Blavatsky News

* The Enochian Frequency podcast #007: 2012-08-19 starts out with hosts Petter Mårtensson, Rodney Orpheus, and Paul Baker discussing latest developments in the gaming industry.

This time things don’t really follow the usual format, and our hosts actually start out early with discussing lore. Shambhala, an area in the game that turns up during the storyline and that contains a currently inactive battleground, is the topic at hand this episode. Expect a lot of talk about Madame Blavatsky, Theosophy and the fabled Secret Chiefs that according to some occult literature direct the evolution of mankind. Recommended reading this week is Karl von Eckhartshausen’s The Cloud Upon the Sanctuary and Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled.

Enochian Frequency podcasts can be found at CSICON, The Committee for the Surrealist Investigation of Claims of the Normal, a site that focuses on the latest news and opinions regarding movies, television, gaming, tech, society, comics and other things that may or may not fall into the convenient umbrella term of “geek culture”.  

* An August 19 post on Mahesh’s blog, Maheshcorner, gives 10 places in London connected with Mahatma Gandhi. “Gandhi made five visits to London, spanning 43 years of his life; from young law student in 1888, to representative of the Indian National Congress in 1931. If you are going on a trip to London and want to follow in Gandhi's footsteps to gain an insight into his life, then take a look at these 10 places the great man visited.” Among them, the Blavatsky Lodge:

Through his newfound vegetarian friends, Gandhi was introduced to the Theosophical Society in 1890 and there he met Annie Besant and Madame Blavatsky; two key members of the Society whose writings he keenly studied. The teachings of Theosophy struck a chord with Gandhi, who was particularly interested in its call for "universal brotherhood and consequent toleration". Blavatsky Lodge can still be visited in London if you want to find out more about Theosophy and the effect it had on Gandhi.

* The site People of Shambhala looks at the historical development of “Muslim-Buddhist Conflict in Asia: and how to understand it.” Pointing to the situation in Sri Lanka, it says:

The indigenous religion had virtually died out, but was revived with the help of Henry Steel Olcott, who had been one of the primary investigators of the Lincoln assassination, and a major player in the Theosophical Society (a semi-mystical organization that had been founded in New York by Russian émigré Mme Blavatsky). Olcott lobbied the British on behalf of the Buddhists, helped revive the Buddhist school system, wrote a Buddhist catechism (which is still in use), and helped to design the universal Buddhist flag.