What is it about?
This essay surveys the intellectual process that led to the branding of Oriental spirituality and mysticism as fields subjected to Western scientific investigation, thus enabling their containment by the West. In order to do so, the essay sheds light on the Theosophical Society's scientific pretensions, and in particular, on those of its founder, H.P. Blavatsky. The essay examines the strong opposition raised against Blavatsky, especially by the Society for Psychical Research, as well as by the Anglo-German Orientalist, F. Max Müller. This survey raises difficult questions, in regards to the right set of tools that is needed when trying to decipher the theosophical story. Is it indeed Western, scientific and rationalist?
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Why is it important?
The questions that this essay raises, and their answers, are crucial to the study of esotericism, and particularly to the study of the Theosophical Society, and its offspring movements.
Perspectives
The essay summarizes some 25 years in which I have researched the history of the Theosophical Society. It deals with some of the more disturbing conflicts that might occur when the so-called scientific approach to the study of Western esotericism meets the creative imagination of the individual scholar.
Isaac Lubelsky
Open University of Israel
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This page is a summary of: Grounding the Celestial, May 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/9789004694163_011.
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