H.P. Blavatsky

(1831 - 1891)

Blavatsky, the inspiring force behind the founding of the Theosophical Society, never claimed to be the founder of any new religion or philosophy. She was, she said, only a transmitter, in modern language, of "a few fundamental Truths from the Secret Doctrine of the archaic ages". To be properly understood, Blavatsky must be seen as the bearer of a message; the spokesman for those wiser than herself, members of a Brotherhood of guardians and protectors of mankind who hold in their custody the ageless truths about man's spiritual nature, his origins and destiny.

        In her writings and teachings she had much to say that was, in the context of the current ideas of the time, controversial. It brought her calumny and condemnation, not only from the Establishment and Church, but from Spiritualists and even some disenchanted followers who, for their own ends, denounced her as a fraud.
       

Yet time proves to be her friend. Science, which once decried her, increasingly seems to be "catching up" with what she taught, even claiming parts of it as their own! For this, however, Blavatsky would be the last to condemn them ... "We are brothers", she said, and so we should "love, help and mutually defend each other against any spirit of untruth or deception, without distinction of race, creed, or colour". There is only "one infinite, changeless Spirit of Love, Truth and Wisdom in the Universe, one Light for all".