with Mystics in Tibet, she would kill a two truths and a lie.

18:46

Yeah, but she would say they’re all true.

So it would be like, which one’s the line?

She would like, none of them.

Wow.

I’m the master of this game.

I think you, and I should write this list down and the next time we play two truths and a lie we could just pull one of these out.

I thought for a second you’re going to say we should write these on a list and it’s our new vision board that’s like or that I don’t know.

19:07

I’ll do it.

So HPV said that while in Tibet she communicated with two teachers or Masters telepathically Lee and that they helped her develop and control her psychic powers.

Oh my she cleaned these Masters had.

The abilities of is a quote thought transference AKA telepathy mind-reading, projecting their astral bodies and seeming to appear to be in two or more places at once.

19:32

Whoa.

And they also apparently make objects appear and disappear and they were Clairvoyant and could see auras.

It sounds like there’s nothing these people can’t do.

Seriously, they got the full full resume.

Yeah.

And she also Our them Guardians of the secret Doctrine itself and the secret Doctrine is her own.

19:50

Most famous written, work containing all of her knowledge.

Oh wow.

So they were like the Masters who had bestowed all this knowledge to her sort of I guess?

So or also like whatever she wrote down our experience they got to know all of her secrets so maybe also so they were just part of it.

20:07

Yeah yeah I so badly want to believe all the things she’s saying they sound so Fantastical but not a single word of it in my fully on board with It just yet, right?

Similar to us.

Her critics said, none of this probably happened.

Oh, which I don’t blame them for having doubts.

20:23

In fact, she didn’t go on this worldwide, spiritual journey, collecting the secrets of the universe at all, they say, okay, they say that she would probably just globe-trotting through her 20s living in immoral life.

Honestly, you could spin that and say, it’s a spiritual journey.

20:38

Eat Pray, Love anybody, that’s mean, immoral life, how dare you?

And even if she was, I’m not going to call it a name.

Life.

But if she was having her hot girl summer, what a bad liar, though.

Like, she was trying to avoid saying, she was like in her hot girl summer and flirting around flirting around.

20:54

And so instead, she said I’m hanging out with guardians who can teleport, like, it’s like you could have come up with a different story if he really were trying to hide it.

It’s like when somebody comes back from summer break in Middle School in there, like, I did X Y & Z and everyone’s like, yeah, are lying exactly.

Like if Madame blavatsky showed back up with like a puka shell necklace and be like, I know exactly where you are.

21:15

Don’t even in sudden and her hair, I’m like, it’s like Tibet know you went to the Bahamas, you were to the Outer Banks, relax, here, grandma, calm down.

It doesn’t matter what they think because all of these alleged travels at the end she landed back in New York and became a huge name in The Occult world.

21:31

So in a way she did have her hot girl summer.

It was just not the one that they were probably thinking of the proceed.

Will she was globe-trotting?

She was living her life whatever whatever she did.

I don’t know the truth but whatever she did.

We know it wasn’t boring.

And we know that it’s amen.

21:48

Amen up.

Next HP, be pops back up in the United States and creates the secret society that helped her become a spiritual Superstar and an accused imposter.

I can’t wait to sign up for this Society.

22:18

At this point, in our story around 1848 and 18-49 Helena petrovna blavatsky or HPB, went on the run after her three-month.

Marriage had fallen apart allegedly due to her being difficult again, this could be speculation.

Maybe that was her plan all along to get away from her parents to marry.

22:36

And then to flee I mean we don’t know whatever.

The reason she didn’t end up back with her family and instead there is a huge amount of time where she was apparently, traveling the world, immersing herself in spiritualism.

I mean it’s pretty cool story.

It’s cool and also like maybe she wasn’t, maybe she’s just on a beach reading books like we thought and that’s still involving yourself in spiritualism.

22:54

So she’s doing it in her own way and then July 7th, 1873 records show her popping back up in New York.

Okay?

At this point, she’s 42 years old and claiming that she was on a mission from the master.

Oh, it freaks me out a little bit.

23:11

But remember we mentioned that she started talking to these Masters in those tunnels, under her grandparents house and then again Tibet.

So it makes sense, why they would kind of Come a recurring theme.

Yes, that they’re still around.

So she’s claimed that she’s now on a mission for them, which that sounds Eerie to me.

23:27

It doesn’t like it could be good.

It could very well, not be good, so HPB pops back up in New York.

Apparently on this Mission and immediately gets involved in the Seance business because that business was on fire during the 19th century.

Right spiritualism, business was booming.

23:43

So people were all about mediums at the time and everyone was ready to talk to to their lost loved ones.

So just one year later in 1874 HPV had her breakout year and it started girl boss and it I know it’s so like lame to say that now but pretty girl boss, not true, it’s not true.

24:05

It started.

When journalist Henry Olcott was in Vermont to investigate a story about spirits and wrote about it in the Sunday.

Chronicle HP, be read his work and went to Vermont to check up the spirits for herself.

I like how she was like I got to be in on this.

Step aside and apparently, the spirits got real active when she got there and Henry had himself another story.

24:25

And this time about HPV, okay, this profile piece ran in the chronicle and HPV immediately became a celebrity in the spiritualism moment.

And the moment, the spiritualism movement, she had her moment, she is the moment, excuse me is the moment.

24:41

So even though she’s popular because of certain events, she really hadn’t expressed her own brand of a What is mm?

So a year later in 1875, she wrote an article and response to a piece on Rosicrucianism.

And after that, she wrote a second article, defending her understanding of magic, she wrote that magic worked in tandem with natural powers that scientists did not yet.

25:05

Acknowledge which I like that.

Okay.

Yeah, that’s a cool theory.

Meaning magic is but a science.

A profound knowledge of the occult forces in nature and of the laws.

Governing the visible or invisible world?

I really like that.

I have to I think that sometimes to where you know, we don’t know everything and we can’t pretend we know everything.

25:23

And so you know there are some things that a couple hundred years ago would have seemed Supernatural but now we understand them to be just microscopic or yeah things like that so it makes you wonder like what else have we not discovered yet.

Ironically my very atheist girlfriend likes to say that magic is just science, we have yet to understand and now in fact a spiritualist saying basically the same thing.

25:44

So yeah Al no no it definitely was very lovely way.

To put it so, hmm.

So September 1875.

This is when HP bees a cult Legacy was cemented in the books, but also the reason that she gets called an imposter.

So a man named George felt gave a talk in New York and George claimed that he had studied the Egyptians, and how they controlled the spirits of the elements.

26:05

And so he knew how to do that too, okay, I am so while he does so well, he talked Henry, Olcott.

Apparently passed HPV a note saying, would it not be a good idea to form a society?

Ready for this kind of study.

And that’s, I live.

26:21

I’m sorry.

Sorry finish your thought I was going to say and that’s how the theosophical society was born.

I just like that.

He passed a note about who said what?

It’s not be a good idea to form a society for this kind of Earth.

I question.

Yeah, my dearest Confidant.

26:38

It’s like how long did you take to write this damn note?

What do you Shakespeare or something?

It really should have been like just to check boxes and said are you interested about?

Yeah.

He really took the opportunity.

Maybe he knew that something really good was gonna come from it and he’s like, I got to make sure this looks really good.

26:53

So, one day when we frame it as a memory of it.

Yeah.

What it’s in a museum.

Yep.

Well, this guy was talking about the Egyptians and how they control the spirits Henry Olcott writes, this very delightful little note.

That should be on a mantel somewhere and that’s the beginning of the theosophical society.

27:11

So once they created it HPV, finally had an organization where she could nurture and promote her own brand of occultism, which is She’d been looking for, so exactly.

Let’s talk about the theosophical society is beliefs and goals.

So the society was to be a Brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race Creed sex, cast or color.

27:31

And though, I know very Progressive and start, they would study ancient and modern religions philosophies and Sciences and investigate the Unexplained laws of nature and the psychical Powers.

Not yet, discovered in humans.

Whoa.

HV, personally wanted the group to And a higher class of supernatural beings.

27:50

She had allegedly met in Tibet called the mahatma’s and when it comes to being called an imposter, some of the pieces of her brand of occultism that she touted and the theosophical society weren’t her original beliefs, okay?

But some of them came from her friends and co-founders.

28:06

George Felton Henry Olcott.

So maybe she was just combining founding members believe.

Yeah, so we don’t really know.

She could have just been taking it from Don’t know.

I feel like it’s easy to kind of if your friends and you want to start a group together.

28:22

I imagine you had similar beliefs enough, right?

Yeah.

I feel like it’s only fair to let them throw in some ideas too but I mean, it seems like her critics are not having it with anything she’s doing.

So I wonder if it’s just that she if she’s seen as an imposter in many other ways like even the things that are kind of Baseline, they’re like, I don’t know about that.

28:43

If you like anything could be?

Yeah, she really lost her.

Her trustworthiness.

So that’s fair.

I understand why?

So in New York Madame, blavatsky wrote her first book called Isis unveiled and when I say right I mean she dictated it because HPV claimed that her master’s basically researched and wrote the book for her.

29:03

Oh so she just kind of Astral roast or whatever.

I see.

What’s it called?

My Miss blinking astral writing at Asheville writing automatic writing automatic writing.

But yeah.

So apparently it was written by the master so really the source of information.

She got everything from Was trust me, bro.

29:19

Whether those so she’s pretty picture.

So she’s just like the channel so she’s the channel, okay?

So Henry Olcott said that he witnessed her taking dictation and even her handwriting would change while doing it almost too.

Whoa.

Almost to try to let everybody know like hey, no, this doesn’t seem like a turtle, could be the real natural.

29:38

I love that the Masters who are so ascended and don’t even have their own physical, bodies, have specific handwriting that is interesting, but hurry.

Right.

It’s like, huh?

I wonder if it’s good or bad or cursive or do they Circle their eyes or maybe to put little hearts on them.

29:55

That’s what I’m wondering.

Like, wow, I was a smiley face over the I kind of person so oh my God, you would be, I was a lot, I took a while to break that habit because I enjoyed it so much, but it also took a lot of time.

So anyway Henry Olcott was kind of backing her and being like, no, no, this seems legit.

30:13

And apparently she wrote 25 Pages a day like that and so Oh my God, the book ends up being 1200 Pages.

That’s a lot of writing and the book was a success.

But the theosophical society and the United States was not people like the idea of spiritualist phenomena but not the philosophy behind it at all.

30:35

They pretty much just wanted to see magic happen which the sounds pretty American to.

I was going to say I’m American through and through here.

Yeah, that fits and Eagle might as well fly behind me right now because I would join it just to see them.

Magic too but Madame blavatsky refused to show off her abilities in public even though she was more than happy to do it in private.

30:56

So here’s a red flag for you that.

Oh well you know I would show it to you but it’s better in private and then we never really hear anything more about the private showing except for people who are backing her.

Mmm then Olcott Henry Olcott, has his first visit from one of the Masters.

31:14

So now he’s involved in this.

He’s like Finally.

Yeah, my turn.

He said that the master told him that a great work was to be done for Humanity and I had a right to share in it.

If I wished, I feel like he’s getting his invite, like, he’s like, if you wish to be part of this, you may now be part of it.

31:33

Like, he’s finally gotten his invitation to sit at the big kids table, I think.

Yeah, I especially if you’re finally getting a visit from the Masters, I feel like the only thing you can think is, oh, I’m in, I’m in a man.

I’m in, I made it.

I’m so proud of him.

Well, the master Are also said to have left his turban as proof that he exists.

31:52

Whoa that well okay.

And that experience made olcott’s, say yes to going to India with HP be where she decided to take the theosophical society after it was flopping in the u.s.

So it really to me it sounds like Henry olcott’s visit from the Masters.

32:08

It does sound.

Like he just came up with it because he had to double down and like back Helena and the theosophical society wasn’t doing hot.

So all of a sudden he was like, no, but wait.

Also.

Now, all of a sudden getting control first visit in the Masters and then they all were like, oh well, this this is now proof.

32:25

We have to go to India.

It’s like, okay, well, it sounds like you were just looking for an out to continue the society somewhere else.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Or maybe he had his very first visit very conveniently and very coincidentally when the US was ready for them to go somewhere else with our society.

32:41

So I don’t know, B could be, I don’t know, I wasn’t there.

I’m not a master.

I’m no HPB, there’s only One.

There’s no, there could only be one for sure.

So HP, be moved the society and its followers to Bombay in 1879 and it’s thrived there.

32:56

It actually did so well that it influence the Revival of ancient Traditions including Buddhism.

Whoa, and unfortunately HPB had a bit of a temper and she took it out on her friends and followers.

Oh no.

And in September 1884 to retaliate against her angry behavior.

33:14

Secret letters, written by HP beware leaked to a Austin College magazine, nonetheless, uh-oh.

Apparently, in these letters HPB, told certain members of the society.

How to fake certain Miracles?

Yeah, so that hurts.

33:31

That’s I’m sorry, not a cute little girl, not a queue not a good look.

It’s not a good look.

So by 1885, Madame, blavatsky’s reputation was garbage EO to put it in the most esteemed professional verbiage you.

33:48

Usually, in the vernacular of them shall to see their garbage, Geo or trash Jolla, and I don’t know which one you wanted, but I think both fit the bill.

In this case, those are just about the only words, I use these days even in my own home, I’m like, oh man, I gotta throw this in the garbage EO.

I’m like, what is wrong with me?

34:04

What is wrong with you?

And so desperate to make things more Fantastical than they are?

It’s just a little Flair, just a spritz of it.

So after an investigation of her from the society for psychical research, or the spr and Cambridge, They declared her a fraud and Madame blavatsky wanted to sue them.

34:22

But Henry Olcott reminded her that she’d have to perform a cult phenomena to produce the Masters in public something.

She said she would never do I like how the guy that’s been like doubling down and back in car?

The whole time is like, don’t Sue because we’d have to prove them that we’re wrong.

America want to do that?

34:38

Remember, I don’t know if you actually think that this is all legit.

Don’t like let me remind you real quick.

We shouldn’t sue them.

That’s too bad.

I mean In, we could see this coming when she wrote a letter, how to fake a miracle like of course she’s gonna be declared a fraud, you know, I mean yeah.

34:57

So HPV resigned from the theosophical society and went back to Europe.

She ended up dying on May 8th 1891 from the flu or influenza.

Which is to Me, flute, influenza is garbage to garbage EO.

So, you know, great, it’s a just flew with the flare but she died but not before dropping her most notable work.

35:21

Coming up before her death HPB, went out with a bang as we all hope to I suppose.

Yeah.

Not to be kept down by accusations of fraud.

She left behind, what she considered the go to volume of work for all students of theosophy.

You gotta love someone who is intentionally creating a legacy before they die.

35:41

You know, it’s all I hope to do.

It’s yeah, truly all I remember me by this and then it like a flash of smoke that was gonna say.

The dramatic happens at that moment.

I imagined.

Oh yeah.

36:11

A few years before her death, Madam Helena published her book, The Secret Doctrine in 1888.

It’s a six-volume work that serves as the basic text for theosophists, which being called the fraud did not stop her.

Which I love that.

Yes.

She’s like, it didn’t stop me.

In fact, it led me to write, what?

36:28

I imagine is like thousands of pages.

Only has six volumes.

Yeah, doubling down that I’m not a fraud.

So, in the secret Doctrine, she wrote about 7, root races of humanity.

What?

So, I gotta tell you, I don’t know where she got her information because I would like to see some evidence, some facts.

36:48

I’d like some cold hard facts a bibliography, maybe like at least half a page of sources.

Maybe, maybe a footnote MLA if you need to, like whatever it takes, put it in one of those websites that do it for you.

Yeah, yeah.

So here are these Seven roots of humanity.

Which I am fortunate enough to get to talk about right now.

37:06

Hey, the first one, the first race was invisible, astral jellyfish.

I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Hank.

Hold on immediately.

I am confused immediately.

I am thrilled.

There’s also no evidence.

They’re invisible.

What?

37:21

What science were?

Okay, anyway, I guess you’re just talking to the Masters and they told you what’s going on.

Don’t need science.

Right.

Right, right, right.

The second race bodiless.

Is that lived near the North Pole.

So the spirit of Santa’s elves I was going to say was that Christmas spirit.

37:40

The third race are egg-laying lemurs who had eyes in the back of their head.

But once they discovered sex, that was their downfall.

Many people’s downfall and their constant was destroyed and what’s left of it is what we now call Easter Island in Australia, so the Australians have horny lemurs to thank for everything.

37:59

My God so Easter Island was But just yeah, horny lemur College, just wreckage from lemur sex.

Yeah, Carnage.

I genuinely don’t think you’ve ever said any weirder sentences on any podcast we’ve ever done.

38:15

Like this is so Bananagrams, because working from what I can tell, in the timeline of my recording, we’re getting near the end and throw in something.

So off the wall right now, really just no conscience.

I surprised.

No just totally took me by surprise.

38:31

Forecast, research team was like, they don’t need to know more than this and I agree just gonna drop this grenade in the last page of the notes.

I’m sorry, invisible, jellyfish, bodiless, Santa elves, egg-laying lemurs, who just love to get it on you emotionally, what’s text?

38:50

The fourth race.

This is like somehow the tamest of them.

All is the people from Atlantis.

Oh, okay, so that sure, I mean that’s proof in the pudding right there.

I feel like probably the farthest.

I could get involved in this.

Whole list.

I think Helena wanted to start with people from Atlantis and then thought, that’s not realistic enough.

39:06

What if I throw a bunch of a bombs out?

I’m like real curveballs and Atlantis will have to make sense compared to that.

You got to hook a hook up early.

Yeah, invisible jellyfish did hook me and then it just kept getting more bizarre.

Unbelievable, the fifth race.

39:22

Okay, this one’s like definitely, the thymus is US.

Human beings.

Oh, scariest of them all certainly.

But yeah, I was gonna say the scariest and unfortunately, the most Real and also full of downfalls.

So, especially involving sex.

I mean, let’s talk about the patriarchy and toxic masculinity forever and ever.

39:39

Let’s not though.

Well, we’ll do it off, mic for sure.

And then the sixth and seventh just to leave a little Misty rat, the end of all this haven’t arrived yet the 67th races but they are the Guardians for an infant Humanity that lives in outer space, specifically on Venus, so space babies.

39:58

Space babies are next.

The apocalypse happens in 2060 according to Isaac Newton and then space babies.

Okay?

So see here’s the thing, I could get on board with the space baby idea you know I love an extraterrestrial Theory but we do have to come to terms with the fact that that means we are Gonzo.

40:16

Don’t even get to see what they look like.

Yeah.

Like that’s the fun of it.

I want to be involved but I guess if we’re all extinct before, that happens also too loud.

They might be preparing the space babies and you might get abducted, bro.

Nothing, I wouldn’t be involved.

Okay, well let’s beat me up.

No thanks, not that involved.

40:32

I wouldn’t be peripherally involved.

Like I would like to watch it on Tick Tock and stuff but I don’t you wanna fly on the wallet.

Yeah fly on the wallet.

Well again it seems that the source of all this is trust me bro.

That’s pretty much how it feels.

I can’t imagine any of us having any frame of reference that I could run with.

40:52

So yeah, it’s not really the most convincing of things.

She’s told ya.

Well so the secret Doctrine is still popular with students of theosophy today.

I think it’s popular probably with anyone who has an hour to kill and like just once to just have their brain explode.

41:09

It’s not popular as the definitive word on the subject but as something that encourages free thinking which that I can’t get behind very effective I would imagine because as soon as you started talking about egg-laying lemurs with eyes on the back of their head, I started thinking anything spot.

What else what else could we come up with you know?

41:25

Yeah truly I would read that and be like you know what if this person I’m got famous for saying something like that.

There’s nothing that unhinged I could say, imagine the possible be fine.

Yeah, so the theosophical society is still active and it’s in more than 70 countries and the headquarters are still in India.

41:40

So while Madame blavatsky was called a fraud, her influence really lives on in various religions and philosophies and it’s been argued that she was instrumental in encouraging the West to turn towards India for Spiritual Enlightenment.

Wow.

She’s also credited with proving that gender is an important in spiritual leadership.

41:58

Because women are just as equal to men in this area is also a feminist.

It’s a big Legacy to I like it also you were right we were coming up on the hour and that was just about it.

Wow.

What a roller coaster that was, I feel bad for the people who had to research this.

42:13

You had to have taken a couple of Tylenol, that’s what I don’t because.

Wow, what a journey that must have been.

What is your final?

Takeaway of Madame.

Helena petrovna blavatsky and I said at the beginning but like from humble beginnings of playing with your Are we friends in the tunnels to developing a race of egg-laying lemurs?

42:32

I mean, she really she did it all.

Yeah, she put the cherry on top, so to speak.

As far as people who made a name for themselves in a really weird way.

She said, I’ve got one life and either I’m going to do it all or at least going to say it all.

Hey, amen.

Yeah, I’d like that.

Her work encourages free thinking, I do think that she had some very Bananagrams on hinge things to say.

42:53

Yeah, but I’m here for it anyway.

I think at least as a, she would be very Very interesting to learn about in a book club.

Yeah.

I feel like it’s definitely intriguing and we love some Intrigue.

So love and Intrigue.

Yeah she found her Right audience, you know.

Well that is Miss Helena.

43:10

I’m glad to have shared her with you and again if she knew then 2022 we’re all still trying to dissect.

What the hell her life was about.

I think she’d be really flattered.

I like to think she went out in the exact way.

She wanted to leave us all guessing and for hundreds of years.

43:26

Hmm.

43:37

Thanks so much for listening information.

On today’s episode came from Madame, blavatsky the mother of modern, spirituality by Gary lakshman, Atlas obscura the Buddhist review.

The West turns, Eastward Madame blavatsky and the transformation of the occult tradition by Mark Vivir.

Outside the mainstream, women’s religion and women religious leaders in 19th century, America by Mary Pharrell been neurosky Why spiritualism science?

43:59

And the Mysterious Madame blavatsky by Matthew Wills.

The theosophical society in America, the pain Museum history today and CBC Radio Canada, remember to follow rituals on Spotify and you can listen to this and all other episodes of rituals for free exclusively on Spotify.

44:15

And if you liked this show, follow at Park asked on Facebook and Instagram.

And at Park as Network on Twitter you can find me at the M Schultz and you can find me at Eckstein Schieffer.

Rituals is executive produced by Max Cutler and as a Spotify original from par cast, it was created by Max color, sound design by Kristen Acevedo with associate.

44:33

Sound design by Jamie Ryan research, by Chelsea would backtracking by Hayley Milliken.

It’s produced by Kristen Acevedo and Jonathan Ratliff with production assistants by Ron Shapiro.

We’re your host, Christine cheaper and M Schultz.