One of the most contentious and fascinating features of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s (1831–1891) occult cosmology was her belief in the existence of Lemuria, a large extinct continent that formerly connected the Pacific and Indian oceans. Her lifelong spiritual quest around Europe, the Middle East, and India resulted in her yearning for esoteric knowledge, and she claimed to have obtained profound insights from mystical teachings from ancient times. Her monumental work, The Secret Doctrine, which came out in 1888, revealed her in-depth beliefs of Lemuria’s role in the larger scheme of human evolution and beginnings. Blavatsky created a complex web of theories by referencing Buddhist and Hindu texts, as well as Western esoteric traditions. She proposed that Lemuria was the original home of the Third Root Race, an extremely developed civilization possessing extraordinary psychic powers and spiritual awareness.
Biography of Blavatsky
Raised in an aristocratic Russian household, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky was a mysterious and unique person from a young age. Her mother and a succession of governesses raised her after her father’s premature death. She demonstrated a bright mind and an unquenchable curiosity about the world’s occult and esoteric customs. During her turbulent adolescence, she traveled extensively in Europe, the Middle East, and India, claiming to have met spiritual gurus and developed a deep understanding of ancient philosophy. Following a short and tumultuous marriage, Blavatsky began a lifetime pursuit of esoteric knowledge, studying under Tibetan Buddhist monks and exploring the occult teachings of numerous mystical orders (Viswanathan, 2018).
She and Henry Steel Olcott co-founded the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875 with the goal of resurrecting age-old knowledge and investigating the relationships between philosophy, science, and religion. Blavatsky established her complex cosmological beliefs through her prolific publications, most notably Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, which included the contentious notions of root races and the lost lands of Lemuria and Atlantis. Hailed as a spiritual enlightenment leader and derided as a fraud, Blavatsky was a divisive character, yet her long-lasting influence on Western esotericism and the emerging New Age movement solidified her place as one of the most significant occultists of the 1800s.
Blavatsky on Lemuria
Blavatsky’s conviction in the existence of Lemuria, a hypothetical lost continent that she believed formerly spanned the Indian and Pacific Oceans, was one of her most intriguing theories. Her teachings claimed that Lemuria was the seat of an advanced, ancient civilization that existed before, giving rise to both the Atlantean and contemporary civilizations (Marcotte, 2018). Blavatsky’s esoteric philosophy, which drew from a variety of sources, including ancient Hindu scriptures, Buddhist teachings, and Western occult traditions, constituted the foundation of her vision of Lemuria. She thought that after the First and Second Root Races vanished, Lemuria served as the birthplace of the Third Root Race, a highly developed spiritual and bodily form.
Blavatsky teaches in The Secret Doctrine that humans on Earth can trace their physical and spiritual growth back to the root races. According to her theory, there is a cycle of seven root races that each have unique traits and varying states of consciousness as humanity grows. Only spiritual beings devoid of bodily form comprised the First Root Race, sometimes referred to as the “Ethereal Race.” The “Sweat-Born,” also known as the Second Root Race, were semi-ethereal creatures who started to take on a bodily form.
Blavatsky identified the Third Root Race, the earliest fully corporeal race of mankind, with Lemuria. They were androgynous entities with highly developed psychic and spiritual consciousness, according to her description. The destruction of Lemuria gave rise to a new race known as the “Atlanteans,” also known as the Fourth Root Race. They were the first physically complete, gender-separated beings with a more materialistic worldview.
The current stage of human evolution is known as the Fifth Root Race, or the “Aryan Race,” according to Blavatsky. According to her theory, the Aryan race started in Central Asia and gradually expanded over the entire globe. The teachings of Blavatsky assert that the Sixth and Seventh Root Races, which stand for advanced phases of human spiritual and physical progress, are still to come.
Blavatsky’s cosmology and belief in the cyclical nature of human evolution were founded on the concept of root races. According to her theory, every root race underwent a period of ascent and decline before a new, more evolved race finally emerged. Although there is no scientific evidence to support the concept of root races, Blavatsky attempted to connect spiritual teachings from antiquity with her theories regarding the origins and evolution of humans. Despite being theoretical, her beliefs have had a big impact on occult and esoteric traditions, as well as on other New Age philosophies that investigate the connection between human consciousness and the universe (Trompf, 2011).
Blavatsky’s theories about Lemuria went beyond mere conjecture; she used them to inform her understanding of Australia’s geological and cultural past. According to her theory, the Australian continent was previously part of the Lemurian landmass, and the native populations descended directly from the Lemurian Root Race. This hypothesis offered a framework for comprehending the region’s distinctive wildlife, plants, and indigenous civilizations (Ryan, 1988).
However, mainstream science largely ignored Blavatsky’s theories about Lemuria due to the lack of sufficient evidence supporting the existence of this extinct continent. Alfred Wegener postulated the hypothesis of continental drift in the early 1900s, which offered a more rational explanation for the global distribution of landmasses and geological features (Scott-Elliot, 1925).
Conclusion
Blavatsky’s theories continue to influence New Age and esoteric movements even after science disproved the Lemurian concept. Many people looking for alternative perspectives found resonance in her beliefs on the cyclical nature of human spiritual progress and the existence of ancient, advanced civilizations. Research and debate continue to explore her larger contributions to the study of spirituality in humans and the secrets of the cosmos, despite some viewing her specific assertions about Lemuria as pseudoscientific.
In conclusion, a fundamental component of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s esoteric philosophy—which aimed to harmonize age-old wisdom with cutting-edge scientific understanding—was her conception of Lemuria. Despite the fact that her speculations about a lost Pacific continent have proven false, her ideas have had a lasting impact on the evolution of occult and metaphysical thought, questioning conventional narratives and encouraging further investigation of the borders between science and spirituality.
References
Marcotte, U. (2018). Lemuria: A Civilization Time Forgot. Balboa Press.
Ryan, J. S. (1988). Australia’s Rising and Falling Continental Neighbour-Lemuria. Australian Folklore, 2.
Scott-Elliot, W. (1925). Legends of Atlantis and Lost Lemuria. Quest Books.
Trompf, G. W. (2011). Imagining Macrohistory? Madame Blavatsky from Isis Unveiled (1877) to The Secret Doctrine (1888). Literature & Aesthetics, 21(1).
Viswanathan, G. (2018). In Search of Madame Blavatsky: Reading the Exoteric, Retrieving the Esoteric. Representations, 141(1), 67-94.
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