Sunday, September 16, 2012

H. P. Blavatsky, V.I.P.


Mme. Blavatsky gets some coverage in Martin A. Lee’s new book, Smoke Signals: A Social History of Marijuana: Medical, Recreational and Scientific. He adds Blavatsky to his list of V.I.P.’s (Very Important Potheads): “Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the mesmerizing grand dame of occultism, was a dedicated hashish imbiber.” He then cites the line attributed to her by A.L. Rawson, “Hashish multiples one life a thousand-fold.…It is a wonderful drug and it clears up profound mystery.” Lee continues:

At times under the influence of hashish, Blavatsky wrote lengthy tomes filled with esoteric lore, introducing such concepts as karma, yoga, kundalini, and reincarnation to a Western audience…. Believing that the end of civilization was imminent, Madame Blavatsky prophesied that a global catastrophe would usher in a Golden Dawn, after which the world would be governed by a beneficent psychic elite.

This claim has already been examined in Blavatsky News.


Lezley Saar, Unnamed piece 2012,
from her exhibition at Merry Karnowsky Gallery, 
Los Angeles, on view September 8th - October 6th

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