In Paris in 1873 she was told by her "masters" to go to NewYork to
found the Theosophical Society for the purpose "of collecting and dif-
fusing knowledge of the laws which govern the universe." Early mem-
bers of the society included Thomas Edison, inventor of the electric
light bulb, and General Abner Doubleday, supposed originator of the
game of baseball.
The term theosophy or divine wisdom referred in those days to a strain
of mystical speculation associated with the kabbalah and the writings of
occultists such as Paracelsus and Robert Fludd. On the premise that no
religion was higher than truth, the society's intention was to "reconcile
all religions, sects, and nations under a common system of ethics based
on eternal verities." Colonel Olcott spoke of "freeing the public mind
of theological superstition and a tame subservience to the arrogance of
Science." His further object was to forge a multinational, multiethnic,
multidenorninational body of men and women firmly united in
"brotherly love" engaged in altruistic study, work, and goodwill, bent
on accomplishing what other societies, such as the Freemasons, only
promised: fraternity of membership without distinction of race, creed,
or social position. Ellavatsky, aware that the social conditions of poverty,
misery, and disease aaicting large masses in Western countries rendered
impossible the improvement of either their bodies or their spirits,
wanted the society to be a living protest against the gross materialism
of the day, against careless indifference, material luxury, selfish indul-
gence, and general lack of kindness, justice, love, or caritas.
In NewYork Blavatsky produced her first major theosophical text,
her monumental Isis Unveiled, subtitled A Master-key to the Mysteries of
Ancient and Modern Science and Theology. Olcott maintained that the
book, which postulates humans as spiritual beings and chronicles the hu-
man race through eons of karma, was inspired astrally or telepathically
by highly evolved masters; he describes Ulavatsky's pen as flying over
the paper until she would stop,"look out into space with the vacant
eye of a clairvoyant seer, shorten her vision as though to look at some-
thing held invisible in the air before her, and begin copying on her
paper what she saw."
The first edition sold out in ten days and was called by Manly P.
Hall-in his own right an encyclopedic writer on the arcan-"the
joyce
(Joyce)
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