153-540: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky ( née Hahn von Rottenstern ; 12 August [ O.S. 31 July] 1831 – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky , was a Russian and American mystic and author who co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the primary founder of Theosophy as a belief system. Born into an aristocratic family in Yekaterinoslav , then in
306-819: A Hindu reform movement . On March 26, 1882 Maharishi Dayananda spoke about the Humbuggery of the Theosophists . That same year, while in Ceylon , she and Olcott became the first people from the United States to formally convert to Buddhism. Although opposed by the British colonial administration, Theosophy spread rapidly in India but experienced internal problems after Blavatsky was accused of producing fraudulent paranormal phenomena. In ailing health, in 1885 she returned to Europe, establishing
459-577: A man's surname at birth that has subsequently been replaced or changed. The diacritic mark (the acute accent ) over the e is considered significant to its spelling, and ultimately its meaning, but is sometimes omitted. According to Oxford University 's Dictionary of Modern English Usage , the terms are typically placed after the current surname (e.g., " Margaret Thatcher , née Roberts" or " Bill Clinton , né Blythe"). Since they are terms adopted into English (from French), they do not have to be italicized , but they often are. In Polish tradition ,
612-750: A phonograph to take with them to India. They left New York City aboard the Canada , which took them to London. After meeting with well-wishers in the capital, they traveled to Liverpool , there setting sail aboard the Speke Hall , arriving in Bombay in February 1879. In the city, they were greeted with celebrations organized by Arya Samaj member Hurrychund Chintamon before obtaining a house in Girgaum Road, part of Bombay's native area. Associating largely with Indians rather than
765-424: A tropical year . However, since the pontifices were often politicians, and because a Roman magistrate's term of office corresponded with a calendar year, this power was prone to abuse: a pontifex could lengthen a year in which he or one of his political allies was in office, or refuse to lengthen one in which his opponents were in power. Caesar's reform was intended to solve this problem permanently, by creating
918-693: A "Mysterious Indian" man, and that in later life she would meet this man in the flesh. Many biographers have considered this to be the first appearance of the "Masters" in her life story. According to some of her later accounts, in 1844–45 Blavatsky was taken by her father to England, where she visited London and Bath . According to this story, in London she received piano lessons from the Bohemian composer Ignaz Moscheles , and performed with Clara Schumann . However, some Blavatsky biographers believe that this visit to Britain never took place, particularly as no mention of it
1071-477: A 48-hour day, and that the intercalated day was the "posterior" half. An inscription from AD 168 states that a.d. V Kal. Mart. was the day after the bissextile day. The 19th century chronologist Ideler argued that Celsus used the term "posterior" in a technical fashion to refer to the earlier of the two days, which requires the inscription to refer to the whole 48-hour day as the bissextile. Some later historians share this view. Others, following Mommsen , take
1224-525: A Russian Freemason and member of the Golitsyn family who encouraged her interest in esoteric matters. She would also claim that at this period she had further paranormal experiences, astral traveling and again encountering her "mysterious Indian" in visions. At age 17, she agreed to marry Nikifor Vladimirovich Blavatsky, a man in his forties who worked as Vice Governor of Erivan Province . Her reasons for doing so were unclear, although she later claimed that she
1377-581: A Swedish Theosophist, the Countess Constance Wachtmeister , who became her constant companion throughout the rest of her life. In December 1885, the SPR published their report on Blavatsky and her alleged phenomena, authored by Richard Hodgson . In his report, Hodgson accused Blavatsky of being a spy for the Russian government, further accusing her of faking paranormal phenomena, largely on the basis of
1530-527: A Theosophist who introduced the idea of referring to the Masters as mahatmas . In December, Blavatsky and Olcott traveled to Allahabad , there visiting Alfred Percy Sinnett , the editor of The Pioneer and keen Spiritualist. A.O. Hume was also a guest at the Sinnett's home, and Blavatsky was encouraged to manifest paranormal phenomena in their presence. From there, they traveled to Benares , where they stayed at
1683-516: A book outlining her Theosophical world-view. Associating it closely with the esoteric doctrines of Hermeticism and Neoplatonism , Blavatsky described Theosophy as "the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy", proclaiming that it was reviving an "Ancient Wisdom" which underlay all the world's religions. In 1880, she and Olcott moved to India, where the Society tried to make allies to the Arya Samaj ,
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#17328449633271836-615: A boost to Sinhalese nationalist self-esteem, and they were invited to see the Buddha's Tooth in Kandy . Upon learning that old comrade Emma Coulomb (née Cutting) and her husband had fallen into poverty in Ceylon, Blavatsky invited them to move into her home in Bombay. However, the Coulombs annoyed Rosa Bates and Edward Winbridge, two American Theosophists who were also living with Blavatsky; when Blavatsky took
1989-556: A brother, Leonid, was born in June 1840. The family proceeded to Poland and then back to Odessa, where Blavatsky's mother died of tuberculosis in June 1842, aged 28. The three surviving children were sent to live with their maternal grandparents in Saratov, where their grandfather Andrei had been appointed Governor of Saratov Governorate . The historian Richard Davenport-Hines described the young Blavatsky as "a petted, wayward, invalid child" who
2142-491: A calendar that remained aligned to the sun without any human intervention. This proved useful very soon after the new calendar came into effect. Varro used it in 37 BC to fix calendar dates for the start of the four seasons, which would have been impossible only 8 years earlier. A century later, when Pliny dated the winter solstice to 25 December because the sun entered the 8th degree of Capricorn on that date, this stability had become an ordinary fact of life. Although
2295-607: A calendar that would be a combination between the old Roman months, the fixed length of the Egyptian calendar, and the 365 + 1 ⁄ 4 days of Greek astronomy. According to Macrobius, Caesar was assisted in this by a certain Marcus Flavius. Caesar's reform only applied to the Roman calendar . However, in the following decades many of the local civic and provincial calendars of the empire and neighbouring client kingdoms were aligned to
2448-402: A civil administrator for the imperial authorities, had recently been posted. It was in this city that Blavatsky's sister Vera Petrovna was born. After a return to rural Ukraine, Pyotr was posted to Saint Petersburg , where the family moved in 1836. Blavatsky's mother liked the city, there establishing her own literary career, penning novels under the pseudonym of "Zenaida R-va" and translating
2601-507: A corruption of Winnimanoth "pasture-month"), Brachmanoth (" fallow -month"), Heuuimanoth ("hay month"), Aranmanoth (" reaping month"), Witumanoth ("wood month"), Windumemanoth ("vintage month"), Herbistmanoth ("harvest month"), and Heilagmanoth ("holy month"). The calendar month names used in western and northern Europe, in Byzantium, and by the Amazigh (Berbers) , were derived from
2754-598: A first volume, as the Tantra section of the Tibetan Buddhist canon . However, most scholars of Buddhism to have examined The Secret Doctrine have concluded that there was no such text as the Book of Dzyan , and that instead it was the fictional creation of Blavatsky's. In the book, Blavatsky outlined her own cosmogonical ideas about how the universe, the planets, and the human species came to exist. She also discussed her views about
2907-502: A leap day was inserted in 41 BC to ensure that the first market day of 40 BC did not fall on 1 January, which implies that the old 8-day cycle was not immediately affected by the Julian reform. However, he also reports that in AD ;44, and on some previous occasions, the market day was changed to avoid a conflict with a religious festival. This may indicate that a single nundinal letter
3060-483: A magazine, controversially titling it Lucifer ; in this Theosophical publication she sought to completely ignore claims regarding paranormal phenomena, and focus instead on a discussion of philosophical ideas. Blavatsky also finished writing The Secret Doctrine , which was then edited by the Keightleys. As a commercial publisher willing to publish the approximately 1,500-page work could not be found, Blavatsky established
3213-490: A mobile childhood that may have influenced Blavatsky's largely nomadic lifestyle in later life. A year after Pyotr's arrival in Yekaterinoslav, the family relocated to the nearby army town of Romankovo . When Blavatsky was two years old, her younger brother, Sasha, died in another army town when no medical help could be found. In 1835, mother and daughter moved to Odessa , where Blavatsky's maternal grandfather Andrei Fadeyev,
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#17328449633273366-457: A regular intercalary month in February. When Caesar decreed the reform, probably shortly after his return from the African campaign in late Quintilis (July), he added 67 more days by inserting two extraordinary intercalary months between November and December. These months are called Intercalaris Prior and Intercalaris Posterior in letters of Cicero written at the time; there is no basis for
3519-613: A return to the milder climate of Europe, and resigning her position as corresponding secretary of the society, she left India in March 1885. By 1885, the Theosophical Society had experienced rapid growth, with 121 lodges having been chartered across the world, 106 of which were located in India, Burma, and Ceylon. Initially, each lodge was chartered directly from the Adyar headquarters, with members making democratic decisions by vote. However, over
3672-439: A revised calendar. The Julian calendar has two types of years: a normal year of 365 days and a leap year of 366 days. They follow a simple cycle of three normal years and one leap year, giving an average year that is 365.25 days long. That is more than the actual solar year value of approximately 365.2422 days (the current value, which varies), which means the Julian calendar gains one day every 129 years. In other words,
3825-800: A second attempt to enter Tibet. She claimed that this time she was successful, entering Tibet in 1856 through Kashmir, accompanied by a Tartar shaman who was attempting to reach Siberia and who thought that as a Russian citizen, Blavatsky would be able to aid him in doing so. According to this account, they reached Leh before becoming lost, eventually joining a traveling Tartar group before she headed back to India. She returned to Europe via Madras and Java . After spending time in France and Germany, in 1858 she returned to her family, then based in Pskov . She later claimed that there she began to exhibit further paranormal abilities, with rapping and creaking accompanying her around
3978-460: A stay in the Ithaca home of Hiram Corson , a Professor of English Literature at Cornell University . Although she had hoped to call it The Veil of Isis , it would be published as Isis Unveiled . While writing it, Blavatsky claimed to be aware of a second consciousness within her body, referring to it as "the lodger who is in me", and stating that it was this second consciousness that inspired much of
4131-607: A study of her and the paranormal abilities that she claimed to possess, although wasn't impressed by the organization and mockingly referred to it as the "Spookical Research Society". With Blavatsky in Europe, trouble broke out at the society's Adyar headquarters in what became known as the Coulomb Affair . The society's Board of Control had accused Emma Coulomb of misappropriating their funds for her own purposes, and asked her to leave their center. She and her husband refused, blackmailing
4284-461: A title to permanent remembrance as one of the most accomplished, ingenious, and interesting imposters in history. —The statement of the Society for Psychical Research on the basis of the Hodgson Report. Blavatsky wanted to sue her accusers, although Olcott advised against it, believing that the surrounding publicity would damage the Society. In private letters, Blavatsky expressed relief that
4437-539: A week, that the publisher requested a sequel, although Blavatsky turned down the offer. While Isis Unveiled was a success, the Society remained largely inactive, having fallen into this state in autumn 1876. This was despite the fact that new lodges of the organization had been established throughout the U.S. and in London, and prominent figures like Thomas Edison and Abner Doubleday had joined. In July 1878, Blavatsky gained U.S. citizenship. The Theosophical Society established links with an Indian Hindu reform movement ,
4590-629: Is 1.53 days longer than eight mean Julian years . The length of nineteen years in the cycle of Meton was 6,940 days, six hours longer than the mean Julian year. The mean Julian year was the basis of the 76-year cycle devised by Callippus (a student under Eudoxus) to improve the Metonic cycle. In Persia (Iran) after the reform in the Persian calendar by introduction of the Persian Zoroastrian (i. e. Young Avestan) calendar in 503 BC and afterwards,
4743-416: Is a simple cycle of three "normal" years followed by a leap year and this pattern repeats forever without exception. The Julian year is, therefore, on average 365.25 days long. Consequently, the Julian year drifts over time with respect to the tropical (solar) year (365.24217 days). Although Greek astronomers had known, at least since Hipparchus , a century before the Julian reform, that the tropical year
Helena Blavatsky - Misplaced Pages Continue
4896-517: Is made in her sister's memoirs. After a year spent living with her aunt, Yekaterina Andreyevna Witte , mother of the future first Prime Minister of the Russian Empire, Sergei Witte , she moved to Tiflis , Georgia, where her grandfather Andrei had been appointed director of state lands in Transcaucasia . Blavatsky claimed that here she established a friendship with Alexander Vladimirovich Golitsyn,
5049-416: Is the feminine past participle of naître , which means "to be born". Né is the masculine form. The term née , having feminine grammatical gender , can be used to denote a woman's surname at birth that has been replaced or changed. In most English-speaking cultures, it is specifically applied to a woman's maiden name after her surname has changed due to marriage. The term né can be used to denote
5202-783: The Alexandrian calendar and the Ancient Macedonian calendar ─which had two forms: the Syro-Macedonian and the 'Asian' calendars. Other reformed calendars are known from Cappadocia , Cyprus and the cities of (Roman) Syria and Palestine. Unreformed calendars continued to be used in Gaul (the Coligny calendar ), Greece, Macedon, the Balkans and parts of Palestine, most notably in Judea. The Asian calendar
5355-628: The Amazigh people (also known as the Berbers). The Julian calendar was proposed in 46 BC by (and takes its name from) Julius Caesar , as a reform of the earlier Roman calendar , which was largely a lunisolar one. It took effect on 1 January 45 BC , by his edict . Caesar's calendar became the predominant calendar in the Roman Empire and subsequently most of the Western world for more than 1,600 years, until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated
5508-491: The Arya Samaj , which had been founded by the Swami Dayananda Saraswati ; Blavatsky and Olcott believed that the two organizations shared a common spiritual world-view. Unhappy with life in the U.S., Blavatsky decided to move to India, with Olcott agreeing to join her, securing work as a U.S. trade representative to the country. In December, the duo auctioned off many of their possessions, although Edison gifted them
5661-690: The Blavatsky Lodge as a rival to that run by Sinnett, draining much of its membership. Lodge meetings were held at the Keightleys' house on Thursday nights, with Blavatsky also greeting many visitors there, among them the occultist and poet W. B. Yeats . In November 1889 she was visited by the Indian lawyer Mohandas Gandhi , who was studying the Bhagavad Gita with the Knightleys. He became an associate member of Blavatsky's Lodge in March 1891, and would emphasize
5814-501: The Blavatsky Lodge in London. There she published The Secret Doctrine , a commentary on what she claimed were ancient Tibetan manuscripts, as well as two further books, The Key to Theosophy and The Voice of the Silence . She died of influenza in 1891. Blavatsky was a controversial figure during her lifetime, championed by supporters as an enlightened sage and derided as a charlatan by critics. Her Theosophical doctrines influenced
5967-736: The Cape of Good Hope before arriving in England in 1854, where she faced hostility as a Russian citizen due to the ongoing Crimean War between Britain and Russia. It was here, she claimed, that she worked as a concert musician for the Royal Philharmonic Society . Sailing to the U.S., she visited New York City, where she met up with Rawson, before touring Chicago, Salt Lake City , and San Francisco, and then sailing back to India via Japan. There, she spent time in Kashmir , Ladakh , and Burma , before making
6120-610: The Druze religion. It was during these travels that she met with the writer and traveler Lidia Pashkova , who provided independent verification of Blavatsky's travels during this period. In July 1872 she returned to her family in Odessa, before departing in April 1873. She spent time in Bucharest and Paris, before – according to her later claims – Morya instructed her to go to
6273-570: The Russian Empire (now Dnipro in Ukraine), Blavatsky traveled widely around the empire as a child. Largely self-educated, she developed an interest in Western esotericism during her teenage years. According to her later claims, in 1849 she embarked on a series of world travels, visiting Europe, the Americas, and India. She also claimed that during this period she encountered a group of spiritual adepts,
Helena Blavatsky - Misplaced Pages Continue
6426-748: The Theosophical Publishing Company , who brought out the work in two volumes, the first published in October 1888 and the second in January 1889. Blavatsky claimed that the book constituted her commentary on the Book of Dzyan , a religious text written in Senzar which she had been taught while studying in Tibet. Buddhologist David Reigle claimed that he identified Books of Kiu-te , including Blavatsky's Book of Dzyan as
6579-558: The Theosophical Society . The term theosophy came from the Greek theos ("god(s)") and sophia ("wisdom"), thus meaning "god-wisdom" or "divine wisdom". The term was not new, but had been previously used in various contexts by the Philaletheians and the Christian mystic, Jakob Böhme . Theosophists would often argue over how to define Theosophy, with Judge expressing the view that the task
6732-531: The liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. However, Celsus' definition continued to be used for legal purposes. It was incorporated into Justinian's Digest , and in the English Statute De Anno et Die Bissextili of 1236, which was not formally repealed until 1879. The effect of the bissextile day on the nundinal cycle is not discussed in the sources. According to Dio Cassius,
6885-506: The lotus position for 52 years, and in Agra saw the Taj Mahal . In Saharanpur they met with Dayananda and his Arya Samajists, before returning to Bombay. In July 1879, Blavatsky and Olcott began work on a monthly magazine, The Theosophist , with the first issue coming out in October. The magazine soon obtained a large readership, with the management being taken over by Damodar K. Mavalankar ,
7038-552: The " Masters of the Ancient Wisdom ", who sent her to Shigatse , Tibet, where they trained her to develop a deeper understanding of the synthesis of religion, philosophy, and science. Both contemporary critics and later biographers have argued that some or all of these foreign visits were fictitious, and that she spent this period in Europe. By the early 1870s, Blavatsky was involved in the Spiritualist movement; although defending
7191-528: The "Brotherhood of Luxor", a name potentially inspired by the pre-existing Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor . They began living together in a series of rented apartments in New York City, which they decorated with taxidermied animals and images of spiritual figures; their life was funded largely by Olcott's continued work as a lawyer. Their last such apartment came to be known as the Lamasery. Allegedly encouraged by
7344-424: The Absolute in science and theology" (I, vii). Every religion is based on the same truth or "secret doctrine", which contains "the alpha and omega of universal science" (I, 511). This ancient wisdom-religion will become the religion of the future (I, 613). —Historian Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, 2004. In 1875, Blavatsky began work on a book outlining her Theosophical worldview, much of which would be written during
7497-405: The Americas, heading to Canada in autumn 1851. Inspired by the novels of James Fenimore Cooper , she sought out the Native American communities of Quebec in the hope of meeting their magico-religious specialists, but was instead robbed, later attributing these Natives' behavior to the corrupting influence of Christian missionaries. She then headed south, visiting New Orleans , Texas, Mexico, and
7650-399: The Andes, before transport via ship from the West Indies to Ceylon and then Bombay . She spent two years in India, allegedly following the instructions found in letters that Morya had sent to her. She attempted to enter Tibet, but was prevented from doing so by the British colonial administration. She later claimed that she then headed back to Europe by ship, surviving a shipwreck near to
7803-400: The Coulomb's claims. The report caused much tension within the Society, with a number of Blavatsky's followers – among them Babaji and Subba Row – denouncing her and resigning from the organization on the basis of it. For our own part, we regard [Blavatsky] neither as the mouthpiece of hidden seers, nor as a mere vulgar adventuress; we think that she has achieved
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#17328449633277956-446: The Countess Sofia Kiselyova, who she would accompany on a tour of Egypt, Greece, and Eastern Europe. In Cairo , she met the American art student Albert Rawson, who later wrote extensively about the Middle East, and together they allegedly visited a Coptic magician, Paulos Metamon. In 1851, she proceeded to Paris, where she encountered the mesmerist, Victor Michal , who impressed her. From there, she visited England, and would claim that it
8109-402: The Gregorian calendar diverges from astronomical observations by one day in 3,030 years). Although the new calendar was much simpler than the pre-Julian calendar, the pontifices initially added a leap day every three years, instead of every four. There are accounts of this in Solinus, Pliny, Ammianus, Suetonius, and Censorinus. Macrobius gives the following account of the introduction of
8262-408: The Julian calendar by transforming them into calendars with years of 365 days with an extra day intercalated every four years. The reformed calendars typically retained many features of the unreformed calendars. In many cases, the New Year was not on 1 January, the leap day was not on the traditional bissextile day , the old month names were retained, the lengths of the reformed months did not match
8415-406: The Julian calendar gains 3.1 days every 400 years. Gregory's calendar reform modified the Julian rule, to reduce the average length of the calendar year from 365.25 days to 365.2425 days and thus corrected the Julian calendar's drift against the solar year : the Gregorian calendar gains just 0.1 day over 400 years. For any given event during the years from 1901 through 2099, its date according to
8568-417: The Julian calendar is 13 days behind its corresponding Gregorian date (for instance Julian 1 January falls on Gregorian 14 January). Most Catholic countries adopted the new calendar immediately; Protestant countries did so slowly in the course of the following two centuries or so; most Orthodox countries retain the Julian calendar for religious purposes but adopted the Gregorian as their civil calendar in
8721-444: The Julian calendar: Caesar's regulation of the civil year to accord with his revised measurement was proclaimed publicly by edict, and the arrangement might have continued to stand had not the correction itself of the calendar led the priests to introduce a new error of their own; for they proceeded to insert the intercalary day, which represented the four quarter-days, at the beginning of each fourth year instead of at its end, although
8874-432: The Kalends of March'), usually abbreviated as a.d. bis VI Kal. Mart. ; hence it is called in English the bissextile day. The year in which it occurred was termed annus bissextus , in English the bissextile year. There is debate about the exact position of the bissextile day in the early Julian calendar. The earliest direct evidence is a statement of the 2nd century jurist Celsus , who states that there were two-halves of
9027-411: The Latin names. However, in eastern Europe older seasonal month names continued to be used into the 19th century, and in some cases are still in use, in many languages, including: Belarusian , Bulgarian , Croatian , Czech , Finnish, Georgian , Lithuanian , Macedonian , Polish , Romanian , Slovene , Ukrainian . When the Ottoman Empire adopted the Julian calendar, in the form of the Rumi calendar,
9180-438: The Masters, Blavatsky and Olcott established the Miracle Club, through which they facilitated lectures on esoteric themes in New York City. It was through this group that they met an Irish Spiritualist, William Quan Judge , who shared many of their interests. At a Miracle Club meeting on 7 September 1875, Blavatsky, Olcott, and Judge agreed to establish an esoteric organization, with Charles Sotheran suggesting that they call it
9333-415: The Nile delta in October 48 BC and soon became embroiled in the Ptolemaic dynastic war, especially after Cleopatra managed to be "introduced" to him in Alexandria . Caesar imposed a peace, and a banquet was held to celebrate the event. Lucan depicted Caesar talking to a wise man called Acoreus during the feast, stating his intention to create a calendar more perfect than that of Eudoxus (Eudoxus
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#17328449633279486-448: The Other World (1875), which her Russian correspondent Alexandr Aksakov urged her to translate into Russian. She began to instruct Olcott in her own occult beliefs, and encouraged by her he became celibate, tee-totaling, and vegetarian, although she herself was unable to commit to the latter. In January 1875 the duo visited the Spiritualist mediums Nelson and Jennie Owen in Philadelphia ; the Owens asked Olcott to test them to prove that
9639-427: The Society. The group nevertheless proved popular, and branches were established across the country. While Blavatsky had emphasized its growth among the native Indian population rather than among the British elite, she moved into a comfortable bungalow in the elite Bombay suburb of Breach Candy , which she said was more accessible to Western visitors. Olcott had decided to establish the Buddhist Education Fund to combat
9792-402: The United States. Blavatsky arrived in New York City on 8 July 1873. There, she moved into a women's housing cooperative on Madison Street in Manhattan 's Lower East Side , earning a wage through piece work sewing and designing advertising cards. It was here that she attracted attention, and was interviewed by the journalist Anna Ballard of the New York newspaper The Sun ; this interview was
9945-428: The ability to control another's consciousness, to dematerialize and rematerialize physical objects, and to project their astral bodies, thus giving the appearance of being in two places at once. She claimed to have remained on this spiritual retreat from late 1868 until late 1870. Blavatsky never claimed in print to have visited Lhasa , although this is a claim that would be made for her in various later sources, including
10098-656: The account provided by her sister. Many critics and biographers have expressed doubt about the veracity of Blavatsky's claims regarding her visits to Tibet, which rely entirely on her own claims, lacking any credible independent testimony. It has been highlighted that during the nineteenth century, Tibet was closed to Europeans , and visitors faced the perils of bandits and a harsh terrain; the latter would have been even more problematic if Blavatsky had been as stout and unathletic as she would be in later life. However, as several biographers have noted, traders and pilgrims from neighboring lands were able to access Tibet freely, suggesting
10251-419: The approximation of 365 + 1 ⁄ 4 days for the tropical year had been known for a long time, ancient solar calendars had used less precise periods, resulting in gradual misalignment of the calendar with the seasons. The octaeteris , a cycle of eight lunar years popularised by Cleostratus (and also commonly attributed to Eudoxus ) which was used in some early Greek calendars, notably in Athens ,
10404-424: The authenticity of the letters, with some arguing that they were written by Blavatsky herself, and others believing that they were written by separate individuals. According to Meade, "there can be no reasonable doubt that Helena was their author". Theosophy was unpopular with both Christian missionaries and the British colonial administration, with India's English-language press being almost uniformly negative toward
10557-404: The best philosophers and mathematicians of his time to solve the problem of the calendar. Pliny says that Caesar was aided in his reform by the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria who is generally considered the principal designer of the reform. Sosigenes may also have been the author of the astronomical almanac published by Caesar to facilitate the reform. Eventually, it was decided to establish
10710-434: The book represented an original synthesis that connected disparate ideas not brought together before. Revolving around Blavatsky's idea that all the world's religions stemmed from a single "Ancient Wisdom", which she connected to the Western esotericism of ancient Hermeticism and Neoplatonism , it also articulated her thoughts on Spiritualism, and provided a criticism of Darwinian evolution , stating that it dealt only with
10863-484: The brothers' claims for the Daily Graphic . Claiming that Blavatsky impressed him with her own ability to manifest spirit phenomena, Olcott authored a newspaper article on her. They soon became close friends, giving each other the nicknames of "Maloney" (Olcott) and "Jack" (Blavatsky). He helped attract greater attention to Blavatsky's claims, encouraging the Daily Graphics editor to publish an interview with her, and discussing her in his book on Spiritualism, People from
11016-574: The captain of the ship that had taken her to Kerch, she reached Constantinople . This marked the start of nine years spent traveling the world, possibly financed by her father. She did not keep a diary at the time, and was not accompanied by relatives who could verify her activities. Thus, historian of esotericism Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke noted that public knowledge of these travels rests upon "her own largely uncorroborated accounts", which are marred by being "occasionally conflicting in their chronology". For religious studies scholar Bruce F. Campbell, there
11169-502: The character of the associated dates to be changed to NP . However, this practice was discontinued around the reign of Claudius , and the practice of characterising days fell into disuse around the end of the first century AD: the Antonine jurist Gaius speaks of dies nefasti as a thing of the past. The old intercalary month was abolished. The new leap day was dated as ante diem bis sextum Kalendas Martias ('the sixth doubled day before
11322-509: The close connection between Theosophy and Hinduism throughout his life. In 1888, Blavatsky established the Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society, a group under her complete control for which admittance was restricted to those who had passed certain tests. She identified it as a place for "true Theosophists" who would focus on the system's philosophy rather than experiment with producing paranormal phenomena. In London, Blavatsky founded
11475-503: The coming years the lodges were organized into national units with their own ruling councils, resulting in tensions between the different levels of administration. Settling in Naples , Italy, in April 1885, she began living off of a small Society pension and continued working on her next book, The Secret Doctrine . She then moved to Würzburg in the Kingdom of Bavaria , where she was visited by
11628-586: The correct Julian calendar. Due to the confusion about this period, we cannot be sure exactly what day (e.g. Julian day number ) any particular Roman date refers to before March of 8 BC, except for those used in Egypt in 24 BC which are secured by astronomy. An inscription has been discovered which orders a new calendar to be used in the Province of Asia to replace the previous Greek lunar calendar. According to one translation Intercalation shall commence on
11781-571: The criticism was focused on her and that the identity of the Masters had not been publicly exposed. For decades after, Theosophists criticized Hodgson's methodology, arguing that he set out to disprove and attack Blavatsky rather than conduct an unbiased analysis of her claims and abilities. In 1986 the SPR admitted this to be the case and retracted the findings of the report. However, Johnson has commented "Theosophists have overinterpreted this as complete vindication, when in fact many questions raised by Hodgson remain unanswered." In 1886, by which time she
11934-463: The date in both calendars was the same. The dates in the Alexandrian and Julian calendars are in one-to-one correspondence except for the period from 29 August in the year preceding a Julian leap year to the following 24 February. From a comparison of the astronomical data with the Egyptian and Roman dates, Alexander Jones concluded that the Egyptian astronomers (as opposed to travellers from Rome) used
12087-408: The day after 14 Peritius [a.d. IX Kal. Feb, which would have been 15 Peritius] as it is currently constituted in the third year following promulgation of the decree. Xanthicus shall have 32 days in this intercalary year. This is historically correct. It was decreed by the proconsul that the first day of the year in the new calendar shall be Augustus' birthday, a.d. IX Kal. Oct. Every month begins on
12240-425: The disease shortly after childbirth; despite the expectations of their doctor, both mother and child survived the epidemic. Blavatsky's family was aristocratic. Her mother was Helena Andreyevna Hahn von Rottenstern (Russian: Елена Андреевна Ган, 1814–1842; née Fadeyeva), a self-educated 17-year-old who was the daughter of Princess Yelena Pavlovna Dolgorukaya , a similarly self-educated aristocrat. Blavatsky's father
12393-666: The earliest textual source in which Blavatsky claimed to have spent time in Tibet. Indeed, it was while in New York that "detailed records" of Blavatsky's life again become available to historians. Soon after, Blavatsky received news of her father's death, thus inheriting a considerable fortune, allowing her to move into a lavish hotel. In December 1874, Blavatsky met the Georgian Mikheil Betaneli. Infatuated with her, he repeatedly requested that they marry, to which she ultimately relented; this constituted bigamy , as her first husband
12546-485: The early part of the twentieth century. The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, for a total of 355 days. In addition, a 27- or 28-day intercalary month , the Mensis Intercalaris , was sometimes inserted between February and March. This intercalary month was formed by inserting 22 or 23 days after the first 23 days of February; the last five days of February, which counted down toward
12699-625: The entities being contacted by Spiritualist mediums were not the spirits of the dead, as the Spiritualist movement typically alleged, but instead either mischievous elementals or the "shells" left behind by the deceased. She proceeded via the Suez Canal to Greece, where she met with another of the Masters, Master Hilarion . She set sail for Egypt aboard the SS ; Eunomia , but in July 1871 it exploded during
12852-715: The ephemeral month names of the post-Augustan Roman emperors were the Old High German names introduced by Charlemagne . According to his biographer, Einhard, Charlemagne renamed all of the months agriculturally in German. These names were used until the 15th century, over 700 years after his rule, and continued, with some modifications, to be used as "traditional" month names until the late 18th century. The names (January to December) were: Wintarmanoth ("winter month"), Hornung , Lentzinmanoth ("spring month", " Lent month"), Ostarmanoth (" Easter month"), Wonnemanoth (" joy -month",
13005-522: The establishment, although not all would remain members for long. The underlying theme among these diverse topics [in Isis Unveiled ] is the existence of an ancient wisdom-religion, an ageless occult guide to the cosmos, nature and human life. The many faiths of man are said to derive from a universal religion known to both Plato and the ancient Hindu sages. The wisdom-religion is also identified with Hermetic philosophy as "the only possible key to
13158-521: The extra days were added immediately before the last day of each month to avoid disturbing the position of the established religious ceremonies relative to the Nones and Ides of the month. The inserted days were all initially characterised as dies fasti ( F – see Roman calendar ). The character of a few festival days was changed. In the early Julio-Claudian period a large number of festivals were decreed to celebrate events of dynastic importance, which caused
13311-523: The first day of the year (1 Farvardin= Nowruz ) slipped against the vernal equinox at the rate of approximately one day every four years. Likewise in the Egyptian calendar , a fixed year of 365 days was in use, drifting by one day against the sun in four years. An unsuccessful attempt to add an extra day every fourth year was made in 238 BC ( Decree of Canopus ). Caesar probably experienced this "wandering" or "vague" calendar in that country. He landed in
13464-495: The genuine existence of Spiritualist phenomena, she argued against the mainstream Spiritualist idea that the entities contacted were the spirits of the dead. Relocating to the United States in 1873, she befriended Henry Steel Olcott and rose to public attention as a spirit medium, attention that included public accusations of fraudulence. In 1875, New York City, Blavatsky co-founded the Theosophical Society with Olcott and William Quan Judge . In 1877, she published Isis Unveiled ,
13617-493: The governing British elite, Blavatsky took a fifteen-year-old Gujarati boy, Vallah "Babula" Bulla, as her personal servant. Many educated Indians were impressed with the Theosophists championing of Indian religions, coming about during a period "of [India's] growing self-assertion against the values and beliefs" of the British Empire . Her activity in the city was monitored by British intelligence services, who suspected that she
13770-542: The greatest travelers of the nineteenth century", although he added – "in all honesty I do not know" if Blavatsky spent time in Tibet or not. Biographer Marion Meade commented on Blavatsky's tales of Tibet and various other adventures by stating that "hardly a word of this appears to be true". Blavatsky alleged that she departed Tibet with the mission of proving to the world that the phenomena identified by Spiritualists were objectively real, thus defending Spiritualism against accusations of fraud. However, she also stated that
13923-512: The house and furniture moving of its own volition. In 1860, she and her sister visited their maternal grandmother in Tiflis. It was there that she met up with Metrovitch, and where she reconciled with Nikifor in 1862. Together they adopted a child named Yuri, who would die aged five in 1867, when he was buried under Metrovitch's surname. In 1864, while riding in Mingrelia , Blavatsky fell from her horse and
14076-423: The human being and their soul, thus dealing with issues surrounding an afterlife. Birth name#Maiden and married names A birth name is the name given to a person upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname , the given name , or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth register may by that fact alone become
14229-562: The implied proleptic Julian date for the first day of Caesar's reformed calendar and the first Julian date on which the Roman calendar date matches the Julian calendar after the completion of Augustus' reform. By the systems of Scaliger, Ideler and Bünting, the leap years prior to the suspension happen to be BC years that are divisible by 3, just as, after leap year resumption, they are the AD years divisible by 4. Pierre Brind'Amour argued that "only one day
14382-429: The intercalation ought to have been made at the end of each fourth year and before the beginning of the fifth. This error continued for thirty-six years by which time twelve intercalary days had been inserted instead of the number actually due, namely nine. But when this error was at length recognised, it too was corrected, by an order of Augustus, that twelve years should be allowed to pass without an intercalary day, since
14535-416: The journey; Blavatsky was one of only 16 survivors. Reaching Cairo, she met up with Metamon, and with the help of a woman named Emma Cutting established a société spirite , which was based largely on Spiritism , a form of Spiritualism founded by Allan Kardec which professed a belief in reincarnation , in contrast to the mainstream Spiritualist movement. However, Blavatsky believed that Cutting and many of
14688-413: The kalends of the corresponding Roman month; thus the year began on 23 September, Augustus's birthday. The first step of the reform was to realign the start of the calendar year (1 January) to the tropical year by making 46 BC 445 days long, compensating for the intercalations which had been missed during Caesar's pontificate. This year had already been extended from 355 to 378 days by the insertion of
14841-484: The latter she had been injured fighting for Giuseppe Garibaldi at the Battle of Mentana . She claimed to have then received a message from Morya to travel to Constantinople, where he met her, and together they traveled overland to Tibet, going through Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, and then into India, entering Tibet via Kashmir. There, they allegedly stayed in the home of Morya's friend and colleague, Master Koot Hoomi , which
14994-428: The lengths of Julian months, and, even if they did, their first days did not match the first day of the corresponding Julian month. Nevertheless, since the reformed calendars had fixed relationships to each other and to the Julian calendar, the process of converting dates between them became quite straightforward, through the use of conversion tables known as "hemerologia". The three most important of these calendars are
15147-501: The mediums employed by the society were fraudulent, and she closed it down after two weeks. In Cairo, she also met with the Egyptologist Gaston Maspero , and another of the Masters, Serapis Bey. It was also here that she met up with Metrovitch, although he soon died of typhoid , with Blavatsky claiming to have overseen the funeral. Leaving Egypt, she proceeded to Syria, Palestine, and Lebanon, there encountering members of
15300-479: The new one as 24 January, a.d. IX Kal. Feb 5 BC in the Julian calendar, which was a leap year. Thus from inception the dates of the reformed Asian calendar are in one-to-one correspondence with the Julian. Another translation of this inscription is Intercalation shall commence on the day after the fourteenth day in the current month of Peritius [a.d. IX Kal. Feb], occurring every third year. Xanthicus shall have 32 days in this intercalary year. This would move
15453-405: The ninth day before the kalends. The date of introduction, the day after 14 Peritius, was 1 Dystrus, the next month. The month after that was Xanthicus. Thus Xanthicus began on a.d. IX Kal. Mart., and normally contained 31 days. In leap year, however, it contained an extra "Sebaste day", the Roman leap day, and thus had 32 days. From the lunar nature of the old calendar we can fix the starting date of
15606-699: The offer of the Society's Madras Branch to move to their city. However, in November 1882 the Society purchased an estate in Adyar , which became their permanent headquarters; a few rooms were set aside for Blavatsky, who moved into them in December. She continued to tour the subcontinent, claiming that she then spent time in Sikkim and Tibet, where she visited her teacher's ashram for several days. With her health deteriorating, she agreed to accompany Olcott on his trip to Britain, where he
15759-514: The one hand and Anna Kingsford and Edward Maitland on the other. Unsatisfied, Kingsford – whom Blavatsky thought "an unbearable snobbish woman" – split from the Theosophical Society to form the Hermetic Society . In London, Blavatsky made contact with the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) through Frederic W. H. Myers . She complied with their request to undertake
15912-607: The palace of the Maharaja of Vizianagram . Blavatsky and Olcott were then invited to Ceylon by Buddhist monks. There they officially converted to Buddhism – apparently the first from the United States to do so. – taking the Five Precepts in a ceremony at Ramayana Nikayana in May 1880. Touring the island, they were met by crowds intrigued by these unusual Westerners who embraced Buddhism rather than proselytizing Christianity. Their message proved
16065-506: The person's legal name . The assumption in the Western world is often that the name from birth (or perhaps from baptism or brit milah ) will persist to adulthood in the normal course of affairs—either throughout life or until marriage. Some reasons for changes of a person's name include middle names , diminutive forms, changes relating to parental status (due to one's parents' divorce or adoption by different parents), and gender transition . The French and English-adopted née
16218-613: The personal library of her maternal great-grandfather, Prince Pavel Vasilevich Dolgorukov (d. 1838); it contained a variety of books on esoteric subjects, encouraging her burgeoning interest in it. Dolgorukov had been initiated into Freemasonry in the late 1770s and had belonged to the Rite of Strict Observance ; there were rumors that he had met both Alessandro Cagliostro and the Count of St. Germain . She also later stated that at this time of life she began to experience visions in which she encountered
16371-482: The phenomena that they produced were not fraudulent, and while Olcott believed them, Blavatsky opined that they faked some of their phenomena in those instances when genuine phenomena failed to manifest. Drumming up interest for their ideas, Blavatsky and Olcott published a circular letter in Eldridge Gerry Brown 's Boston -based Spiritualist publication, The Spiritual Scientist . There, they named themselves
16524-435: The physical world and ignored the spiritual realms. The book was edited by Professor of Philosophy Alexander Wilder and published in two volumes by J.W. Bouton in 1877. Although facing negative mainstream press reviews, including from those who highlighted that it extensively quoted around 100 other books without acknowledgement, it proved to be such a commercial success, with its initial print run of 1,000 copies selling out in
16677-516: The possibility that she would have been allowed to enter accompanied by Morya, particularly if she had been mistaken for an Asian. Blavatsky's eyewitness account of Shigatse was unprecedented in the West, and one scholar of Buddhism, D. T. Suzuki , suggested that she later exhibited an advanced knowledge of Mahayana Buddhism consistent with her having studied in a Tibetan monastery. Lachman noted that had Blavatsky spent time in Tibet, then she would be "one of
16830-507: The production of over 1400 pages allegedly authored by Koot Hoomi and Morya, which came to be known as the Mahatma Letters . Sinnett summarised the teachings contained in these letters in his book Esoteric Buddhism (1883), although scholars of Buddhism like Max Müller publicly highlighted that the contents were not Buddhist, and Blavatsky herself disliked the misleading title. Since the book's publication, there has been much debate as to
16983-411: The provincial calendars that were aligned to the Julian calendar. Other name changes were proposed but were never implemented. Tiberius rejected a senatorial proposal to rename September as "Tiberius" and October as "Livius", after his mother Livia. Antoninus Pius rejected a senatorial decree renaming September as "Antoninus" and November as "Faustina", after his empress . Much more lasting than
17136-400: The realignment had been completed, in 45 BC. The Julian months were formed by adding ten days to a regular pre-Julian Roman year of 355 days, creating a regular Julian year of 365 days. Two extra days were added to January, Sextilis (August) and December, and one extra day was added to April, June, September, and November. February was not changed in ordinary years, and so continued to be
17289-498: The sequence of twelve such years would account for the three days which, in the course of thirty-six years, had been introduced by the premature actions of the priests. So, according to Macrobius, Some people have had different ideas as to how the leap years went. The above scheme is that of Scaliger (1583) in the table below. He established that the Augustan reform was instituted in 8 BC. The table below shows for each reconstruction
17442-433: The side of the Coulombs, Bates and Winbridge returned to the U.S. Blavatsky was then invited to Simla to spend more time with Sinnett, and there performed a range of materializations that astounded the other guests; in one instance, she allegedly made a cup-and-saucer materialize under the soil during a picnic. Sinnett was eager to contact the Masters himself, convincing Blavatsky to facilitate this communication, resulting in
17595-510: The society with letters that they claimed were written by Blavatsky and which proved that her paranormal abilities were fraudulent. The society refused to pay them and expelled them from their premises, at which the couple turned to the Madras-based Christian College Magazine , who published an exposé of Blavatsky's alleged fraudulence using the Coulombs' claims as a basis. The story attracted international attention and
17748-700: The spread of Hindu and Buddhist ideas in the West as well as the development of Western esoteric currents like Ariosophy , Anthroposophy , and the New Age Movement. Developing a reliable account of Blavatsky's life has proved difficult for biographers because in later life she deliberately provided contradictory accounts and falsifications about her own past. Furthermore, very few of her own writings written before 1873 survive, meaning that biographers must rely heavily on these unreliable later accounts. The accounts of her early life provided by her family members have also been considered dubious by biographers. Blavatsky
17901-472: The spread of the Christian faith in Ceylon and encourage pride and interest in Buddhism among the island's Sinhalese population. Although Blavatsky initially opposed the idea, stating that the Masters would not approve, Olcott's project proved a success, and she changed her opinion about it. Blavatsky had been diagnosed with Bright's disease and hoping the weather to be more conducive to her condition she took up
18054-452: The start of March, became the last five days of Intercalaris. The net effect was to add 22 or 23 days to the year, forming an intercalary year of 377 or 378 days. Some say the mensis intercalaris always had 27 days and began on either the first or the second day after the Terminalia (23 February). If managed correctly this system could have allowed the Roman year to stay roughly aligned to
18207-422: The starting date back three years to 8 BC, and from the lunar synchronism back to 26 January (Julian). But since the corresponding Roman date in the inscription is 24 January, this must be according to the incorrect calendar which in 8 BC Augustus had ordered to be corrected by the omission of leap days. As the authors of the previous paper point out, with the correct four-year cycle being used in Egypt and
18360-560: The statement sometimes seen that they were called " Undecimber " and " Duodecimber ", terms that arose in the 18th century over a millennium after the Roman Empire's collapse. Their individual lengths are unknown, as is the position of the Nones and Ides within them. Because 46 BC was the last of a series of irregular years, this extra-long year was, and is, referred to as the "last year of confusion". The new calendar began operation after
18513-572: The term z domu (literally meaning "of the house", de domo in Latin ) may be used, with rare exceptions, meaning the same as née . Julian calendar The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year (without exception). The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts of Oriental Orthodoxy as well as by
18666-645: The three-year cycle abolished in Rome, it is unlikely that Augustus would have ordered the three-year cycle to be introduced in Asia. The Julian reform did not immediately cause the names of any months to be changed. The old intercalary month was abolished and replaced with a single intercalary day at the same point (i.e., five days before the end of February). The Romans later renamed months after Julius Caesar and Augustus, renaming Quintilis as "Iulius" (July) in 44 BC and Sextilis as "Augustus" (August) in 8 BC. Quintilis
18819-460: The traditional 28 days. Thus, the ordinary (i.e., non-leap year) lengths of all of the months were set by the Julian calendar to the same values they still hold today. The Julian reform did not change the method used to account days of the month in the pre-Julian calendar , based on the Kalends, Nones and Ides, nor did it change the positions of these three dates within the months. Macrobius states that
18972-426: The view that Celsus was using the ordinary Latin (and English) meaning of "posterior". A third view is that neither half of the 48-hour "bis sextum" was originally formally designated as intercalated, but that the need to do so arose as the concept of a 48-hour day became obsolete. There is no doubt that the bissextile day eventually became the earlier of the two days for most purposes. In 238 Censorinus stated that it
19125-509: The works of the English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton for Russian publication. When Pyotr returned to Ukraine c. 1837 , she remained in the city. After Fadeyev was assigned to become a trustee for the Kalmyk people of Central Asia, Blavatsky and her mother accompanied him to Astrakhan , where they befriended a Kalmyk leader, Tumen. The Kalmyks were practitioners of Tibetan Buddhism , and it
19278-410: The writing. In Isis Unveiled , Blavatsky quoted extensively from other esoteric and religious texts, although her contemporary and colleague Olcott always maintained that she had quoted from books that she did not have access to. Writing more than a century after her death Lachman conjectured that if this had been the case, then she had had an eidetic memory , such that, while relying on earlier sources,
19431-651: Was Pyotr Alexeyevich Hahn von Rottenstern (Russian: Пётр Алексеевич Ган, 1798–1873), a descendant of the German Hahn aristocratic family, who served as a captain in the Russian Royal Horse Artillery, and would later rise to the rank of colonel. Pyotr had not been present at his daughter's birth, having been in Poland fighting to suppress the November Uprising against Russian rule, and first saw her when she
19584-528: Was "no reliable account" for the next 25 years of her life. According to biographer Peter Washington, at this point "myth and reality begin to merge seamlessly in Blavatsky's biography". She later claimed that in Constantinople she developed a friendship with a Hungarian opera singer named Agardi Metrovitch, whom she first encountered when saving him from being murdered. It was also in Constantinople that she met
19737-537: Was a "beguiling story-teller". Accounts provided by relatives reveal that she socialized largely with lower-class children and that she enjoyed playing pranks and reading. She was educated in French, art, and music, all subjects designed to enable her to find a husband. With her grandparents she holidayed in Tumen's Kalmyk summer camp, where she learned horse riding and some Tibetan . She later claimed that in Saratov she discovered
19890-411: Was an adaptation of the Ancient Macedonian calendar used in the Roman province of Asia and, with minor variations, in nearby cities and provinces. It is known in detail through the survival of decrees promulgating it issued in 8 BC by the proconsul Paullus Fabius Maximus . It renamed the first month Dios as Kaisar , and arranged the months such that each month started on the ninth day before
20043-515: Was assigned to both halves of the 48-hour bissextile day by this time, so that the Regifugium and the market day might fall on the same date but on different days. In any case, the 8-day nundinal cycle began to be displaced by the 7-day week in the first century AD, and dominical letters began to appear alongside nundinal letters in the fasti. The Julian calendar has two types of year: "normal" years of 365 days and "leap" years of 366 days. There
20196-651: Was attracted by his belief in magic. Although she tried to back out shortly before the wedding ceremony, the marriage took place on 7 July 1849. Moving with him to the Sardar Palace , she made repeated unsuccessful attempts to escape and return to her family in Tiflis, to which he eventually relented. The family sent her, accompanied by a servant and maid, to Odessa to meet her father, who planned to return to Saint Petersburg with her. The escorts accompanied her to Poti and then Kerch , intending to continue with her to Odessa. Blavatsky claimed that, fleeing her escorts and bribing
20349-527: Was born as Helena Petrovna Hahn von Rottenstern in the town of Yekaterinoslav , then part of the Russian Empire. Her birth date was 12 August 1831, although according to the Julian calendar used in 19th-century Russia it was 31 July. Immediately after her birth, she was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church . At the time, Yekaterinoslav was undergoing a cholera epidemic, and her mother contracted
20502-537: Was focusing on attaining upper-class support rather than encouraging the promotion of Theosophy throughout society, a criticism Blavatsky agreed with. She arrived in London in May 1887, initially staying in the Upper Norwood home of Theosophist Mabel Collins . In September, she moved into the Holland Park home of fellow Theosophists, Bertram Keightley and his nephew Archibald Keightley . In London, she established
20655-421: Was here that Blavatsky gained her first experience with the religion. In 1838, Blavatsky's mother moved with her daughters to be with her husband at Poltava , where she taught Blavatsky how to play the piano and organized for her to take dance lessons. As a result of her poor health, Blavatsky's mother returned to Odessa, where Blavatsky learned English from a British governess. They next moved to Saratov , where
20808-473: Was here that she met the "mysterious Indian" who had appeared in her childhood visions, a Hindu whom she referred to as the Master Morya . While she provided various conflicting accounts of how they met, locating it in both London and Ramsgate according to separate stories, she maintained that he claimed that he had a special mission for her, and that she must travel to Tibet . She made her way to Asia via
20961-550: Was impossible. Blavatsky however insisted that Theosophy was not a religion in itself. Lachman has described the movement as "a very wide umbrella, under which quite a few things could find a place". On foundation, Olcott was appointed chairman, with Judge as secretary, and Blavatsky as corresponding secretary, although she remained the group's primary theoretician and leading figure. Prominent early members included Emma Hardinge Britten , Signor Bruzzesi , C.C. Massey , and William L. Alden ; many were prominent and successful members of
21114-510: Was in a coma for several months with a spinal fracture. Recovering in Tiflis, she claimed that upon awaking she gained full control of her paranormal abilities. She then proceeded to Italy, Transylvania, and Serbia, possibly studying the Cabalah with a rabbi at this point. In 1867, she proceeded to the Balkans, Hungary, and then Italy, where she spent time in Venice, Florence, and Mentana, claiming that in
21267-508: Was inserted after the Terminalia (23 February) and was followed by the last five days of February, i.e., a.d. VI, V, IV, III and prid. Kal. Mart. (which would be 24 to 28 February in a common year and the 25th to 29th in a leap year). Hence he regarded the bissextum as the first half of the doubled day. All later writers, including Macrobius about 430, Bede in 725, and other medieval computists (calculators of Easter) followed this rule, as does
21420-411: Was intercalated between 1/1/45 and 1/1/40 (disregarding a momentary 'fiddling' in December of 41) to avoid the nundinum falling on Kal. Ian." Alexander Jones says that the correct Julian calendar was in use in Egypt in 24 BC, implying that the first day of the reform in both Egypt and Rome, 1 January 45 BC , was the Julian date 1 January if 45 BC was a leap year and 2 January if it
21573-457: Was near to Tashilhunpo Monastery , Shigatse . According to Blavatsky, both Morya and Koot Hoomi were Kashmiris of Punjabi origin, and it was at his home that Koot Hoomi taught students of the Gelugpa sect of Tibetan Buddhism. Koot Hoomi was described as having spent time in London and Leipzig , being fluent in both English and French, and like Morya was a vegetarian. She claimed that in Tibet, she
21726-476: Was not. This necessitates fourteen leap days up to and including AD 8 if 45 BC was a leap year and thirteen if it was not. In 1999, a papyrus was discovered which gives the dates of astronomical phenomena in 24 BC in both the Egyptian and Roman calendars. From 30 August 26 BC (Julian) , Egypt had two calendars: the old Egyptian in which every year had 365 days and the new Alexandrian in which every fourth year had 366 days. Up to 28 August 22 BC (Julian)
21879-535: Was picked up by London-based newspaper, The Times . In response, in November 1884 Blavatsky headed to Cairo, where she and Theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater searched for negative information on Emma Coulomb, discovering stories of her alleged former history of extortion and criminality. Internally, the Society was greatly damaged by the Coulomb Affair, although it remained popular in India, as did Blavatsky herself. Worsening health led Blavatsky to contemplate
22032-559: Was planning to argue the case for Ceylonese Buddhism and sort out problems with the Society's London Lodge. Sailing to Marseilles , France, in March 1883, she spent time in Nice with the founder of the Theosophical Society's French branch, the Countess of Caithness (widow of James Sinclair, 14th Earl of Caithness ), with whom she continued to Paris. In London, she appeared at the lodge's meeting, where she sought to quell arguments between Sinnett on
22185-454: Was popularly credited with having determined the length of the year to be 365 + 1 ⁄ 4 days). But the war soon resumed and Caesar was attacked by the Egyptian army for several months until he achieved victory. He then enjoyed a long cruise on the Nile with Cleopatra before leaving the country in June 47 BC. Caesar returned to Rome in 46 BC and, according to Plutarch , called in
22338-693: Was renamed to honour Caesar because it was the month of his birth. According to a senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, Sextilis was renamed to honour Augustus because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, occurred in that month. Other months were renamed by other emperors, but apparently none of the later changes survived their deaths. In AD 37, Caligula renamed September as "Germanicus" after his father ; in AD 65, Nero renamed April as "Neroneus", May as "Claudius" and June as "Germanicus"; and in AD 84 Domitian renamed September as "Germanicus" and October as "Domitianus". Commodus
22491-497: Was six months old. As well as her Russian and German ancestry, Blavatsky could also claim French heritage, for a great-great grandfather had been a French Huguenot nobleman who had fled to Russia to escape persecution, there serving in the court of Catherine the Great . As a result of Pyotr's career, the family frequently moved to different parts of the Empire, accompanied by their servants,
22644-644: Was slightly shorter than 365.25 days, the calendar did not compensate for this difference. As a result, the calendar year gains about three days every four centuries compared to observed equinox times and the seasons. This discrepancy was largely corrected by the Gregorian reform of 1582. The Gregorian calendar has the same months and month lengths as the Julian calendar, but, in the Gregorian calendar, year numbers evenly divisible by 100 are not leap years, except that those evenly divisible by 400 remain leap years (even then,
22797-467: Was still alive. However, as she refused to consummate the marriage, Betaneli sued for divorce and returned to Georgia. Blavatsky was intrigued by a news story about William and Horatio Eddy , brothers based in Chittenden, Vermont , who it was claimed could levitate and manifest spiritual phenomena. She visited Chittenden in October 1874, there meeting the reporter Henry Steel Olcott, who was investigating
22950-476: Was taught an ancient, unknown language known as Senzar , and translated a number of ancient texts written in this language that were preserved by the monks of a monastery; she stated that she was, however, not permitted entry into the monastery itself. She also claimed that while in Tibet, Morya and Koot Hoomi helped her develop and control her psychic powers. Among the abilities that she ascribed to these "Masters" were clairvoyance , clairaudience , telepathy , and
23103-496: Was unique in renaming all twelve months after his own adopted names (January to December): "Amazonius", "Invictus", "Felix", "Pius", "Lucius", "Aelius", "Aurelius", "Commodus", "Augustus", "Herculeus", "Romanus", and "Exsuperatorius". The emperor Tacitus is said to have ordered that September, the month of his birth and accession, be renamed after him, but the story is doubtful since he did not become emperor before November 275. Similar honorific month names were implemented in many of
23256-541: Was using a wheelchair , Blavatsky moved to Ostend in Belgium, where she was visited by Theosophists from across Europe. Among them was the doctor William Ashton Ellis , who treated her during a near-fatal illness in March 1887; Blavatsky credited him with saving her life. Supplementing her pension, she established a small ink-producing business. She received messages from members of the Society's London Lodge who were dissatisfied with Sinnett's running of it; they believed that he
23409-645: Was working for Russia. In April, Blavatsky took Olcott, Babula, and their friend Moolji Thackersey to the Karla Caves , announcing that they contained secret passages that led to an underground place where the Masters assembled. Then claiming that the Masters were telepathically commanding her to head to Rajputana in the Punjab , she and Olcott headed north. At the Yamuna river, they met the sannyasin Babu Surdass, who had sat in
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