LIST OF ARTICLES

WAS BLAVATSKY A ROSICRUCIAN?

 
 
Boris de Zirkoff points out that:
 
-         "Hinrichs, who at the time was a leading political reformer, affirmed that Madame Blavatsky claimed to be a Rosicrucian." (CW I, p.100)
 
 
I have not found that Blavatsky has stated that, but instead I have found an article that Blavatsky wrote where she addressed the subject of the Rosicrucians entitled "A few questions to Hiraf, author of the article: Rosicrucianism."
 
And there Blavatsky specified the following:
 
« Hiraf should add to the word Rosicrucian: "that Order in particular", at least because after all the Rosicrucian Order was nothing more than an esoteric organization, one of the many branches of the same tree.
 
And Hiraf, by forgetting to specify this particular denomination and by including under the name of Rosicrucians all those who, dedicating their lives to Occultism, congregated in Brotherhoods, Hiraf makes a mistake by which he can unknowingly make people believe that the Rosicrucians having disappeared, there are no more true European esotericists practicing Occultism on the face of the earth.
 
The Rosicrucian Brotherhood was not founded in Ancient Egypt but until the mid-13th century. The Rosicrucians strove to combine the most diverse branches of the Occultism and soon became famous for the extreme purity of their lives and their extraordinary powers.
 
The original Rosicrucians later created the Paracelsists, the European alchemists and other branches of European Occultism such as Freemasonry, etc. But to indifferently call all esotericists Rosicrucians is to make the same mistake as if we were to call all Christians Baptists on the ground that the latter are also Christians.
 
Strictly speaking, the true Rosicrucians no longer exist because I understand that the last of them left in the person of Cagliostro (1743-1795). »
(CW I, p.104-6, excerpts)
 
 
We therefore see that Blavatsky points out that the true Rosicrucians ceased to exist at the end of the 18th century and it is incorrect to call the following esoteric organizations that arose that way. Yet this is what a number of (more or less genuine) Western occultists and spiritualists did who founded their organization and called it "Rosicrucian" essentially to give it more prestige.
 
And that is why William Judge, who was Blavatsky's main collaborator, commented:
 
-      "Today it is not uncommon to find those who have temerity enough to dub themselves Rosicrucians." (Echoes of the Orient, p.35)
 
 
 
Did Blavatsky belong to any of these "Rosicrucian" organizations?
 
 
I have investigated a lot Blavatsky and I have not found any reference or proof that she belonged to any of these neo-Rosicrucian organizations, but rather that she was adverse, as shown by her hostile attitude towards Pascal Beverly Randolph, founder in 1858 of Fraternitas Rosae Crucis, and to whom Blavatsky about this individual said:
 
-      “The 'Rosicrucian' fantasies of P.B. Randolph.” (CW I, p.269)
-      “The most unpleasant are parts of P.B. Randolph's 'Eulis'." (CW X, p.124)
 
 
 
Willy Schrödter in his book “A Rosicrucian Notebook” wrote:
 
« Around 1890 there was a mystic school, well-known in informed circles, sited in Darmstadt, which was led by an in other respects uneducated and almost illiterate weaver called Mailander. Those who belonged to it included, among others, Karl Weinfurter (died 1942), Gustav Meyrink (1868-1932; a student there from October, 1892); Dr. Franz Hartmann (1838-1912); Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), the Indian Babij and Chief of the Austrian General Staff, Schemua (a friend of G.W. Surya). So Mailander must have been a rather unusual man»
(p.131-2)
 
 
Schrödter affirmed that Blavatsky was a member –or at least was in contact– with the Rosicrucian Mailander School, but he also pointed out that this School was formed around 1890 in Darmstadt, Germany, which makes it very unlikely that Blavatsky belonged to this School because in 1890 Blavatsky was living in London, she was very ill and very busy instructing her students and writing her latest books. And therefore she no longer had the strength, the time, and the enthusiasm to associate with esoteric organizations. And in fact she died a short time later, in May 1891.
 
 
~*~
 
We therefore conclude that Blavatsky was most likely not a Rosicrucian.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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