Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, born on August 12, 1831 (Old Style July 31), and died on May 8, 1891, was a Russian and American mystic and writer. She co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875 and is widely known as Madame Blavatsky. She is considered the main founder of Theosophy, a belief system that combines ideas from religion, philosophy, and science.
Blavatsky was born into a wealthy family in Yekaterinoslav. As a child, she traveled widely across the Russian Empire. She taught herself many subjects and became interested in mystical beliefs from Western Europe during her teenage years. She later claimed to have traveled around the world starting in 1849, visiting Europe, the Americas, and India. She also said she met spiritual teachers called the "Masters of the Ancient Wisdom" in Tibet, who trained her in their teachings.
Some people have questioned whether her travels were real, suggesting she may have stayed in Europe during that time. By the 1870s, Blavatsky became involved in the Spiritualist movement, which believes in communicating with spirits. She supported the idea that spiritual events were real but disagreed with the belief that these spirits were the dead. In 1873, she moved to the United States and became friends with Henry Steel Olcott. She gained public attention as a spiritual medium but faced accusations of being dishonest.
In 1875, Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society with Olcott and William Quan Judge in New York City. In 1877, she published a book called Isis Unveiled, which explained her Theosophical ideas. She linked Theosophy to ancient traditions like Hermeticism and Neoplatonism and described it as a way to unite science, religion, and philosophy. She claimed Theosophy revived an ancient wisdom shared by all world religions. In 1880, Blavatsky and Olcott moved to India, where they tried to work with the Arya Samaj, a Hindu reform group. In 1882, a Hindu leader named Maharishi Dayananda criticized Theosophy as misleading. That same year, Blavatsky and Olcott became the first Americans to officially convert to Buddhism in Ceylon.
Although British officials opposed Theosophy, the movement grew quickly in India. However, problems arose after Blavatsky was accused of creating fake spiritual events. In poor health, she returned to Europe in 1885 and started the Blavatsky Lodge in London. There, she published The Secret Doctrine, a book based on what she said were ancient Tibetan writings, as well as two other books: The Key to Theosophy and The Voice of the Silence. She died of influenza in 1891.
Blavatsky was a debated figure during her life. Some people saw her as a wise teacher, while others called her a fraud. Her ideas helped spread Hindu and Buddhist beliefs in the West and influenced later spiritual movements, such as Ariosophy, Anthroposophy, and the New Age Movement.
Early life
It has been difficult for historians to create an accurate account of Helena Blavatsky's life because she gave different stories about her past that did not match. Also, few of her writings before 1873 have survived, so historians must rely on her later, less reliable accounts. Stories about her early life from her family members are also not trusted by historians.
Blavatsky was born on August 12, 1831, in Yekaterinoslav, Russian Empire (now Dnipro, Ukraine), as Helena Petrovna Hahn von Rottenstern. In Russia during the 19th century, the Julian calendar was used, so her birth date was also recorded as July 31. Soon after her birth, she was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church. At the time, Yekaterinoslav was experiencing a cholera outbreak, and her mother became sick shortly after giving birth. Despite the doctor’s concerns, both mother and daughter survived the illness.
Blavatsky’s family was from a noble background. Her mother, Helena Andreyevna Hahn von Rottenstern, was a self-taught 17-year-old who came from a family of educated aristocrats. Her father, Pyotr Alexeyevich Hahn von Rottenstern, was a descendant of a German noble family and served in the Russian military. He was not present at his daughter’s birth because he was fighting in Poland. He first saw her when she was six months old. Blavatsky also had French ancestry through a great-great-grandfather who was a French nobleman who fled to Russia to avoid persecution.
Because of her father’s military career, the family moved often across the Russian Empire. A year after moving to Yekaterinoslav, the family relocated to Romankovo, a nearby army town. When Blavatsky was two years old, her younger brother died in another army town because no medical help was available. In 1835, her mother and daughter moved to Odessa, where Blavatsky’s maternal grandfather, Andrei Fadeyev, had been assigned to work. Her sister, Vera Petrovna, was born in Odessa.
After returning to rural Ukraine, the family moved to Saint Petersburg in 1836. Blavatsky’s mother enjoyed the city and began writing novels under the name "Zenaida R-va" and translating works by the English author Edward Bulwer-Lytton for Russian readers. When her husband returned to Ukraine around 1837, she stayed in Saint Petersburg. Later, Blavatsky and her mother traveled with her grandfather to Astrakhan, where they met a Kalmyk leader named Tumen. The Kalmyks practiced Tibetan Buddhism, and this was Blavatsky’s first exposure to the religion.
In 1838, Blavatsky’s mother moved with her daughters to Poltava, where she taught Blavatsky to play the piano and arranged dance lessons. Because of her poor health, Blavatsky’s mother returned to Odessa, where Blavatsky learned English from a British governess. The family then moved to Saratov, where Blavatsky’s brother, Leonid, was born in June 1840. They later moved to Poland and back to Odessa, where Blavatsky’s mother died of tuberculosis in June 1842 at age 28.
Blavatsky and her two surviving siblings were sent to live with their maternal grandparents in Saratov, where their grandfather, Andrei, was the governor. A historian described young Blavatsky as a child who was spoiled, mischievous, and often ill but also a skilled storyteller. Relatives said she played with children from lower classes and enjoyed pranks and reading. She was taught French, art, and music to help her find a husband. With her grandparents, she visited a Kalmyk summer camp where she learned horseback riding and some Tibetan language.
Later, Blavatsky claimed she discovered the personal library of her maternal great-grandfather, Prince Pavel Vasilevich Dolgorukov, in Saratov. The library had books on secret subjects, which sparked her interest in esoteric topics. Dolgorukov had joined a secret group called Freemasonry in the late 1700s and was rumored to have met famous figures like Alessandro Cagliostro and the Count of St. Germain. She also said she had visions of a "Mysterious Indian" man, whom she later claimed to meet in real life. Many historians believe this was the first mention of the "Masters" in her life story.
According to some of her later accounts, Blavatsky traveled to England with her father between 1844 and 1845. She claimed to have taken piano lessons from the composer Ignaz Moscheles and performed with Clara Schumann. However, some historians doubt this trip happened because it is not mentioned in her sister’s memoirs. After living with her aunt, Yekaterina Andreyevna Witte, in Odessa, Blavatsky moved to Tiflis, Georgia, where her grandfather was appointed to a government position. She said she became friends with Alexander Vladimirovich Golitsyn, a member of a noble family who supported her interest in esoteric topics. She also claimed to have more strange experiences, such as "astral traveling," and saw the "mysterious Indian" again in visions.
At age 17, Blavatsky agreed to marry Nikifor Vladimirovich Blavatsky, a man in his 40s who worked as a governor in Erivan Province. She later said she was drawn to him because of his belief in magic. Although she tried to cancel the wedding, the ceremony took place on July 7, 1849. After the marriage, she moved to the Sardar Palace and tried to escape back to her family in Tiflis. Eventually, her husband allowed her to return. She traveled with a servant and maid to Odessa to meet her father, who planned to take her back to Saint Petersburg. Her escorts took her to Poti and then Kerch, intending to continue to Odessa. Blavatsky claimed she fled her escorts, bribed the ship captain, and reached Constantinople. This began nine years of traveling the world, possibly funded by her father.
She did not keep a diary during this time, and no relatives were with her to confirm her activities. Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke noted that public knowledge of these travels depends on "her own largely uncorroborated accounts," which are "occasionally conflicting in their chronology." Religious scholar Bruce F. Campbell said there was "no reliable account" of the next 25 years of her life. Biographer Peter Washington wrote that "myth and reality begin to merge seamlessly in Blavatsky's biography" from this point onward.
She later claimed that in Constantinople, she…
Later life
Blavatsky said she left Tibet with the goal of proving to the world that the strange events reported by Spiritualists were real, not tricks. She believed the spirits contacted by Spiritualist mediums were not the souls of the dead, as Spiritualists usually claimed, but instead either playful elementals or "shells" left behind by those who had died. She traveled through the Suez Canal to Greece, where she met another Master, Hilarion. She then boarded the SS Eunomia to go to Egypt, but the ship exploded in July 1871. Blavatsky was one of only 16 people who survived. In Cairo, she met Metamon and, with help from a woman named Emma Cutting, created a spiritual group called a "société spirite," based on Spiritism, a type of Spiritualism that believes in reincarnation. However, Blavatsky later claimed that Cutting and many of the group’s mediums were dishonest, so she closed the society after two weeks. In Cairo, she also met the Egyptologist Gaston Maspero and another Master, Serapis Bey. She also met Metrovitch, who died of typhoid soon after, and Blavatsky said she helped arrange his funeral.
Leaving Egypt, Blavatsky traveled to Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon, where she met members of the Druze religion. During these trips, she met Lidia Pashkova, who later confirmed details of her travels. In July 1872, she returned to her family in Odessa, then left again in April 1873. She spent time in Bucharest and Paris before, as she later said, a figure named Morya told her to go to the United States. Blavatsky arrived in New York City on July 8, 1873. She lived in a women’s housing cooperative on Madison Street in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, earning money by sewing and designing advertising cards. She caught the attention of journalist Anna Ballard of The Sun, and this interview was the first written record of Blavatsky’s claim that she had been in Tibet. While in New York, detailed records of her life became available to historians again. Soon after, she learned of her father’s death, which gave her a large inheritance, allowing her to move into a fancy hotel. In December 1874, she met Mikheil Betaneli, a Georgian man who asked her to marry him. She agreed, but this was bigamy because her first husband was still alive. However, she refused to consummate the marriage, and Betaneli later sued for divorce and returned to Georgia.
Blavatsky became interested in a news story about the Eddy brothers in Vermont, who were said to have supernatural abilities. She visited them in October 1874, where she met Henry Steel Olcott, a reporter investigating their claims. Olcott wrote an article about Blavatsky after being impressed by her own spiritual abilities. They became close friends, giving each other nicknames: "Maloney" for Olcott and "Jack" for Blavatsky. Olcott helped spread her ideas, encouraging the editor of The Daily Graphic to publish an interview with her and writing about her in his book People from the Other World (1875). Blavatsky taught Olcott about her spiritual beliefs, and he adopted a vegetarian diet, avoided alcohol, and remained celibate, though she could not follow all of these practices. In January 1875, they visited the Spiritualist mediums Nelson and Jennie Owen in Philadelphia. The Owens asked Olcott to test their abilities, and while Olcott believed them, Blavatsky thought they faked some of their phenomena when real ones failed to appear.
To spread their ideas, Blavatsky and Olcott published a letter in The Spiritual Scientist, a Spiritualist magazine, where they introduced themselves as the "Brotherhood of Luxor," possibly inspired by the Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor. They lived together in rented apartments in New York City, decorating them with taxidermied animals and spiritual images. Olcott supported them financially through his work as a lawyer. Their last apartment was called the Lamasery. Blavatsky and Olcott also created the Miracle Club, a group that held lectures on spiritual topics. Through this club, they met William Quan Judge, an Irish Spiritualist who shared their interests.
At a Miracle Club meeting on September 7, 1875, Blavatsky, Olcott, and Judge decided to form a new organization. Charles Sotheran suggested naming it the Theosophical Society. The word "theosophy" comes from Greek, meaning "divine wisdom." While the term was not new, it had been used by groups like the Philaletheians and the mystic Jakob Böhme. Theosophists often debated how to define the movement, with Judge saying it was impossible to define clearly. Blavatsky insisted that Theosophy was not a religion itself. The group was led by Olcott as chairman, Judge as secretary, and Blavatsky as corresponding secretary, though she was the main thinker and leader. Early members included Emma Hardinge Britten, Signor Bruzzesi, C.C. Massey, and William L. Alden.
The main idea in Isis Unveiled is that an ancient wisdom-religion exists, a universal guide to the cosmos, nature, and human life. This religion, known to both Plato and ancient Hindu sages, is the source of all major faiths. The wisdom-religion is also linked to Hermetic philosophy, described as the key to understanding the universe. Every religion is based on the same truth, called the "secret doctrine," which contains the fundamental principles of all knowledge. This ancient wisdom is expected to become the religion of the future.
In 1875, Blavatsky began writing a book about her Theosophical beliefs, which she worked on during a stay at the home of Hiram Corson, a professor at Cornell University. She originally wanted to call it The Veil of Isis, but it was published as Isis Unveiled. While writing, she claimed to feel a second consciousness within her, which she called "the lodger who is in me," and said this consciousness inspired much of her work. In Isis Unveiled, Blavatsky quoted many esoteric and religious texts. Her colleague Olcott always said she quoted books she did not have access to. Later, Lachman, a writer who studied Blavatsky, suggested that if this were true, she might have had an eidetic memory, allowing her to recall texts she had read before.
Annie Besant
The two-volume book was reviewed by Annie Besant, a social reformer, for The Pall Mall Gazette. Impressed by the book, Besant met with Helena Blavatsky and joined the Theosophical Society. In August 1890, Blavatsky moved into Besant’s large home at 19 Avenue Road in St. John’s Wood.
Blavatsky appointed Besant as the new leader of the Blavatsky Lodge. In July 1890, she opened the new European headquarters of the Theosophical Society in Besant’s home. There, Blavatsky wrote The Key to Theosophy, a book of questions and answers. She later wrote The Voice of the Silence, a short spiritual text that she claimed was based on a Senzar text called The Book of the Golden Precepts. Most scholars who study Buddhism believe this text was not a real Tibetan Buddhist document.
Blavatsky faced accusations of fraud. In July 1890, the U.S. newspaper The Sun published an article about these claims, based on information from a former member of the Society named Elliott Coues. Blavatsky sued the newspaper for false accusations. In September 1892, The Sun publicly said they were wrong.
Death
In the winter of 1892, Britain was hit by an influenza epidemic that was part of a larger global flu outbreak from 1889 to 1890. Blavatsky caught the virus. She died on the afternoon of May 8, 1891, at Besant's house. Theosophists have since remembered this day as White Lotus Day. Her body was cremated at Woking Crematorium on May 11.
In Dnipro, a street that was named after communist politician Volodymyr Shcherbytsky was renamed "Olena Blavatsky Street" in 2015 due to decommunization laws.
Personal life
Helena Blavatsky spoke often in a rough voice, sometimes with cleverness and sometimes with harshness. She did not care much about sex but was open about it; she preferred animals to people; she was welcoming, simple, shocking, unpredictable, and loud. She was also funny, crude, quick to act, and kind, and she did not care about others' opinions.
Biographer Peter Washington described Blavatsky as "a short, heavyset, strong woman with thick arms, several chins, wild hair, a determined mouth, and large, watery, slightly swollen eyes." She had bright blue eyes and was overweight throughout her life. According to biographer Marion Meade, Blavatsky's "appearance was very untidy." In her later years, she wore loose robes and wore many rings on her fingers. She smoked cigarettes heavily for her entire life and sometimes smoked hashish. She lived simply, and her followers believed she refused to accept money for sharing her teachings. Blavatsky preferred to be called by the initials "HPB," a nickname used by many friends and first created by Olcott. She avoided social events and disliked social duties. She knew Russian, Georgian, English, French, Italian, Arabic, and Sanskrit.
Meade called her "an unusual person who followed only her own rules," someone who had "no respect for the Victorian rules about behavior." Meade believed Blavatsky saw herself as a special figure whose goal was to save the world by spreading Theosophy. Lachman said Blavatsky showed "Russian traits – a strong belief in spiritual truth, combined with a complex personality." Washington called her "a convincing storyteller who could attract others," but also "self-centered and proud." Meade thought Blavatsky had a "strong imagination" and a "tendency to lie." Godwin wrote that Blavatsky had "a very angry temper." Religious scholar Bruce F. Campbell noted that she was "a determined, independent child," and that her difficult childhood may have caused her "trouble controlling her anger and her habit of swearing." In his view, she was "a classic example of a leader who inspires others." Anthropologist Leo Klejn called Blavatsky's energy and hard work surprising. Indologist Alexander Senkevich noted that Blavatsky's charm influenced people like Charles Massey and Stainton Moses.
Blavatsky's sexuality has been a topic of debate; many biographers believed she never had a sexual relationship, with Washington stating she "hated sex with great intensity." In her later years, she claimed to be a virgin, even though she had been married twice. During the early years of the Theosophical Society, celibacy was encouraged, even in marriage. Some suggest she may have been a lesbian or dressed in clothes typically worn by men, based on early accounts of her traveling in masculine clothing. Meade thought Blavatsky, with few exceptions, "looked down on other women," which could be due to societal prejudice or because she was rejected by a woman.
Godwin suggested that Blavatsky's work was "not only spiritual but also focused on social ideals and political goals." He said her "motivation" was partly "a dislike of oppression," which Godwin linked to the control of either Christianity or British rule in India. However, Meade thought Blavatsky was "not really interested in politics."
Blavatsky's social and political beliefs, like many other parts of her life, were not always clear, but they reflected her larger vision. Most importantly, this vision involved the idea of "root races," which were groups that changed over time, both culturally and physically, with races often blending throughout history. Inspired by recent arguments about evolution, these groups were also seen as powerful, changing forces. Gary Lachman wrote, "Although few historians have noticed it, in Isis Unveiled (1877), Blavatsky presented the first major non-religious criticism of evolution." Blavatsky believed Darwinism explained physical human development, while spiritual growth followed a different path.
Religion scholar Olav Hammer noted that "on rare occasions" Blavatsky's writings "expressed unfair views about race," adding that her antisemitism "came from Judaism's role as the origin of Christianity" and referred to "her strong dislike of Christianity."
Theories and doctrines
According to Meade, Blavatsky developed her theories and doctrines slowly over time, adding them one by one. Blavatsky claimed that these Theosophical teachings were not her own ideas, but had been given to her by a secret group of spiritual experts whom she called the "Masters" or "Mahatmas."
Blavatsky was the main thinker of the Theosophical Society, creating its "doctrinal basis." The ideas she wrote about in her books formed the foundation for the Society and the larger Theosophical movement. Blavatsky's Theosophical ideas were a type of occultism. She supported a non-Christian way of thinking within Western esotericism, which focused on the idea of an ancient and universal "occult science" that should be revived. Blavatsky said the Theosophical teachings were passed to her by spiritual experts who lived in different parts of the world.
At the core of Blavatsky's Theosophy was the belief that there was an "ancient wisdom religion" that once existed worldwide and was known by ancient figures like the Greek philosopher Plato and Hindu sages. Blavatsky connected this ancient wisdom religion to Hermetic philosophy, a belief system that sees everything in the universe as coming from a divine source. Blavatsky believed all world religions developed from this original global faith. She saw her Theosophy as continuing the ideas of Neoplatonist philosophers from Late Antiquity, who also followed Hermetic philosophy. Blavatsky claimed that in Europe, this spiritual tradition was lost due to Christianity, but it remained in modified forms in India and Africa. She promoted the idea that reviving this ancient wisdom would spread globally and replace existing religions. Because of this, Blavatsky saw herself as a messianic figure.
According to Goodrick-Clarke, the Theosophical Society spread a detailed philosophical system that included ideas about the creation of the universe, spiritual hierarchies, and beings that connect the universe to humans. The Society officially aimed to achieve three goals:
Washington believed these goals were meant to help people discover hidden powers through the study of science, philosophy, and religion, leading to social harmony and equality.
While living in New York City, Blavatsky called herself a "Buddhist," but she only officially embraced Buddhism later in Ceylon. Lachman said her version of Buddhism was very different from the ideas of scholars like Max Müller or typical Buddhists. Blavatsky argued that the Buddha returned to the teachings of the Vedas, making Buddhism a more accurate descendant of ancient Brahmanism than modern Hinduism. Though she criticized Catholicism and Protestantism and opposed their spread in Asia, she always supported the Russian Orthodox Church, saying she would not even compare Buddhism to it.
G. R. S. Mead said, "Two things in all the chaos of her [Blavatsky's] ideas stood firm in every mood – that her Teachers existed, and that she had not cheated."
Blavatsky's writings combined ideas from Neoplatonism, Renaissance magic, Kabbalah, Freemasonry, ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman mythology, and Eastern teachings from Buddhism and Advaita Vedanta. She presented these as an ancient wisdom passed down from prehistoric times.
Blavatsky described a "monotheistic, immanentist, and mystical cosmology." She was a pantheist, believing in an impersonal divine force, which she called the "universal Divine Principle, the root of All, from which all proceeds, and within which all shall be absorbed at the end of the great cycle of being." She criticized the Western idea of God in Christianity, calling it "a bundle of contradictions and a logical impossibility." She said the universe came from this Divine Principle, with each piece of matter containing a spark of the divine. Lower forms of existence came from higher ones, became denser, and eventually returned to the Divine Principle. This idea shared similarities with 19th-century scientific discoveries in geology and evolution.
In The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky wrote that at the start of time, there was nothing. This emptiness then split into seven intelligent beings called the Dhyan Chohans, who created the universe using an energy called Fohat. The Earth was formed and went through seven cycles, each creating different life forms.
Blavatsky believed in "Root Races," each divided into seven Sub-Races. The first Root Race was made of pure spirit and lived on a continent called the "Imperishable Sacred Land." The second, the Hyperboreans, also lived in pure spirit near the North Pole, where the climate was mild. The third lived on Lemuria, which Blavatsky said became today's Australia and Rapa Nui. She claimed that during the fourth cycle, higher beings came to Earth, leading to the creation of human physical bodies and the separation of sexes. The fourth Root Race lived on Atlantis, where people had physical bodies, psychic powers, and advanced technology. Some Atlanteans were giants who built monuments like Stonehenge and mated with animals, creating gorillas and chimpanzees. The Atlanteans became corrupt, leading to Atlantis sinking, though some escaped to form societies in Egypt and the Americas.
The fifth Root Race was the Aryans, who were widespread when Blavatsky wrote. She believed the fifth Race would be replaced by the sixth, led by Maitreya, a figure from Buddhist mythology. She thought humanity would eventually reach the seventh Root Race. Lachman suggested that reading Blavatsky's cosmology as a literal history might be misleading, as it could instead be seen as a new myth for the modern world or a fictional story.
Blavatsky taught that humans have three parts: a divine spark, an astral body, and a physical body. Later, she described the "septenary of Man and Universe," saying humans have seven parts: Atma, Buddhi, Manas, Kama rupa, Linga sharira, Prana, and Sthula sharira. In Isis Unveiled, she said humans would not return to Earth after death. However, after spending time in India, she changed her view, believing in reincarnation governed by karma.
Controversy
Helena Blavatsky was one of the most important, debated, and productive figures in modern esotericism. It is clear that, regardless of opinions about her more attention-grabbing actions, she had a sharp mind and a broad understanding of what occultism could mean in the modern world.
Several writers, such as William Emmette Coleman and others, have questioned the truthfulness of her writings by pointing out that they copied heavily from older mystical sources. They claimed her belief in wise spiritual teachers was false and accused her of being a fraud, a pretender to communicate with spirits, and someone who altered letters. Arthur Lillie, an expert on Eastern literature, compared passages from mystical works with Blavatsky’s writings in his book Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophy, showing what he believed were many instances of copying. Lillie also studied the Mahatma letters and argued, based on unique writing styles and spelling, that Blavatsky likely wrote them.
René Guénon, a writer from the Traditionalist School, criticized Theosophy, stating that Blavatsky learned everything from books instead of from supernatural sources. Carl Jung strongly criticized her work, and Agehananda Bharati called it a mix of nonsense and made-up ideas. Mircea Eliade argued that her idea of spiritual evolution went against the beliefs of Eastern traditions, which view spiritual life as the opposite of evolution. After her death, skeptics like John Nevil Maskelyne, Robert Todd Carroll, and James Randi continued to accuse her of faking paranormal events.
Peter Washington noted that Blavatsky’s beliefs conflicted with both Christianity and science, especially Darwinism. He also wrote that her supporters claimed criticisms of her were lies from Christians and Darwinists, seeing her as a martyr.
Influence
Religious studies scholar Mark Bevir said that Blavatsky changed the occult tradition to fit the ideas of Victorian science and morality. Historian Ronald Hutton called Blavatsky "one of the century's truly international figures" whose ideas were very popular. Many biographers noted that by the late 20th and early 21st centuries, Blavatsky was not well-known to most people. However, in 2006, scholar James A. Santucci said that she was as well-known today as any modern spiritual leader and would likely be remembered as the most important and creative esotericist of the 19th century.
Some scholars believe Blavatsky sometimes spoke or wrote while in different mental states. G. R. S. Mead wrote that Blavatsky hated being treated as a spiritual teacher and even shuddered when people tried to show her respect. He also said she once shouted in alarm when someone tried to kneel before her. Leo Klejn described Blavatsky as very hardworking and full of energy, saying she had the qualities of a revolutionary. Mabel Collins, who worked with Blavatsky and published the magazine Lucifer from 1887 to 1889, believed Blavatsky's influence came from her skill at persuading others. After leaving the Theosophical movement, Collins said Blavatsky taught her that people are often easily fooled and flattered. She also said Blavatsky had a strong dislike for others and showed little respect for social rules.
Blavatsky gave her book The Voice of the Silence to Leo Tolstoy. Tolstoy used ideas from Theosophischer Wegweiser, a Theosophical journal, in his writings. In a diary entry from February 12, 1903, Tolstoy wrote that he was reading a beautiful theosophical journal and found many ideas similar to his own.
According to Kalnitsky, the Theosophical movement of the 19th century was shaped mainly by the ideas and leadership of H.P. Blavatsky. He said that without her strong leadership and efforts to promote Theosophy, the movement might not have developed as it did. By the time of her death in 1891, Blavatsky was the leader of a group of nearly 100,000 people. She also had newspapers in London, Paris, New York, and Madras. Her writings were translated into many European and Asian languages.
Blavatsky’s Theosophy helped shift interest in Spiritualism toward a more organized belief system that included ideas about the universe and human evolution. It also combined ideas from Western esoteric traditions with terms from Asian religions. Her Theosophy appealed to women by not focusing on gender roles and allowing them to take spiritual leadership roles equal to men, giving them more freedom than traditional Christianity allowed.
Since its start, Theosophy has influenced or created other mystical, philosophical, and religious groups. In the 1920s, the Theosophical Society Adyar had about 7,000 members in the U.S. It also had many followers in Asia. In 2008, a Theosophical source said the Indian section had about 13,000 members, and the U.S. section had about 3,900 members.
Blavatsky’s Theosophy has been called a major part of the modern revival of Western esotericism. Godwin said no one else in modern times was as important in the Western esoteric tradition as Blavatsky. Johnson called her a central figure in the 19th-century occult revival. Lachman said most modern occultism and esotericism can trace its roots to her influence. Blavatsky’s ideas about Root Races, which she wrote about, influenced Ariosophy, a movement in late 19th- and early 20th-century Germany and Austria. Hannah Newman said Blavatsky’s ideas through Ariosophy affected Nazi ideology. However, Lachman said Blavatsky would not have supported the racist or antisemitic ideas promoted by Ariosophy. Her ideas about Root Races also influenced Anthroposophy, a movement started by Rudolf Steiner in early 20th-century Germany. Steiner’s group was called a "historical offshoot" of the Theosophical Society.
Blavatsky’s Theosophy has also influenced the New Age movement, a spiritual trend that began in Western countries in the 1970s. No other group has contributed more to the New Age Movement than the Theosophical Society. It was a major force in spreading occult books in the West during the 20th century. Other groups based on Theosophical ideas include Agni Yoga and religions inspired by Theosophy, such as the "I AM" Activity, The Bridge to Freedom, Universal Medicine, and The Summit Lighthouse, which later became the Church Universal and Triumphant.
American scholar Jason Josephson-Storm said Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society influenced academic linguistics in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He noted that her linguistic theories were widely shared in Europe, and some important linguists, like Émile-Louis Burnouf and Benjamin Lee Whorf, were Theosophists or supported Theosophy. Ferdinand de Saussure, a famous linguist, attended séances and wrote a detailed analysis of Theosophical ideas about language and India, called "la théosophie brahmanique."
Hutton said Blavatsky had a bigger influence in Asia than in the West. She inspired Hindus to respect their own religious traditions. The Theosophical Society helped grow Indian national pride, with leaders like Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru studying their own heritage because of Theosophy. The society also influenced Buddhist modernism and Hindu reform movements. Blavatsky and Olcott worked with Anagarika Dharmapala to revive Theravada Buddhism in Ceylon.