Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

, 1877.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (née Hahn von Rottenstern; 12 August [O.S. 31 July] 1831 – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the leading theoretician of Theosophy.

Born into an aristocratic family of Von Rottenhahn in Yekaterinoslav, then in the Russian Empire (now Dnipro in Ukraine), Blavatsky traveled widely around the empire as a child. Largely self-educated, she developed an interest in Western esotericism during her teenage years. According to her later claims, in 1849 she embarked on a series of world travels, visiting Europe, the Americas, and India. She also claimed that during this period she encountered a group of spiritual adepts, the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom", who sent her to Shigatse, Tibet, where they trained her to develop a deeper understanding of the synthesis of religion, philosophy, and science.

Both contemporary critics and later biographers have argued that some or all of these foreign visits were fictitious, and that she spent this period in Europe. By the early 1870s, Blavatsky was involved in the Spiritualist movement; although defending the genuine existence of Spiritualist phenomena, she argued against the mainstream Spiritualist idea that the entities contacted were the spirits of the dead. Relocating to the United States in 1873, she befriended Henry Steel Olcott and rose to public attention as a spirit medium, attention that included public accusations of fraudulence.

In 1875, New York City, Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society with Olcott and William Quan Judge. In 1877, she published Isis Unveiled, a book outlining her Theosophical world-view. Associating it closely with the esoteric doctrines of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism, Blavatsky described Theosophy as "the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy", proclaiming that it was reviving an "Ancient Wisdom" which underlay all the world's religions. In 1880, she and Olcott moved to India, where the Society was allied to the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform movement. That same year, while in Ceylon, she and Olcott became the first people from the United States to formally convert to Buddhism.[6]

Although opposed by the British colonial administration, Theosophy spread rapidly in India but experienced internal problems after Blavatsky was accused of producing fraudulent paranormal phenomena. Amid ailing health, in 1885 she returned to Europe, there establishing the Blavatsky Lodge in London. Here she published The Secret Doctrine, a commentary on what she claimed were ancient Tibetan manuscripts, as well as two further books, The Key to Theosophy and The Voice of the Silence. She died of influenza in 1891.

Blavatsky was a controversial figure during her lifetime, championed by supporters as an enlightened Sage and derided as a charlatan by critics. Her Theosophical doctrines influenced the spread of Hindu and Buddhist ideas in the West as well as the development of Western esoteric currents like Ariosophy, Anthroposophy, and the New Age Movement.

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky is a draft article and may contain little or no information on the topic but notes are available below.

This article will not be published on A Voice for Men or appear in random article selections. Wiki4Men is looking for trustworthy editors that can turn draft articles in to featured articles. Information on how to apply is on the Main Page.

In lieu of the article, the following is provided:

General Information

The main purpose of Wiki4Men is to provide a repository for information, studies, and research on men and boys and the broad range of issues affecting them, without feminist, misandric, gynocentric or woke bias. Wiki4Men also discusses issues of interest to MRAs, documents the evolution of the men's rights movement itself & misandry for posterity, and discusses issues of identity politics beyond the sphere of gender. The primary audience for Wiki4Men is MRAs, supporters of men's rights and the genuinely curious.

Starting in November 2023 topics that are more likely to be of interest to men are being added to the wiki.

The table below provides information on the number of articles in Wiki4Men.

Category	Number
Biographies	4,715
Featured	1,609
Glossary	470
Unknown Persons	266
Information Technology	42
Draft Articles	5,557

Featured articles may appear on A Voice for Men or other sites.

Wiki4Men is brought to you by A Voice for Men. More information on the wiki itself is available here. The Managing Editor is Robert Brockway.

In order to use the site, search for a term that interests you, choose from our Featured Articles or try a random article.

This site encourages publication of factual information about men and women and the cultural contexts in which they meet. It aims to be the keeper of rational and evidence-based conclusions, while rejecting popular forms of gender bigotry.

Due to licence compatibility articles may be imported from Wikipedia with appropriate attribution. These articles can then be corrected for woke bias and other problems. Generally only selected sections of articles are imported from Wikipedia as many Wikipedia articles are now so long that they obscure important information.

Wiki4Men rejects gynocentric and misandric narratives.

Wikipedia

This article contains information imported from the English Wikipedia. In most cases the page history will have details. If you need information on the importation and have difficulty obtaining it please contact the site administrators.

Wikipedia shows a strong woke bias. Text copied over from Wikipedia can be corrected and improved.