Reluctantly crouched at the starting line. I'm a driver, I'm a winner. Things are gonna change, I can feel it. He's fighting and biting and riding on his horse. He's going the distance. He's going for speed. He's going the distance. Ahh... / Ah. Words to remember: neoteny. cynosure. immanent. mercantilism. teleology.
Madame Blavatsky – The Mother of Modern Spirituality – by Gary…
Friday, April 26th, 2013
Madame Blavatsky – The Mother of Modern Spirituality – by Gary Lachman
- 4/4 Stars
This was a great book. This is the third book I’ve read about H.P. Blavatsky, and I’m currently also about a third of the way into ‘Isis Unveiled’, and she is definitely fun to read about. This book just came out and is a ‘clarifying’ biography, meaning it tries to make sense of the cloudy past and past biographies of Madame Blavatsky, seeing as how she is shrouded in mystery and their is much contention over details of her life, her ‘works’ and the overall myth that surrounds her. But this was a good one. It is written by what I’d call a believer skeptic. He believes, but he can make enough sense of things to write the truth. He doesn’t let his belief get in the way of critical thinking, and it only tints the 1/10 of a percent where you ask yourself if their were any ‘miracles’ involved with Blavatsky’s life, the feats which she herself downplayed as unimportant to actual belief and understanding.
I’d also recommend ‘Madame Blavatsky’s Baboon’ by Peter Washington. It’s more critical and is also a more general history of Theosophy, covering more of the development of the Theosophical Society beyond Blavatsky, whereas Lachman stuck to Blavatsky.
Gary Lachman is also a definitely recommended author. I’ve read ‘A Dark Muse: A History of the Occult’ and it was excellent and he’s written many other books about the occult and occult figures to date.
