Helena Blavatsky

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) was a Russian author and the leading person of theosophical movement at the end of the 19th century.

She was born in Russia (as Yelena Petrovna Hahn von Rottenstern) into an an aristocratic family (her father P.A. Hahn von Rottenstern was a descendant of the German Hahn aristocratic family), and had spiritual powers already in childhood, and also childhood visions of a hindu she later referred to as Master Morya.

From 1849 (age 18) she travelled the world with the intention to visit Tibet as part of her mission, but for all kinds of administrative and practical reasons (Tibet was closed to European visitors) she only succeeded in 1856 to visit Tibet. She returned home afterwards in 1858 (aged 27).

Blavatsky stated that in Tibet she had encounters with Masters from the White Lodge, Master Morya and Master Koot Hoomi. Later on she also met Master Hilarion in Greece and Master Serapis in Egypt in the period 1870-71. She referred to these as Master of the Ancient Wisdom or Mahatmas.

However, in the 1860s and early 1870's, some ahrimanic occult brotherhoods had become aware of Blavatsky and "wanted to utilize her so certain spiritual truths could come forward which could be favorable to their dogmas of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon people." The aim of these Anglo-Saxon brotherhoods was to try and change the course of history in the fifth towards the sixth cultural age.

H. P. Blavatsky entered a high occult order in Paris which was dependent on the British occult streams, and they tried to prepare her for their aims. However Blavatsky developed her own capabilities and wanted to be self-directed. She insisted on certain conditions which were impossible to fulfill and the consequence was that she was excluded from this order.

Arriving in the United States in 1873 (age 42), she founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 (age 44) and that year also started writing Isis Unveiled, published in 1877 (see links in references below).

Turning point

She entered an American order where she acquired a great deal of occult knowledge which the secret orders had preserved and protected, a situation that had never occured before. However Blavatsky set up certain conditions to which the order could not agree. So these brotherhoods had tried to utilize Blavatsky for their political objects, but in Paris and America she objected; opposing to make Russians dependent upon West Europe and America.

Blavatsky is said to have been into the occult lodges that launched the wave of spiritism between 1850 and 1880, and "threatened to blow the whistle on their unwholesome activities" and expose the fraud eg of living lodge members working astrally through mediums to make people believe they were conversing with the spirits of the dead (Harrison, see also 1994 Leviton for a summary)

In 1879 an association of occultists of various countries decided to put her in occult imprisonment through ceremonial magic and thus make her harmless. Harrison states a consortium of American brotherhoods decided to stop Blavatsky by employing a form of rarely used black magic to wrap Blavatsky in a self-delusive veil-an "occult imprisonment" She then lived for a number of years in real occult imprisonment.

In the period 1879-1885 she went to India and a change in influences came about. Certain Indian occultists freed her from this occult imprisonment, with consent of those who had put her in this imprisonment. Blavatsky then enters into the Indian influence, but still effected by British brotherhoods that completely reject what applies to Central Europe.

After India her health weakened, she became wheelchair-bound, and spent five years in Europe (Naples, Ostend, London). By that time she had become famous, met with Gandhi, Yeats, and others. In Oct 1888 and Jan 1889 the two volumes of The Secret Doctrine were published. In London she met Annie Besant and appointed here as the new head of the Blavatsky lodge and new European Theosophical Society.

Comment:

There are really two main phases, the genuine Blavatsky up to age 48 in 1879, and what happened afterwards. In that second phase Blavatsky was publicly well known, but under influence of occult imprisonment and agendas by secret societies.

Rudolf Steiner commented on the fact that after publishing Isis Unveiled, Blavatsky became the victim of occult groups that took over influence on her to steer her teachings in another direction for political aims. Therefore Steiner, who always speaks highly of Blavatsky's contribution, makes a clear difference between Isis Unveiled, seemingly inspired Master Christian Rosenkreutz (but with a not very clear and coherent result, probably due to Blavatsky's soul channeling capabilities at that time - see below) and what happened afterwards - including The Secret Doctrine (see above).

Harrison praises Blavatsky for her "vigorous intellect," her enormous capacity for assimilating knowledge and regarded her as "a medium of a very exceptional kind," as a unique psychic personality gifted with second sight and copious energy.

Aspects

• the pre-history of Blavatsky is explained explicitly by C.G. Harrison in 1893, but later also in detail 1916-03-28-GA167, see below
• link with the Individuality, intentions, and work of Cagliostro:
  • numerous sources point out Blavatsky was an important individuality, and many links can be made with Calgiostro as an or the previous incarnation of Blavatsky. For more, see Note 1 in the 'Discussion area' below with pointers to extensive coverage.
  • some specific points:
    • the fact that Blavatsky started by first entering a Paris lodge can be linked to the roots of the lodges that Cagliostro founded (see Discussion section below)
    • the statement by Henry Steel Olcott in a book of 1895 confirms how Blavatsky sought to connect the esoteric work in the theosophical society to the work that Cagliostro had left in the lodges of freemansonry
    • on his turn Rudolf Steiner also used this structure to work in that frame of what was called the Egyptian freemasonry or Misraim service.
• main works:
  • Isis Unveiled (1875 -> 1877)
    • Isis Unveiled was inspired by the Individuality of Christian Rosenkreutz (1907-06-01) and the White Lodge (1912-05-08-GA143). However Blavatsky "was harassed in the worst way possible in an attempt to prevent her from fulfilling her work in a Christian esoteric sense, as was her original intention." (1907-06-01). As a result, because Blavatsky "was prompted from a certain direction" (1923-06-14-GA258), the book may give the impression of "a chaotic hotchpotch" (1912-05-08-GA143). Still, in there can also be found "some of the greatest wisdom given to mankind". (1912-05-08-GA143)
  • The Secret Doctrine (1888)
    • reference to the Book of Dzyan
  • The esoteric character of the gospels (1887-8)
  • Note: for other works of this timeframe, see Sources of spiritual science#Note 3 - The 20 year period period 1877-1897
    • some unqualified sources have stated/rumoured that Blavatsky was involved in some way in the book 'Man: Fragments of Forgotten History' (by 'two chelas Mrs. Laura Holloway and Mohini M. Chatterji) (1885, also 1887 and 1893, based on collaboration in 1884)

Inspirational quotes

1905-05-07-GA262

H.P.B. belongs to those individuals for whom respect grows as one's own development progresses. One must have experienced this growth of respect for her if one wants to approach H.P.B. in the right way. One has to learn to honour her in the right way.

At the beginning one still thinks about the externals of her life in order to establish a relationship with her. But there comes a point where everything external recedes to make way for an awareness of the immeasurably signifi­cant spiritual mission of H.P.B. and her great task within the present spiritual movement. If something of this spiritual mission is then truly observed, the result of this knowledge will be a recognition of one's own position with respect to our great pioneer. One also learns to understand that someone with such a mission will of necessity be subject to misunderstanding, even slander at first. They are among the sacrifices which life demands of such a person. ...

With H.P.B. the distinction between the outer form and the inner value of her great gifts will be learned only gradually. Specifically, the spirit of the times in which she had to fulfil her mission made it a particularly difficult one. But that she should have taken on this mission all the same, shows the greatness of her personality to those who can recognise it. It shows also, though, the extent of the willingness of this personality to make sacrifices connected with this mission.

Lecture coverage and references

1886 - Franz Hartmann

in Magic white and black (1886)

H. P. Blavatsky writes in a private letter to the author: ”I proved that all that mediums can do through “spirits”, others could do at will without any spirits; that the ringing of bells, thought-reading, raps, and physical phenomena could be achieved by anyone who had the faculty of acting in his physical body through the organs of the astral body, and I had that faculty ever since I was four years old. I could make furniture move and objects fly apparently, and by my astral arms that supported them, which remained invisible; all this before I even knew of the Masters”.

1889 - James Morgan Pryse

from Daniel H. Caldwell 'A Casebook of Encounters with the Theosophical Mahatmas' Case 61, (see theosophy.wiki/en/James_Morgan_Pryse)

In August 1889, while still in Los Angeles, California, Mr. Pryse had the following experience:

One evening [in 1889] while I was thus meditating the face of H.P.B. flashed before me. I recognized it from her portrait in Isis, though it appeared much older. Thinking that the astral picture, as I took it to be, was due to some vagary of fancy, I tried to exclude it; but at that the face showed a look of impatience, and instantly I was drawn out of my body and immediately was standing "in the astral" beside H.P.B. in London. It was along toward morning there, but she was still seated at her writing desk.

While she was speaking to me, very kindly, I could not help thinking how odd it was that an apparently fleshy old lady should be an Adept. I tried to put that impolite thought out of my mind, but she read it, and as if in answer to it her physical body became translucent, revealing a marvellous inner body that looked as if it were formed of molten gold.

Then suddenly the Master M. appeared before us in his mayavi-rupa [editor: a temporary form created when needed by the mind and will of an Adeptfor a temporary purpose and situation] To him I made profound obeisance, for he seemed to me more like a God than a man. Somehow I knew who he was, though this was the first time I had seen him. He spoke to me graciously and said, "I shall have work for you in six months." He walked to the further side of the room, waved his hand in farewell and departed.

Then H. P. B. dismissed me with the parting words, “God bless you,” and directly I saw the waves of the Atlantic beneath me; I floated down and dipped my feet in their crests. Then with a rush I crossed the continent till I saw the lights of Los Angeles and returned to my body, seated in the chair where I had left it.

C. J. Harrison in The Transcendental Universe (1893)

comments extensively on Blavatsky and goes into the details of what truly happened, ao that Koot Hoomi was neither a Tibetan nor Mahatma but a real person who was part of the betrayal, he also comments on a second person, a 'renegade Jew expelled from a continental brotherhood for the practice of evil arts'.

.. there can be no doubt that Madame Blavatsky was a medium of a very exceptional kind. Her psychic personality was in many respects unique. Early in life she was gifted with the faculty known [in Scotland] as second-sight.

...

What is occult ‘imprisonment’, and why was it inflicted on Madame Blavatsky?

There is a certain operation of ceremonial magic by means of which a wall of psychic influences may be built up around an individual who has become dangerous, which has the effect of paralysing the higher activities, and producing what is called the ‘repercussion of effort’, and the result is a kind of spiritual sleep characterised by fantastic visions.

It is an operation seldom resorted to even by Brothers of the Left, and in the case of Madame Blavatsky was disapproved of by almost all European occultists. On the American brotherhoods alone rests the responsibility for what has since happened. ...

Rudolf Steiner always talked very respectfully of H.P. Blavatsky and especially Isis Unveiled. He explains - see sources below - that after publishing this book, she became the victim of other influences that side-tracked her towards another agenda than the original, and that the Secret Doctrine is from a very different source and caliber.

1904-05-26-GA089

contains interesting background on Blavatsky's Tibet-buddhist source of knowledge ('her Tibetan instructors') as well as about Sinnet's Esoteric Buddhism.

1905-05-07-GA262 letter to Marie von Sivers

in the context of Lotus day

The deep wisdom which is contained in the Secret Doctrine only reveals itself to the human being slowly and gradually. Whenever one has progressed a little on the path, which is lost out of sight in dizzying heights to every human eye, one discovers new secrets in this book which were not properly understood at an earlier stage. And thus H.P.B. belongs to those individuals for whom respect grows as one's own development progresses. One must have experienced this growth of respect for her if one wants to approach H.P.B. in the right way. One has to learn to honour her in the right way.

At the beginning one still thinks about the externals of her life in order to establish a relationship with her. But there comes a point where everything external recedes to make way for an awareness of the immeasurably signifi­cant spiritual mission of H.P.B. and her great task within the present spiritual movement. If something of this spiritual mission is then truly observed, the result of this knowledge will be a recognition of one's own position with respect to our great pioneer. One also learns to understand that someone with such a mission will of necessity be subject to misunderstanding, even slander at first. They are among the sacrifices which life demands of such a person.

The work of H.P.B. came at a time when the materialistic mode of think­ing and belief was engaged in enormous expansion. Science, life, everything seemed to provide materialism with the bricks for a gigantic building. A per­sonality in such a time who brought to mankind a renewed awareness of the truth of a spiritual world had to be a complex one. It has to be remembered that truth itself is not the sole determining factor in how it is revealed to mankind, but that human beings themselves play a part. It was infinitely more difficult to convey truth to a materialistic age of thinking and belief in such a way that it was capable of being understood. The way in which H.P.B. acted was proscribed by the degree of understanding which she could expect to encounter. When a hammer hits an object, the hammer is not the sole determinant of what happens. Glass shatters, but lead is beaten into a thin slab. When a great spirit reveals great things it still has to pour its gifts into the vessels presented by those receiving them. With H.P.B. the distinction between the outer form and the inner value of her great gifts will be learned only gradually. Specifically, the spirit of the times in which she had to fulfil her mission made it a particularly difficult one. But that she should have taken on this mission all the same, shows the greatness of her personality to those who can recognise it. It shows also, though, the extent of the willingness of this personality to make sacrifices connected with this mission.

There have been many objections to the genuineness etc. of H.P.B.'s work, particularly from scholarly or would-be scholarly sources. Doubts have been expressed as to whether her revelations really came from the sources she described. But is that important? Is it not important in the first instance to understand the work and recognize its intrinsic value? Many people, if only they studied it in sufficient depth, would have to admit that they could learn things at the source of H.P.B.'s writings which they would find revealed nowhere else. Size is the intermediary. Does it really show great cleverness to receive truths which deal with the highest things from the hand of such a person, and then to start carping on about the credibility of the same per­son in much lesser things? Nothing would contribute more to turning H.P.B. into a sensation than if the scholarly objections were true. Let us just con­sider the conclusions which would have to be drawn in such a situation.

Let us assume someone doubts that the Dzyan Stanzas are 'genuine'. It has been done and many still do it. The ancient sources which H.P.B. quotes do not exist then. Very well, let us examine this position. One can argue about genuineness, but to argue about truth is nonsense. For everyone can convince themselves of the truth if they proceed along the right path. Those who do this increasingly recognise in these verses the most profound truths.

Indeed, the situation is such, in fact, that with every step forward taken in one's own knowledge one is more convinced of their unlimited profundity and sees increasingly clearly things which can only be suspected even with advanced knowledge. And to those who really know these things, the accusa­tion that H.P.B. invented the Dzyan Stanzas has lost all significance. A most peculiar thing would have had to have happened. This person discovers the profoundest truths and then invents a stupid fairy-tale about their origin. Well, this conclusion is so implausible that it can only be proof of the illogicality of H.P.B.'s opponents, and it cannot be taken seriously by those who have a real understanding.

Those accusing this individual will find their house-of-cards tumbling, once even a moderate degree of understanding of her spiritual power, of the nature of her mission, has been achieved. And gradually, too, an image of this woman will emerge from the heap of accusations, misjudgement etc., as one who at an important time has put her abilities at the service of a movement whose value will remain unrecognised only by those who have not yet gained an understanding of it.

But we theosophists will always celebrate Lotus Day, the remembrance of the moment when H.P.B. left the physical plane, as a day of celebration, as a day of love and gratitude towards the founder of our movement. To those of us who understand, H.P.B. is not an authority in the normal sense, for she did not need such authority. But the correct, true authority which is due to her will come about through an understanding of her work. Respect for authority need only be demanded where it is not given voluntarily. We respect, love H.P.B. because we would be unfaithful to the truth which we have recognised if we behaved differently. And we feel that this, our respect, will itself become un unfolding lotus flower. For the petals of the flower will be all the larger, more widespread, the more we ourselves grow in knowledge. But H.P.B.'s work provides the ladder which supports us in our growth. Therefore, thankfulness must be the response which streams from our hearts if Lotus Day is to be a living image of our growing knowledge.

1907-06-01 (Munich, Manuscript from Anna Weissmann)

talks about the difference between Isis Unveiled and the Secret Doctrine

That lofty spiritual individuality who recognized this was Christian Rosenkreutz. He was the one who, in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, undertook the great work of uniting the spiritual culture of the East with that of the West. He has always lived among us and is still with us today as leader in the spiritual life.  He brought the spiritual culture of the East, as it is represented in the Old and New Testaments as the highest blossom of Eastern wisdom, into intimate harmony with the wisdom that originated in Atlantis. ..

.. The Master Jesus and the Master Christian Rosenkreutz prepare for us two paths to invitations, the Christian-esoteric path and the Christian-Rosicrucian path. Both of these paths have existed since the Middle Ages.  But the spiritual life has increasingly disappeared from human consciousness with the rise of materialism.  At the end of the nineteenth century, materialism had become so powerful that humankind needed a new spiritual infusion if it was not to perish.

There was a single personality who, because of her psychic constitution, was able to perceive the voice of the Master. This was H.P. Blavatsky. When she began her work not all esoteric traditions had been lost. There were, rather, in the West numerous Brotherhoods that had received [preserved] esoteric wisdom, but in a rigid, ossified form without vital life. When H.P. Blavatsky wrote her Isis Unveiled they vociferously claimed that this wisdom belonged to them, for many of the symbols and teachings were known to them and they sought to place hindrances in her path every way possible. Thus Blavatsky was harassed in the worst way possible in an attempt to prevent her from fulfilling her work in a Christian esoteric sense, as was her original intention. Indeed, at that time she had to suffer through terrible things.  And those exoteric brotherhoods actually managed to bring things to the point where she had to clothe what she had to say in Eastern dress in her second work, The Secret Doctrine. Even today we are still accustomed to having most terms for esoteric connections in Eastern language. But this Eastern form of wisdom is nothing for us Western people.  In can only hinder us and bring us back from our goals. The people who are to form the kernel for the following races are her in the West.

This should be given as a factual answer to what the voice of the Masters from the East made known a short while ago. Our Western Masters have also spoke, although less noisily. And we want to write deeply into our hearts what they said. The called upon us to work with them on the future evolution of humankind and to stand firmly and endure in all the battles that yet stand before us; to hold firmly to what we possess as a living, holy tradition. This call should always sound in our souls. However, no one should believe that there exist any disharmony between the Masters of the East and West.

The Masters always live in harmony. Nevertheless, in recent time a decisive change has taken place in regard for the esoteric school of East and West. Until now both schools were united in a great circle under a common leadership of Masters. Now, however, the western school has made itself independent and there now exist two school on the same level, one in the East and one in the West: two smaller circles instead of one great one. The eastern school is led by Mrs. Annie Besant and those who in their hearts feel themselves drawn to her can no longer remain in our school. Everyone should well consider for which path his or her heart longs. Two Masters stand at the head of our western school: the Master Jesus and the Master Christian Rosenkreutz. And they lead us on two paths, the Christian esoteric and the Christian Rosicrucian. The Great White Lodge guides all spiritual movements, and the Masters Jesus and Christian Rosenkreutz belong to it.

1912-05-08-GA143

.. commemorating the yearly anniversary of the day on which Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the founder of the present Theosophical Movement, left the physical plane. It will need very little effort to touch a chord in every soul present here today in order to evoke feelings of admiration, veneration and gratitude towards the individuality who came to the Earth in Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, and inspired men to turn their minds again to the ancient, holy Mysteries whence all the forces and impulses needed for man's spiritual development have proceeded. By devoting herself to what she clearly realised to be the task of the modern age, H. P. Blavatsky was able to present in a popular form what was accessible to her of the Mystery wisdom, a form which differed from that in which Mystery wisdom has, through secret channels, influenced men's activities and endeavours. The significance of the modern age lies in the fact, that what was formerly accessible only to the few, must be given in a form comprehensible to wider circles. And to have acted, as she did at first, in accordance with this trend in the modern age — this was the mission of Madame Blavatsky. Thus, she turned the minds of men to something which has, in truth, always been held sacred by those who had knowledge of it. ...

...

In her being as a whole, in her individuality, H. P. Blavatsky revealed what inner strength, what a powerful impulse was inherent in the spiritual Movement we call the Theosophical Movement. To substantiate this, I need refer only to the first of H. P. Blavatsky's more important works, Isis Unveiled. This book must give to an ordinary reader the impression of a veritably chaotic, bewildering hotchpotch. A reader who is aware of the existence of an age-old wisdom, guarded through the ages in the Mysteries and protected from profane eyes, and who knows that this wisdom has not been acquired by any external human effort but has been harboured in secret societies, such a reader too finds in the book much that is chaotic — but he finds something else as well. He finds a work that, for the first time, presents to the secular world, courageously and daringly, certain secrets of the Mysteries. One who understands these things finds what an infinite amount has been correctly interpreted — an achievement that would have been possible only by Initiates. Nevertheless, the impression of chaos remains and can be explained by the following reasoned consideration. The outer personality of H. P. Blavatsky, to the extent to which she was incarnated in her physical body, with her intellect, also with her personal characteristics, her sympathies and antipathies, shows us by the very way in which Isis Unveiled is written, that she could not possibly have produced out of her own personality, out of her own soul, what she had to give to the world. She communicates things that she herself was quite incapable of understanding, and if one follows this line of thought further it proves clearly that higher, spiritual Individualities used the body and personality of H. P. Blavatsky in order to communicate what, in accordance with the need of the times, had to be inculcated into humanity.

Indeed, the impossibility of attributing to her what she has given is in itself living proof of the fact that those Individualities who are connected with the Theosophical Movement, the ‘Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings,’ found an instrument in H. P. Blavatsky. Those who see clearly in such matters know that the knowledge did not originate in her but that it flowed through her from lofty spiritual Individualities. Naturally, today is not the appropriate time to speak about these matters in detail.

Now the question might arise — and it often does — why did those lofty Individualities choose Madame Blavatsky as their instrument?

They did so because in spite of everything she was the most suitable. ...

So, the choice had to fall upon a person of no particular intellectual eminence — a situation which naturally had many disadvantages. Thus, Madame Blavatsky brought all the sympathy and antipathy of her extremely passionate nature into the great message. She had a strong antipathy to the world. conception which springs from the Old and the New Testaments, a strong antipathy to Judaism and Christianity. But to apprehend the ancient wisdom of humanity in its pure, primal form one condition is indispensable, namely to face the revelations from the higher worlds in a state of perfect mental and emotional balance. Antipathy and sympathy form a kind of fog before the inner eye. Thus, it came about that Madame Blavatsky's perception became more and more enveloped in a kind of fog, and her mind remained clear only for so-called purely Aryan traditions. Here she looked into spiritual depths with great clarity but became one-sided as a result and so it came about that in her second great work The Secret Doctrine, the early Aryan religion was presented in a biased form. To look for anything about the mystery of Sinai or of Golgotha in Blavatsky's writings would, because of this antipathy, be useless. Hence, she was led to Powers who with great forcefulness and clarity, could impart all non-Christian wisdom. This is revealed in the wonderful ‘Stanzas of Dzyan’ which Madame Blavatsky has quoted in The Secret Doctrine.

But this diverted her from the path of Initiation in the physical world that was indicated, although only in a fragmentary way, in Isis Unveiled. But bound as she was by a one-sided Initiation, Madame Blavatsky could present in The Secret Doctrine only the aspect of spiritual knowledge that was inspired by the non-Christian world-conception. Thus, The Secret Doctrine is a book containing the greatest revelations of this order which humanity was able to receive at the time. It contains themes which can also be found in other writings, namely the so-called letters of the ‘Masters of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings.’

There again some of the greatest wisdom given to mankind is to be found. But there are other sections of The Secret Doctrine, for instance those dealing in great detail with the Quantum theory. Anyone who, out of true understanding, includes the stanzas of Dzyan and the Letters of the Masters among the highest revelations vouchsafed to humanity, gains the impression from the extensive sections dealing with the Quantum theory that they were the work of a person suffering from a mania for writing down whatever came into his head and being incapable of laying down his pen. Then there are other sections where a deeply rooted passionate nature discourses on scientific topics without reliable knowledge of the subject. Thus, The Secret Doctrine is a weird mixture of themes, some of which should be eliminated, while others contain the highest wisdom. This becomes comprehensible when we consider what was said by one of H. P. Blavatsky's friends who had deep insight into her character. He said: Madame Blavatsky was really a threefold phenomenon.

• Firstly, she was a dumpy, plain woman with an illogical mind and a passionate nature, always losing her temper; to be sure, she was good-natured, affectionate and compassionate but she was certainly not what one calls a gifted woman.
• Secondly, when the great truths became articulate through her, she was the pupil of the great Masters: then her facial expression and her gestures changed, she became a different person and the spiritual worlds spoke through her.
• Finally, there was a third, a regal figure, awe-inspiring, supreme, in those rare moments when the Masters themselves spoke through her.

Lovers of truth will always carefully distinguish in Madame Blavatsky's works what is essential and what is not. To her who is in our thoughts today, no greater service could be rendered than to look at her in the light of truth; no greater service could be done to her than to lead the Theosophical Movement in the light of truth...

1916-03-28-GA167

This is a very devilish thing, but it is an Ahrimanic trick which you can use. One member of such a brotherhood would write a book which would cause a rightful movement to be called forth, for example, and another person would write a book in order to develop friendship. That is how they work between the lines of life; all this so that the British aspect could become the ruling aspect: let us look at how the personality of H.P. Blavatsky works in this occult brotherhood situation. These occult brothers have become aware of her.

These ahrimanic occultists knew very well when there was such a person who is configurated as is H. P. Blavatsky, there are all sorts of developmental forces occurring. And here we have H. P. Blavatsky in whom the ether body is active in a special way and they wanted to utilize her so that certain spiritual truths could come forward which could be favorable to their dogmas of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon people. Therefore the tendency arose in the 60's and the beginning of the 70's with these occult brothers of the West to utilize Blavatsky so as to place spiritual truths before the world of which one can say the following. Here is a person whose ideas do not come out of an ordinary human brain, but come out of an ether body and in addition to that one who can predict future elements from such an ether body, a future that holds a foundation for the 6th post-Atlantean age. And, since the 6th post-Atlantean age has not yet arrived, they can then make certain preparations in the 5th. In the case of Blavatsky who was not an ordinary medium, they could so influence her mediumistic forces that she would say what the British brotherhoods wanted.

They themselves could not come before the world and say Britain shall be the rulers, but they could say: Look here, here is a person who we are not influencing in any way; she brings a quite new knowledge out of her own ether body. Their goal was that this new knowledge should be placed in the service of the Anglo-Saxon brotherhoods. These brotherhoods related themselves to her so that they were a sort of wet nurse and she was the infant. The intention of these brothers was to put a certain new occult science into the world which would be very suitable for the special aims of these Western brothers.

They would have succeeded in their intentions if Blavatsky had been a pure Russian. However, as I mentioned earlier, she had a certain dose of Central European nature in her. She had an independent nature and very soon became aware of what lived in her ether body and then she did not want to go along with what these occult brotherhoods, who wanted to develop Earth as a higher medium, wanted. After a certain time, H. P. Blavatsky developed many things on very good paths, then she entered into a high order in Paris. However, this Parisian order was dependent on the British occult streams and they tried to prepare her so that what they wanted could come out of her soul. but, as I said, she had much of this Germanic element in her and insisted on certain conditions in this order which were impossible to fulfill and the consequence was that she was excluded from this order. In the meantime she was able to take up into herself many significant secrets which were present in these orders and she began to acquire a very special taste for the whole role; she wanted to play the foremost occult role. She did not want to be just a higher medium; she wanted to direct the thing herself. She entered an American order where they told her many secrets which were only given to those in high grades. Nevertheless, this American order had a very definite intention and in time she received into her consciousness a great deal of knowledge. A whole new situation was now created. Here was a personality who knew much of the occult knowledge which the secret orders had preserved and protected. Here was a situation which had never occurred before. In America she again tried to set up certain conditions to which the American order could not agree, because if they had done so terrible confusion would have come about.

Therefore, through very dubious means, they put her in what is called occult imprisonment which one achieves through certain ceremonial magic in which the soul which you are imprisoning can have ideas which go to a certain sphere and then are reflected back. Everything that develops in the person can be seen by themselves but it is not possible to share it with the external world. It only works within itself; it is an occult imprisonment. This particular ceremonial magic leading to occult imprisonment was done in order to try to make H. P. Blavatsky harmless. In the year 1879 there was an association of occultists of various lands and it was decided that an occult imprisonment was to be placed over Madam Blavatsky and she then lived for a number of years in real occult imprisonment.

It then came about that certain Indian occultists freed her from this occult imprisonment and now begins the time when Blavatsky enters into the Indian influence. Everything which I told you up to now is a kind of pre-history of Blavatsky.

We now have the development which everyone knows about. All the difficulties and problems which Blavatsky had are connected with all this pre-history.

Certain Indian occultists who strove to save themselves from the British now applied certain means to release her from her occult imprisonment, and this actually was done with the consent of those who had put her in this imprisonment. The consequence was that there streamed into her soul that which was connected only with the Indian occultism. All these goings on are effected by the British brotherhoods completely rejecting that which applies to Central Europe. These brotherhoods tried to utilize Blavatsky for their political objects, but in Paris and America she objected; the inner opposition of her Russianness objected and there was opposition against making the Russians dependent upon West Europe and America. When she was in Paris, she set forth a special stipulation which could not be fulfilled because it would have necessitated a political transformation in France. In America she herself did not put forth the stipulation, but she allied herself with a man named Olcott who was interested in producing all sorts of political machinations. These people originally wanted to guide her into a certain channel failed because she was released from this and went into a different channel in which the mahatma was not what Blavatsky thought he was.

1916-10-07-GA171

Blavatsky appeared who, through her natural endowment, was capable of revealing to humanity an extraordinary amount from out of the spiritual world itself. If anyone who is an astrologer wanted to consider this matter, he could undertake the following pretty experiment. He could take the point of time of the strongest utilitarian crisis of the 19th century, and for that point of time set up a horoscope. He would get just the same horoscope if he calculates the horoscope of Time. Blavatsky! ..

.. And so, in Blavatsky there appears a kind of beginning, the announcement of a soul-development. This soul-development of Blavatsky appeared entirely out of a Russian aura, in spite of the fact that her origin was not in itself entirely Russian. This soul, in her mediumship, was developed in a Russian way, but, in the course of her life she was completely led into Western civilisation, — she was so utterly led into Western civilisation that, as you know, she wrote her books in the language of the West; even as far West as America, this figure of Blavatsky was interwoven with the civilisation of our recent age. One might say that in Blavatsky the attempt was made to see how these two things could be intermingled. From all that I have told you concerning the evolution of Blavatsky, you will know that certain things were attempted through her, but, as you also know all meaning, all sense was snatched away from these very exempts. The works of Blavatsky are even chaotic, giving out great significant truths, hut all hopelessly mixed up with the most extraordinary rubbish.

Now what, in reality, has proceeded from that impulse which was attempted with Blavatsky? With Blavatsky, the attempt was made to take occultism, which is a merely traditional occultism, and to propagate that. And what has followed from this, after Blavatsky's death right on to our own age? That you have experienced for yourselves right up to the humbug with Alcyone, and what is now developing from Mrs. Besant herself.

Thus, you have this example before you — an attempt to unite occultism with utilitarianism. Now in the way in which it was attempted there, it could not go on any further. Through that peculiar intermingling of something which was born in the East with what existed in the West, Blavatsky, whose soul was of a mediumistic nature, was intended to incorporate the spirituality of the West with the principle of Utilitarianism An Ahrimanic attempt was begun; and that is a terrible, a horrible, but powerful example of how an Ahrimanic attempt inserts itself, which tries, not only to bring out a certain knowledge concerning the supersensible world, but to place it entirely in the service of utility, of Utilitarianism.

Blavatsky was surrounded by personalities who strove to keep her entirely in their own hands, but that never quite succeeded because she always slipped away from them in a certain way. But a certain number of men in the Western world endeavoured to get Blavatsky entirely into their own hands, and if that had succeeded, if the ideal of uniting spirituality with the principle of utility had been Utterly realised, we should experience something quite different to-day from that Bureau of Julia (Stead's Bureau); for the Bureau of Julia is only a posthumous, an unsuccessful attempt to amalgamate the principle of utility with spiritualism.

What was attempted with Blavatsky was simply only a caricature, but if that had succeeded, we should have everywhere to-day Bureaus where, through mediums, we could get all kinds of information concerning what numbers would win in a lottery, what lady one should marry, whether one should sell out or keep for a time certain stocks and shares. And all that would be arranged from the information to be got from the spiritual world, through mediumship. The spiritual life would be placed utterly at the service of utility. The tragedy of Blavatsky consists in this, — that she was driven to and fro, between both poles, and therefore her life is of such an extraordinary psychological character. In Blavatsky's life, certain doors had to be opened through which one could look into the spiritual world, and so we see this extraordinary phenomenon appearing, of the withdrawal of the Individuality who used Blavatsky as a means of bringing revelations into the world concerning the spirit, ..

1916-12-09-GA173

You see how easy it is in the widest context to practise something similar to what I have described in another case, that of Blavatsky. After the mahatma who is known as K.H. had had a good influence over her for a while, he was replaced, through machinations, by another who was a spy in the hands of a particular society. He had run away from certain secret brotherhoods into whose highest degrees he had been initiated, and it was thus possible for him to remain in the background as a mahatma and achieve, through Blavatsky, things that he wanted to achieve.

1916-12-26-GA173

In this period came the birth and work of Blavatsky. You might think that the birth of a person is insignificant, but this would be a judgement based on maya. Now the important thing is that this whole undertaking had to be discussed among the brotherhoods, so that much was said and brought into the open within the brotherhoods. But the nineteenth century was no longer like earlier centuries in which many methods had existed for keeping secret those things which had to be kept secret.

• Thus it happened that, at a certain moment, a member of one of the secret brotherhoods, who intended to make use in a one-sided way of what he learnt within these brotherhoods, approached Blavatsky. Apart from her other capacities Blavatsky was an extremely gifted medium, and this person induced her to act as a connecting link for machinations which were no longer as honest as the earlier ones. The first, as we have seen, were honest but mistaken. Up to this point the attempt to test people's receptivity had been perfectly honest, though mistaken. Now, however, came the treachery of a member of an American secret brotherhood. His purpose was to make one-sided use of what he knew, with the help of someone with psychic gifts, such as Blavatsky.

Let us first look at what actually took place.

• When Blavatsky heard what the member of the brotherhood had to say, she, of course, reacted inwardly to his words because she was psychic. She understood a great deal more about the matter than the one who was giving her the information. The ancient knowledge formulated in the traditional way lit up in her soul a significant understanding which she could hardly have achieved solely with her own resources. Inner experiences were stimulated in her soul by the ancient formulations which stemmed from the days of atavistic clairvoyance and which were preserved in the secret brotherhoods, often without much understanding for their meaning on the part of the members. These inner experiences led in her to the birth of a large body of knowledge. She knew, of course, that this knowledge must be significant for the present evolution of mankind, and also that by taking the appropriate path this knowledge could be utilized in a particular way.

• But Blavatsky, being the person she was, could not be expected to make use of such lofty spiritual knowledge solely for the good of mankind as a whole. She hit upon the idea of pursuing certain aims which were within her understanding, having come to this point in the manner I have described. So now she demanded to be admitted to a certain occult brotherhood in Paris. Through this brotherhood she would start to work. Ordinarily she would have been accepted in the normal way, apart from the fact that it was not normal to admit a woman; but this rule would have been waived in this case because it was known that she was an important individuality.
• However, it would not have served her purpose to be admitted merely as an ordinary member, and so she laid down certain conditions. If these conditions had been accepted, many subsequent events would have been very different but, at the same time, this secret brotherhood would have pronounced its own death sentence — that is, it would have condemned itself to total ineffectiveness. So it refused to admit Blavatsky.
• She then turned to America, where she was indeed admitted to a secret brotherhood. In consequence, she of course acquired extremely significant insights into the intentions of such secret brotherhoods; not those which strive for the good of mankind as a whole, disregarding any conflicting wishes, but those whose purposes are one-sided and serve certain groups only. But it was not in Blavatsky's nature to work in the way these brotherhoods wished. So it came about that, under the influence of what was termed an attack on the Constitution of North America, she was excluded from this brotherhood.
• So now she was excluded. But of course she was not a person who would be likely to take this lying down. Instead, she began to threaten the American brotherhood with the consequences of excluding her in this way, now that she knew so much. The American brotherhood now found itself sitting under the sword of Damocles, for if, as a result of having been a member, Blavatsky had told the world what she knew, this would have spelt its death sentence.
• The consequence was that American and European occultists joined forces in order to inflict on Blavatsky a condition known as occult imprisonment. Through certain machinations a sphere of Imaginations is called forth in a soul which brings about a dimming of what that soul previously knew, thus making it virtually ineffective. It is a procedure which honest occultists never apply, and even dishonest ones only very rarely, but it was applied on that occasion in order to save the life — that is the effectiveness, of that secret brotherhood.
• For years Blavatsky existed in this occult imprisonment, until certain Indian occultists started to take an interest in her because they wanted to work against that American brotherhood. As you see, we keep coming up against occult streams which want to work one-sidedly. Thus Blavatsky entered this Indian current, with which you are familiar. The Indian brotherhood was very interested indeed in proceeding against the American brotherhood, not because they saw that they were not serving mankind as a whole, but because they in turn had their own one-sided patriotically Indian viewpoint. By means of various machinations the Indian and the American occultists reached a kind of agreement. The Americans promised not to interfere in what the Indians wanted to do with Blavatsky, and the Indians engaged to remain silent on what had gone before.

You can see just how complicated these things really are when you add to all this the fact, which I have also told you about, that a hidden individual, a mahatma behind a mask, had been instituted in place of Blavatsky's original teacher and guide. This figure stood in the service of a European power and had the task of utilizing whatever Blavatsky could do in the service of this particular European power. One way of discovering what all this is really about might be to ask what would have happened if one or other of these projects had been realized.

Time is too short to tell you everything today, but let us pick out a few aspects. We can always come back to these things again soon.

Supposing Blavatsky had succeeded in gaining admission to the occult lodge in Paris. If this had happened, she would not have come under the influence of that individual who was honoured as a mahatma in the Theosophical Society — although he was no such thing — and the life of the occult lodge in Paris would have been extinguished. A great deal behind which this same Paris lodge may be seen to stand would not have happened, or perhaps it would have happened in the service of a different, one-sided influence. Many things would have taken a different course. For there was also the intention of exterminating this Paris lodge with the help of the psychic personality of Blavatsky. If it had been exterminated, there would have been nothing behind all those people who have contributed to history, more or less like marionettes. People like Silvagni, Durante, Sergi, Cecconi, Lombroso and all his relations, and many others would have had no occult backers behind them. Many a door, many a kind of sliding door, would have remained locked.

You will understand that this is meant symbolically. In certain countries editorial offices — I mean this as a picture! — have a respectable door and a sliding door. Through the respectable door you enter the office and through the sliding door you enter some secret brotherhood or other working, as I have variously indicated over the last few days, to achieve results of the kind about which we have spoken. So the intention was to abolish something from the world which would have done away with, at least, one stream which we have seen working in our present time. Signor d'Annunzio would not have given the speech we quoted.

Perhaps another would have been given instead, pushing things in a different direction. But you see that the moment things are not fully under control, the moment people are pushed about through a dimming of their consciousness, and when occultism is being used, not for the general good of mankind — and above all, in our time, not with true knowledge — but for the purpose of achieving one-sided aims, then matters can come to look very grave indeed.

Anyway, the members of this lodge were, from the standpoint of the lodge, astute enough not to enter into a discussion of these things. Later on, certain matters were hushed up, obscured, by the fact that Blavatsky was prevented by her occult imprisonment from publicizing the impulses of that American lodge and giving them her own slant, which she would doubtless otherwise have done. Once all these things had run their course, the only one to benefit from Blavatsky was the Indian brotherhood. There is considerable significance for the present time in the fact that a certain sum of occult knowledge has entered the world one-sidedly, with an Indian colouring. This knowledge has entered the world; it now exists. But the world has remained more or less unconscious of it because of the paralysis I have described.

1923-06-14-GA258

talks about 'The Decline of the Theosophical Society'

Basically Blavatsky's inspiration also came from the ancient Mysteries. ...

... The ancient wisdom which understood nature and spirit as one was contained in Blavatsky's revelations. That is the way, she thought, to find the divine and the spiritual, to make them accessible to human perception. And from that perspective she turned her attention to what present-day traditional thinking and the modern faiths were saying about Christ Jesus. She could not, of course, understand the Gospels in the way they are understood in anthroposophy, and the knowledge which came from elsewhere was not adequate to deal with the knowledge of the spirit which Blavatsky brought. That is the origin of her contempt for the way in which the Mystery of Golgotha was understood by the world. In her view, what people were saying about the Mystery of Golgotha was on a much lower level than all the majestic wisdom provided by the ancient Mysteries. In other words, the Christian god stands on a lower level than the content of the ancient Mysteries.

That was not the fault of the Christian god, but it was the result of interpretations of the Christian god. Blavatsky simply did not know the nature of the Mystery of Golgotha and was able to judge it only by what was being said about it. These things have to be seen in an objective light.

As the power of the ancient Mysteries was drawing to a final close in the last remnants of Greek culture in the fourth century AD, Rome took possession of Christianity. The empirical attitude of Roman culture to learning was incapable of opening a real path to the spirit. Rome forced Christianity to adopt its outer trappings. It is this romanized Christianity alone which was known to Nietzsche and Blavatsky.

...

The fact is that Blavatsky was prompted from a certain direction, and as a result of this she produced all the things which are written in Isis Unveiled.

But by various machinations Blavatsky for a second time fell under outside influence, namely of eastern esoteric teachers propelled by cultural tendencies of an egoistic nature. From the beginning a biased policy lay at the basis of the things they wished to achieve through Blavatsky. It included the desire to create a kind of sphere of influence — first of a spiritual nature, but then in a more general sense — of the East over the West, by providing the West's spirituality, or lack of it if you like, with eastern wisdom. That is how the transformation took place from the thoroughly European nature of Isis Unveiled to the thoroughly eastern nature of Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine.

1994 - Richard Levition from source text here, review of the 1993 edition of 'The Transcendental Universe: Six Lectures on Occult Science, Theosophy, and the Catholic Faith', by C. G. Harrison, edited with an Introduction by Christopher Bamford

Without preempting the richness of Harrison's insider's view, this is a brief sketch of events as he claims they happened.

Around 1840, the various occult lodges of Europe perceived that Western culture had arrived at the point of " physical intellectuality," or extreme materialism. Lodge members, who for centuries had withheld from the public spiritually valuable information about the transcendental realms behind the physical world, decided upon an experiment. They would use psychics and mediums to provide the Western mind a startling glimpse into the unseen world of causes, energies, and influences; through this they hoped to leaven the evolutionary dead end of materialism. In other words, they deliberately launched what became known as Spiritualism, a wildfire phenomenon that spread throughout Europe and America between 1850 and 1880, culminating in the founding of the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875 as an epistemological corrective for Spiritualism's wild excesses.

Not long into the experiment those lodge members most concerned with humanity's positive evolution saw their attempt to spiritualize culture had failed; everybody misconstrued the phenomena and thought they were conversing with the spirits of the dead when in fact it had been the living lodge members working astrally through the mediums.

Lodges with more self-centered notions of their charter deliberately continued the ruse to further their own obstructive agenda, creating further confusion and misattribution that continues to this day.

Blavatsky - full of "wild eccentricity and almost willful freedom of spirit," says Bamford - was onto them and threatened to blow the whistle on their unwholesome activities.

According to Harrison, a consortium of American brotherhoods decided to stop Blavatsky by casting a nasty "spell" on her, employing a form of rarely used black magic to wrap Blavatsky in a self-delusive veil-an "occult imprisonment"-in which she mistakenly believed all manner of events to be real, such as her contact with the Mahatmas in Tibet.

It was only by cutting a deal with Hindu occultists that she would essentially favor their philosophies in her Theosophy that she was released from this psychic prison. These facts, Harrison claims, somewhat qualify Blavatsky's credentials, though he admits she should be regarded as "more sinned against than sinning." Her faults, says Harrison, are numerous: she was unaware of the true sources of her inspiration, the "instrument in the hands of unscrupulous persons"; on intellectual grounds her Secret Doctrine is "exceedingly faulty" and severely "tinctured and pervaded by her personality"; she perverted facts when they didn't fit her grand scheme; and "her sectarian animus in favor of any and every non-Christian religious system (Judaism alone excepted) all combine to render her a most unsafe guide to the Higher Wisdom." To be fair, Harrison praises Blavatsky for her "vigorous intellect," her enormous capacity for assimilating knowledge, regarding her as "a medium of a very exceptional kind," as a unique psychic personality gifted with second sight and copious energy.

Discussion

Note 1 - Alessandro Cagliostro

1 - Introduction

Count Alessandro di Cagliostro (1743-1795) is the name of an 18th century incarnation of an important Individuality that became renowed across Europe at the time of Goethe and the Count of Saint Germain (Christian Rosenkreutz).

Today he is described as an adventurer, a charlatan, and a crook.

Cagliostro is often said to be an alias of Giuseppe Balsamo, and whatever his true name or identity, the man seemingly took many names as he travelled across cities and countries in Europe and had an important cultural impact. Very many books refer to Cagliostro, his life and travels, ao Alexandre Dumas in his his novels such as 'Joseph Balsamo'.

More info on Cagliostro wikipedia page

2 - Spiritual scientific perspective

Besides extensive references about Cagliostro that appear in contemporary culture (see sources on wikipedia page), Cagliostro is also subject of study, debate and speculation in esoteric circles, especially theosophical. It is fair to say he is referred to correctly as 'the unknown master'.

And although there is no concrete statement of any trustworthy source on this, certainly it is a widespread 'rumour' or 'hypothesis' that Cagliostro was or could be the previous incarnation of Helena Blavatsky.

Irrespective, Rudolf Steiner states, im summary, that Cagliostro's mission was to instill a new impulse in various esoteric circles or schools across Europe by connecting to the existing established freemasonry, and he failed in Russia, London (UK), The Hague (NL) but succeeded in Lyon (FR).

Interesting parallels may be drawn with Blavatsky's impulse for a new spiritual worldview, and also that both became victims of the worldly machinations and scorn.

Below we list a few sources

1 - First, it is interesting to note that Blavatsky herself wrote (quite a bit) on Cagliostro, oa 'Was Cagliostro a Charlatan?'

More also oa 'Blavatsky About Cagliostro', by Will Burger (The Theosophist”, Mar. 1962 and/or Oct. 1964), see more below.

Published in 'Lucifer', Vol. V, No. 29, January, 1890, pp. 389-95.

WAS CAGLIOSTRO A “CHARLATAN”?

To send the injured unredressed away, How great soe’er the offender, and the wrong’d. Howe’er obscure, is wicked, weak and vile— Degrades, defiles, and should dethrone a king.

SMOLLETT

The mention of Cagliostro’s name produces a twofold effect. With the one party, a whole sequence of marvellous events emerges from the shadowy past; with others the modern progeny of a too realistic age, the name of Alexander, Count Cagliostro, provokes wonder, if not contempt.

People are unable to understand that this “enchanter and magician” (read “Charlatan”) could ever legitimately produce such an impression as he did on his contemporaries. This gives the key to the posthumous reputation of the Sicilian known as Joseph Balsamo, that reputation which made a believer in him, a brother Mason, say, that (like Prince Bismarck and some Theosophists) “Cagliostro might well be said to be the best abused and most hated man in Europe.” Nevertheless, and notwithstanding the fashion of loading him with opprobrious names, none should forget that Schiller and Goethe were among his great admirers, and remained so to their deaths. Goethe while travelling in Sicily devoted much labour and time to collecting information about “Giuseppe Balsamo” in his supposed native land; and it was from these copious notes that the author of Faust wrote his play “The Great Kophta.”

Why this wonderful man is receiving so little honour in England, is due to Carlyle. The most fearlessly truthful historian of his age—he, who abominated falsehood under whatever appearance—has stamped with the imprimatur of his honest and famous name, and thus sanctified the most iniquitous of historical injustices ever perpetrated by prejudice and bigotry. This owing to false reports which almost to the last emanated from a class he disliked no less than he hated untruth, namely the Jesuits, or—lie incarnate.

The very name of Giuseppe Balsamo, which, when rendered by cabalistic methods, means “He who was sent,” or “The Given, ”also “Lord of the Sun,” shows that such was not his real patronymic. As Kenneth R. H. MacKenzie, F.T.S., remarks, toward the end of the last century it became the fashion with certain theosophical professors of the time to transliterate into Oriental form every name provided by Occult Fraternities for disciples destined to work in the world. Whosoever then, may have been Cagliostro’s parents, their name was not “Balsamo.” So much is certain, at any rate. Moreover, as all know that in his youth he lived with, and was instructed by, a man named, as is supposed, Althotas, “a great Hermetic Eastern Sage” or in other words an Adept, it is not difficult to accept the tradition that it was the latter who gave him his symbolical name. But that which is known with still more certainty is the extreme esteem in which he was held by some of the most scientific and honoured men of his day. In France we find Cagliostro—having before served as a confidential friend and assistant chemist in the laboratory of Pinto, the Grand Master of the Knights of Malta—becoming the friend and protégé of the Prince Cardinal de Rohan. A high born Sicilian Prince honoured him with his support and friendship, as did many other noblemen. “Is it possible, then,” pertinently asks MacKenzie, “that a man of such engaging manners could have been the lying imposter his enemies endeavoured to prove him?”

The chief cause of his life-troubles was his marriage with Lorenza [or Serafina] Feliciani, a tool of the Jesuits; and two minor causes, his extreme good nature, and the blind confidence he placed in his friends—some of whom became traitors and his bitterest enemies. Neither of the crimes of which he is unjustly accused could lead to the destruction of his honour and posthumous reputation; but all was due to his weakness for an unworthy woman, and the possession of certain secrets of nature, which he would not divulge to the Church. Being a native of Sicily, Cagliostro was naturally born in a family of Roman Catholics, no matter what their name, and was brought up by monks of the “Good Brotherhood of Castiglione,” as his biographers tell us; thus, for the sake of dear life he had to outwardly profess belief in and respect for a Church, whose traditional policy has ever been, “he who is not with us is against us,” and forthwith to crush the enemy in the bud. And yet, just for this, is Cagliostro even today accused of having served the Jesuits as their spy; and this by Masons who ought to be the last to bring such a charge against a learned Brother who was persecuted by the Vatican even more as a Mason than as an Occultist. Had it been so, would these same Jesuits even to this day vilify his name? Had he served them, would he not have proved himself useful to their ends, as a man of such undeniable intellectual gifts could not have blundered or disregarded the orders of those whom he served. But instead of this, what do we see? Cagliostro charged with being the most cunning and successful impostor and charlatan of his age; accused of belonging to the Jesuit Chapter of Clermont in France; of appearing (as a proof of his affiliation to the Jesuits) in clerical dress at Rome. Yet, this “cunning impostor” is tried and condemned —by the exertions of those same Jesuits—to an ignominious death, which was changed only subsequently to lifelong imprisonment, owing to a mysterious interference or influence brought to bear on the Pope!

Would it not be more charitable and consistent with truth to say that it was his connection with Eastern Occult Science, his knowledge of many secrets—deadly to the Church of Rome—that brought upon Cagliostro first the persecution of the Jesuits, and finally the rigour of the Church? It was his own honesty, which blinded him to the defects of those whom he cared for, and led him to trust two such rascals as the Marquis Agliato and Ottavio Nicastro, that is at the bottom of all the accusations of fraud and imposture now lavished upon him. And it is the sins of these two worthies—subsequently executed for gigantic swindles and murder—which are now made to fall on Cagliostro. Nevertheless it is known that he and his wife (in 1770) were both left destitute by the flight of Agliato with all their funds so that they had to beg their way through Piedmont and Geneva. Kenneth MacKenzie has well proven that Cagliostro had never mixed himself up with political intrigue—the very soul of the activities of the Jesuits. “He was most certainly unknown in that capacity to those who have jealously guarded the preparatory archives of the Revolution, and his appearance as an advocate of revolutionary principles has no basis in fact.” He was simply an Occultist and a Mason, and as such was allowed to suffer at the hands of those who, adding insult to injury, first tried to kill him by lifelong imprisonment and then spread the rumour that he had been their ignoble agent. This cunning device was in its infernal craft well worthy of its primal originators.

There are many landmarks in Cagliostro’s biographies to show that he taught the Eastern doctrine of the “principles” in man, of “God” dwelling in man—as a potentiality in actu (the “Higher Self”)—and in every living thing and even atom—as a potentiality in posse, and that he served the Masters of a Fraternity he would not name because on account of his pledge he could not. His letter to the new mystical but rather motley Brotherhood, the (Lodge of) Philalethes, is a proof in point. The Philalethes, as all Masons know, was a rite founded in Paris in 1773 in the Loge des Amis Réunis, based on the principles of Martinism,* and whose members made a special study of the Occult Sciences. The Mother Lodge was a philosophical and theosophical Lodge, and therefore Cagliostro was right in desiring to purify its progeny, the Lodge of Philalethes. This is what the Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia (p. 95) says on the subject:

. . . on the 15th of February, 1785, the Lodge of Philalethes (or Lovers of Truth), in solemn Session—with Savalette de Langes, royal treasurer; Tassin, the banker, and Tassin, an officer in the royal service —opened a Fraternal Convention at Paris . . . Princes (Russian, Austrian, and others), fathers of the Church, councillors, knights, financiers, barristers, barons, Theosophists, canons, colonels, professors of magic, engineers, literary men, doctors, merchants, postmasters, dukes, ambassadors, surgeons, teachers of languages, receivers general, and notably two London names—Boosie, a merchant, and Brooks of London—compose this Convention, to whom may be added M. le Comte de Cagliostro, and Mesmer, “the inventor,” as Thory describes him (Acta Latomorum, Vol. II. p. 95), “of the doctrine of magnetism!” Surely such an able set of men to set the world to rights, as France never saw before or since!

The grievance of the Lodge was that Cagliostro, who had first promised to take charge of it, withdrew his offers, as the “Convention” would not adopt the Constitutions of the Egyptian Rite, nor would the Philalethes consent to have its archives consigned to the flames, which were his conditions sine qua non. It is strange that his answer to that Lodge should be regarded by Brother K. R. H. MacKenzie and other Masons as emanating “from a Jesuit source.” The very style is Oriental, and no European Mason—least of all a Jesuit—would write in such a manner. This is how the answer runs:

. . . . The unknown Grand Master of true Masonry has cast his eyes upon the Philaletheans . . . Touched by their piety, moved by the sincere avowal of their desire, he deigns to extend his hand over them, and consents to give a ray of light into the darkness of their temple. It is the wish of the unknown Grand Master to prove to them the existence of one God—the basis of their faith; the original dignity of man; his powers and destiny . . . . It is by deeds and facts, by the testimony of the senses, that they will know GOD, MAN and the intermediary spiritual beings [principles] created between them; of which true Masonry gives the symbols and indicates the real road. Let then, the Philalethes embrace the doctrines of this real Masonry, submit to the rules of its supreme chief, and adopt its constitutions. But above all let the sanctuary be purified, let the Philalethes know that light can only descend into the Temple of Faith [based on knowledge], and not into that of scepticism. Let them devote to the flames that vain accumulation of their archives; for it is only on the ruins of the Tower of Confusion that the Temple of Truth can be erected.”*

In the Occult phraseology of certain Occultists “Father, Son and Angels” stood for the compound symbol of physical, and astro-Spiritual MAN.† John G. Gichtel (end of XVIIth cent.), the ardent lover of Böhme, the Seer of whom de Saint-Martin relates that he was married “to the heavenly Sophia,” the Divine Wisdom—made use of this term. Therefore, it is easy to see what Cagliostro meant by proving to the Philalethes on the testimony of their “senses,” “God, man and the intermediary Spiritual beings,” that exist between God (Atma), and Man (the Ego). Nor is it more difficult to understand his true meaning when he reproaches the Brethren in his parting letter which says: “We have offered you the truth; you have disdained it. We have offered it for the sake of itself, and you have refused it in consequence of a love of forms . . . Can you elevate yourselves to (your) God and the knowledge of yourselves by the assistance of a Secretary and a Convocation?” etc.*

Many are the absurd and entirely contradictory statements about Joseph Balsamo, Count de Cagliostro, so called, several of which were incorporated by Alexander Dumas in his Mémoires d’un Médecin, with those prolific variations of truth and fact which so characterize Dumas père’s romances. But though the world is in possession of a most miscellaneous and varied mass of information concerning that remarkable and unfortunate man during most of his life, yet of the last ten years and of his death, nothing certain is known, save only the legend that he died in the prison of the Inquisition. True, some fragments published recently by the Italian savant, Giovanni Sforza, from the private correspondance of Lorenzo Prospero Bottini, the Roman ambassador of the Republic of Lucca at the end of the last century, have somewhat filled this wide gap. This correspondance with Pietro Calandrini, the Great Chancellor of the said Republic, begins from 1784, but the really interesting information commences only in 1789, in a letter dated June 6, of that year, and even then we do not learn much.

It speaks of the “celebrated Count di Cagliostro, who has recently arrived with his wife from Trent via Turin to Rome. People say he is a native of Sicily and extremely wealthy, but no one knows whence that wealth. He has a letter of introduction from the Bishop of Trent to Albani . . . . So far his daily walk in life as well as his private and public status are above reproach. Many are those seeking an interview with him, to hear from his own lips the corroboration of what is being said of him.” From another letter we learn that Rome had proven an ungrateful soil for Cagliostro. He had the intention of settling at Naples, but the plan could not be realised. The Vatican authorities who had hitherto left the Count undisturbed, suddenly laid their heavy hand upon him. In a letter dated 2nd January, 1790, just a year after Cagliostro’s arrival, it is stated that: “last Sunday secret and extraordinary debates in council took place at the Vatican. It (the council) consisted of the State Secretary and Antonelli, Pallotta and Campanelli, Monsignor Vicegerente performing the duty of Secretary. The object of that Secret Council remains unknown, but public rumour asserts that it was called forth owing to the sudden arrest on the night between Saturday and Sunday, of the Count di Cagliostro, his wife, and a Capuchin, Fra Giuseppe da S. Maurizio. The Count is incarcerated in Castel Sant’ Angelo, the Countess in the Convent of Santa Apollonia, and the monk in the prison of Ara Coeli. That monk, who calls himself ‘Father Svizzero,’ is regarded as a confederate of the famous magician. In the number of the crimes he is accused of is included that of the circulation of a book by an unknown author, condemned to public burning and entitled, ‘The Three Sisters.’ The object of this work is ‘to pulverize certain three high-born individuals’.”

The real meaning of this most extraordinary misinterpretation is easy to guess. It was a work on Alchemy; the “three sisters” standing symbolically for the three “Principles” in their duplex symbolism. On the plane of occult chemistry they “pulverize” the triple ingredient used in the process of the transmutation of metals; on the plane of Spirituality they reduce to a state of pulverization the three “lower” personal “principles” in man, an explanation that every Theosophist is bound to understand.

The trial of Cagliostro lasted for a long time. In a letter of March the 17th, Bottini writes to his Lucca correspondent that the famous “wizard” has finally appeared before the Holy Inquisition. The real cause of the slowness of the proceedings was that the Inquisition, with all its dexterity at fabricating proofs, could find no weighty evidence to prove the guilt of Cagliostro. Nevertheless, on April the 7th, 1791, he was condemned to death. He was accused of various and many crimes, the chiefest of which were his being a Mason and an “Illuminate,” an “Enchanter” occupied with unlawful studies; he was also accused of deriding the holy Faith, of doing harm to society, of possessing himself by means unknown of large sums of money, and of inciting others, sex, age and social standing notwithstanding, to do the same. In short, we find the unfortunate Occultist condemned to an ignominious death for deeds committed, the like of which are daily and publicly committed now-a-days, by more than one Grand Master of the Masons, as also by hundreds of thousands of Kabbalists and Masons, mystically inclined. After this verdict the “arch heretic’s” documents, diplomas from foreign Courts and Societies, Masonic regalias and family relics were solemnly burned by the public hangmen in the Piazza della Minerva, before enormous crowds of people. First his books and instruments were consumed. Among these was the MS. on the Maçonnerie Egyptienne, which thus can no longer serve as a witness in favour of the reviled man. And now the condemned Occultist had to be passed over to the hands of the civil Tribunal, when a mysterious event happened.

A stranger, never seen by any one before or after in the Vatican, appeared and demanded a private audience of the Pope, sending him by the Cardinal Secretary a word instead of a name. He was immediately received, but only stopped with the Pope for a few minutes. No sooner was he gone than his Holiness gave orders to commute the death sentence of the Count to that of imprisonment for life, in the fortress called the Castle of San Leo, and that the whole transaction should be conducted in great secrecy. The monk Svizzero was condemned to ten years’ imprisonment; and the Countess Cagliostro was set at liberty, but only to be confined on a new charge of heresy in a convent.

But what was the Castle of San Leo? It now stands on the frontiers of Tuscany and was then in the Papal States, in the Duchy of Urbino. It is built on the top of an enormous rock, almost perpendicular on all sides; to get into the “Castle” in those days, one had to enter a kind of open basket which was hoisted up by ropes and pulleys. As to the criminal, he was placed in a special box, after which the jailors pulled him up “with the rapidity of the wind.” On April 23rd, 1792, Giuseppe Balsamo—if so we must call him—ascended heavenward in the criminal’s box, incarcerated in that living tomb for life. Giuseppe Balsamo is mentioned for the last time in the Bottini correspondence in a letter dated March 10th, 1792. The ambassador speaks of a marvel produced by Cagliostro in his prison during his leisure hours. A long rusty nail taken by the prisoner out of the floor was transformed by him without the help of any instrument into a sharp triangular stiletto, as smooth, brilliant and sharp as if it were made of the finest steel. It was recognized for an old nail only by its head, left by the prisoner to serve as a handle. The State Secretary gave orders to have it taken away from Cagliostro, brought to Rome, and to double the watch over him.

And now comes the last kick of the jackass at the dying or dead lion. Luigi Angiolini, a Tuscan diplomat, writes as follows:

“At last, that same Cagliostro, who made so many believe that he had been a contemporary of Julius Caesar, who reached such fame and so many friends, died from apoplexy, August 26, 1795. Semproni had him buried in a wood-barn below, whence peasants used to pilfer constantly the crown property. The crafty chaplain reckoned very justly that the man who had inspired the world with such superstitious fear while living, would inspire people with the same feelings after his death, and thus keep the thieves at bay . . . .”

But yet—a query!

Was Cagliostro dead and buried indeed in 1795, at San Leo? And if so, why should the custodians at Castel Sant’ Angelo of Rome show innocent tourists the little square hole in which Cagliostro is said to have been confined and “died”? Why such uncertainty or—imposition, and such disagreement in the legend?

Then there are Masons who to this day tell strange stories in Italy. Some say that Cagliostro escaped in an unaccountable way from his aerial prison, and thus forced his jailors to spread the news of his death and burial. Others maintain that he not only escaped, but, thanks to the Elixir of Life, still lives on, though over twice three score and ten years old!

“Why,” asks Bottini, “if he really possessed the powers he claimed, has he not indeed vanished from his jailors, and thus escaped the degrading punishment altogether?”

We have heard of another prisoner, greater in every respect than Cagliostro ever claimed to be. Of that prisoner too, it was said in mocking tones, “He saved others; him self he cannot save . . . . . let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe ... ”

How long shall charitable people build the biographies of the living and ruin the reputations of the dead, with such incomparable unconcern, by means of idle and often entirely false gossip of people, and these generally the slaves of prejudice!

So long, we are forced to think, as they remain ignorant of the Law of Karma and its iron justice.

2 - Rudolf Steiner didn't say much on this Individuality, except in the context of the highest degrees of masonry in 1904-12-16-GA093:

... in whom an individuality was concealed who was recognised in its true nature only by the highest initiates.

1904-12-16-GA093

Now I must mention the various branches of Freemasonry and their tendencies, even if I am only to indicate some thing briefly. First of all, it is to be borne in mind that the whole of the masonic higher degrees trace back to a personality often spoken about but equally very much misunderstood. He was particularly misunderstood by nineteenth century historians, who have no idea of the difficult situations an occultist can meet in life. This personality is the ill-famed and little understood Cagliostro. The so-called Count Cagliostro, ² in whom an individuality concealed itself which was recognised in its true nature only by the highest initiates ...

... [he] attempted originally to bring Freemasonry in London to a higher stage. For during the last third of the eighteenth century, Freemasonry had fairly well reached the state that I have described.

• He did not succeed in London at that time. He then tried in Russia, and also at The Hague. Everywhere he was unsuccessful, for very definite reasons.

• Then, however, he was successful in Lyons, forming an occult masonic lodge of the Philalethes [Searchers after Truth] out of a group of local masons, which was called the Lodge of Triumphing Wisdom. The purpose of this Lodge was specified by Cagliostro.

What you can read about it is, however, nothing but the work of ignorant people. What can be said about it is only an indication. Cagliostro was concerned with two things:

• firstly, with instructions enabling one to produce the so-called Philosopher's Stone;
• secondly, with creating an understanding of the mystic pentagram.

I can only give you a hint of the meaning of these two things. They may be treated with a deal of scorn, but they are not to be taken merely symbolically, they are based on real facts.

[1 - Philosopher's Stone]

The Philosopher's Stone has a specific purpose, which was stated by Cagliostro; it is meant to prolong human life to a span of 5,527 years. ³ To a freethinker that appears laughable. In fact, however, it is possible, by means of special training, to prolong life indefinitely by learning to live outside the physical body. Anyone, however, who imagined that no death, in the conventional sense of the word, could strike down an adept, would have quite a false view of the matter. So, whoever imagined that an adept could not be hit and killed by a falling roof slate, would also be wrong. To be sure, that would usually only occur if the adept allowed it. We are not dealing here with physical death, but with the following.

Physical death is only an apparent occurrence for him who has understood the Philosopher's Stone for himself, and has learned to separate it. For other people it is a real happening, which signifies a great division in their life. For he who understands how to use the Philosopher's Stone in the way that Cagliostro intended his pupils to do, death is only an apparent occurrence. It does not even constitute a decisive turning point in life; it is, in fact, something which is only there for the others who can observe the adept and say that he is dying. He himself, however, does not really die. It is much more the case that the person concerned has learned to live without his physical body; that he has learned during the course of life to let all those things take place in him gradually, which happen suddenly in the physical body at the moment of death. Everything has already taken place in the body of the person concerned, which otherwise takes place at death. Death is then no longer possible, for the said person has long ago learned to live without the physical body. He lays aside the physical body in the same way that one takes off a raincoat, and he puts a new body on just as one puts a new raincoat on.

Now that will give you an inkling. That is one lesson which Cagliostro taught — the Philosopher's Stone — which allows physical death to become a matter of small importance.

[2 - Pentagram]

The second lesson was the knowledge of the Pentagram. That is the ability to distinguish the five bodies of Man one from another. When someone says: physical body, etheric body, astral body, Kama-Manas body, causal body, [higher Manas or spirit self] these are mere words, or at best, abstract ideas. Nothing, however, is achieved by that. A person living today as a rule hardly knows the physical body; only one who knows the Pentagram learns to know the five bodies. One does not know a body by living in it, but by having it as an object. That is what distinguishes an average person from one who has gone through such a schooling that the five bodies have become objects. The ordinary person does indeed live in these five bodies: however, he lives in them, he cannot step outside [of himself] and look at them. At best he can view his physical body when he looks down at his torso, or sees it in a mirror.

Those pupils of Cagliostro who had followed his methods would thereby have achieved what some Rosicrucians achieved, who had basically undergone a training with the same orientation. They were in a school of the great European adepts, who taught that the five bodies were realities, and not to remain as mere concepts. That is called ‘Knowing the Pentagram’ and ‘Moral Rebirth’.

I will not say that the pupils of Cagliostro never achieved anything. In general they went as far as comprehending the astral body. Cagliostro was extremely skilful in imparting a view of the astral body.

Long before the catastrophe broke over him, he had succeeded in starting schools in Paris, Belgium, St. Petersburg and a few other places in Europe, in addition to the one in Lyons, out of which later emerged at least a few people who had the basis for some to proceed to the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth higher degrees of Freemasonry. Thus, Count Cagliostro at least had an important influence on occult masonry in Europe before ending his days in the prison in Rome.

The world should not actually pronounce judgment on Cagliostro. As I have already indicated, when people speak about Cagliostro, it is as though Hottentots were to speak about the erection of an overhead railway, because the relationship of apparently immoral outward acts to world happenings is not understood.

I remarked earlier that the French Revolution arose out of the secret societies ⁴ of the occultists, and if these currents were investigated further, they would lead back to the school of the adepts.

It may be that what Mabel Collins depicted in her novel Flita ⁵ is hard to understand. In it she describes, rather grotesquely, how an adept has the World Chessboard in front of him in a secret place, and lets the pieces play, and how he, so to speak, controls the Karma of a continent upon one very simple little board. It does not quite take place as it is described there, but something on a much greater scale than that does actually happen, of which what is described in Flita gives only a distorted picture.

[see also: Occult atom]

Now the French Revolution certainly proceeded from such things as this. There is a well-known story contained in the writings of the Countess d'Adhémar. It related that, before the outbreak of the French Revolution, the Countess d’Adhémar, one of the ladies-in-waiting to Marie-Antoinette, received a visit from the Count of St. Germain.

[editor: interestingly, Rudolf Steiner spent a whole lecture on this relation between the Rosencrucians, Count the St.Germain, and the French Revolution, see 1903-11-09-GA090C. In this lecture he also describes these notes by Countess d'Adhémar about three visits of the Count of St. Germain, and how these efforts were obstructed by first minister Maurepas. First meeting was with this Countess alone, then with queen Marie-Antoinette, and a third meeting in a church. Steiner explicitly states the statements of the Count in 1789 before the French Revolution can be found in these notes.]

He wanted to be presented to the Queen and to beg audience of the King. Louis XVI's minister, however, was the enemy of the Count of St. Germain, who therefore was not allowed into the King's presence. But he described to the Queen with great accuracy and detail the major perils which were looming ahead. Regrettably, however, his warnings were ignored. It was on that occasion that he uttered the great saying which was based on truth:

‘They who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind’

[editor: statement that appears in the Old Testament of the Bible, in the Book of Hosea Ch. 8 verse 7. Hosea is the the first of the Twelve Minor Prophets, also known as Osee, son of Beeri, an 8th-century BCE prophet in Israel and the nominal primary author of the Book of Hosea]

.. and he added that he had uttered this saying millenia previously, and it had been repeated by Christ. Those were words which were unintelligible to the ordinary person.

3 - The third source, chronologically, is a statement by Emil Bock, that Cagliostro and Blavatsky are the same Individuality. It has not been checked whether this came from oral tradition (personal statement by someone to him or someone else), or whether he already took it from theosophical circles.

2015 - T.H. Meyer

T. H. Meyer writes in 'Barefoot Through Burning Lava' (2016 in EN, original in DE 2015)

... One hundred years later, Helena Blavatsky was similarly villainized. She was the great innovator of a new spiritual worldview which the times required, and - very importantly - smoothed the way for the work of Rudolf Steiner. The latter knew her imperfections, but he valued her never-wavering trust in the 'Master of Wisdom and Harmony of Feelings'. He respected her truthfullness, above all towards herself and her own weaknesses. Certainly she possessed his sense of truth.

Franz Hartmann, for a period a close colleague of Blavatsky, once asked her for a portrait of herself. Without a word she produced, in answer, a portrait of Cagliostro.

Emil Bock once remarked to a fellow priest that he was convinced that the two were connected through reincarnation.

In this light, Cagliostro's martyrdom at the end of his life appears as a preparation for the still greater martyrdom that Blavatsky had to endure when she was denigrated for years for her spiritual world mission.

4 - The following article provides a good introductory overview:

2021 - Carlos Cardoso Aveline - The Mystery of Alessandro Cagliostro

The below is a copy of an article with the title "The Mystery of Alessandro Cagliostro - The Mystic of the 18th Century Who Anticipated Helena Blavatsky’s Mission" that is available on oa www.helenablavatsky.org and www.filosofiaesoterica.com

“The Mystery of Cagliostro” is available as an independent article in the associated websites since 20 October 2021. It is a translation made by the author Carlos Cardoso Aveline of his Portuguese language text “O Mistério de Alessandro Cagliostro”. It was first published in English in two parts in the editions of September 2021 and October 2021 of “The Aquarian Theosophist”

It is copied here for reference an excellent introduction (also as often personal websites disappear and good or useful information with them.)

Alessandro Cagliostro was one of the main 18th century mystics. He was also misunderstood and persecuted until he died – or at least up to the moment when he mysteriously disappeared from his cell, in an inaccessible prison belonging to the Vatican.

Anyone who challenges organized ignorance becomes a target of attacks. According to the legend of Christian gospels, Jesus Christ was condemned to the cross as a punishment for being a charlatan. Cagliostro is called a charlatan even today, and the same is true of Saint-Germain, of Helena Blavatsky and other wise thinkers and philosophers of different ages.

In spite of the slanders against Cagliostro, his work in the second half of 18th century has an internal relation with the founding – one century later – of the modern theosophical movement.

Famous for his ability to heal, Cagliostro worked on higher levels of consciousness. His effort concurred with the actions of other 18th century thinkers, including the Enlightenment philosophers of various European countries. He helped provoke great social transformations. He also made an attempt to save the masonic movement from its decadence.

Cagliostro created in Lyon, France, 1786, a masonry for which he designed an Egyptian Rite.[1] It was open to women. In the beginning of the 20th century, false clairvoyant Annie Besant and her followers would use the name “Egyptian Rite” to fabricate an illegitimate ritual that has no relation with the authentic one.

According to H. P. Blavatsky, Cagliostro worked under the inspiration of the Eastern Esoteric Philosophy of the Masters of Wisdom. He spent some time in Russia and in England. After that he lived in France. Persecuted, he lived in prison for six months in the Bastille until his innocence was declared in the famous affair of the Queen’s necklace. His work for the regeneration of humanity coincides with the same inner humanistic impulse that inspired the proclamation of human rights and originated the North-American independence and French Revolution. The excesses of the French revolution, which degenerated into a sort of State terrorism, only show the need for peaceful action. The basic ideal of democracy and freedom of the individual is more up-to-date than never in the 21st century. The motto “Liberty, Equality [of rights] and Fraternity”, is today the goal of the United Nations and of every citizen of good will.

Step by step, civilizations make progress toward the moment when the ideal of perpetual peace among all nations will be achieved. The goal was formulated in the second half of the 18th century by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant, Baron Holbach and other thinkers, at the same time that the mystics Alessandro Cagliostro and the count of St. Germain also worked, on a more esoteric plane, for the elevation of human soul.

Born in the beginning of the 1740s, Cagliostro had been able to work for a long time for the progress of mankind when he was arrested by the Inquisition of the Vatican in Italy, in December 1789.

The French Revolution had started in July 1789. Taken as a prisoner, he was several times transferred from one prison to another. He was submitted to long and useless sessions of torture by specialized Catholic tormentors. The goal of the torturers was to force him into confessing crimes he did not commit.

On 7 April 1791, Cagliostro was condemned to death. His books and some of his masonic objects were burned in public on the Piazza della Minerva, in Rome.

H. P. Blavatsky says that something curious occurred a short time after that:

“A stranger, never seen by any one before or after in the Vatican, appeared and demanded a private audience of the Pope, sending him by the Cardinal Secretary a word instead of a name. He was immediately received, but only stopped with the Pope for a few minutes. No sooner was he gone than his Holiness gave orders to commute the death sentence of the Count to that of imprisonment for life, in the fortress called the Castle of San Leo, and that the whole transaction should be conducted in great secrecy.” [2]

San Leo is built on the top of a large rock, “almost perpendicular on all sides”, says Blavatsky in the same text.  In order to get into San Leo “one had to enter a kind of open basket which was hoisted up by ropes and pulleys”. It was a primitive elevator.

From that prison Cagliostro disappeared more than 200 years ago on 26 August 1795.

According to the official version, he died. Other sources, mentioned by Helena Blavatsky, say that he went out of the Castle thanks to some unspecified special method.

There is indeed a mystery regarding the way the life of Cagliostro came to an end. According to W. R. H. Trowbridge, who gives H. P. Blavatsky as his source, the Count abandoned the prison in a way unknown to the prison officers. Indeed, HPB clearly states such a possibility in her article “Was Cagliostro a Charlatan?” (see note 2).

Besides, Trowbridge mentions a report according to which a few years after the disappearance of Cagliostro something occurred of great interest for theosophists. Trowbridge says HPB is his source, yet he does not mention the text where she made the statement. According to him, HPB said that Cagliostro was seen in Russia by various persons after his supposed death, and spent some time in the house of Helena Blavatsky’s father. [3]

This last statement made by Trowbridge is yet to be confirmed. It is not a proved fact – as far as our research goes, that Blavatsky is its source.

It is a certain fact, however, that Cagliostro lived for a few months in Russia between 1779 and 1780. Helena Blavatsky was born in the Russian empire a few decades after Cagliostro’s death. A comparative study of the personalities and life-circumstances of both lives shows a large number of similar elements. Blavatsky wrote a lot about Cagliostro. She also possessed the Masonic jewel that had belonged to him, and which is now in the archives of the Theosophical Society of Adyar, India [4].

In a letter to Alfred Sinnett, Helena Blavatsky says that one of her associates, Darbargiri Nath, visited for more than one hour the prison cell where Cagliostro lived. Darbargiri may have fulfilled some special contemplative activity there. In the same paragraph, HPB mentions Mr. Hodgson, one of the deluded people who in the 1880s accused her of being a charlatan:

“Am I greater, or in any way better, than were St. Germain, and Cagliostro, Giordano Bruno and Paracelsus, and so many many other martyrs whose names appear in the Encyclopedias of the 19th century over the meritorious titles of charlatans and impostors? It shall be the Karma of the blind and wicked judges – not mine. In Rome, Darbargiri Nath went to the prison of Cagliostro at the Fort Sant Angelo, and remained in the terrible hole for more than an hour. What he did there, would give Mr. Hodgson the ground work for another scientific Report if he could only investigate the fact.”[5]

A small numerological fact seems to indicate the occult relationship between Alessandro Cagliostro and Helena Blavatsky. Cagliostro was sentenced to death on April 7, 1791. Helena Blavatsky died on May 8, 1891, exactly one century, one month and a day after Cagliostro’s conviction.

It is a consensus in esoteric circles that in the 18th century Cagliostro worked in cooperation with Count St. Germain. Henry Olcott, co-founder of the modern theosophical movement, wrote something significant about a Russian lady who was very close to HPB on a personal level; her aunt Nadya Fadeef.

Referring to St. Germain, Olcott said: “If Mme. de Fadeef – H.P.B.’s aunt – could only be induced to translate and publish certain documents in her famous library, the world would have a nearer approach to a true history of the pre-Revolutionary European mission of this Eastern Adept than has until now been available.” [6]

Indeed, HPB concludes her article “Count de Saint-Germain”, published in “The Theosophist”, with the following words:

“A respected member of our [Theosophical] Society, residing in Russia, possesses some highly important documents about the Count de Saint-Germain, and for the vindication of the memory of one of the grandest characters of modern times, it is hoped that the long-needed but missing links in the chain of his chequered history, may speedily be given to the world through these columns.”

Boris de Zirkoff, the editor of the Collected Writings of HPB, adds that such a Theosophist living in Russia was certainly Nadya, HPB’s aunt, and that the documents mentioned have never been made available to the public. [7]

Henry Olcott also writes that in 1878 HPB and he thought of making the theosophical movement repeat the work done by Cagliostro in the 18th century. [8]

In the first years of her mission, HPB made many psychic phenomena similar to those performed by Cagliostro.

French thinker Marc Haven wrote a long and excellent biography of Cagliostro, “Le Maître Inconnu”. It is one of the few large-scale studies of Cagliostro that do justice to him.

The book reproduces a testimony given by Cagliostro, in which we can read:

“I belong to no epoch and no place. Outside time and space, my spiritual being lives its eternal existence, and, if I plunge into my consciousness and go back through the course of the ages, and if I take my spirit to a form of existence which is far away from the form that you perceive, then I become that which I desire. Consciously participating of the absolute being, I regulate my action according to the environment that surrounds me. My name is the name of my function, and I choose my name, as well as my function, because I am free; my country is the one in which I walk for the time being.”

Cagliostro had this to say about his origin:

“I was not born from the flesh, nor from the will of men. I was born of the spirit. My name belongs to me, and it is the name I chose to appear before you, this is the name I claim. The name I was called at birth, the one given to me in my youth and the names by which I was known in other times and places, these I have abandoned like old clothes that are of no further use to me.”

And then:

“All human beings are my brothers; all countries are loved by me. I travel them so that everywhere Spirit can come down and find a path to you. I ask the kings, whose power I respect, only hospitality in their countries; and when I receive it, I travel them, doing the greatest good possible around me, but I just pass. Am I a noble traveler?” [9]

Like Blavatsky, Cagliostro had a clear vision of his larger task.

“In each place I spend some time”, he said, “I abandon some parts of myself, wearing myself down, reducing myself at every stage, leaving you a little clarity, a little warmth, a little strength, until the moment at last when I will have definitely reached the end of my trajectory, the moment the rose will bloom on the cross.” [10]

H.P. Blavatsky wrote that Cagliostro was the last member of the Rosicrucian Fraternity [11], and his words reproduced above seem to suggest two things:

1) That Cagliostro’s mission included various incarnations; and

2) That his mission would conclude with the victory of universal wisdom and ethics, in human community, “the blooming of the rose on the cross”.  

When will that victory take place?

Blavatsky says (Collected Writings, volume XIV, p. 27) that the wisdom of altruism will “win the day”, that is, defeat spiritual ignorance, “before the end of the 21st century”. In the final sentences of “The Key to Theosophy”, she announces that life in the twenty-first century may get to be a heaven in comparison with what it was in her time.

NOTES: (for hyperlinks see the original article)

[1] Click to read the book Rituel de la Maçonnerie Egyptienne.

[2] See “Was Cagliostro a Charlatan?”, an article by H.P. Blavatsky, available in the associated websites.    

[3] “Cagliostro – Maligned Freemason and Rosicrucian”, W. R. H. Trowbridge, Kessinger Publishing Co., Montana, USA, 312 pp., see pp. 306-307.

[4] On the eventful trajectory of Cagliostro’s Masonic jewel, see the article “The Mysterious Life and Transitions of the Cagliostro Jewel”, by Nell C. Taylor, in “Theosophical History”, July 1990 issue, California, USA, pp. 79 et seq. Advanced disciples have the possibility to reincarnate quickly, because they experience high levels of consciousness while physically alive, and therefore do not need a long interval between two incarnations so as to obtain a “rest in the celestial sphere”. According to some researchers, such as the English author Jean Overton Fuller, the incarnations of Paracelsus, Cagliostro and Blavatsky may have been three lifetimes of the same immortal soul, whose longstanding goal is to help prepare a new cycle of human evolution. (However, the similarities between these three lives could also be the result of other causes.) There are at least one or two astrological data linking Blavatsky’s birth chart to Cagliostro’s life. Each day of August 26, when Cagliostro disappeared from prison, the Sun passes through an important point on Blavatsky’s astrological chart. Around that point several planets are in conjunction in her chart, including Saturn, the master of Time and Karma. It is worth mentioning that the August 26th is just 14 days after Blavatsky’s birth date, August 12th. It’s two times seven.  August 26 is a strong, favorable point in HPB’s birth chart. On Cagliostro and Blavatsky, see our commentaries on the narrative “An Unsolved Mystery”, in the bibliographical notes at the end of the present article.

[5] “The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A.P. Sinnett”, transcribed by A.T. Barker, Theosophical University Press, Pasadena, California, USA, 1973, 404 pp., see Letter XLVI, p. 110.  H. P. B. says the name of the fortress is Sant Angelo. As a prisoner, Cagliostro was held initially in Sant Angelo. The Vatican states that he died while in the fortress of San Leo (“Collected Writings”, volume XII, pp. 86-88). There are images of San Leo and of the cell in this prison where Cagliostro was supposedly kept, in the book “Cagliostro”, by Roberto Gervaso.  

[6] “Old Diary Leaves”, Henry Olcott, First Series (volume I), TPH, India, 1974, 490 pp., see p. 241, footnote.

[7] “Count de Saint-Germain”, the article by HPB, in “Collected Writings”, volume III, pp. 125-129. See p. 129.

[8] “Old Diary Leaves”, Henry Olcott, First Series (volume I), pp. 468-469.

[9] “Cagliostro, Le Maître Inconnu” (Étude historique e critique sur la Haute Magie), by Marc Haven, Ed. Dorbon-Einé, 19, Boulevard Haussmann, Paris, 1912, see Épilogue, pp. 281-284. Click to see the book in the associated websites. There is a more recent edition, Editions Dervy, Paris, Quatrième Edition, 1995, see pp. 241-244. The book by Marc Haven has a Brazilian edition (Editora Madras, São Paulo city) under the title “Cagliostro, o Grande Mestre do Oculto”, 304 pp., 2005. English language edition: “Cagliostro – The Unknown Master”, by Marc Haven, Lewis Masonic Publishers, Hersham, Surrey, UK, 2021, paperback, 282 pages.

[10] “Cagliostro, Le Maître Inconnu”, see p. 283. In the 1995 edition, the p. 242 near its end, and the beginning of p. 243.  

[11] This is said by her in the article “A Few Questions to Hiraf ”, “Collected Writings”,  H. P. Blavatsky, TPH, Adyar, India, volume I, pp. 103-104. In the same volume, see also the text “The Science of Magic”, on p. 141.

Other Bibliographical Sources on Cagliostro:

Besides the books and texts referred above, see also:

• “Cagliostro et le Rituel de la Maçonnerie Égyptienne”, Robert Amadou, SEPP, Paris, 1996, 117 pp. See on  pp. 34-37 of this small book a speculation by M. Amadou on the end of times around the year 2000.

• “L’Esprit Des Choses”, Publication du  C. I. R. E. M., (Centre International de Recherches et D’Etudes Martinistes), France; volume 4 (1995)  et volume 5 (1996).

• “The Phoenix, an Illustrated Review of Occultism and Philosophy”, Manly P. Hall, second edition, The Philosophical Research Society, 1995, 176 pp., see the chapter “Cagliostro and the Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry”, pp. 152-159.

• “Compendio de la Vida y Hechos del Conde Calliostro”. The Spanish language compilation of the judicial proceedings of the Inquisition against Cagliostro. This is a 1991 facsimile edition made by Ediciones Obelisco, which reproduces the book published in Sevilla, Spain, in 1791, with 315 pages. The facsimile edition consists of 750 numbered copies.  The copy belonging to the Independent Lodge of Theosophists has number 504.

• The article “Who Was Cagliostro?”, by Will C. Burger, in “The Theosophist”, Adyar, Madras / Chennai, India, March 1962, starting at p. 384.   

• The article “The Mystery of Cagliostro’s Mission”, by Will C. Burger, in “The Theosophist”, July 1962, Adyar, Madras / Chennai, India, starting at page 252.  

• The article “Blavatsky About Cagliostro”, by Will Burger, “The Theosophist”, October 1964, starting at page 8.

• The article “Great Theosophists – Cagliostro”, in the magazine “Theosophy”, Los Angeles, October 1938, pp. 530-536.

• HPB’s narrative “An Unsolved Mystery”, included with commentaries by the editor Boris de Zirkoff in “Collected Writings”, H. P. Blavatsky, TPH, volume I, pp. 151-162. The short story is also published in the associated websites. The fantastic tale describes a supposed episode with Cagliostro and his wife, both using other names and living in Paris, in 1861. The narrative might be a way for HPB to evaluate the life of an initiate while at the same time giving false clues about “the mystery of Cagliostro” in order to protect the secret that must surround the life of every advanced disciple. Beneath its outer layer of symbolism, the text examines fundamental challenges faced by disciples in general, and more specifically by Cagliostro in the 18th century. However, if seen at from the external and literal point of view, the story is incongruous. For example, it makes no sense to think that a non-advanced person on the Path, like Cagliostro’s wife, could reincarnate in such a short time. Nor is it correct to think that Cagliostro could be doing exactly the same things one century later, or that he was involved in a personal situation as complicated as the one shown by the narrative. Furthermore, if the facts reported were real, they would have had to appear in the newspapers, and there is no evidence that they did. It is evident therefore that one must transcend the dead letter reading in order to fully appreciate the lessons of great value contained in it.

• There are several references to Cagliostro in the first part of the narrative entitled “The Silent Brother”, by HPB, included in “Collected Writings”, volume II, pp. 366-377. See especially the first two pages.  

• “HPB Speaks”, edited by C. Jinarajadasa, TPH, Adyar, India, a compilation in two volumes. See volume II, pp. 27 through 36.  

• “Cagliostro”, Roberto Gervaso, Biblioteca Universale Rizzoli, BUR, copyright 1972, 1976, 1992, Milano, Italy, 250 pages.

• The book “Cagliostro”, Philippe Brunet, copyright 1994, Rusconi Libri, Milano, Italy, 380 pages.  

• The article “Prince Talleyrand, On Cagliostro”, by William Q. Judge, which is available at the associated websites.

• “Collected Writings” of H.P. Blavatsky, TPH, India, volume XV (Index), pp.  98-99.

• The article “Alexandre Dumas Describes Cagliostro”, by Carlos Cardoso Aveline. The same text, in Portuguese language: “Alexandre Dumas Descreve Cagliostro”.

• The 20-page essay “Cagliostro”, in the book “Les Illuminés”, by Gérard de Nerval, Éditions Gallimard, France, 441 pp., see pp. 357-377.

3 - Rite of Misraim

Rudolf Steiner describes Cagliostro's efforts and what he what we wanted to convey as teachings, and refers to his Lyon circle.

Apparently Cagliostro created a masonry circle in Lyon in 1786 for which he designed an Egyptian Rite (see Carlos Cardoso Aveline above).

Furthermore "The idea of an 'Egyptian freemasonry' was maintained in Italy by the Rite of Misraim, founded in 1813 by the three Jewish Bédarride brothers and in France, the Rite of Memphis founded in 1838 by Jacques Etienne Marconis de Nègre".

This makes for an interesting link with Rudolf Steiner's involvement with the Rite of Misraim, see volume 'The Misraim Service: Freemasonry and Ritual Work' (GA 265) on Rudolf Steiner and initiation. Below are just a few of many references to sketch this context.

In summary: Rudolf Steiner took the opportunity of using this established structure as a frame to operate within to bring his own contents. He explicitly states he "always respected what has arisen in the course of history .. and was thereforein favor of linking whenever possible, the new with what exists historically." It is clear that Steiner - in that period in time - had just started working within the theosophical society, exploring using what was there to develop in that structure from within by infusing new contents. This represented the symbolic-ritual esoteric work that complements the knowledge stream. This can be positioned as the early days in his twenty years of work 1904-1924, for an overview on this esoteric work over the whole period, see the various GA volumes listed in Rudolf Steiner and initiation#Overview

1895 - The True History of the Theosophical Society, Volume I

Excerpt from an 1895 private book from the Theosophical Society, with the title 'Παλαιά Φύλλα Ημερολογίου: Η αληθινή ιστορία της Θεοσοφικής Εταιρείας, τόμος Ι' pages 468 - 469, extract supplied by Konstantinos Spyropoulos, an independent researcher of Misraim Service's (Mystica Aeterna's) ceremonial rites. The book title in Greek translates something like 'The True History of the Theosophical Society, Volume I'.

In this book one finds the following statement of Henry Steel Olcott, reflecting on the origins and early days of the Theosophical Society (that was founded in New York City, USA in 1875).

On April 17, 1878, we began discussions with Sotheran, General T. and one or two other high-ranking Freemasons concerning the establishment of our Society as a masonic body with ritual and degrees; the idea being that it would be a natural adjunct to the higher degrees of Freemasonry, restoring to Freemasonry the vital element of Eastern mysticism which it lacked or had lost.

At the same time, such an arrangement would give strength and permanence to the Society, linking it with the ancient Brotherhood whose lodges are located throughout the world.

Reflecting today, we were indeed planning a repetition of the work of Cagliostro, whose Egyptian Lodge was such a powerful centre for the dissemination of Eastern occult thought in his time.

1904-12-12 Letter of A.W. Sellin to Rudolf Steiner (GA265)

GA265 contains background on the Misraim freemansonry stream, oa a number of letters from and to Rudolf Steiner exchanging info on the subject.

In these letters Sellin is sharing what he knows or the information that went around on the roots and origin of the lodges. This doesn't imply the below is always factually correct, but it does provide, as an example, a relevant piece of the puzzle that connects the various other pieces selected and shared on this page (as there is of course a lot more).

[Egyptian Freemasonry]

The founder of the so-called Egyptian Masonry is thought to be Cagliostro. According to his own assertion he became a member of the Order in London, but this has not been corroborated.

It has been supposed that the first idea of this way of teaching and the papers were given him by a certain George Coston.

Cagliostro attempted to found lodges in The Hague and in Russia, but without success. He finally succeeded on October 8, 1779, when his first lodge of the "Rite Egyptien" was established in Strassburg. It continued to exist until 1783.

In Lyons in October 1784, Cagliostro, along with 12 members of the local Freemasonry lodge, founded a mother lodge of his Egyptian Masonry, going by the name of "La sagesse triomphante" and on July 5, 1785, he founded a similar lodge in Paris.

At that time Cagliostro's reputation had risen to such an extent that the Freemasonry Convention held in Paris went to great lengths to engage his services as a teacher, even though he made it a condition that the Philalethes [= searchers after wisdom] were to burn all the books of the Freemasonry Archive. After this condition had been fulfilled he started to teach the Freemasons how to acquire the ability, by deeds and facts and also through sense impressions, to recognize to which science true Masonry offers symbols and points the way.

On November 21, 1786, there followed the exposure of Cagliostro in London by the optician Mach, and therewith the collapse of his system of which he was the Supreme Head or Grand-Kophta.

His system admitted both men and women and consisted of a scale of 90 degrees and promised perfection through physical and moral rebirth to all who believed in it. (c.f. Goethe, Neue Schriften, 1792).

The Count Saint Germain stood in close contact with Cagliostro and introduced his system, probably in a changed form, at the courts of German princes (Ferdinand of Brunswick, Frederick August of Brunswick, Charles of Hessen, among others). Charles of Hessen, namely, who looked after Count St. Germain until his death, studied occultism with great devotion at the instigation of the latter. He was the author of Explanation of the Zodiacal Stone in the Temple of Dendera, which appeared in 1824 in Copenhagen.

"The Rite de Memphis," or as it called itself, "The Oriental Freemasonry Order of Memphis" is supposed, according to its own myth, to have come from Ormus or Ormuzd, a man converted to Christianity by St. Mark in 46 A.D. and those from an Essene school united under his leadership. The Rite is supposed to have been transferred to Edinburgh by Scottish Knights in 1150 and to be the predecessor of present day Freemasonry.

Nobody in Edinburgh is aware of this story, but on the other hand it is known that a certain Samual Honis from Cairo founded the first Grand Lodge for this kind of instruction in Paris in 1815 which, however, only lasted until 1816.

In 1838 a second attempt was made there to introduce this kind of instruction through the Osiris Lodge, but this also failed, as the Order was abolished by the police in 1843.

In 1848 the third attempt was made, and indeed the Order was then divided into 90 degrees of knowledge. The topmost degree (The Sanctuarium) is not meant to exert any influence over the management of the Order, but to be entirely esoteric.

In 1851 the Order was prohibited in France, and its headquarters was transferred to London. There it flourished better and produced daughter lodges in Geneva, Brussels, New York and Australia. Its 90 degrees were reduced to 30, and in this form an attempt was made to introduce it into Germany, but as a result of the opposition from the Masonic officials of the old Prussian grand lodges it did not succeed.

Its spread in other countries, such as England, Ireland, Scotland, Italy, Romania, Egypt, the East Indies, Canada, the U.S.A. and Australia was successful, especially since it had been fused with the "Rite de Misraim."

The "Rite de Misraim" or "Rite Egyptien" was brought from Italy to France at the beginning of the nineteenth century by the Jewish merchant Michel Bedarride and developed there. The Order's leg-end avers that Misraim, a son of Ham, moved to Egypt, occupied it and called it after his name (Misraim, that is to say Egypt).

From him there spread to all lands and throughout all ages a very ancient doctrine, which was used, with some alterations, by the most varied religious and masonic societies at all schools of philosophy and mystical brotherhoods, namely the teaching about Isis and Osiris, Nature and her Creator.

The system is divided into four parts, of which

• the first is called the Symbolical,
• the second the Philosophical,
• the third the Mystical and
• the fourth the Hermetic-Cabalistical.

17 classes and 90 degrees are distinguishable, but are unevenly distributed. Those members who have attained the 87th-89th degrees are entrusted with the management of the first three degrees and the series up to the 77th degree. The Sovereign Prince of the 78th degree is the head of the fourth series and the 90th degree is held by the unknown "Souverain Grand Maitre absolu puissant supreme de l'Ordre."

The bankruptcy of the founder of the French Order, Beclarride, did not hinder the spread of the latter, a fact that is attributed by Freemasonry literature—which otherwise has nothing but mockery and scorn for esoteric matters, namely for the honors conferred upon higher officials—to the exemplary administration of its charitable work.

The spread of the now amalgamated "Order of Memphis and Misraim" is discussed in another place.

It has been represented in Hamburg for the last few years and appears in the address book as follows: A. and A. [Ancient and Accepted] Scotch (33°) and A. and P. [Ancient and Primitive] Rite of Memphis and Misraim (95°) . Chapter, "Phoenix to the Truth" No. 3 in Tale 13 of Hamburg. Working Lodge every second Thursday in the month. Sym [bolic] (St. Joh [n] ) Lodge "Phoenix to the Truth" in the 0. [Orden?] Hamburg. Working Lodge every first, third and fourth Thursday in the month.

Work and jurisdiction of the Grand Orient and the Sovereign Sanctuary for Germany in Berlin. Friendship-Representative for America: Franz Held, Borgfelde, Henriettenallee 18. Enquiries to the First Secretary M. Lupschewitz, DillstraBe 4 or to the Treasurer A. Paasch, St. G. Steindamm 68/11.

The Order is not recognized by the Union of Grand Lodges in Germany, but it tries to convert individual Brothers of proximate ways of teaching, namely by the distribution of a periodical that contains almost exclusively the works of Dr. E Hartmann. I will try to acquire this periodical.

1925 - Rudolf Steiner - An autobiography

on the history of the cognitive ritual section, first published 1925-03-22 in 'Das Goetheanum', excerpt taken from GA265

Some years after Marie von Sievers and I began our activity within the Theosophical Society, we were offered the leadership of a society of the kind still in existence which preserves the ancient wisdom embodied in symbolism and religious ceremonies. I had no intention whatever of working in the spirit of such society. Everything anthroposophy represents must spring from its own source of knowledge and truth. From this there could not be the slightest deviation.

But I have always respected what has arisen in the course of history. In this is revealed the spirit inherent in humankind's evolution. Therefore I was in favor of linking whenever possible, the new with what exists historically.

And so I accepted the certificate offered to me by the above-mentioned society, which belonged to the stream representated by Yarker. It was an institution of Freemansonry of the so-called higher degrees. I took over noting, absolutely nothing from this society except the merely formal right to carry on in historical succession my symbolic ritual activity. This activity was completely without dependence upon any tradition whatever. Though I was in possession of the formal certificate, nothing but what symbolized anthroposophical knowledge was cultivated.

Related pages

• Sources of spiritual science
• White Lodge
• Book of Dzyan

References and further reading

• Helena Blavatsky: 'Isis Unveiled' (1877), online sources versions one and two - with 15 chapters in Vol 1 and 12 chapters in Vol 2.
• Theosophy wiki profile for Helena Blavatsky
• wikipedia profile for Helena Blavatsky
• theosophy.wiki/en/Blavatsky_writings - Chronological listing of major writings

Biographies

• Alfred Percy Sinnett: 'Incidents in the Life of Madame Blavatsky: Compiled from Information Supplied by Her Relatives and Friends' (1886)
• Franz Hartmann: 'H.P. Blavatsky: The Sphinx of the Nineteenth Century' (original in DE 1893 as 'Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, die Sphinx des 19. Jahrhunderts')
• Constance Wachtmeister: 'Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky and "The Secret Doctrine"' (1893)
• Annie Besant: 'H.P. Blavatsky and the Masters of the Wisdom' (1907)
• Herbert Whyte: 'H. P. Blavatsky: An Outline Of Her Life' (1909, 2014)
• Katherine Tingley: 'Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1921, 2023)
• Alice Leighton Cleather: 'H. P. Blavatsky a Great Betrayal' (1922)
• Alice Leighton Cleather, Basil Woodward Crump : 'H.P. Blavatsky as I Knew Her: Her Life and Work' (1923, 2017)
• George Baseden Butt: 'Madame Blavatsky' (1926)
• C.E. ("Ephesian") Bechhofer-Roberts: 'The mysterious madame : life of Madame Blavatsky' (1930)
• Charles James Ryan: 'H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement - A Brief Historical Sketch' (1937)
• Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, ‎Mary Katherine Neff: 'Personal Memoirs of H.P. Blavatsky' (1937, 2018)
• Katherine Augusta Westcott Tingley: 'Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Foundress of the Original Theosophical Society' (1937)
• John Symonds: 'The Lady with the Magic Eyes: Madame Blavatsky, Medium and Magician' (1960)

• Geoffrey A. Barborka: 'H. P. Blavatsky, Tibet and Tulku' (1966)
• Howard Murphet: 'When Daylight Comes;A biography of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky' (1975) - freely downloadeable here
• Marion Meade: 'Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth' (1980)
• William Kingsland: 'The Real H. P. Blavatsky' (1985)
• Jean Overton Fuller (1915-2009): 'Blavatsky and her teachers : an investigative biography' (1988)
• Jacob Slavenburg: 'H.P. Blavatsky. De theosofie en de meesters' (1991)
• Sylvia Cranston: 'H.P.B.: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky: Extraordinary Life of Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Founder of the Modern Theosophical Movement' (1993); in PT as 'A Vida E A Influência Extraordinária Da Fundadora Do Movimento Teosófico Moderno'
• Peter Washington: 'Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: Theosophy and the Emergence of the Western Guru' (1993)
• Charles River Editors: 'The Mother of Theosophy: The Life and Legacy of H.P. Blavatsky' (also available in audio version)
• Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke (editor): 'Helena Blavatsky' (series: Western Esoteric Masters) (2004)
• Gerhard Wehr: 'Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, eine moderne Sphinx : Biographie' (2005)

• Joseph Howard Tyson: 'Madame Blavatsky Revisited' (2006)
• Alexander Nikolaevich Sienkiewicz: 'Helena Blavatsky: between light and darkness' (2010 in RU as 'Елена Блаватская: между светом и тьмой Елена Блаватская: между светом и тьмой ')
• Gary Lachman: 'Madame Blavatsky: The Mother of Modern Spirituality' (2012)
• Gordon Strong: 'Lion of Light: The Spiritual Life of Madame Blavatsky' (2013)
• Arthur Lillie: 'Madame Blavatsky and Her Theosophy' (2013)
• In Memoriam of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (2021) (tributes by some of her pupils; editors: Erica Georgiades and Juliet Bates)

Cagliostro

• Giovanni Barberi: 'Contemporary account of Count Alessandro di Cagliostro' (1791)
  • A scarce German translation of the most important contemporary account of Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, easily the greatest occult figure of the 18th century. Born in Palermo, Sicily, Cagliostro (1743-1795) travelled through Europe, selling ‘magical’ paraphernalia and performing alchemical rituals. He seems to have been a skilled letter forger: Casanova was greatly impressed by his talent, as he relates in his memoirs. In London Cagliostro was admitted as a freemason, and he went on to establish several masonic lodges throughout Europe, including the so-called Egyptian Rite. He possibly even participated in the infamous Affair of the Diamond Necklace, but, after being held in the Bastille for nine months, he was acquitted. After a life of adventure and controversy, he was finally arrested in Rome in 1789, apparently after his wife had denounced him to the Inquisition as a heretic. Sentenced to life imprisonment, he died in captivity in 1795. The author of this monograph, Giovanni Barberi (1748-1821), led the investigation against Cagliostro and had access to important documents in the possession of the Inquisition, which makes this monograph particularly valuable. The first chapter focuses on Cagliostro's biography, while the remaining three chapters are devoted to his masonic activities, including the Egyptian Rite. Unjustly, Barberi believed that Cagliostro led a masonic conspiracy aimed at overthrowing European monarchies.
• W. R. H. Trowbridge: 'Cagliostro: The Splendour and Misery of a Master of Magic' (1910, 2022)
• Roberto Gervaso: 'Cagliostro : a biography' (1974 or 1975)
• A Reghini: 'Cagliostro, documents et études: Notes brèves sur le Cosmopolite' (1987)
• Klaus H. Kiefer: 'Cagliostro : Dokumente zu Aufklärung und Okkultismus' (1991) - 741 pages
• Pier Carpi: 'Cagliostro. Il maestro sconosciuto' (1997)
• Iain McCalman: 'The Last Alchemist: Count Cagliostro, Master of Magic in the Age of Reason' (2004, in DE as 'Der letzte Alchemist: Die Geschichte des Grafen Cagliostro')
• Constantin Photiades:
  • 'Count Cagliostro: An Authentic Story of a Mysterious Life' (2010)
  • 'Le vite del conte di Cagliostro' (2005)
• Philippa Faulks, Robert L. Cooper: 'Cagliostro. Il mago massone. Vita e morte del conte di Cagliostro e il suo Rito Egizio' (2010)
• Louis Figuier: 'Cagliostro, Prodiges et Sortilèges' (2019)
• Roberto La Paglia: 'Cagliostro. Le verità nascoste' (2020)
• Armando Pappalardo: 'Cagliostro nella storia' (2021)
• Giovanni Grippo: 'Das Wirken von Alessandro Graf von Cagliostro: Ein unsichtbarer Meister der Freimaurerei' (2022)
• Marc Haven: 'Cagliostro, le maître inconnu: Etude historique et critique sur la haute magie' (2022)
• Pasquale Palmieri: 'Le cento vite di Cagliostro' (2023)
• Raffaele and Tommaso De Chirico: 'Cagliostro. Un nobile viaggiatore del XVIII secolo' (2024)