I do wish more authors and speakers on Blavatski would mention my great great grand dad Abner Doubleday. He was one of the three founders of the American Theosophical Society alonge with Blavatski and Olccot
@@GaryLachman Thank you :) I will have to get and read your book, I have listened to a few of your interviews on shows such as Occult of Personality and a couple of others and have am impressed with your research. After going back and rereading about Abner Doubleday I can say you are right. I'm not sure why I remembered my facts wrong, but thank you for correcting me. Keep up the Great work
Colin Wilson introduced me to Theosophy. I read his books at age 13 - 16 and then went to a meeting of the Dublin Lodge, Theosophical Society. Haven't looked back since.. I will make a contribution.
I'd love to see you do a presentation of John Dee. Anyways, great stuff. Kept me entertained. So much interesting stuff to be found in occult & esoteric books
So great of you to do this.... HPB one of the smartest people. Just got “The Secret Teachers of the Western World” 20+pages in and really great out of the gate. Have seen you on New thinking allowed...and just found your YT channel...you should do more on it. All the Best. :>
The Gary Lachman? I must say, Parallel Lines is a great album, and to imagine such remote interests would align back again on such a humble RUclips channel as this one is incredible
Gary, you're one of my occultic literary detective heroes! I have a large collection of your books on my kindle and also enjoy watching videos like this on the old You Tube. Keep up the good work, I, for one, love it! Cheers!
@@GaryLachman Gary, just one question, if possible. Have you ever written or are you thinking of writing a book on Plotinus and Neo Platonism? You mention him early in this lecture and I feel his influence on western occultist is rather deep. Ok, thanks, whether you answer or not.
@@athenassigil5820 I write about Plotinus and the Neoplatonics a bit in The Secret Teachers of the Western World. Not a whole book, but a decent section of a chapter.
@@GaryLachman Hi Gary! I just thought I'd pass on that I originally bought your new book, Holy Russia on my kindle, a few months ago. In saying that, I loved the book so much, I ordered it in book form about a month ago or so...Well, I finally picked it up at my local post office, today.....it's an awesome little hard cover and one of the smarter looking hard covers in your catalog. I just thought I would pass on my joy and wonder that people like you and Colin Wilson ( who you picked up the torch, since his passing), amongst others, who keep the lore and history of the occult in the public eye. . Keep up the great work and I can't wait for your next project. I hope all is well in London. Cheers!
An insightful lecture about Blavatsky - I like that you considered her 'impacts' in wider contexts than she is usually given credit for. You also mentioned some surprise that 'feminists' had not taken as much notice as they might have. I agree and several decades ago considered writing about 'Women, Gender and the Occult' as part of a doctoral thesis which did not come to fruition. I think she embodied - in a 'larger than life' fashion the paradigmatic possibilities for women to 'be' the pivotal connecting and even controlling points for the 'phenomena of the universe'. The irony is she simultaneously seems then to be both metaphorical and 'real' - the expression of/by herself thus being the 'message' .
Mr. Lachman, could you please help me by understanding of this sentence quoted from the book Gurdjieff Making a New World’? …”The second group of notions includes the common cosmic exchange of substances, and the ‘individualization into cosmoses’.” Here ‘the individualization into cosmoses’, do you have any idea about how to understand it or what expression could be used for any better understanding? Thanks in advance.
Pretty good. At the very least you must bow to his knowledge of things known and unknown. Things like my mother for chrissake, 50 years and I still don't have a clue.
The placement of the glasses is in reference to camera angles so he's not walking in front of the shot everytime he needs a drink...or it's water n vodka 🥂
Wow! So my intuition was correct. A few themes in The Wind in the Willows made me wonder. Funnily, the OTO have a Facebook presence here in NZ and I've been chatting to a few members and prospective members. Thanks for confirming my suspicion. For a bonus point, following a reference in an Andrew Collins book, I've been trying to find out if Herbert Whitley a turn of the 19th Century philanthropist and co-founder of Paignton Zoo was an occultist? Collins had a vision of him processing in Druid regalia. The Ancient Order of Druids never responded to my query about it so I'm left wondering.
Swami Vivekananda had just as much or more of an influence on modern spirituality. Olcott was impressed by him and wanted him to join the theosophists, but Vivekananda said he couldn't because he didn't agree with any of their beliefs, so then Olcott and the theosophists engaged in a slander campaign against him.
This was a good talk on Blavatsky she comes across as interesting and dynamic, the problem I have with her is that I find her books unreadable. Olcott's book on Blavatsky was a good read, maybe I should re read it. That's funny that Gandhi took the Gita as the basis for his non violence when it is an account of Krishna persuading Arjuna that he must fight in the war.
I think if you take her in small doses she can be digestible. Some of her writing is actually quite effective, in a table-thumbing manner. I always read the Gita as showing that the ways of the gods are not the same as the ways of man and that we shouldn't get cold feet because of this. Life is struggle, pain, and uncertainty. But that's no reason to reject it.
The trouble was her books were huge.I don't know if I can properly characterise them over the intervening time since I read it, but in recollection it seemed discursive and meandering rather than clearly structured and easily digestible. I had the secret doctrine and read about 200 odd pages, I might have felt better about it, if it had only been that long, but it defeated me. I was handling a condensed version of Isis Unveiled in a bookshop today, maybe getting through that would make me feel better. Sorry I was being a bit flippant about the Gita, which is one of the world's great religious texts, while Krishna is urging Arjuna to fight I agree it is not necessarily any celebration of war, but neither could it be seen as an endorsement of pacifism. But Gandhi certainly had courage and resolve which I think could be seen as key themes of the Gita.
Keri Ford I think with Isis and SD the best way to approach them (as Gary says in his book) is just dip in wherever the fancy takes you. The footnotes alone are an education.
What a character! Also, I read in ''Old Diary Leaves''(HS Olcott) The Col said he met A Crowley (I think on a Train)and thought him a decent chap-and Crowley never said a bad word about the Madame(Giving her an 8>3 magister templli Grade--a compliment from AC).I am sure Crowley commented on HS Olcott in a positive manner but may have mixed up the HSO point of view of AC-Although I am sure AC commented on HSO. An interesting ''Statement by the Tibetan Djwhal Khul'' who was a child in the HPB time but matured and worked with Alice A Bailey, a real man not a Jinn(But An alleged Secret Chief) Maybe a work about Alice A Bailey would be a good thing? Someone needs to write an account. Gorbachov was Interested in The lucis trust-It is said, and also the Lucis temple in the United Nations, Many questions(and possible answers) about the Lucifer trust would form a not very looked at period of history. There are many profound writings by AAB and the Tibetan-something about the way it is written-Something I have never experienced in any other writings-. Anyway, I enjoyed the lecture about AC and started to listen to the HPB lecture-but it was late-and I will listen to it, Later--Thanks for the reply. JC
well, what to say. I am no expert. I never heard that. not to say it is not true, it would be a boon if you could direct me to more in-depth information concerning that, really! (how do I put it without sounding negative) Crowley hinted but never said outright that he disapproved of Blavatsky. My information may be incomplete/is incomplete. I get the vibe that Crowley had a grudging respect. Still, that still leaves Alice Bailey. With respect.
I found the quote, Vittoria Cremers claimed that she knew the ID of Jack the Ripper...Crowley joked It was HPB. He said not the 1st or 100th... I found the Cremmers story in a book by Some chap called Mr Lachman. I liked the lecture.
The Bhagavad Gita can be read on many levels. Near the beginning it indeed talks about violence. But towards the end Krishna reveals that death is illusion anyway, and that you are not really the doer anyway because you are the death-less state prior to this birth. The violence halfway is said not to apply to the sage.. Hope this helps.
He's trying to be modest by hiding behind Blavatsky: he knows that really, he invented the Beatles, the wizard of oz, Kandinsky, Eddison, Yeats and all living people who think that they have a soul.
@@GaryLachman I also have a question... Do we actually now what kind of things Crowley was trying to accomplish in his day to day Rituals? I always only hear about the things he did, but never really WHY he did them... Thanks!
If you read his Magical Diaries - there are a few editions of them available - you can find rather precise detail about what his aims were in his practice. Mostly money, success, compliant sex magick partners, and the furtherance of Thelema were some of the most common targets.
The evolution of art tells the story of the decline of human consciousness from The renaissance (master artist creations) to ultra crap like Jackson Pollock and others painting what look like a 4 year old threw paint on a canvas. It’s like perfection turned into chaos and nonsense much like human mentality over the last several hundred years. Michelangelo stated “the true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.” Today’s very materialistic, absent spirituality society reflects the separation from higher consciousness. Artificiality has replaced true meaning.
Pioneer Visionary provocateur, Madame Helena Petrovna occult writer, child of Russian aristocrats seeker who traveled five continents, and cofounder of the Theosophical society. is still being hailed as an icon and scorned as a fraud. What does this all mean? Read between the lines, there's something syndical in this story.
Interesting talk. If you actually read Gandhi's writings, you would find that he was a serious and major racist. I never understood where the white washing of Gandhi came from.
I actually have read some of Gandhi's writings. I guess everybody is a racist these days. Arthur Koestler wrote a good piece on Gandhi some years ago, "Mahatma Gandhi: A Reevaluation" collected in The Heel of Achilles.
Gandhi experienced racism himself while in South Africa especially on public transport. This rumor sounds inconsistent with his core I have traveled to Indian with one of the grandson's of Gandhi. There seems no way this could be true. Their sensibilities are too deep even within the caste system.
I do wish more authors and speakers on Blavatski would mention my great great grand dad Abner Doubleday. He was one of the three founders of the American Theosophical Society alonge with Blavatski and Olccot
He has three mentions in the book. He wasn't one of the founders though - that's HPB, Olcott and W.Q. Judge. But he was an early adherent.
@@GaryLachman Thank you :) I will have to get and read your book, I have listened to a few of your interviews on shows such as Occult of Personality and a couple of others and have am impressed with your research. After going back and rereading about Abner Doubleday I can say you are right. I'm not sure why I remembered my facts wrong, but thank you for correcting me. Keep up the Great work
And to think, that and baseball too.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abner_Doubleday
@@GaryLachman luv your discussion's & dialogue you have with Dr Mishlove, just thought I say that!🙏👌
Thank you for posting one the FEW intelligent things online about Blavatsky! good talk RHQuaytman
Please help fund a much needed Colin Wilson documentary: www.indiegogo.com/projects/colin-wilson-his-life-and-times--2#/
Colin Wilson introduced me to Theosophy.
I read his books at age 13 - 16 and then went to a meeting of the Dublin Lodge, Theosophical Society. Haven't looked back since.. I will make a contribution.
I'd love to see you do a presentation of John Dee. Anyways, great stuff. Kept me entertained. So much interesting stuff to be found in occult & esoteric books
I am glad you liked it. Many thanks.
I would love a deep dive into John Dee. There's little out there
@@aratrex Vincent Bridges is a name you might wanna dig into unless you've already done it :)
@@TruthGatherer2013 I'll check him out, thanks!
Mazel tov, Gary! You're on an incredible roll.
Thanks Tom. I'm glad you've come across this. All the best.
So great of you to do this.... HPB one of the smartest people. Just got “The Secret Teachers of the Western World” 20+pages in and really great out of the gate.
Have seen you on New thinking allowed...and just found your YT channel...you should do more on it. All the Best. :>
The Gary Lachman? I must say, Parallel Lines is a great album, and to imagine such remote interests would align back again on such a humble RUclips channel as this one is incredible
Many thanks for your comment. I'm not on Parallel Lines but I'll accept the compliment nonetheless.
Gary, you're one of my occultic literary detective heroes! I have a large collection of your books on my kindle and also enjoy watching videos like this on the old You Tube. Keep up the good work, I, for one, love it! Cheers!
Is You Tube old? I am so out of date. Thanks for your warm words and encouragement.
@@GaryLachman Gary, just one question, if possible. Have you ever written or are you thinking of writing a book on Plotinus and Neo Platonism? You mention him early in this lecture and I feel his influence on western occultist is rather deep. Ok, thanks, whether you answer or not.
@@athenassigil5820 I write about Plotinus and the Neoplatonics a bit in The Secret Teachers of the Western World. Not a whole book, but a decent section of a chapter.
@@GaryLachman Hi Gary! I just thought I'd pass on that I originally bought your new book, Holy Russia on my kindle, a few months ago. In saying that, I loved the book so much, I ordered it in book form about a month ago or so...Well, I finally picked it up at my local post office, today.....it's an awesome little hard cover and one of the smarter looking hard covers in your catalog. I just thought I would pass on my joy and wonder that people like you and Colin Wilson ( who you picked up the torch, since his passing), amongst others, who keep the lore and history of the occult in the public eye. . Keep up the great work and I can't wait for your next project. I hope all is well in London. Cheers!
@@athenassigil5820 I, Jupiter, I , Gary thank you.
An insightful lecture about Blavatsky - I like that you considered her 'impacts' in wider contexts than she is usually given credit for. You also mentioned some surprise that 'feminists' had not taken as much notice as they might have. I agree and several decades ago considered writing about 'Women, Gender and the Occult' as part of a doctoral thesis which did not come to fruition. I think she embodied - in a 'larger than life' fashion the paradigmatic possibilities for women to 'be' the pivotal connecting and even controlling points for the 'phenomena of the universe'. The irony is she simultaneously seems then to be both metaphorical and 'real' - the expression of/by herself thus being the 'message' .
Thank you Gary🙏🏾
What a good intro to Blavatsky!
Mr. Lachman, could you please help me by understanding of this sentence quoted from the book Gurdjieff Making a New World’? …”The second group of notions includes the common cosmic exchange of substances, and the ‘individualization into cosmoses’.” Here ‘the individualization into cosmoses’, do you have any idea about how to understand it or what expression could be used for any better understanding? Thanks in advance.
Pretty good. At the very least you must bow to his knowledge of things known and unknown. Things like my mother for chrissake, 50 years and I still don't have a clue.
Heroin to cope with what she knew, 'but care not mention'! Great channel! Thanks!
Are you joking? HPB was as anti-drug (and alcohol) as you could get. She smoked like a chimney and had an appalling diet, but heroin? What are you on?
anyone wonder why he drank from 1 glass that was full and switched immediately to another which had less in it... think about this switch
The placement of the glasses is in reference to camera angles so he's not walking in front of the shot everytime he needs a drink...or it's water n vodka 🥂
You should have a dialogue with @paulChek on his podcast
Living 4D with Paul Chek
I find all the connections interesting. On a tangent- do you know if Kenneth Graham was a member of any esoteric societies?
He had his own branch of the O.T.O., Crowley's society, still around today.
Wow! So my intuition was correct. A few themes in The Wind in the Willows made me wonder. Funnily, the OTO have a Facebook presence here in NZ and I've been chatting to a few members and prospective members. Thanks for confirming my suspicion.
For a bonus point, following a reference in an Andrew Collins book, I've been trying to find out if Herbert Whitley a turn of the 19th Century philanthropist and co-founder of Paignton Zoo was an occultist? Collins had a vision of him processing in Druid regalia. The Ancient Order of Druids never responded to my query about it so I'm left wondering.
Funnily Crowley lived in the same suberb of Torquay to Whitley.
Suburb
Uluvu thank you. Funnily I did wonder
Adelle should play her.
Swami Vivekananda had just as much or more of an influence on modern spirituality. Olcott was impressed by him and wanted him to join the theosophists, but Vivekananda said he couldn't because he didn't agree with any of their beliefs, so then Olcott and the theosophists engaged in a slander campaign against him.
lee ananda don’t forget Yogananda!
This was a good talk on Blavatsky she comes across as interesting and dynamic, the problem I have with her is that I find her books unreadable. Olcott's book on Blavatsky was a good read, maybe I should re read it.
That's funny that Gandhi took the Gita as the basis for his non violence when it is an account of Krishna persuading Arjuna that he must fight in the war.
I think if you take her in small doses she can be digestible. Some of her writing is actually quite effective, in a table-thumbing manner. I always read the Gita as showing that the ways of the gods are not the same as the ways of man and that we shouldn't get cold feet because of this. Life is struggle, pain, and uncertainty. But that's no reason to reject it.
The trouble was her books were huge.I don't know if I can properly characterise them over the intervening time since I read it, but in recollection it seemed discursive and meandering rather than clearly structured and easily digestible. I had the secret doctrine and read about 200 odd pages, I might have felt better about it, if it had only been that long, but it defeated me. I was handling a condensed version of Isis Unveiled in a bookshop today, maybe getting through that would make me feel better.
Sorry I was being a bit flippant about the Gita, which is one of the world's great religious texts, while Krishna is urging Arjuna to fight I agree it is not necessarily any celebration of war, but neither could it be seen as an endorsement of pacifism. But Gandhi certainly had courage and resolve which I think could be seen as key themes of the Gita.
Keri Ford I think with Isis and SD the best way to approach them (as Gary says in his book) is just dip in wherever the fancy takes you. The footnotes alone are an education.
This is the problem with most of the Theosophical material in general.
Blavatsky was supposed to have donned the red apron of Garibaldi and fought with the revolutionaries.
She did. She fought with Mazzini against the papal troops.
What a character! Also, I read in ''Old Diary Leaves''(HS Olcott) The Col said he met A Crowley (I think on a Train)and thought him a decent chap-and Crowley never said a bad word about the Madame(Giving her an 8>3 magister templli Grade--a compliment from AC).I am sure Crowley commented on HS Olcott in a positive manner but may have mixed up the HSO point of view of AC-Although I am sure AC commented on HSO.
An interesting ''Statement by the Tibetan Djwhal Khul'' who was a child in the HPB time but matured and worked with Alice A Bailey, a real man not a Jinn(But An alleged Secret Chief)
Maybe a work about Alice A Bailey would be a good thing? Someone needs to write an account.
Gorbachov was Interested in The lucis trust-It is said, and also the Lucis temple in the United Nations, Many questions(and possible answers) about the Lucifer trust would form a not very looked at period of history. There are many profound writings by AAB and the Tibetan-something about the way it is written-Something I have never experienced in any other writings-.
Anyway, I enjoyed the lecture about AC and started to listen to the HPB lecture-but it was late-and I will listen to it, Later--Thanks for the reply. JC
Well, he suspected HPB of being Jack the Ripper.
well, what to say. I am no expert. I never heard that. not to say it is not true, it would be a boon if you could direct me to more in-depth information concerning that, really! (how do I put it without sounding negative) Crowley hinted but never said outright that he disapproved of Blavatsky.
My information may be incomplete/is incomplete.
I get the vibe that Crowley had a grudging respect.
Still, that still leaves Alice Bailey. With respect.
I found the quote, Vittoria Cremers claimed that she knew the ID of Jack the Ripper...Crowley joked It was HPB. He said not the 1st or 100th...
I found the Cremmers story in a book by Some chap called Mr Lachman. I liked the lecture.
The Bhagavad Gita can be read on many levels. Near the beginning it indeed talks about violence. But towards the end Krishna reveals that death is illusion anyway, and that you are not really the doer anyway because you are the death-less state prior to this birth.
The violence halfway is said not to apply to the sage.. Hope this helps.
He's trying to be modest by hiding behind Blavatsky: he knows that really, he invented the Beatles, the wizard of oz, Kandinsky, Eddison, Yeats and all living people who think that they have a soul.
Finally.
Why?
I really enjoyed this, but the founder of the Illuminati was called Adam Weishaupt, not Joseph...
Yes, mea culpa. Adam indeed.
@@GaryLachman
I also have a question...
Do we actually now what kind of things Crowley was trying to accomplish in his day to day Rituals?
I always only hear about the things he did, but never really WHY he did them...
Thanks!
If you read his Magical Diaries - there are a few editions of them available - you can find rather precise detail about what his aims were in his practice. Mostly money, success, compliant sex magick partners, and the furtherance of Thelema were some of the most common targets.
@@GaryLachman
Ok, gotta check this out...
Thanks a lot, you're awesome!
The evolution of art tells the story of the decline of human consciousness from The renaissance (master artist creations) to ultra crap like Jackson Pollock and others painting what look like a 4 year old threw paint on a canvas. It’s like perfection turned into chaos and nonsense much like human mentality over the last several hundred years. Michelangelo stated “the true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.” Today’s very materialistic, absent spirituality society reflects the separation from higher consciousness. Artificiality has replaced true meaning.
Pioneer Visionary provocateur, Madame Helena Petrovna occult writer, child of Russian aristocrats seeker who traveled five continents, and cofounder of the Theosophical society. is still being hailed as an icon and scorned as a fraud. What does this all mean? Read between the lines, there's something syndical in this story.
Interesting talk. If you actually read Gandhi's writings, you would find that he was a serious and major racist. I never understood where the white washing of Gandhi came from.
I actually have read some of Gandhi's writings. I guess everybody is a racist these days. Arthur Koestler wrote a good piece on Gandhi some years ago, "Mahatma Gandhi: A Reevaluation" collected in The Heel of Achilles.
Gandhi experienced racism himself while in South Africa especially on public transport. This rumor sounds inconsistent with his core I have traveled to Indian with one of the grandson's of Gandhi. There seems no way this could be true. Their sensibilities are too deep even within the caste system.
what a load of superficial nonsense.
Which? There is so much of it.