Talk:Helena Blavatsky

Racial Beliefs section is incorrect in stating Blavatsky was not racist, Blavatsky was extremely racist and Anti-Jewish

This statement in the racial beliefs section is incorrect "Regarding the concept of race as defined – in a comparatively more limited manner – by anthropology, sociology, and other disciplines, Blavatsky did not encourage superiority by any person or group, promoting the idea of the common origin and destiny of all humanity, and establishing the principle of universal brotherhood as the First Object of the Theosophical Society." That statement is not correct, Blavatsky was extremely racist and Anti-Jewish. Hannah Newman in The Rainbow Swastika: A Report to Jews on New Age Anti-Judaism (which I cannot use as a source in the article itself because Newman is fringe, but can use as a bridge to find other, more reliable sources) wrote of " Blavatsky's link of the Jewish God with materialism." "Helena Blavatsky's assertion (_The Secret Doctrine_, II p.471) that the Jews have 'a religion of hate and malice toward everyone and everything outside itself,'" and " both Bailey and Blavatsky believed in an earlier, Judaica-free Christianity which at some later point was 'corrupted' by Jewish missionaries, resulting in the form we know today. " [1] She also wrote " Helena Blavatsky [HPB] called the "God of Abram, Isaac and Jacob" a "spiteful and revengeful" deity. (_The Secret Doctrine_ I, p.439, footnote)" Newman also said "Blavatsky agreed that the Gnostics 'were right in regarding the Jewish God as belonging to a class of lower, material and not very holy denizens of the invisible world.' (quoted in Sklar, p.144)" [2]. I also recall reading that Blavatsky called Native Australians "sub human". I don't have time to go to the original sources Newman used today, but I will later to add information on Blavatsky's Anti-Judaism to the article and I'll try to locate her racist remarks about Native Australians also. RandomScholar30 (talk) 15:19, 29 May 2016 (UTC)

@RandomScholar30: if you search through the archives you will find more about her racism, e.g. Talk:Helena Blavatsky/Archive 2 § Racial theories, Talk:Helena Blavatsky/Archive 2 § Alleged racism and "frauds", and Talk:Helena Blavatsky/Archive 2 § Blavatsky's racism. I couldn't decide on how to write about her or theosophy. I also gathered public domain content that you may find useful. –BoBoMisiu (talk) 03:51, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

Blavatsky's main interest was the paranormal and religion, not Anti-Judaism and racism, if I remember correctly this article used to focus mostly on her Anti-Judaism and racism, but now it seems to have gone to the opposite extreme and become apologetic and portrayed her as anti-racist, which is dishonest. I don't think her Anti-Judaism and racism should be a huge focus of the article, it just bothered me that it was not mentioned at all. I'm going to add slightly more about the topic of her Anti-Judaism and racism when I have time. But I don't want it to be overdone like it was in the past. RandomScholar30 (talk) 04:04, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

@RandomScholar30: yes, I agree with you, her racism was sanitized. For example, she wrote "Tasmanian women — i.e., the representatives of a race, whose progenitors were a 'soulless' and mindless monster." She explicitly states that some people do not have the same kind of soul as other people do. She calls some people "semi-animal creatures" and calls other people "semi-human stock" and calls Australians "degraded men". –BoBoMisiu (talk) 04:17, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

The group she was most racist against were Jews, at least that's my impression. So her Anti-Judaism is what I'm going to focus on mainly in the racism section. Do you agree with that? RandomScholar30 (talk) 04:19, 30 May 2016 (UTC)

@RandomScholar30: yes, why not – but you need good sources. Quotes from her books are easy to find. Pre-WWII secondary sources may have content that may have been rehabilitated out of the narrative about her post-WWII. –BoBoMisiu (talk) 01:10, 31 May 2016 (UTC)

Reference book

Does anyone here have this book?

Washington, Peter (1993). Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: Theosophy and the Emergence of the Western Guru. London: Secker & Warburg. ISBN 978-0-436-56418-5.

It seems to have a section on the School of Economic Science and the Wiki on that article would benefit greatly from additional content based on more reliable sources such as this. Please bring the book there if you can. Thanks -Roberthall7 (talk) 11:48, 21 July 2016 (UTC)

Dubious background

The section on her early life explains that accounts of her background are dubious, yet goes on to discuss her supposed ancestry without any qualification, as if any of that rubbish is actually accurate. This seems somewhat inconsistent.