Today Iām going to write a little about Madam Blavatsky, the founder of the Theosophical Society, and the huge influence she’s had on the way that chakras are discussed and taught today in the west. I’d like to acknowledge and thank Kurt Leland and his excellent scholarship that I’m going to draw on here.
But first, letās visit Harry Potter land for a minute.
I want to set the stage with the boy wizard’s world because J.K. Rowlingās tales and Victorian-ish costumes and settings provide a peek into the popularity of occultism in Europe and the U.S. at the time Blavatsky encountered the chakra system.
In Rowlingās wizarding world, magic, mysticism, and talking to spirits are all commonplace ā her fantastical tales can be understood as a sort of montage of the Victorian fascination with Spiritualism, mediumship, trances, and sĆ©ances.
When I was a kid, we had a Ouija board. Weād go down to the basement, turn down the lights, light candles, and pretend that no one was pushing the plastic pointer as it revealed cryptic messages. We also played “sĆ©ance” a lot, lifting each other up with two fingers while chanting ālight as a feather, stiff as a board.ā
Much like people who are heavily invested in the western chakra system today, little did we know that our games originated in Victorian parlor fascination with spiritualism.
Blavatsky was born in 1831 to an aristocratic Russian family. She spent a lot of her youth traveling. In America, she became a medium and claimed to channel the messages of ascended masters. The masters told Blavatsky that they had great spiritual wisdom and supernatural powers. Through her, they were reviving ancient knowledge and sharing it with the world. In 1875 in New York, she and her friend, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott formed the Theosophical Society with the intention of researching mystical teachings.
Blavatsky and Olcott in London, 1888
In 1879, Blavatsky and the Colonel traveled to India, via England, France, and Egypt. Blavatsky believed that the Indian culture had long lines of unbroken lineage to the masters she channeled, and it was there that they would discover the deepest occult teachings.
Everywhere she and the Colonel went in India, they were greeted by large groups of Indian admirers. Of course racism was alive and thriving in the nineteenth century. In fact, it formed the entire basis and justification for Western imperialism. Racism disguised as science was used to write off whole cultures as barbaric and uncivilized ā qualities that stuffy Victorians found particularly distasteful and in need of immediate rectification.
Standing:Ā M. Krishnamachari (called also Babaji, Bowaji, Dharbagiri Nath) and Henry S. Olcott
Seated, back row: Major-General H. R. Morgan, W. T. Brown, T. Subba Row, H. P. Blavatsky, Franz Hartmann and Rudolf Gebhard
Middle row: Norendro Nath Sen, Damodar K. Mavalankar, S. Ramaswamier and P. Sreenivasa Row
Front row:Ā Bhavani Shankar, T. Vijayaghavacharin, Tookaram Tatya and V. Coopooswami Iyer
*********************
So here are these white people – Blavatsky and the Colonel ā arriving in occupied India saying that they want to learn something from traditional Indian culture. That was unprecedented.
Most Indians would not have previously encountered white people in positions of privilege and power who took their culture seriously, so Blavatsky and the Colonel became rock stars.Ā Ā
B.D. Basu
Baradakanta Majumdar and Baman Das Basu were two Indian writers who helped explain the tantric chakra systems to Madame Blavatsky and the Colonel. Blavatsky subsequently expanded upon and claimed that she āimprovedā the hatha yoga chakra system by adding features like being able to see others chakras through clairvoyance, correlating them with the western musical scale (diatonic scale), as well as correlating them to glands, nerve plexuses, and colors. Blavatsky elaborated on the tantric system, added many of her own ideas, and then taught and wrote about it extensively.Ā
From The Chakras, by Charles Leadbeater, 1927
She passed on her version of the chakras to her students including Charles Leadbeater.
Leadbeaterās book, The Chakras, which was originally published in 1927 remains, to this day, the most popular publication from the Theosophical Society and has sold millions of copies. Itās Leadbeaterās book that forms the basis of subsequent New Age chakra books like Anodea Judithsā Wheels of Life. But it was Blavatsky, in her Harry Potterish milieu, who should be recognized as the original queen of the western chakra system.
(more next week).
If you’d like to learn more, please check out my free ebook, Chakras: Is Everything You’ve Been Taught Wrong? 4 Differences between Traditional and New Interpretations
CHAIR YOGA FOR YOUR BRAIN & NERVOUS SYSTEM
SUBTLEĀ® YOGA FOR ENHANCING TRAUMA RECOVERY
Five Ways Yogic Meditation Benefits Your Brain ā eBook
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Thank you I find the Chakra system fascinating and how they are likened to the Wizard of Oz.
Thank you!
Thank you for bringing this important insight to your readers. I joined the Theosophical Society just a few months ago and love their diverse offerings! All students and teachers of yoga would benefit from knowing about it.
Interesting. Thank you.
This is so interesting, I canāt wait to learn more!
Thanks Sue!
So happy you referenced Harry Potter! Madame Blavatsky- her name alone evokes magic and mystery. Don’t you wonder what her privileged family thought of all of this? Thanks. I really enjoy reading your offerings. Peace.
Thanks Vieno, yes, you have to wonder what her family thought about her at the time. She was certainly an interesting person.
I agree with all the comments, this is very informative! Thank you!
Thanks Kim!
This was such an interesting read! I have been intrigued by Madam Blavatsky since I stumbled across one of her books in the public library of my small rural hometown. š
Thank you! Yes, she was quite a character.
Like always, so interesting. Yes! I want to learn more about this fascinating subject. Amazing how we steal aspects of anotherās culture and then declare that we have improved it. Crazy!
pretty interesting stuff. She definitely was a fascinating person.
Very fun. I loved Harry Potter and his friends. I have been skimming for info and found that Allan Finger and one of his associate’s advertisements reference the rainbow colors and balancing the chakra. A new author/ teacher I found during my Yin recertification also speaks of the rainbow colors. This teacher’s name is Gabrielle Harris from New Zealand. Did you meet her or hear of her when you were there?
I remember when I first encountered the Chakras I thought oh how will I learn the colors and words. The initial challenge of new things for me is to learn the vocabulary. When I saw it was the rainbow it helped but now I need to learn more and different. Also took a class with a women named Allie who taught chakras based on the rainbow. It is every where.
Can not wait to see and read your book.
Carol Brown LPCC-W, LISW-S, E-RYT 500, SubtleĀ®Yoga 40 hour online Certified Yoga Teacher,
CMT 50, CYT 300, CTYT 300
Yes the rainbow is part of the chakra dogma. And there is a pretty huge case of source amnesia that goes along with it. Most people teach about rainbow chakras in the yoga world. I don’t want to tell anyone what to think about anything, but I do think it’s important to understand where things come from. like the contemporary themes, musical notes, essential oils and gemstones, the rainbow chakras are not ancient, they come from Blavatsky and her followers.
I absolutely love the Chakras and am really enjoying your posts. Can’t wait for your new course and some virtual Chakra Yoga classes with you.
Thanks Francine!
Intrigued by this post! I have begun to research Madame Blavatsky myself as i understand her work may have influenced my great aunt who was a well known spiritualist and medium in the UK and performed āsittingsā in many parts of the world including India! ) between the late 1920ās and 1966 when she died. As a newly qualified yoga teacher myself Iām interested in the connections between what I have read in my yoga studies and what my aunt must have come across so many years ago.
Love the Harry Potter analogy too, Iām a big fan of the stories but they are for children and some things I come across in Yoga feel very unbelievable ( although beautiful at the same time.) In the course of my reading I found out Blavatsky lived for a short while in Upper Norwood , now Crystal Palace in South London , always happy to find a local link ! Thank you , Kristine
Oh wow, that’s SO interesting Ruth. I’d love to hear more about your aunt! What a fascinating connection!
Very interesting, Thankyou Kristine. I recently did a short course which referenced Anodea Judith a lot. Iām looking forward to your insights and learning how to use knowledge of the chakras in practical ways to add more depth to my Yoga.
Thanks Vicki!
I appreciate your well-researched teaching, and this path is an interesting new one! Thank you.
Thanks Sarah!
Always impressed at how well you unpack yoga’s complicated history. This is hard to do and not always well received. So thank you.
Thanks Beth. It is a bit hard actually. But I am also fascinated by it.
I am super excited for this class! I am new to the studies of Chakras so this will be so beneficial to learn the authentic truths. Loved this Harry Potter and the Queen of Chakras. I only have one book I picked up in a used book store ā The Book of Chakras ā by Ambika Wauters. Love the name āChakras Beyond the Rainbowā. Thank you !Thank you!
Thanks Mary! I like Ambika’s book actually so you got a good one. I hope to have the course available soon.
Thank you for history about Blavatsky and Olcott I found the information very useful. I have a book (had the books for years) called Color & Crystals (A Journey Through the Chakras ) By Joy Gardner. My yoga training (in Australia) touched briefly on different asana for each chakra. I am looking forward to your course. Thank you Kristine.
Thanks Tricia!
Thanks so much for this. Super interesting. It doesnāt surprise me in the slightest that most of the western āknowledgeā of the chakras comes from a distorted āimprovedā versionā¦ by a westerner.
Iām always very careful when I talk about the chakras in a class, trying not to be dogmatic and mostly using them as points of focusā¦ At the same time, what āworksā or doesnāt is subjective and many people find comfort and a reliable method by the Anodea version and book (and are passionate about it!)
So, best know the history, learn as much as possible about the origins of your practices and then decide if and why works for you
Now, I canāt wait for your book!
Yes, I know many people who love her work and I do not disparage it. But, I’m a yoga teacher, so I want to know about chakras from a yogic perspective. Most of the New Age writers have not studied much yoga, so I prefer to find the information from other sources. Thank you for your comments Montse!
Delighted to read about the Madame Blavatsky and Chakra connection. I know Kurt Lelan personally and I am not surprised he would know about this. I love his work as well. Will you write more extensively on this or is there a book you recommend that does other than what you mentioned in the article? As the author of The Wise Way to Yoga, I am passionate about discovering unknown dimensions that shed light on modern yoga. CĆ©cile Raynor:)
Oh wow, I’d love to have dinner with him. His book, The Rainbow Body was the book that I had wanted to be written for decades! When he finally did it (2017) I was so grateful! His book goes into this with great depth so I definitely recommend it! Thanks Cecile!
Wow, this is so interesting! For years one of my favourite series as a teacher has been a ” chakra balancing Kriya” using the rainbow colors as a point of focus. It’s very grounding and I find that students, including myself, that are overworked, tired, sad or depressed benefit a lot from this also from getting the felt sense of life not being only black/White, being more alive etc. Now with this new knowledge you give I am perfectly happy to reframe the series to: A guided tour through the rainbow”.
Thank you for bringing perspective and knowledge!
That’s a really nice Anna. I have no doubt that rainbows are beautiful and may be a very useful healing tool. And some people find the experience of rainbow colors very healing. I love the way you took this information about the rainbow not being a traditional part of the chakra system and found a very positive way to reframe it.
Thank you for this very interesting information! I look forward to read the upcoming too! CanĀ“t help to feel quite a bit ashamed and fooled for teaching the “rainbow theory” in my classes… I did a course on “yogic meditation” that was said to be in the Krishnamacharya tradition, and it contained the chakras with visualizations of lotusflowers and colors and the different sounds/mantras and so on. I am very interested in reading more about that connection if you know about it!
Hey Sara, there’s nothing to be ashamed about! It’s more about committing to learning and growing. I have studied with Gary Kraftsow who was a student of Desikachar and teaches chakras from that tradition. It’s very interesting and helpful and what I teach is slightly different, but not from the New Age tradition. I hope this helps! xo
Thank you for this interesting bit of history. I don’t want to sound ungrateful, yet I am questioning the ‘truth’ of anything written down.
I suppose that anything that has a following for a long time becomes a Tradition to some Culture. And conversing with spirit(s) is as ancient as dawn – with Shamanism.
The Christian Bible was written by people who had experiences. Was their experience more truthful than a modern bible? Was the Vadas more truthful or real than what Madam Blavatsky added to a subtle system of energy? Because it was old/ancient/ ‘the source’… doesn’t mean it wasn’t polluted with personal gains, power etc. by those who wrote it; ‘schools of thought’ as it were. Each growth of/for an idea comes from the experiences that humans have within the context of their culture.
I like that you are sharing a bit of history that you learned about, without judgement about the evolution of a system. For those of us who cannot ‘see’ the aura, we really don’t know if there aren’t colors. Caroline Myss and Barbara Brennan both are medical initiative’s… and they say that humans are surrounded by colors. Perhaps color, development and emotions are categorized… or color coded as a remembering tool for the Chakras for a western mind?
I definitely enjoy learning about how something historically came about; which in my opinion doesn’t take away as to how it has developed.
Thank you for this thought provoking piece.
AUM
Hi Tzivia, thank you for your provocative thoughts! The first thing I want to say is that when cultural appropriate is at the heart of the matter here in terms of the beginnings of the western chakra system, then I do think it’s appropriate to dial it back and look at where it came from, and what may have been lost in a translation that is tainted by colonialism, cultural superiority, and cultural hubris. I’m not a purist about yoga and I totally understand the importance of innovation and evolution and so I’m not completely adverse to the New Age interpretations of the chakras. But, as a yoga teacher, I want to study this stuff from a yogic perspective if possible – hence I did and continue to do a ton of research on the system and it’s origins. The only other thing I would add here is that one person’s intuitive experience does not carry as much weight as a community of shared wisdom and experience. So, for example with the Bible, I trust biblical scholars more than the guy on the milk crate on the street corner sharing his interpretation.