Born: 12 August 1831, Ukraine
Died: 8 May 1891
Country most active: International
Also known as: H.P., Madame Blavatsky, Yelena Petrovna von Hahn von Rottenstern
From Famous Women: An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women. Written by Joseph Adelman, published 1926 by Ellis M Lonow Company:
A Russian traveler and theosophist. She married in her seventeenth year a man very much her senior, Nicephon Blavatsky, a Russian official, from whom she was separated after a few months. During the next twenty years she travelled in Canada, Texas, Mexico, India, and after several attempts, penetrated into Tibet. In 1858 she revisited Russta where she created a sensation as a spiritualistic medium and in 1873 she came to the United States, where with H. S. Olcott she in 1875 founded the Theosophical Society with the object of (1) forming a universal brotherhood of man, (2) studying and making known the ancient religions, philosophies and sciences, (3) investigating the laws of nature and developing the divine powers latent in man. The Brahmanic and Buddhistic literature supplied the society with its terminology and its doctrines were a curious amalgam of Egyptian, Kabbalistic, occultist, Indian and modern spiritualistic ideas and formulas. Mme. Blavatsky’s principal books were “Isis Unveiled” (1877), “The Secret Doctrine” (1888), and “The Key to Theosophy” (1891). In her efforts to gain converts to Theosophy she resorted to “physical phenomena” and miraculous pretensions; but were exposed by the investigations of the Society for Physical Research and by V. S. Solovyoff in his work “A Modern Priestess of Isis” (1895). Nevertheless her cleverness, volubility, energy and will-power enabled her to maintain her ground, and when she died in 1891 she was the acknowledged leader of nearly 100,000 Theosophists in England, France, the United States and India. An abridgement of her works was edited and published by Katharine Hillard in English (New York, 1907).
From Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World. Designed and Arranged by William C. King. Published in 1900 by The King-Richardson Co. Copyright 1903 The King-Richardson Co.:
Founder of the Theosophical Society
This remarkable woman was a Russian by birth, both her father and her grandfather having been officers in the Russian army. Her remarkable attainments as a linguist are seen in this, that she could speak forty languages and dialects. At the age of sixteen she married a husband of sixty but lived with him only three months.
After some time spent at the home of her father, Col. Peter Hahn, she started on extensive travels which continued for ten years before she saw her home again. She had a great thirst for unusual and out-of-the-way knowledge. She even visited the Voodoos, a sect of negroes in New Orleans who were reputed to be possessed of magical skill. She visited Japan and India and sought to penetrate into Tibet. After various wanderings in Asia and Europe, she returned to her home in Russia. During her absence she became a Buddhist.
She at one time sustained a fracture of the spine by being thrown from a horse and there resulted certain mental disturbances which greatly puzzled the attending physicians. For a year and a half she lived a complete dual existence.
After her recovery she spent several years in various parts of Europe, and had many strange experiences. Once she sailed on a ship loaded with gunpowder. The ship was blown up and Madam was one of the ven- few who were saved. She traveled in Africa and sought to investigate Spiritualism. She came again to America and with Colonel Olcott established the “Theosophical Society.”
Among her books is “Isis Unveiled”. She at one time edited a magazine called Lucifer, the Light-bringer. Altogether, she is one of the strange characters of history. One writer has said, “There was a Titanic display of strength in everything she did. The storms that raged in her were cyclones.” Her Confession rings with the mingled curses and mad laughter of a crazy mariner scuttling his own ship, and yet she could be as tender as a mother.