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BLAVATSKY DESCRIBED BY FRANZ HARTMANN




In this article, I am going to compile the texts that Franz Hartmann wrote about Blavatsky, and to start I put below what he commented in his autobiography about her:

« A great deal has already been written about H. P. Blavatsky, and I might, perhaps, be excused from now adding something to it, especially as I am quite certain that no one will ever be able to judge her extraordinary character correctly, unless he has been intimately acquainted with her.  To an occultist, capable of seeing “beyond the veil,” her personality was extremely interesting.  To me she always appeared as a great spirit, a sage and initiate inhabiting the body of a grown-up capricious child, very amiable on the whole but also at times very irascible, ambitious, of an impetuous temper, but easily led and caring nothing for conventionalities of any kind.

In her higher aspect she seemed to be in possession of the highest occult wisdom and of a knowledge obtained not by the reading of books or by ratiocination, but by interior illumination and direct perception of truth.  She seemed to know everything without having ever read anything, and as if the whole universe was to her like an open book.  She seemed to be at home on the astral plane as much as on the physical plane.  Nevertheless she did not claim to be an adept, but only a conscious instrument of an intelligent power higher than her own personality.

She used to say:

-          "My learning is my Master’s. I am nothing but a reflector of some one else’s luminous light."

To me it seems that this “Master” was her own higher self and that everybody has such a light hidden within his own soul; but not everybody is conscious of it.  Men and women may be compared to lanterns in which such a light exists; in some it is only a spark that has not yet been discovered, in others the wick sheds but a dim glow, while in rare cases it gives a bright light that shines through the crystal.  Many of those who presumed to judge the character of H. P. Blavatsky could only see the polish of the “lantern,” but were blind to the light contained in it.

Thus Madame Blavatsky appeared to be two or even more different persons manifesting themselves in one body, and I have no doubt that her inner real or permanent self was in communication with other higher intelligences existing on the same plane, and that they thus were able to communicate their knowledge through her instrumentality or agency to the outside world.

These intelligences, or “Masters,” she claimed were certain adepts still living in Tibet and in possession of great occult powers, such as impressing suitable minds at a distance by what is now called “telepathy,” going out in their astral forms or thought bodies and materializing themselves, using the organism of H. P. Blavatsky and other disciples for the production of “occult phenomena,” etc.

All such things, which some years ago appeared incredible, now appear quite possible in the light which recent investigations in occult science have thrown upon that subject.  My own experience in this line has convinced me that such Masters exist.  I have been present on certain occasions when “the Master” appeared to her and she spoke with him.  I could not see him with my eyes, but I felt his presence.  His influence pervaded my whole being and filled me with a sensation of indescribable bliss which lasted for several days.  This power, awakening within me a higher state of consciousness made me feel on such occasions as if it were my own and I the Master myself.

A great deal of nonsense has been written about the "occult phenomena” produced by Madame Blavatsky, by her enemies and others giving undue importance to them.  She was not a “spiritual medium,” producing phenomena under test conditions for the purpose of proving their reality, neither did she receive any money for it.

All the phenomena which I witnessed in her presence were undoubtedly genuine, but if it is true that she occasionally “helped the spirits” or played some sleight of hand trick, I would not criticize her too severely for it; because her only purpose was to induce the people to study the higher laws of life, to raise them up to a higher conception of eternal truth, and teach them to do their own thinking.

She wanted to call the attention of the world by all means to the higher teachings which originated from the adepts, and the phenomena were to her nothing else but the sweets, with which one coaxes the children to come to school and to learn.  It may also be stated that the demands made upon her by ignorant and unspiritual people were often of an incredible absurdity and extremely selfish.

There was one who insisted that she should pray the holy saints of the Himalayas that they should provide that his wife would give birth to a son, another that they should procure him a paying appointment at a government office, another wanted to find a buyer for his house, another a good location for opening a shop for selling cheese, etc., and if such “searchers for truth” did not receive a favorable reply, they soon became her enemies and would have nothing to do with the teachings of wisdom.

It is, therefore, not surprising that H.P.B. sometimes amused herself by making fun of such fools.  In fact her sense of humor was very great, and one of her objectionable sides was that she loved to make sport even of her best friends.  Although she, as far as I know, never had taken any lessons in drawing, she sometimes drew caricatures that were not without artistic value and portraits that were easily recognizable.

One such represents the examination for initiation of a prominent member of the Theosophical Society.  He is evidently unable to answer the questions asked of him by K. H., and he looks with a wistful eye at a bottle of champagne and a dancing girl, as if he were very loath to abandon the pleasures of this life.  An elemental holds a candle, and in the distance is the Master M. and still further on Madame Blavatsky herself sitting upon an elephant.

THE INITIATION
Caricature made by Madame Blavatsky


Already on the first day after my arrival at Adyar I received through Madame Blavatsky an unsought and unexpected test. I went to her room and found her writing.  Not wishing to disturb her, I sat down near the window and thought of a lady friend of mine who had died at Galveston some years ago, wondering what had become of her “principles.”

I noticed that Madame Blavatsky turned her paper and seemed to play with her pencil in a state of absent-mindedness with a far-away look.  She then handed me the paper.  It contained the answer to my question in a drawing, representing the corpse of my friend extended upon the ground and an elemental standing by its side, watching for the escape of the astral soul, while the passage of her spirit to higher spheres was indicated by a rainbow.

Similar evidences of occult power I often received through H. P. Blavatsky.  Sometimes it was direct writing produced by some invisible entity; whole letters written in that way were found in my closed desk; but these phenomena were nothing new to me, as I had seen them often in America.  I did not look at them with suspicion of trickery.  Trick or no trick was all the same to me, because I was interested only in the contents of the letters and not in the way in which they were written and forwarded to me.

I have seen quite a number of occult phenomena taking place in her presence; but the most surprising of all phenomena was to me the fact that I found myself able to write articles on occult subjects for The Theosophist and to deliver without any previous preparation public lectures which found interested and appreciative audiences in India and afterwards in America, Germany and Italy, although I had never spoken in public before I arrived in India. »

(The Occult Review, January 1908, p.18-23)










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