Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-240). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

I, Blavatsky is a one-act opera based on the life of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a nineteenth-century Russian princess and co-founder of a religious organization called the Theosophical Society. The libretto, by the composer, involves a cast of three principal soloists and minor roles for six more singers who are also participants in a small chorus. The text format features free verse alternating with regular, rhymed strophes. Accompaniment is provided by a piano. Melodic structure combines some nineteenth-century Romantic idioms with twentieth-century style. Most of the melodic and harmonic material was intuitively composed to express the text. Rhythmic and stylistic contrasts are accomplished in the representation of the extensive travels of the main character. Stage directions involve a stylized set, several scenes requiring minimal set changes, magical effects to represent that facet of Blavatsky's life, and onstage costume changes for several characters. Approximate duration is one hour.

The subject of time has long been a subject of fascination by philosophers and researchers alike: What is it? How can it be measured? Is it connected to the larger metaphysical meaning of life (e. g. eternal life, absorption, reincarnation, etc.)? Having some standard measurement of time became a pressing contemporary issue in the Victorian Era as international traveling and communications became more typical. Also, the prominent role of evolution as propagated by Charles Darwin’s ‘Theory of Natural Selection’ questioned the long accepted Christian beliefs in the biblical ‘Creation’. This forced Victorians to seriously consider the subjects of origin and chronology. It was into this shifting and modernist environment that the Theosophical Society was established emerging out of Spiritualism. H. P. Blavatsky, along with Henry S. Olcott and several other founding members, formed this organization as a means of discovering hidden truths and learning practical occult methods and exercises. Indisputably, Blavatsky was one of the leading forces of this Society and her natural intellect combined with her vast, occult writings brought about one of the most distinctive and philosophical doctrines in the Theosophical belief system — a soteriological view of time. Using her philosophy of time, Blavatsky was able to create the ultimate Victorian mythos that could combine science and world religions into one unified and religious modernist system. This thesis will diachronically study Blavatsky’s writings on time, soteriology and chronology. It will begin in the early days when her philosophy was largely borrowed from comparative mythographers, and trace her writings up until the late 1880s when it became mixed with Hindu and Buddhist notions of time and salvation. While studying the evolution of time and its role in Blavatsky’s teachings is the focal point of this study, the secondary purpose is to examine this system as a Victorian mythology that typified the time period along with its hopes, fears and social anxieties.

The Secret Doctrine is the magnum opus of H.P. Blavatsky and one of the foundation texts of the Theosophical Society. It represents her attempt to appropriate authority in a wide variety of fields, including, science, religion, and philosophy. This study examines H.P. Blavatsky’s engagement with Ancient Egypt in relation to two specific themes, the constitution of the individual and the afterlife, as they are portrayed in this work. It locates Theosophy in its historical context, the late nineteenth century, in relation to various fields of knowledge. It reviews the sources that H.P. Blavatsky drew on in her work and discusses the various interpretive techniques she employed to insert Theosophical content into various world religions. Finally, it contrasts the Theosophical presentation of Ancient Egypt in The Secret Doctrine with that of mainstream modern Egyptology. The fundamental disconnect which is revealed highlights the challenges that the Theosophical perspective faces. / Religious Studies & Arabic / M. A. (Religious Studies)

The Secret Doctrine is the magnum opus of H.P. Blavatsky and one of the foundation texts of the Theosophical Society. It represents her attempt to appropriate authority in a wide variety of fields, including, science, religion, and philosophy. This study examines H.P. Blavatsky’s engagement with Ancient Egypt in relation to two specific themes, the constitution of the individual and the afterlife, as they are portrayed in this work. It locates Theosophy in its historical context, the late nineteenth century, in relation to various fields of knowledge. It reviews the sources that H.P. Blavatsky drew on in her work and discusses the various interpretive techniques she employed to insert Theosophical content into various world religions. Finally, it contrasts the Theosophical presentation of Ancient Egypt in The Secret Doctrine with that of mainstream modern Egyptology. The fundamental disconnect which is revealed highlights the challenges that the Theosophical perspective faces. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M. A. (Religious Studies)

<p>Målet är att få en bättre förståelse för hur det abstrakta måleriet uppkommit och för att göra detta möjligt har jag valt att utgå ifrån en av de abstrakta pionjärerna, Piet Mondrian. I undersökningen finns ett fokus på att ta reda på vilka hans inspirationskällor var och hur de återspeglar sig i hans konst. En diskussion och bildanalys förs kring ett antal av Mondrians målningar samt ett par jämförelser görs med konstnären Toorop. Det finns en kortare förklaring av neoplasticismen, teosofin och en sammanfattning av teosofins roll för de abstrakta pionjärerna.</p><p>Det jag kommit fram till är att teosofin hade en stor betydelse för Mondrian, men inte lika stor betydelse som personerna som förmedlade den och som kom att bli inspirationskällor för honom. Enligt mig är den mest betydande målningen Evolution från tidigt 1900-tal. Under denna tid sker mycket i Mondrians privata och professionella liv. I målningen kan vi utläsa både inspirationskällor och teknik. Det som betydde mest för Mondrian var färgen (före formen) samt de delar ur teosofin som han plockade efter att ha låtit sig inspireras av Toorop, Steiner och Schoenmaeker.</p>

Målet är att få en bättre förståelse för hur det abstrakta måleriet uppkommit och för att göra detta möjligt har jag valt att utgå ifrån en av de abstrakta pionjärerna, Piet Mondrian. I undersökningen finns ett fokus på att ta reda på vilka hans inspirationskällor var och hur de återspeglar sig i hans konst. En diskussion och bildanalys förs kring ett antal av Mondrians målningar samt ett par jämförelser görs med konstnären Toorop. Det finns en kortare förklaring av neoplasticismen, teosofin och en sammanfattning av teosofins roll för de abstrakta pionjärerna. Det jag kommit fram till är att teosofin hade en stor betydelse för Mondrian, men inte lika stor betydelse som personerna som förmedlade den och som kom att bli inspirationskällor för honom. Enligt mig är den mest betydande målningen Evolution från tidigt 1900-tal. Under denna tid sker mycket i Mondrians privata och professionella liv. I målningen kan vi utläsa både inspirationskällor och teknik. Det som betydde mest för Mondrian var färgen (före formen) samt de delar ur teosofin som han plockade efter att ha låtit sig inspireras av Toorop, Steiner och Schoenmaeker.

This literature review aims to investigate, expose and explain August Strindberg's religious position in his partly autobiographical work Inferno, published in Swedish in 1897, in relation to Peter Berger's socialization theory. Strindberg says in the beginning of Inferno that he goes from being an atheist, occultist and Swedenborgian to finally return to his ancestral religion, Christianity. This is questionable, as Strindberg seems to be religious in its atheistic era, and occultist during his Christian period. Strindberg's own religious views seem not always match what he portrays, compared to what he writes in his correspondence and diary entries. This literature review aims to highlight the influences of Strindberg affected to clarify his religiosity which is implicitly and explicitly depicted in Inferno. This thematic epicanalysis has revealed several religious perplexities which Strindberg depicted in his literary works. Strindberg describes in the beginning of the work his alchemy and the occult tendencies that flourish around him and how it affects his scientific experiments. There is a time where Strindberg feels anxious and extremely mentally ill, something that gets better as Strindberg learns Emanuel Swedenborg's religion. Inferno ends with a description of Strindberg's conversion to Christianity, which has sought to be explained by various researchers.

My essay is called “Alive but Insignificant: An Analysis of Cosmic Horror in H.P. Lovecraft’s Writing”. Howard Phillips Lovecraft has written many short stories surrounding the idea of “cosmic horror”. In this essay I seek to investigate how this cosmic horror works and what connections it has to occultism by analyzing six of his short stories: The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour Out of Space, The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, The Haunter of The Dark, The Nameless City and Nyarlathotep. In the essay I use sources that show Lovecraft’s biography and letters to build an idea of how he might have been thinking when writing and in the theory segment I bring up the sublime to show what “cosmic horror” means when analyzing Lovecraft. I analyze the stories based on three categories: The Fear of Cosmos, The Fear of The Occult and The Fear of The Abyss.   In the second to last segment called discussion I got through everything that I have found through my analysis: Within The Fear of Cosmos, I analyze The Colour Out of Space, Nyarlathotep and The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath to find that the fear comes from the idea that there is a force somewhere out in space that can destroy humanity on a whim and humans have no way of stopping it. Within The Fear of The Occult, I analyze the Cthulhucult in The Call of Cthulhu by bringing up Lovecraft’s connections to occultism and potential connections to Helena Blavatsky. To enforce the connection between Lovecraft and Blavatsky I use a quote from Haunter of The Dark that presents a book that Blavatsky has ties to. There I find that the fear comes from the idea that a malevolent monster is whispering in the ears of people, encouraging them to commit horrific acts and to abandon their humanity in its name. In The Fear of The Abyss, I analyze The Nameless City and The Call of Cthulhu to find that the fear comes from the idea that there is a powerful and horrifying monster sleeping somewhere under the earth and the ocean, waiting for the right time to awaken and come out of hiding, all while humanity is unaware of it.   In the very last segment I go through some comments regarding the essay, where I share my biggest problems with Lovecraft and why certain parts of the essay was cut out.

H.P. Blavatsky’s (1831-1891) Theosophy has been defined as central to the history of modern Western spirituality and esotericism, yet to this date no major study has mapped and analysed the major themes of Blavatsky’s writings, how Blavatsky used the concept ‘Theosophy’ or to what extent she was engaged with the intellectual contexts of her time. Thus the purpose of this thesis is to fill this gap. The proposed theoretical framework is based on the centrality of language in the production of intellectual products, such as texts—but contrary to the dominant focus on strategies, rhetoric and power this thesis will focus on the construction of meaning coupled with a set of methodological tools based on contextual analysis, intellectual history and intertextuality. In addition to an overview of Blavatsky research this thesis will map and analyse Blavatsky’s use of the concept ‘Theosophy’ as well as Blavatsky’s primary discourses, identified as: (1) discourse for ancient knowledge, (2) discourse against Christian dogmatism, (3) discourse against the modern natural sciences and materialism, (4) discourse against modern spiritualism, (5) discourse for system and (7) discourse for universal brotherhood. In mapping and analysing Blavatsky’s discourses, it was found that her construction of meaning was significantly interconnected with broader intellectual contexts, such as ‘modern historical consciousness’, ‘critical enlightenment ideas’, studies in religion, studies in mythology, the modern sciences, spiritualism, systemic philosophy, reform movements and practical ethics. It, for example, becomes clear that Blavatsky’s search for an ancient ‘Wisdom Religion’ was actually a part of a common intellectual occupation during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and that her critique of the Christian dogmas was equally a common intellectual trend. To read Blavatsky’s discourses as the idiosyncratic strategies of an esotericist, isolated from their larger contexts or only engaged with them in order to legitimise minority views would therefore largely fail to account for the result of this thesis: that in historical actuality, they were a part of the larger cultural web of meaning.