Madame Blavatsky

by Marion Meade

  LBS = The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett

  LM = Letters from the Masters of Wisdom

  ML = The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett

  ODL = Old Diary Leaves

  RUSSIA

  1. CW, vol. 1, p. 401.

  2. Ibid., p. xxvii-lxxii; HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 62.

  3. CW, vol. 1, p. xxviii.

  4. Haxthausen, The Russian Empire, p. 417.

  5. Extracts from The World's Judgment, quoted in Theosophical Forum, August, 1948.

  6. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, December 13, 1874, Solovyov, p. 234.

  7. CW, vol. 1, p. xxix.

  8. Bergamini, p. 310.

  9. Jerrmann, p. 116.

  10. July 31, Old Style. According to the Gregorian calendar, in use almost everywhere in the world, the date would have been August 12. Russia used the Julian calendar until 1918. In the nineteenth century, it was twelve days behind the Gregorian calendar.

  11. INC, p. 13.

  12. Extracts from The World's Judgment, quoted in Theosophical Forum, August, 1948.

  13. She was a cousin of Peter von Hahn's. INC, p. 75.

  14. LBS, pp. 159-160.

  15. INC, p. 19.

  16. Ibid., p. 16.

  17. Ibid.

  18. Description of Astrakhan: Hommaire de Hell, pp. 165-185; Blavatsky, Isis Unveiled, vol. 2, p. 603 footnote.

  19. H.P.B. to P. C. Mitra, April 10, 1878, Theosophist, August, 1931.

  20. INC, p. 19.

  21. LBS, p. 150.

  22. H.P.B. to Henry Olcott, January 6, 1886, Theosophist, August, 1931.

  23. Neff, p. 36, quoting Nadyezhda Fadeyev.

  24. LBS, p. 150.

  25. Billington, p. 352.

  26. Theosophical Forum, August, 1948.

  27. Extracts from The Ideal. quoted in Theosophical Forum, August, 1948.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Neff, p. 17.

  30. ODL, vol. 3, p. 9.

  31. INC. p. 29.

  32. Lucifer, November, 1894.

  33. INC, p. 22.

  34. Medium Eileen Garrett, under hypnosis, was able to recall the names of her three invisible playmates; she also remembered that the two girls had died before she was born, but she had seen photographs of them in an album, and that the boy was a neighbor who had drowned.

  35. INC, p. 23.

  36. Vera Zhelihovsky to V. S. Solovyov, quoted in Solovyov, p. 193.

  37. INC, p. 24.

  38. INC, pp. 27-28.

  39. Besant, HPB and the Masters of Wisdom, p. 7.

  40. Witte, p. 8.

  41. Besant, HPB and the Masters of Wisdom, p. 7.

  42. Hume, pp. 86-92; Neff, pp. 18-22.

  43. Garrett, My Life as a Search, p. 133, and Many Voices, p. 94.

  44. INC, p. 34.

  45. LBS, p. 150.

  46. According to Boris de Zirkoff, editor of H.P.B.'s Collected Writings and her only known living relative, "There is no confirmation of any such trip at that time." CW, vol. 1, p. xxxiii.

  47. ODL, vol. 2, p. 458.

  48. INC, p. 71.

  49. Neff, p. 19.

  50. Ibid., p. 18. According to H.P.B., this took place in 1843, but her dating seems to be in error. The only time she lived in Katherine Witte's house was 1846-1847.

  51. Description of Tiflis: Haxthausen, Transcaucasia, pp. 45, 94-95.

  52. Neff, pp. 20-21.

  53. INC, p. 23.

  54. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, March 1, 1882, HPBSP, vol. 2, pp. 62- 63.

  55. Neff, p. 32.

  56. Ibid.

  57. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, December 5, 1881 HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 28.

  58. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff- Korsakoff, March 1, 1882ibid., p. 62.

  59. Ibid., pp. 50, 102, 123, 128.

  60. Ibid., p. 113.

  61. General P. S. Nikolaeff, Reminiscences of Prince A. T. Bariatinsky, quoted in INC, p. 110.

  62. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, March 1, 1882, HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 61.

  63. Ibid., p. 60.

  64. The alchemists' philosophers' stone was not a means of making gold, but a symbol of hidden knowledge—the secrets of nature and possession of perfect wisdom.

  65. Ibid., p. 62.

  66. Theosophical Forum, July, 1913.

  67. New York Daily Graphic, November 27, 1874.

  68. INC, p. 40.

  69. Ibid.

  70. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, March 1, 1882, HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 63.

  71. Lucifer, November, 1894.

  72. LBS, p. 157.

  73. Ibid., p. 214.

  74. Lucifer, November, 1894.

  75. H.P.B. always insisted that the marriage took place in 1848, when she was sixteen. But according to Vera's diary, it happened immediately after their cousin Sergei Witte was born, and this date was June 17/29 1849.

  76. INC, p. 40.

  77. Ibid.

  78. Ibid.

  79. Ibid., p. 41.

  80. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, March 1, 1882, HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 63.

  81. Ibid., p. 64.

  82. H.P.B. to V. S. Solovyov, circa February, 1886, Solovyov, p. 177.

  THE VEILED YEARS

  1. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, March 1, 1882, HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 64.

  2. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, August 7, 1883, HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 116.

  3. Ibid.

  4. INC, p. 43.

  5. Ibid., pp. 44-45.

  6. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, March 1, 1882, HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 66.

  7. LBS, p. 154.

  8. Ibid., p. 151.

  9. Rawson, Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, February 1892.

  10. LBS, p. 151.

  11. Rawson, Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, February, 1892.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Wolff, The Two Worlds, December 11, 1891.

  14. Rawson, Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly, February 1892.

  15. Ibid. Rawson mistakenly identifies the countess as "Kazenoff."

  16. INC, p. 44.

  17. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, March 1, 1882, HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 66.

  18. Quoted in Hart, p. 111.

  19. CW, vol. 1, p. 4. H.P.B. told Sinnett (INC, pp. 46-48) that in July, 1851, she went to Canada for the purpose of meeting Red Indians and learning the secrets of their medicine men, but that they stole her boots. From there she reported traveling to Missouri, Louisiana, Texas and Mexico. However, she told Countess Wachtmeister that the seaside sketch was made on August 12, 1851, "the day I saw my blessed Masters." (Wachtmeister, p. 45). In my opinion, the sketchbook definitely places her in London during the summer of 1851.

  20. Bulwer-Lytton: Liljegren, p. 28. The author believes that H.P.B. had a schoolgirl crush on Bulwer-Lytton. It is known that the novelist visited Ramsgate in the summer of 1851. Liljegren theorizes that Helena saw him from a distance.

  21. CW, vol. l,p. 5.

  22. Ibid.

  23. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, March 1, 1882, HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 66.

  24. Gauld, p. 67.

  25. In 1874, H.P.B. told a reporter that the Princess willed her forty thousand dollars and would have left more "if I had been with her before her death" (New York Graphic, November 9, 1874).

  26. INC, p. 44.

  27. Ibid., pp. 46-55.

  28. Ibid.

  29. Three persons offered testimony that Theosophists accept as corroboration of H.P.B.'s claims:

  1. In 1892, Anna Ballard told Henry Olcott that H.P.B. had mentioned a Tibetan trip during an interview Ballard had conducted with her in 1873 while a reporter for the New York Sun (ODL, vol. 1, p. 21).

  2. On March 3, 1893, Olcott met Major-General C. Murray on a train between Calcutta and Nalhati. Murray, a former commander of the Frontier District between Nepal and Tibet, told Olcott that in 1854 or '55 a European woman had tried to cross the border but had been brought back by guards (ODL, vol. 1, p. 265).r />
  3. In 1927, Major Cross, manager of a tea plantation belonging to the Dalai Lama, said that he had recently talked to people in northwest Tibet who remembered the visit of a white woman in 1867 (Canadian Theosophist, June, 1927).

  In my opinion, none of these accounts can be accepted as reliable evidence.

  30. CW, vol. 11, p. 263.

  31. LBS, pp. 143-144.

  32. Witte, p. 5.

  33. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, December 6, 1875, Solovyov, p. 268.

  34. Witte, p. 6.

  35. Theosophist, July, 1913.

  36. De Zirkoff, p. 51.

  37. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, December 6, 1875, Solovyov, p. 228.

  38. Witte, p. 6.

  39. New York Daily Graphic, November 13, 1874.

  40. Quoted in Maskelyne, p. 29.

  41. Vera Zhelihovsky to Constance Wachtmeister, January 15/27, 1886, LBS, p. 274.

  42. Nikifor Blavatsky to Nadyezhda Fadeyev, November 13 (O.S.), 1858, Theosophist, August, 1959.

  43. Ibid.

  44. INC, p. 101.

  45. Lucifer, November, 1894.

  46. INC, pp. 67-68.

  47. Ibid., pp. 70-74.

  48. Ibid., p. 75.

  49. Ibid., pp. 91-102.

  50. Ibid., p. 105.

  51. Witte, p. 4.

  52. INC, pp. 108-110.

  53. Lucifer, November, 1894; INC, p. 107.

  54. Witte, p. 6.

  55. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, June 3, 1884, HPBSP, vol. 2, pp. 152, 156. In her famous confession letter written to Solovyov in February, 1886, she says that she lived with Nikifor only three-and-a-half days, but that letter was composed in a state of emotional stress. In a legal petition to the General Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasus, she states the time as approximately one year, which I believe is correct.

  56. Witte, p. 7.

  57. General P. S. Nikolaeff, Reminiscences of Prince A. T. Bariatinsky, quoted in INC, p. 111.

  58. Ibid., p. 112.

  59. Quoted in Maskelyne, p. 29.

  60. V. S. Solovyov to H.P.B., circa April, 1886, LBS, p. 207.

  61. Witte, p. 7.

  62. LBS, p. 144.

  63. CW, vol. 1, p. 10.

  64. LBS, p. 145.

  65. Haxthausen, Transcaucasia, pp. 17-31.

  66. INC, p. 114.

  67. Ibid.

  68. Quoted in Murphet, When Daylight Comes, p. 51.

  69. LBS, p. 151; Bechhofer-Roberts, p. 51.

  70. INC, p. 116.

  71. Ibid.

  72. Ibid., p. 115.

  73. Ibid., p. 117.

  74. The Path, May, 1895.

  75. Passport for Yuri and H.P.B.: CW, vol. 1, p. xlvi.

  76. LBS, p. 177.

  77. While he denied paternity in 1862, he told Solovyov in 1886 that Yuri was his and H.P.B.'s child (LBS, p. 208).

  78. Bechhofer-Roberts, pp. 51- 52.

  79. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, December 5, 1881, HPBSP, vol. 2, pp. 19- 20.

  80. LBS, p. 151.

  81. Ibid., p. 208.

  82. Solovyov, p. 177.

  83. INC, pp. 85, 119.

  84. CW, vol. 1, pp. 11-25.

  85. LBS, p. 144.

  86. ODL, vol. 1, p. 9; Corson, p. 34; CW, vol. 6, p. 277.

  87. Witte, p. 8.

  88. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, December 5, 1881, HPBSP, vol. 2, pp. 19, 27.

  89. H.P.B. to Nadyezhda Fad- eyev, October 28, 1877, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 210.

  90. However, in a September 25, 1877, letter to the New York World, H.P.B. placed herself in Russia by saying that she had been an eyewitness to a riot that had taken place in Odessa during Easter Week, 1870 (CW, vol. 1, p. 263).

  91. Witte, p. 9.

  92. London Forum, December, 1934; Witte, p. 9.

  93. NefT, p. 182.

  94. LBS, pp. 189-190.

  95. INC, p. 125.

  96. Coulomb, pp. 3-4.

  97. INC, p. 125.

  98. Ibid.; NefT, p. 166.

  99. Coulomb, p. 4.

  100. INC, p. 125.

  101. Peebles, p. 315.

  102. ODL, vol. 1, pp. 20, 27-28.

  103. H.P.B. to Alexander Dondoukoff-Korsakoff, December 5, 1881, HPBSP, vol. 2, p. 23.

  104. Solovyov, p. 228.

  105. ODL, vol. 1, pp. 28-29.

  NEW YORK

  1. New York Sun, July 28, 1873.

  2. Holt, Theosophist, December, 1931.

  3. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, December 6, 1875, Solovyov, p. 267.

  4. Holt, Theosophist, December, 1931.

  5. McCabe, p. 830.

  6. Wolff, The Two Worlds, December 11, 1891.

  7. CW, vol. l,p. 56.

  8. ODL, vol. 1, p. 1.

  9. Ibid., p. 2.

  10. Hume, p. 132.

  11. H.P.B. to Nadyezhda Fad- eyev, July 19, 1877, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 187.

  12. Doyle, vol. 1, p. 254.

  13. Olcott, People from the Other World, p. 17.

  14. Ibid., p. 61.

  15. ODL, vol. 1, p. 10.

  16. In 1888, Margaret Fox stated publicly that she and her sister were responsible for making the rapping noises. Later, however, she repudiated her confession.

  Other individuals have revealed their methods of producing raps: beneath their skirts, women would suspend weights on elastic strings and it took only a slight movement to strike the weights against the floor. Popular methods by men involved use of fingernails, knees and shoes (Price, pp. 171-172).

  17. In a letter to Caroline Corson, August 28, 1878, H.P.B. stated that he was twenty years her junior, although this may have been one of her typical exaggerations.

  18. LMW, vol. 2, p. 21.

  19. Religio-Philosophical Journal, June 13, 1874.

  20. H.P.B. to Franz Hartmann, April 3, 1886, The Path, March, 1896.

  21. ODL, vol. 1, pp. 1-7.

  22. Ibid., p. 6.

  23. New York Sun, October 29, 1874.

  24. Olcott, People from the Other World, p. 298.

  25. Religio-Philosophical Journal, December 12, 1874.

  26. Olcott, People from the Other World, p. 298.

  27. Neff, p. 199.

  28. Olcott, People from the Other World, p. 303.

  29. Ibid., p. 297.

  30. New York Sun, October 29, 1874.

  31. Religio-Philosophical Journal, December 12, 1874.

  32. New York Daily Graphic, November 9, 1874.

  33. Olcott, People from the Other World, p. 294.

  34. Ibid., p. 360.

  35. H.P.B. to Vera Zhelihovsky, circa 1874-1875, The Path, February, 1895. In 1886, H.P.B. rewrote this letter for inclusion in Sinnett's biography of herself. I am quoting from the original.

  36. Olcott, People from the Other World, pp. 355-359. NEW YORK

  37. H.P.B. to Nadyezhda Fad- eyev, July 19, 1877, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 187; H.P.B. to Franz Hartmann, April 3, 1886, The Path, March, 1896.

  38. New York Daily Graphic, October 27, 1874.

  39. New York Daily Graphic, October 30, 1874.

  40. Ibid.

  41. H.P.B. to A.N. Aksakov, October 28, 1874, Solovyov, pp. 225-226.

  42. Michael Betanelly to Henry Olcott, October 29, 1874, Olcott, People from the Other World, pp. 305-306.

  43. Ibid., p. 306.

  44. New York Daily Graphic, November 9, 1874.

  45. New York Daily Graphic, November 13, 1874.

  46. ODL, vol. 1, p. 32.

  47. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, November 14,1874, quoting Aksakov letter to A. J. Davis, Solovyov, pp. 227-228.

  48. Ibid., pp. 228-230.

  49. Ibid.

  50. ODL, vol. 1, pp. 31-32.

  51. Ibid., p. 55.

  52. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, December 13, 1874, Solovyov, p. 231.

  53. Religio-Philosophical Journal, January 9, 1875.

  54. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, February 11, 1975, Solovyov, p. 239.

  55. Ibid., p. 240.

  56. Sup
reme Court, Hall of Records, New York County, Index Number GA 719-0-1.

  57. Olcott, People from the Other World, p. 455.

  58. Religio-Philosophical Journal, September 14, 1889.

  59. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, February 11, 1875, Solovyov, p. 243.

  60. Ibid.

  61. H.P.B. to F. J. Lippitt, June 12, 1875, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 86.

  62. H.P.B. to F. J. Lippitt, February 13, 1875, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 6.

  63. Andrew Jackson Davis's expense ledger, Archives of Edgar Cayce Foundation.

  64. H.P.B. to F. J. Lippitt, March, 1875, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 58.

  65. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, April 12, 1875, Solovyov, p. 250.

  66. Betanelly to F. J. Lippitt, March 22, 1875, HPBSP, vol. l.p. 59.

  67. ODL, vol. 1, p. 56.

  68. Ibid.

  69. Ibid.

  70. H.P.B. to F. J. Lippitt, April 3, 1875, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 64.

  71. Solovyov, pp. 164-165.

  72. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, April 12, 1875, Solovyov, p. 247.

  73. HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 8.

  74. H.P.B. to A.N. Aksakov, April 12, 1875, Solovyov, p. 247.

  75. H.P.B. to F. J. Lippitt, June 12, 1875, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 85.

  76. ODL, vol. 1, pp. 44-45.

  77. Ibid., p. 47.

  78. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, April 12, 1875, Solovyov, pp. 247-248.

  79. H.P.B. to Olcott, May 21, 1875, HPBSP, vol. l,p. 45.

  80. ODL, vol. 1, p. 34.

  81. H.P.B. to F. J. Lippitt, early April, 1875, HPBSP, vol. l,p. 75.

  82. Ibid., p. 71.

  83. LMW, vol. 2, p. 11.

  84. Ibid., p. 18.

  85. Ibid., pp. 16-18.

  86. CW, vol. 1, p. 88.

  87. H.P.B. to A. N. Aksakov, May 24, 1875, Solovyov, p. 251.

  88. Ibid., p. 252.

  89. Ibid., p. 253.

  90. H.P.B. to Henry Olcott, May 21, 1875, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 37.

  91. H.P.B. to F. J. Lippitt, June 12, 1875, HPBSP, vol. 1, pp. 80-82.

  92. Ibid., p. 84.

  93. Ibid., p. 91.

  94. Michael Betanelly to F. J. Lippitt, June 18, 1875, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 93.

  95. LMW, vol. 2, pp. 24-25. Serapis had more to say about Helena and Michael, but the editor of the published letters saw fit to exercise censorship on the grounds that some remarks dealt with "incidents in H.P.B.'s inner life" and "none have a right to peer inquisitively into the workings of the soul."

  96. Ibid., p. 26.

  97. Ibid., pp. 27-29.

  98. H.P.B. to Olcott, circa May-June, 1875, HPBSP, vol. 1, p. 3.

  99. Ibid., pp. 3-5.

  100. Louisa Andrews to Hiram Corson, December 1, 1875, Department of Manuscripts & University Archives, Cornell University Libraries.