The Apex of Magic and Science Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society’s Practice and View of Astral Projection Erik A. Karlström Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies M.A. Degree 30 credits History of Religions Master’s Course (30 credits) Autumn term 2020 Supervisor: Egil Asprem The Apex of Magic and Science Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society’s Practice and View of Astral Projection Erik A. Karlström Abstract The rise of spiritualism in the late nineteenth century raised new ways to perceive the dead. A new possibility to communicate with the deceased attributed novel characteristics to the human soul. Building upon this spiritualist discourse, the prominent theory-crafter of the Theosophical Society, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891), thought the spirit of the dead, which she differentiated from the soul, to be a separate but connected component of the physical body. As such, this component should be separable from the physical body before death. Blavatsky developed the theory into an ontology (theory of what there is), cosmogony (the origin of the universe), physiology (the constitution of the human body), and soteriology (a doctrine of salvation). The separation possible before death became known as astral projection and it was a way to liberate the ‘astral body’ from its physical sheath, enabling the individual to travel spatially and temporally. Astral projection was regarded the apex of magic and a highly valued goal, actively pursued. Unlike previous studies, this thesis aims to explain the phenomenon of astral projection, how it was perceived and constructed, from both an emic as well as etic perspective. Using discourse analysis, this thesis aims to explore and discuss how Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society diachronically constructed their understanding of the practice and the mechanisms enabling it. In addition, this thesis also aims to trace the evolution of astral projection in the Theosophical Society from its founding in 1875 to Blavatsky’s death in 1891 as well as what functions the practice filled. This is achieved in two sections, through three steps, split between the ‘early’ and the ‘later’ Theosophical Society; this thesis examines the physiology presented, followed by the second step of surveying the ontology represented, which lastly explores how these are used to explain the phenomenon of astral projection. Keywords Blavatsky, Astral Projection, Discourse Analysis, the Theosophical Society, Magic and Science, Soul Separation, Spiritualism, Esotericism, Occultism. Contents Introduction ............................................................................................ 1 Purpose and Research Questions ............................................................ 3 Methodology ........................................................................................... 4 Discourse Analysis ............................................................................................. 5 Limitations ........................................................................................................ 8 Spirits, Spiritualism, and Separations of the Soul in the Late Nineteenth- Century ................................................................................................. 10 Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society ................................................ 17 The Earlier Period of Theosophical Thought .......................................................... 23 Blavatsky’s Metaphysics ................................................................................. 24 The Phenomenon of Astral Projection ............................................................... 33 The Later Period of Theosophical Philosophy ........................................................ 43 Blavatsky’s Physiology and Ontology ............................................................... 44 The ‘New’ Astral Projection ............................................................................. 50 Comparing the Theosophical Societies ................................................................ 54 Blavatskyan Astral Projection ............................................................... 60 References ............................................................................................ 65 Introduction We stand upon the brink of a precipice. We peer into the abyss – we grow sick and dizzy. Our first impulse is to shrink from the danger. Unaccountably we remain.1 There is an allure in the unknown and the unseen. Contemplating, perceiving or even visiting alternatives to our mundane, corporeal world has been of interest since archaic times. To transcend the boundaries of our physical, opaque world and experience what is beyond was attempted in Ancient Greece and some mysteries probably had their origin in Neolithic practices.2 Narratives in which the soul travels, either by a descent into the underworld, an ascent into the heavens, a pre-mortem journey in which the soul strives to rendezvous with the body, or a post-mortem travel through the beyond, were so common in the Mediterranean world of antiquity that they have been treated as a genre of their own.3 Narratives alone did not constitute the entirety of ancient soul travels. The idea of a soul, as an entity separate from the physical body, was presented by many philosophers. Pythagoras (c. 570-495 B.C.E.) believed in metempsychosis, the transmigration of the soul, leading him to preach to animals in order to help their spiritual development.4 Plato (c. 428-384 B.C.E.) continued Pythagoras’ influence and determined that the soul was an entity different from, and shackled by, the body: divine, immortal and indestructible.5 Developing Plato’s idea, Plotinus (205-270 C.E.) connected the soul with its divine and eternal reservoir with which a unification was possible.6 His disciple Porphyry (234- c. 305 C.E.) pushed these theories even further, claiming that the transcended soul could not be spatially located but was everywhere and nowhere.7 Some thought this diverted too far from Plato, one of them being Iamblichus (c. 240-325 C.E.). He emphasized the idea of a materialized soul, mortal and disconnected from the divine soul and divinity. However, with the aid of the gods and certain physical 1 Edgar Allan Poe: The Imp of the Perverse. 2 Stein, (2016), p. 3 3 DeConick, (2017), p. 82 4 Russel, (1946), pp. 41, 45 5 Russel, (1946), p.135, Burkert, (1985), p. 322 6 Shaw, (2006), p. 834 7 Plaisance, (2016), p. 390 1 actions and objects the soul could come close to the divine.8 Plato was being translated into English in the nineteenth century and became “a hot commodity” in America at the same time as Spiritualism began to come into vogue.9 The main subject of this thesis, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (née von Hahn, 1831-1891), names all of the philosophers above as individuals who had overcome the limitations of the physical body and achieved a new level of existence. They had, according to Blavatsky, achieved a form of immortality.10 These claims were not completely taken out of thin air. Blavatsky produced copious amounts of texts outlining an ontology revealed to her by the Mahatmas, spiritually advanced adepts altruistically working in secret to progress mankind. She, and the Theosophical Society, also had a custom to invoke the teachings of Neoplatonists as being the same teachings as theirs. To build credibility, they claimed a clear continuity between the teachings.11 Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society interpreted the ancient teachings through contemporary advances in science. However, the science they employed consisted of statements and terminology. Science was not a method of inquiry; it was just a system of belief like any other.12 In this manner Theosophy created a synthesis of all, to them relevant, available knowledge, a style of syncretization Blavatsky would sustain throughout “as the only possible key to the Absolute in science and theology.”13 Blavatsky constructed a remarkable ontology which claimed unperceivable aspects of nature enabling living humans to project a concomitant body, the astral body. Astral projection, as this practice became known as, enabled the projector to read minds, travel great distances in seconds, relive history, and ultimately conquer death. This practice is the main focus of this thesis. Blavatsky also founded the journal Lucifer. It aimed to “bring light ‘to the hidden things of darkness’”14 and she choose that name because it meant “light-bringer”.15 Helena, in turn, means “the bright, shining one” or “the torch.”16 Many regarded her as a bringer of intellectual and spiritual light in a dark, materialistic world. What she illuminated and how it was done, however, is another question entirely. 8 Shaw, (2006), p. 835. A practice also known as theurgy. 9 Gutierrez, (2009), p.8. Of additional interest is the fact that the new English translations of Plato sparked reading groups which allowed both men and women to partake. However, it is worth remembering that just as Platonists and Neo-Platonists expressed their discourse, their basic ontological premises are in this case located within another context through which they must be understood. 10 Blavatsky, (1877), p. 2:159, see also Chajes, (2019), pp. 128-129. 11 Plaisance, (2016), pp. 389-390 12 Hammer, (2001), p. 204 13 Blavatsky, (1877), p. 1:vii 14 Blavatsky, (1887), p. 1 15 Blavatsky, (1887), p. 3 16 Carlson, (1993), p. 43 2 Purpose and Research Questions The aim of this thesis is to chart the practice of astral