Colonel Olcott was a great figure in the new age spiritual movement and in the beginning stages of the externalization of the Hierarchy in the 19th Century. He was the perfect male balance and polarity for Madam Blavatsky, even though they were never romantically involved. He was actually chosen by the Great White Brotherhood to be her partner in the founding of the Theosophical Society before he and Madam Blavatsky ever met.
He was President of the Theosophical Society for over 31 years from 1875 to 1906. He traveled and lectured extensively and literally had miraculous healing powers. He was a great writer and was instrumental in helping Madam Blavatsky to write "Isis Unveiled".
It was Colonel Olcott who carried the administrative responsibilities of the Theosophical Society, which the total mystic, Madam Blavatsky, had very little to do with. The Theosophical Society would have never gotten off the ground without his noble help and efforts.
Colonel Olcott was born in 1832. As a young man he became interested in mesmerism which was kind of a combination of laying on of hands and hypnosis. He had a natural talent for it and provided a base for the later development of his healing talents. As a young man he became involved in scientific agriculture and served in the Civil War. He later found his calling in journalism.
The most significant part of his life began in 1874, when he began investigating the mysterious world of spirits for a New York newspaper. It was shortly after this that Madam Blavatsky was guided to go and meet Col. Olcott, whom her Master said was going to be her future partner. He was 42 years old at this time. Madam Blavatsky amazed him with her enormous psychic and spiritual powers, and a friendship and partnership soon began. Madam Blavatsky told Col. Olcott that the upsurge in spiritism in the modern world, the Brotherhood was using, for the purposes of expanding their work.
In 1875 Col. Olcott received his first letter from the Brotherhood. As described in Howard Murphet’s book, "Yankee Beacon of Buddhist Light", the letter said; "From the Brotherhood of Luxor (Serapis Bey’s retreat), to Henry S. Olcott. Brother neophyte, we greet thee. He who seeks us finds us. Try. Rest the mind, banish all foul doubt. We keep watch over our faithful soldiers. Sister Helen is a valiant, trustworthy servant. Open thy spirit to conviction, have faith and she will lead thee to the golden gate of truth. She neither fears sword nor fire, but her soul is sensitive to dishonor and she hath reason to mistrust the future."
He was later to receive another letter shortly thereafter, that read, "Beware, Henry, before you pitch headlong into it… You can decline the connection as yet. But if you keep the letter I send you and agree to the word, neophyte, you are cooked, my boy, and there is no return from it. Trials and temptations to your faith will shower on you first of all. Remember my seven years preliminary initiations, trials, dangers and fighting with all incarnated evils and legions of devils, and think before you accept. On the other hand, if you are decided, remember my advice… patience, faith, no questioning, through obedience and silence."
A short while later he received another letter in which he was to be given esoteric instruction from an initiate named Jack. In an interesting letter sent by the Mahatmas to a Mr. A. P. Sinnett (one of four years of correspondence which later became known as "the Mahatma Letters") the following was stated: "One or two of us hoped that the world had so far advanced intellectually, if not intuitionally, that the occult doctrines might gain an intellectual acceptance, and the impulse given for a new cycle of occult research… So casting about we found in America the man to stand as leader - a man of great moral courage, unselfish, and having other good qualities (Olcott) …with whom we associated a woman of most exceptional and wonderful endowments (Madam Blavatsky) …We sent her to America, brought them together - and the trial began. The chiefs wanted a "Brotherhood of Humanity", a real universal fraternity started; an institution which would make itself known throughout the world and arrest the attention of the highest minds."
Master El Morya was later to say to Sinnett in another letter, "There is more of the movement than you have yet had an inkling of, and the work of the Theosophical Society is linked in with similar work that is secretly going on in all parts of the world."
As the Theosophical Society began, Col. Olcott was voted President and gave the following statement in his opening address. "If I understand the spirit of the Society, it consecrates itself to the intrepid and conscientious study of truth and binds itself, individually as well as collectively, to suffer nothing to stand in its way …Come well, come ill, my heart, my soul, my mind, and my strength are pledged to this cause, and I shall stand fast while I have a breath of life in me, though all others shall retire and leave me to stand alone…"
Col. Olcott was to receive the education of an ordinary lifetime in a short two year period as he helped Madam Blavatsky with the English language in her writing of "Isis Unveiled". Often when Madam Blavatsky needed a quotation from some obscure book, the actual book containing what she needed was "materialized" from some distant library somewhere in the world. When she was done with it it would dematerialize.
Col. Olcott was greatly tested as he had stepped on the path of discipleship. He is quoted as saying, in Howard Murphet’s book; "No one knows, until he really tries it, how awful a task it is to subdue all his evil passion and animal instincts, and develop his higher nature."
Col. Olcott was later to say about the Madam Blavatsky’s book, "Isis Unveiled", "If any book could ever have been said to make an epoch, this one could. Its effects have been as important in one way as those of Darwin’s first great work have been in another; Both were tidal waves in modern thought, and each tended to sweep away Theological crudities…"
Early on in Col. Olcott’s training, the Master El Morya "materialized" Himself from the Himalayas. He saw a flash of light in the corner of his eye and turning his head he saw a man. In Howard Murphet’s book he gives the following description of this experience. "I saw, towering above me in His great stature, an oriental clad in white garments, and wearing a head cloth, or turban, or amber striped fabric. Long raven hair hung from under his turban to his shoulders. His black beard, parted vertically on the chin in the Rajput fashion, was twisted up at the ends and carried over the ears. His eyes were alive with soul fire; eyes which were, at once benign and piercing in glance; the eyes of a mentor and a judge, but softened by the love a father who gazes on a son needing counsel and advice."
"He was so grand a man, so imbued with the majesty of moral strength, so luminously spiritual, so evidently above average humanity, that I felt abashed in His presence, and bowed my head and bent my knee as one does before a God or God like personage. A hand was lightly laid on my head, a sweet, though strong voice bade me to be seated, and when I raised my eyes, the presence was seated in the chair on the other side of the table. …He told me that it lay with me, alone, whether He and I should meet often in this life as co-workers for the good of humanity and I had the right to share in it if I wished; That a mysterious tie, not now to be explained to me, had drawn my colleague and myself together; a tie which could not be broken, however strained it might be at times."
As El Morya was about to leave the thought crossed through Col. Olcott’s mind whether this was a hallucination. He inwardly wished for tangible proof that he just wasn’t under hypnosis and this was totally real. El Morya proceeded to read his mind and left His turban on the table. The turban remained permanently in his possession. This turban, over 100 years later, is still in one piece at the headquarters of the Theosophical Society in India.
One of the interesting things about studying the life of Col. Olcott is that he had such close contact with Madam Blavatsky and her supernatural powers. On one occasion she showed her close friend, Belle, a drawer filled with gold bracelets, rings, lockets, and precious stones. Belle picked up the jewelry and handled it and tried the different pieces on. When she was done Madam Blavatsky closed the drawer. Belle asked her to open it and the jewelry had disappeared.
On another occasion Madam Blavatsky materialized a plain gold ring. As it lay in her friend, Belle’s hand, without touching it, Madam Blavatsky closed Belle’s palm around the ring. When Belle opened her palm the plain gold ring now had three small diamonds imbedded into the gold. What is quite amazing about this is that Sai Baba can do this, however, He is the "Cosmic Christ", while Madam Blavatskywas still only a third or fourth degree initiate at best. It just goes to show you the abilities that are available to all of us. You don’t have to be an Ascended Master or Galactic Avatar to do these things. Madam Blavatsky is living proof of this.
RSS 2.0