I don’t propose that Ann shut up. But if she doesn’t, I will argue the point with her, as we should.

And I believe that's exactly what freedom of speech and religion are all about. Those who publicly profess their religion as Ann did should expect possible public disagreement -- but not censure or censorship. She was simply responding to a question that required her to define what Christians believe. Those beliefs have been public knowledge for over 2000 years.

I hate hypocritical do-gooders who always align themselves with the (political) wind.

And those are not exclusive to any one given denomination, especially if you examine the Middle Ages...

Thus it wasn't hard for the Nazis to convince themselves, and others, that this amalgamated soup of Nordic paganism, and national and racial pride could be grafted onto the pure vine of Christianity. Once you've decided that the Bible isn't the Word of God and that you can cut out the parts you don't like...

Yep, you hit the bullseye... Many also forget that der Fuhrer was heavily influenced by Catholicism, as were the Italian Fascists.

The Fascist Party (Partito Fascista Repubblicano) and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) were certainly no different than the Soviet Socialists in blending their occult hierarchy with a mechanism of the Christian churches. The Russian Orthodox church was also an unwitting tool for the Soviets. When some of the clergy outlived their usefulness, they were exterminated by the KGB.

All three were pagan cults and used carefully crafted pagan symbolism (idols) to generate a climate of fear in the unwashed masses.

Without these guideposts, man will inevitably succumb to their own vain imaginations as their foolish hearts become darkened in pride.

Soren Kierkegaard from The Sickness Unto Death:

The fantastic is, of course, most closely related to the imagination [phantasien], but the imagination is related in itÂ’s turn to feeling, understanding, and will, so that a personÂ’s feelings, understanding and will may be fantastic. Fantasy is, in general the medium of infinitizationÂ…

Thomas Hobbes' Leviathan:

Part IV. Of the Kingdom of Darkness
Chap. xlv. Of Demonology and other Relics of the Religion of the Gentiles.
[14] An image, in the most strict signification of the word, is the resemblance of something visible: in which sense the fantastical forms, apparitions, or seemings of visible bodies to the sight, are only images; such as are the show of a man or other thing in the water, by reflection or refraction; or of the sun or stars by direct vision in the air; which are nothing real in the things seen, nor in the place where they seem to be; nor are their magnitudes and figures the same with that of the object, but changeable, by the variation of the organs of sight, or by glasses; and are present oftentimes in our imagination, and in our dreams, when the object is absent; or changed into other colours, and shapes, as things that depend only upon the fancy. And these are the images which are originally and most properly called ideas and idols, and derived from the language of the Grecians, with whom the word eido (ειδο) signifieth to see. They are also called phantasms, which is in the same language, apparitions. And from these images it is that one of the faculties of man's nature is called the imagination. And from hence it is manifest that there neither is, nor can be, any image made of a thing invisible.
[15] It is also evident that there can be no image of a thing infinite: for all the images and phantasms that are made by the impression of things visible are figured. But figure is quantity every way determined, and therefore there can be no image of God, nor of the soul of man, nor of spirits; but only of bodies visible, that is, bodies that have light in themselves, or are by such enlightened.
[16] And whereas a man can fancy shapes he never saw, making up a figure out of the parts of divers creatures, as the poets make their centaurs, chimeras and other monsters never seen, so can he also give matter to those shapes, and make them in wood, clay or metal. And these are also called images, not for the resemblance of any corporeal thing, but for the resemblance of some phantastical inhabitants of the brain of the maker. But in these idols, as they are originally in the brain, and as they are painted, carved moulded or molten in matter, there is a similitude of one to the other, for which the material body made by art may be said to be the image of the fantastical idol made by nature.

““greasing the rails: 1160 results on Google
greasing the wheels: 49,400”

Thank you for the post, even though I’m waaaay in the minority, at least I’m not completely alone:-)”

Greasing the skids: 253,000.

Madame Blavatsky

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Elena Petrovna Gan/ Ð•Ð»ÐµÐ½Ð° ÐŸÐµÑ‚Ñ€Ð¾Ð²Ð½Ð° Ð“Ð°Ð½ (also HÃ©lÃ¨ne) (July 30 - July 31, 1831 (O.S.) (August 12, 1831 (N.S.)) - May 8, 1891 London), better known as Helena Blavatsky (Russian: Ð•Ð»ÐµÐ½Ð° Ð‘Ð»Ð°Ð²Ð°Ñ‚ÑÐºÐ°Ñ) or Madame Blavatsky, born Helena von Hahn, was a founder of the Theosophical Society.^[1]

Helena Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society.

[edit] Biography

[edit] Family

Elena's parents were Colonel Piotr Alekseevich Gan / Peter von Hahn (ÐŸÑ‘Ñ‚Ñ€ ÐÐ»ÐµÐºÑÐµÐµÐ²Ð¸Ñ‡ Ð“Ð°Ð½, 1798+1873) - of "original" (Uradel) German nobility form Basedow (Mecklenburg) - and Eelena Andreyevna Fadeyeva (Ð•Ð»ÐµÐ½Ð° ÐÐ½Ð´Ñ€ÐµÐµÐ²Ð½Ð° Ð¤Ð°Ð´ÐµÐµÐ²Ð°, 1814+1843) was the author, under the pen-name "Zinaida Rzheva", of a dozen novels. Described by Belinsky as the "Russian George Sand", she died at the age of 28, when Helena was eleven. Sergei Vitte - Russian Minister, and then Prime-Minister in the regn of Emperor Nickolas II - was her first cousin. In his memoirs count Vitte recalls his encounters with Elena.

Elena's maternal grandparents were Andrei Mikhailovich Fadeyev (Andrey Fadeyev) Governor of Saratov, later of Tiflis (Tbilisi), and his wife Helene (nee Princess Dolgoruky) - prominent figures of the age of Russian enlightenment. Elena grew up amid a culture rich in spirituality and traditional Russian mythologies, which introduced her to the realm of supernatural and irrational.

Elena's great-grand nephew Boris de Zirkoff (Ð‘Ð¾Ñ€Ð¸Ñ Ð¦Ð¸Ñ€ÐºÐ¾Ð², â€¢1902+1981) was an active member of Theosophical Society and the editor of the Blavatsky Collected Writings; her great-grand niece, also Elena (â€¢1935), lives in Moscow - her resemblance to HPB is striking.

[edit] First marriage

She was married three weeks before she turned seventeen, on July 7, 1848, to the forty-year old Nikifor (also Nicephor) Vassilievitch Blavatsky, vice-governor of Erivan. After three unhappy months, she stole a horse, and escaped back over the mountains to her grandfather in Tiflis. Her grandfather shipped her off immediately to her father who was retired and living near Saint Petersburg. He travelled two thousand miles to meet her at Odessa, but she wasn't there. She had missed the steamer, and sailed away with the skipper of an English bark bound for Istanbul. According to her account, they never consummated their marriage, and she remained a virgin her entire life. (For a counter-claim, see the section on Agardi Metrovitch.)

[edit] Wandering years

According to her own story as told to a later biographer, she spent the years 1848 to 1858 traveling the world, and is said to have visited Egypt, France, Canada (Quebec), England, South America, Germany, Mexico, India, Greece and especially Tibet to study for two years with the men she called Brothers. She claimed to have become Buddhist while in Sri Lanka^[2] and being initiated in Tibet. She returned to Russia in 1858 and went first to see her sister Vera, a young widow living in Rugodevo, a village which she had inherited from her husband.

[edit] Agardi Metrovitch

About this time, she met and left with Italian opera singer Agardi Metrovich. Some sources say that she had several extramarital affairs, became pregnant, and bore a deformed child, Yuri, whom she loved dearly. She wrote that Yuri was a child of her friends the Metroviches (C.W.I p. xlvi-ii, HPB TO APS p. 147). To balance this statement, Count Witte, her first cousin on her mother's side, stated in his Memoirs (as quoted by G. Williams), that her father read aloud a letter in which Metrovich signed himself as "your affectionate grandson". This is evidence that Metrovich considered himself Helena's husband at this point. Yuri died at the age of five, and Helena said that she ceased to believe in the Russian Orthodox God at this point.

Two different versions of how Agardi died are extant. In one, G. Williams states that Agardi had been taken sick with a fever and delirium in Ramleh, and that he died in bed April 19, 1870. In the second version, while bound for Cairo on a boat, the 'Evmonia', in 1871, an explosion claimed Agardiâ€™s life, but H. P. Blavatsky continued on to Cairo herself.

While in Cairo she formed the Societe Spirite for occult phenomena with Emma Cutting (later Emma Coulomb), which is said to have closed after dissatisfied customers complained of fraudulent activities.

Mme. Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena.

[edit] To New York

It was in 1873 that she emigrated to New York City. Impressing people with her psychic abilities, she was spurred on to continue her mediumship. Mediumship (other psychical and spiritual sciences of the time), based upon the quasi-religion known as Spiritualism having began at Rochester, NY, was a widely popular and fast-spreading field upon which Blavatsky based her career.^[3]

Throughout her career she claimed to have demonstrated physical and mental psychic feats which included levitation, clairvoyance, out-of-body projection, telepathy, and clairaudience. Another claim of hers was materialization, that is, producing physical objects out of nothing, though in general, her interests were more in the area of 'theory' and 'laws' rather than demonstration.

In 1874 at the farm of the Eddy Brothers, Helena met Henry Steel Olcott, a lawyer, agricultural expert, and journalist who covered the Spiritualist phenomena. Soon they were working together in the "Lamasery" (alternate spelling: "Lamastery") where her book Isis Unveiled was written.

She married her second husband, Michael C. Betanelly on April 3, 1875 in New York City. She separated from Betanelly after a few months, and their divorce was legalized on May 25, 1878. On July 8, 1878, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States.^[4]

Theosophy

Category:Theosophy

Founders of the T. S.

Helena Blavatsky
William Quan Judge
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Personalities

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Mysticism

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Organisations

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TS Adyar Â· TS Pasadena Â· ULT

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Isis Unveiled
The Key to Theosophy
Mahatma Letters
The Secret Doctrine
The Voice of the Silence
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Other topics

Agni Yoga Â· Anthroposophy Â·
Esotericism Â· Djwal Khul
Neo-Theosophy

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[edit] Foundation of Theosophical Society

While living in New York City, she founded the Theosophical Society in September 1875, with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others. Madame Blavatsky wrote that all religions were both true in their inner teachings and problematic or imperfect in their external conventional manifestations. Her writings connecting esoteric spiritual knowledge with new science may be considered to be the first instance of what is now called New Age thinking. In fact, many researchers feel that much of New Age thought started with Blavatsky.

She also lived in Philadelphia for part of 1875, where she resided at 3420 Sansom Street, now home of the White Dog Cafe[1]. While living on Sansom Street, Madame Blavatsky became ill with an infected leg. During her illness, she underwent a transformation which inspired her to found the Theosophical Society. In a letter dated June 12, 1875, Madame Blavatsky described her recovery, explaining that she dismissed the doctors and surgeons who threatened amputation. She is quoted as saying "Fancy my leg going to the spirit land before me!," and had a white dog sleep across her leg by night.

[edit] To India

She had moved to India, landing at Bombay February 16 1879,^[5] where she first made the acquaintaince of A.P. Sinnett. In his book Occult World he describes how she stayed at his home in Allahabad for six weeks that year, and again the following year.^[6]

Sometime around December 1880, while at a dinner party with a group including A.O. Hume and his wife, she is stated to have been instrumental in causing the materialization of Mrs Hume's lost brooch.^[7]

By 1882 the Theosophical Society became an international organization, and it was at this time that she moved the headquarters to Adyar near Madras, India.

The society headquartered here for some time, but she later went to Germany for a while, in between she stayed at Ostend (15 July 1886 - 1 May 1887) where she easily could meet her English friends. She wrote a big part of the Secret Doctrine in Ostend ^[8] and there she had a revelation during an illness to continue the book at any cost. Finally she went to England.

A disciple put her up in her own house in England and it was here that she lived until the end of her life.

[edit] Final years

In August, 1890 she formed the "Inner Circle" of 12 disciples: "Countess Constance Wachtmeister, Mrs Isabel Cooper-Oakley, Miss Emily Kislingbury, Miss Laura Cooper, Mrs Annie Besant, Mrs Alice Cleather, Dr Archibald Keightley, Herbert Coryn, Claude Wright, G.R.S. Mead, E.T. Sturdy, and Walter Old".^[9]

Suffering from heart disease, rheumatism, Bright's disease, and complications from influenza, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky died at 19 Avenue Road, St Johns Wood,^[10] the home she shared, in England on May 8, 1891.

Her last words in regard to her work were: "Keep the link unbroken! Do not let my last incarnation be a failure."

Her body was cremated; one third of her ashes were sent to Europe, one third with William Quan Judge to the United States, and one third to India where her ashes were scattered in the Ganges River. May 8 is celebrated by Theosophists, and it is called White Lotus Day.

She was succeeded as head of one branch of the Theosophical Society by her protege, Annie Besant. Her friend, W.Q. Judge, headed the American Section.

[edit] Influences

Blavatsky was influenced by the following authors:

Blavatsky's works have shown their influence on the following leaders, authors, artists and musicians:

According to Jackson Spielvogel and David Redles of the Simon Wiesenthal Center,^[12] the influence of the root race teachings of H. P. Blavatsky, and the adaptations of her ideas by her followers in the German Theosophical Lodges, constituted a popularly unacknowledged but decisive influence over the developing mind of Hitler:^[12]

"It is important to observe that there are also some striking differences between Blavatsky's doctrine and Hitler's later racial ideas. Blavatsky herself did not identify the Aryan race with the Germanic peoples. And although her racial doctrine clearly entailed belief in superior and inferior races and hence could be easily misused, she placed no emphasis on the domination of one race over another. She certainly did not advocate the use of force since human racial evolution was an inevitable process that operated primarily on the basis of spiritual laws." ^[12]

[edit] Works

Her books included

Isis Unveiled, a master key to the mysteries of ancient and modern science and theology (1877)Online version
From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan (1879-80) Online version
The Secret Doctrine, the synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (1888)Online version
The Voice of the Silence (1889) Online version
The Key to Theosophy (1889) Online version
Nightmare Tales (1892)
Personal Memoirs of H. P. Blavatsky. Autobiographic notes compiled by Mary K. Neff (1937)

Her many articles have been collected in the Collected Writings of H. P. Blavatsky. This series has 15 numbered volumes including the index.

[edit] Notes

^ 1891 England Census, showing a household including "Constance Wachtmeister Manager of Publishing Office; G.R.S. Mead, Author Journalist; Isabel Oakley, Millener; Helena Blavatsky, Authoress; and others"
^ http://www.blavatsky.net/forum/taylor/tibetanSources2.htm
^ Blavatsky, Helena, Isis Unveiled, pg. xlv, Theosophical University Press: Pasadena, 1877.
^ Naturalization of Blavatsky
^ http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/mahatma/ml-ccpre.htm
^ Occult World, A. P. Sinnett. Boston, 1882. p 42
^ Occult World, A.P. Sinnett. Boston, 1882. p 80
^ Letter to mrs. Kingsford from Ostend, Aug. 23, 1886: "I am hard at work now, for I am afraid not to be able to finish my Secret Doctrine if I wait long."
^ Theosophy timeline
^ http://www.tphta.ws/TPH_OCIV.HTM
^ http://www.dlshq.org/download/modernsage.htm (In his early life, Swami Sivananda had read books from the Theosophical Society and of Blavatsky. Theosophical terminology is found throughout his writtings to translate difficult Sanskrit terms.)
^ ^a ^b ^c Spielvogel, Jackson; David Redles (1986). "Hitler's Racial Ideology: Content and Occult Sources.". Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual 3, chapter 9. Retrieved on 2007-08-22.

[edit] Books about her

Helena Blavatsky. Edited and introduced by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Western Esoteric Masters Series. North Atlantic Books, Berkeley 2006.
The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky by Daniel Caldwell ISBN 0-8356-0794-1
HPB: The Extraordinary Life and Influence of Helena Blavatsky by Sylvia Cranston, G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1993. ISBN 0-9662115-1-0
H. P. Blavatsky and the SPR by Vernon Harrison
Blavatsky and The Secret Doctrine by Max Heindel (1933; from Max Heindel writings & with introduction by Manly Palmer Hall)
"Madame Blavastky, Medium and Magician", John Symonds, Odhams, 1959.
"Madame Blavatsky: The Woman Behind the Myth" by Marion Meade ISBN 0399123768
H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement by Charles Ryan ISBN 0-911500-80-4
Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America by Peter Washington ISBN 0-8052-4125-6
A review/rebuttal of Madame Blavatsky's Baboon
Priestess of the Occult by Gertrude Marvin Williams, Alfred A Knopf, 1946. OCLC 1162835
Critique of Williams' book by Walter A. Carrithers, Jr
Bleiler, Everett (1948). The Checklist of Fantastic Literature. Chicago: Shasta Publishers, 54.
Biographies / Biographical Studies on and about H. P. Blavatsky

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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see #245

see #245...

I really don’t know what Ann Coulter’s background is in faith and theology. I don’t know much of what she believes about biblical things.

But her comments, I have read them, are consistent with Romans chapters 9-11 and the entire book of Hebrews.

Thank you for your references in Posts 243 and 245.
I first read about Blavatsky in the book 'While Men Slept' (by Kerby Fannin) which described that 19th Century time period when men (such as F.D. Maurice) succumbed to their foolish hearts and chose to trade the truth of God's Word for the 'wisdom' of the world...
A path taken that reverberates to this day.

I don’t doubt what you say, but God certainly didn’t see them as HIS children, Christians. They were truly living under a demonic delusion. Their counterparts, our skinheads, do the same.

Amen, El Cid.

They were truly living under a demonic delusion.

That much is sure.

I don’t doubt what you say, but God certainly didn't see them as HIS children, Christians.

Of course I can not speak for God. Therefore I am unable to say whether they are his children or not. You should not forget that they grew up in families where they were told from the very beginning that their (nowadays extremely strange) behavior was good and tolerable. This is the reason why I think that we should pass the decision to God if he sees them as his (fallen off) children or not.

.. is compared to Nazis these days, I just move along

Lately the word is heavily used again. It must be Hate-Love.

Where are you getting that from? Not Google, which is 31,200. Here.

If they were his children, his true children, they never would have done what they did. He loved them, for sure, but they turned away from him and went their own way. Not everyone is a child of God even though He created them.

I dunno.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=greasing+the+skids

Now 256,000.

I can’t explain the difference.

Ah... mine isn’t in quotes.

Unfortunately, Ann walked into a trap on a stupid show that nobody watches and gave the guy a ton of publicity. Don Feder has a great article about this. Ann is no anti-Semite - but she does not help the GOP with these statements. Always: think of your audience and who will go bonkers with what you say.