Biographical Summary.

Helena P. Blavatsky was born Helene Petrovna von Hahn on August 12, 1831, in Ekaterinoslav (now Dnepropetrovsk), Russia. Her father, Peter van Hahn, a captain in the horse artillery of the Russian army, was a direct descendent of Count von Rottenstern-Haan of Mecklenburg, Germany, who had emigrated to Russia in the previous century.

Her mother, Helena Andreyevna van Haan, was highly regarded novelist. She wrote under the pen name of Zenaide R. or Zeneide R-Va and was called the George Sand of Russia by Belinsky and other literary critics who regarded her as one of the principal founders of the women's liberation movement. Helena Andreyevna was a direct descendent of a still older and more aristocratic family than her husband's - the Dolgurokovs of Russia.

The Dolgurokovs were a fiery, independant nature and brooked no interference in their personal freedom from any quarter. Their ancestry has been traced back to Rurik in ninth century Russia. Even then they were known to be distinguished by an extreme courage, a daring equal to every emergency, a passionate love of personal independence, and a fearlessness of any consequences in the carrying out their wishes. De name Dolgurokov means "the long-armed one." Interesting enough, the quality of having long arms, with hands reaching even to the knees, has been considered one of the thirty-two signs of divine origin since ancient times.

From 1606 to 1608, the Dolgurov Prince Gregory defended the convent of Saint Sergius against a massed attack of Poles and Cossacks led by some of the most able military leaders of the time. In 1624 a Dolgurov princess married Michael Romanoff, thus founding the Romanoff dynasty which lasted for nearly three hundred years. There were many other Dolgurovs in Russian history who had the fiery, courageous, independent spirit inherited by little Helene Petrovna.

In 1842, Helena Andreyevna died when she was only twenty-seven years old, but wilth her litterary reputation already well established. She realized early how rebellious, how courageous and brilliant her eleven-year old daughter was. On her deathbed she stated that perhaps it was just as well that she was dying for she would be spared seeing what befell little Helene. "Of one thing I am certain," she was quoted as saying, "Her life will not be as that of other women, and she will have much to suffer." Her words proved to be too prophetic.

After her mother's death, little Helene went to live with her maternal grandparents, the Fadeefs, first in Saratoff and later in Tiflis. Madame Nadejda Fadeef, the aunt whom Helene deeply loved, wrote about her in later years:
"Spoilt in her childhood by the adulation of dependents and the devoted affection of relatives who forgave all to the 'poor, motherless child'. Later on, in her girlhood, her self-willed temper made her rebel openly against the exigencies of society. She would   submit to no sham respect for or fear of public opinion. She would ride at fifteen, as she did at ten, any Cossack horse on a man's saddle! She would bow to no one as she would recede before no prejudice or established conventionality. She defied all and anyone."

When nearly seventeen, she married General N. V. Blavatsky who admitted to being fifty but was more probably close to seventy. In three weeks time she fled this unconsummated marriage, abandoned Russia, and spent ten years in Central Asia, India, South America, Africa, and Western Europe.

In 1851, she was in London with her father. One day she went to Hyde Park alone for a stroll. Looking up, she saw a tall Hindu and recognized him as the very same tall commanding figure she had seen often as a child. That day, her Master told her that he had come to London with an Indian princes on an important mission, and he was desirous of meeting her personally, and he required her cooperation in work he was about to undertake. He then told her how the Theosophical Society was to be formed, and that he wished her to be the founder. He gave her a slight sketch of all the troubles she would have to undergo, and also told her that she would have to spend three years in Tibet to prepare her for her most important task. After three days of serious consideration and consultation with her father, she decided to accept the offer made to her, and shortly afterwards left London for India. Although she reached Tibet earlier, it was not until 1864 that she was able to stay long enough to receive the necessary training from her Master.

Finally, after many more exciting visits to several countries (including Italy where she fought in, and was wounded at the battle of Mentana in 1868), she set out for America to bring the teaching of the Ancient Wisdom to the world once again. She met Colonel Henry Steele Olcott in 1874, and it was with his collaboration that the Theosophical Society was incorporated in New York on the ... of July 1875. Helene began then her carreer as a writer. Isis Unveiled  was published in the fall of 1877. In 1880, Caves and Jungles of Hindustan  was published. At the end of 1885, her magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, was published, and The Key to Theosophy  followed in 1889.

This magnificient woman died in London on May 8, 1891. Her eventful life, sketched here most briefly, continues to be a great inspiration to all students of the Ancient Wisdom the world over.

Blavatsky's Theosophy.

The views of Helene Petrovna Blavatsky on Theosophy are exposed mainly in her Secret Doctrine. This impressive work was and still is a source of inspiration for most of the spiritual leaders of the 20th century. At a time when scientific discoveries drew the attention of the world to a hopeless materialism, the writings of this extraordinary woman kept the door from closing on the spiritual world.

  • Cosmogony

    In the beginning is the One Life, eternal, invisible, yet omnipresent, without begining or end, yet periodical in its regular manifestations, between which periods reigns the dark mystery of Non-Being: an unconscious yet absolute Consciousness, unrealizable, yet the one self-existing Reality; truly "a Chaos to the sense, a Cosmos to the reason".

    Creation is but the result of will acting on phenomenal Matter, calling out of it the Primordial Divine Light and Eternal Life.

    The created Beings are the Sons of Light because they emanate from, and are self-generated in the infinite ocean of Light. Matter is, in one sense, the illusive dregs of That Light whose Rays are the Creative Forces of that Principle which none, - not even the Sons of Light - will ever know.

    The Secret Doctrine established three fundamental propositions;

    (1). An omnipresent, eternal, boundless and immutable Principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception, thus remaining forever beyond the range and reach of thought.

    (2). The eternity of the Universe as a boundless Plane, periodically "the playground of numberless Universes inceasingly manifesting and disappearing". This is the absolute universality of the Law of Periodicity, of flux and reflux, of ebb and flow.

    (3). The fundamental identity of all souls with the Oversoul, the latter being itself an aspect of the Unknown Root; and the obligatory pilgrimage for every soul - a spark of the former - throught the Cycle of Incarnation, or Necessity, in accordance with cyclic and karmic law, during the whole term.
  • The Universal Brotherhood and the return to Unity.

    The history of human evolution is traced in Heaven. Humanity and the Stars are bound together indissolubly because of the Intelligences which rule the Stars. In order to become a divine, fully conscious God, even the highest, the Spiritual, Primeval Intelligences must pass through the human stage, but this does not apply merely to our terrestrial humanity, but to the mortals that inhabit any world. Having reached the appropriate equilibrium between matter and spirit, each entity must have won for himself the right of becoming divine, through self-experience.

  • Latent Powers in Man.

    The goal and methods of attainment is summarized by H.P.B. as follows: "The Maha Yogi, the great ascetic, in Whom is centered the highest perfection of austere penance and abstract meditation, by which the most unlimited powers are attained, marvels and miracles are worked, the highest spiritual knowledge is acquired and union with the great spirit of the universe is eventually gained".

    Short introduction to H.P. Blavatsky's writings

    Choose one of the following short texts you can read on-line:


  • H.P.B. gathered in the Secret Doctrine,
    Twelve fundamental Statements & Principles
    that are universal in every presentation of Theosophy.

  • A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures

  • The Voice of the Silence

  • The Key to Theosophy

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