Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
H.P. Blavatsky The Light-Bringer
By GEOFFREY A. BARBORKA
Protective Gurdianship
IN SUPPORT of the statement that H. P. Blavatsky was selected to become an emissary, there is evidence that during her childhood she was watched over and protected from serious injury; and that in later life this guardianship was even more protective, at times saving her when death was imminent. Even her birth was a precarious event, for she was born prematurely soon after midnight, July 30-31 (Russian style; or August 11-12 according to the present mode of reckoning), her mother being the wife of Captain Peter von Hahn. Cholera was raging throughout Russia. Some members of her family had succumbed to it and her grandparents were fearful that the child might not survive, so a hasty baptism was arranged in order that she might have the protection of the holy church. The church dignitaries donned their ceremonial robes and vestments; the members of the family gathered and were given lighted candles, as was customary in the Greek Church. One of the ceremonialists was a child, who stood in the first row behind the officiating priest, and also held a lighted candle. At the height of the ceremony the robes of the officiating priest caught fire, and the service had to come to an abrupt end. It was whispered that a most unusual career was in store for one who was undergoing such a baptism !
The next unusual event would undoubtedly have had dire results but for timely assistance. It occurred in the home of her grandparents. In one o c the rooms of their mansion large portraits were hanging on the walls. One of them was covered by a curtain, and little Helena wondered why. One day, when she was all alone, she made up her mind to find out. As she could not reach the curtain, she dragged a small table against the wall and climbed on to it. Still she could not reach. So she put a chair on the table, climbed up again and pulled the curtain aside. The chair must have been precariously placed, for it suddenly gave way and the child would have been thrown to the floor but for the fact that strong arms grasped her and laid her gently on the floor.
When she opened her eyes, the table had been put back in its usual position, also the chair; and the curtain was drawn over the portrait. But there was one tell-tale mark left as evidence of the occurrence.
High up on the wall beside the curtain was an imprint of a tiny hand. Another incident demonstrates the continued watchfulness of her guardian. Helena was now in her early teens, old enough to ride alone, even bare-back, as the Cossacks did—and how she loved it. During one gallop, however, her horse got frightened and jerked the reins out of her hands, and her foot got entangled in one of the stirrups. Again she was rescued from her predicament. Supporting arms held her up so that she did not fall, and the horse was brought under control.
It was recorded by Helena's sister Vera that in May, 1848, the sisters travelled with both of their aunts and their uncle, Yuliy F. Witte, to Pyatigorsk and Kislovodsk for water cures. While on the journey between Koyshaur and Kobi, Helena narrowly escaped being engulfed in an avalanche.
About a year later Helena was married to N. V. Blavatsky, a State Official. But the marriage was in name only, for within three months —one month of which was spent with her grandparents—Mme. Blavatsky had left Russia and begun her extensive travels. Then in 1851 the most momentous event of her life occurred. She met face to face the person she had come to regard as her guardian—the one who had in fact thus far protected her. This was in London during the International Exhibition featuring the Crystal Palace in Hyde Park. She made this note of the meeting in her Sketch-book, at the time :
A memorable night. A certain night by the light of the setting moon—at Ramsgate, 12 of August, 1851—when I met the Master of my dreams. The 12 of A ugust—that is July 31, Russian style—the day of my birth—20 years.!
However, Mme. Blavatsky told Countess Wachtmeister that the meeting with her guardian had actually occurred in London, although she had placed it as taking place in Ramsgate, 'so that anyone casually taking up her book would not know where she had met her Master, and that her first interview with him had been in London' in Hyde Park, near the Serpentine.
The important point about this meeting—although this was not included in the vivid impression she put into writing at the time—was that it was the turning-point of her life. When she related the episode to Countess Wachtmeister she said that the Master asked her whether she would be willing to co-operate in a work which he was about to undertake, and that this would necessitate certain preparatory features. From the sparse references she made to it, there is no doubt that she underwent rigorous training for the work and furthermore that she was excellently fitted for the task.
After this physical meeting with her Master, Mme. Blavatsky continued to have what we may regard as miraculous escapes from near death, although in relating the circumstances about these incidents she did not attribute any of them to rescues made by her guardian. The first one is mentioned in a letter written to Georgina Johnston from London in 1887. Therein she states that in Greece her life was saved by an Irishman named Johnny O'Brien—but gave no further particulars. Whether this was before or after meeting her Master in London it is difficult to say, because there are many conflicting accounts in regard to her travels between 1850 and 1851. From what she herself wrote, it would seem that some time after her memorable meeting she was in America in the fall of 1851. She also journeyed to South America, then to the West Indies, and on to India, Java and Singapore, sailing from there back to England. The ship was the SS Gwalior, which was wrecked near the Cape, but she was saved along with twenty others.
The next critical incident which befell her was the dramatic one she described in Isis Unveiled, when she was in a desert with a Tatar Shaman. Since our purpose is to demonstrate the efforts Mme. Blavatsky made to acquire the status she later gained—that of being an accepted chela of her Master—her ability to overcome the difficulties she encountered during her quest is well exemplified in her recital of this episode. She began by referring to a carnelian stone she possessed.
Every Shaman has such a talisman, which he wears attached to a string, and carries under his left arm. 'Of what use is it to you, and what are its virtues?' was the question we often offered to our guide. To this he never answered directly, but evaded all explanation, promising that as soon as an opportunity was offered, and we were alone, he would ask the stone to 'answer for himself'. With this very indefinite hope, we were left to the resources of our own imagination.
But the day on which the stone 'spoke' came very soon. It was during the most critical hours of our life; at a time when the vagabond nature of a traveller had carried the writer to far-off lands, where neither civilization is known, nor security can be guaranteed for one hour. One afternoon...the Shaman, who had become our only protector in those dreary deserts, was reminded of his promise. He sighed and hesitated; but, after a short silence, left his place on the sheepskin, and, going outside, placed a dried-up goat's head with its prominent horns over a wooden peg, and then dropping down the felt curtain of the tent, remarked that no living person would venture in, for the goat's head was a sign that he was at work.
After that, placing his hand in his bosom, he drew out the little stone, about the size of a walnut, and, carefully unwrapping it, proceeded, as it appeared, to swallow it. In a few moments his limbs stiffened, his body became rigid, and he fell, cold and motionless as a corpse. But for a slight twitching of his lips at every question asked, the scene would have been embarrassing, nay—dreadful. The sun was setting, and were it not that dying embers flickered at the centre of the tent, complete darkness would have been added to the oppressive silence which reigned. We have lived in the prairies of the West, and in the boundless steppes of Southern Russia; but nothing can be compared with the silence at sunset on the sandy deserts of Mongolia ; not even the barren solitudes of the deserts of Africa, though the former are partially inhabited, and the latter utterly void of life. Yet, there was the writer alone with what looked no better than a corpse lying on the ground. Fortunately, this state did not last long.
'Mahandu !' uttered a voice, which seemed to come from the bowels of the earth, on which the Shaman was prostrated. 'Peace be with you, what would you have me do for you ?'... . For over two hours, the most substantial, unequivocal proofs that the Shaman's astral soul was travelling at the bidding of our unspoken wish, were given us.
We had directed the Shaman's inner ego to...the Kutchi of Lha-Ssa, who travels constantly to British India and back. We know that he was apprised of our critical situation in the desert; for a few hours later came help, and we were rescued by a party of twenty-five horsemen who had been directed by their chief to find us at the place where we were, which no living man endowed with common powers could have known. The chief of this escort was a Shaberon, an 'adept' whom we had never seen
before, nor did we after that, for he never left his soumay (lamasery), and we could have no access to it. But he was a personal friend of the Kutchi.*
A passing reference to what may have resulted in serious consequences for Mme. Blavatsky during her travels in Burma is also referred to in his Unveiled.-.
A fearful fever contracted by the writer near Rangoon, after a flood of the Irrawaddy River, was cured in a few hours by the juice of a plant called, if we mistake not, Kukushan, though there may be thousands of natives ignorant of its virtues, who are left to die of fever.
This is comparable to another remarkable cure—although this time no medicine is mentioned as having been given; nor does Mme. Blavatsky relate how she came to be relieved from the situation in which she found herself, nor how the wound from which she suffered was inflicted. For that matter, the more one probes into the incidents of her life the more mysterious does each of them become. As usual one cannot give a precise date. The event is related to have taken place in the spring of 1859 after she had spent some time with her father and her half-sister Lisa, in St. Petersburg. From there she went on a visit to her widowed sister, Vera de Yahontov, at Rugodevo. There Mme. Blavatsky was prostrated by a serious illness : a wound appeared near her heart. She was in what appeared to be a death-like trance for three or four days; then suddenly and unaccountably she was cured.
A somewhat similar prostration took place during 1864-65, when she was living in the military settlement of Ozurgety, in Mingrelia. The local physician was unable to diagnose her condition or give any help; he therefore ordered that Mme. Blavatsky, apparently near death, should be placed in a boat and taken down the river Rion to Kutais; from there she was to be transported in a carriage to Tiflis. But again there was another sudden cure. Referring to this episode later, she commented : 'between the Blavatsky of 1845-65 and the Blavatsky of the years 1865-82 there is an unbridgeable gulf.'% She was referring to this fact: during the period 1845-65 whatever occult or psychic manifestations had taken place could be regarded as occurring without her conscious control, therefore unconsciously; whereas from 1865-82 whatever occult phenomena were produced were under her control, and she was consciously able to direct them.
After recovering from this strange illness, Mme. Blavatsky went to the Caucasus, where she spent some years. While there she was thrown from her horse and fractured her spine. No further first-hand knowledge is available regarding this injury nor as to her recovery from it. Likewise no information is given about a more calamitous occurence, or the reason why Mme. Blavatsky became involved in the affair. She was present at the battle of Mentana, Italy, between Garibaldi red shirts and French troops on November 2, 1867, and was wounded five times. Her left arm was broken in two places by a sabre stroke, and she received bullets in her shoulder and leg. Col. Olcott testifies that he actually felt the bullets when Mme. Blavatsky pointed out the spots to him. But not a word was forthcoming in regard to her convalescence.
As though this were not enough, she had one still more frightening experience. About three years later she left Greece for Egypt, sailing from Piraeus in the SS Eunomia. In those days it was necessary for ships plying between Piraeus and Nauplia to carry cannon and a supply of gunpowder, as protection against pirates. On July 4, 1871, between the islands of Dokos and Hydra, while the Eunomia was in sight of the island of Spetsai in the gulf of Nauplia, there was a terrific explosion: the ship sank and there were only a few survivors. Mme. Blavatsky was one of them; but all her possessions were lost. The Greek government provided transport for the survivors, so that Mme. Blavatsky was able to reach Alexandria; but she arrived there without- funds.
The next mishap to befall her was in New York, when she fell and injured her knee—most likely on the icy pavement, as it happened during 'he last days of January, 1875. Then on February 13 she had another accident. As she was trying to move her bed, it fell on her leg and seriously injured it. By May it was much worse and on May 26 it became paralysed and soon it was feared that it would have to be amputated. On June 3 the Spiritual Scientist journal announced that Mme. Blavatsky was seriously ill. This was followed by a second notice stating that the crisis was reached at midnight, June 3. Her attendants had supposed her to be dead, because she lay cold, pulseless and rigid, while her injured leg had swollen to double its normal size; it had also turned black. In fact, her physician had given her up. Nevertheless, after a few hours the swelling subsided and she revived.
During the rest of the month, according to correspondence Col. Olcott received during the interval, Mme. Blavatsky was undergoing certain trials which were in the nature of initiations.
Two other times may also be noted when H. P. Blavatsky was so gravely ill that death would have ensued had she not been revivified by occult means. The first was on the 5 February, 1885, at Adyar. Referring to this she wrote to A. P. Sinnett:
For though, doctors notwithstanding (who proclaimed my four days' agony, and the impossibility of recovery), I suddenly got better thanks to Master's protecting hand, I carry two mortal diseases in me which are not cured—heart and kidneys. At any moment the former can have a rupture, and the latter carry me away in a few days.*
On being revivified Mme. Blavatsky left India for Europe on March 31, never to return. On the second occasion she was at Ostend, engaged in writing The Secret Doctrine. In March, 1887, she was in great agony with a kidney infection. Dr Ashton Ellis was cabled to come to her from London; he came and gave his report.The American consul in Ostend was called to prepare notarial service prior to death. Both men thought death to be imminent. But there was a sudden turn. One night in the last week of March, her Master came and gave her the choice of finishing The Secret Doctrine or dying. He also showed her a vision of what was in store for her in connection with the future of The Theosophical Society. In heroic manner, true to the precepts of the Lodge she was serving, H.P.B. chose to continue the task she had undertaken—that of writing The Secret Doctrine so that the message of the Ancient Wisdom could be made available to the western world. Thus was she truly carrying on the tradition of the Occult Brotherhood of being a torchbearer.
H.P.B. gave a hint as to the method which was used for revivifying her. It is to be found in a brief passage in The Secret Doctrine : For Sound generates, or rather attracts together, the elements that produce an ozone...It may even resurrect a man or an animal whose astral Vital body' has not been irreparably separated from the physical body by the severance of the magnetic or odic chord. As one saved thrice from death by that power, the writer ought to be credited with knowing personally something about it.
