For those who do not know who she was, here is a wiki article.
Helena Blavatsky was the founder of the theosophical movement. She dealt in mysticism, apocryphism, and even wrote some volumes of short stories. The latter is how i came into contact with her work.
Around 13 years ago, in my second year at university, i was looking for books in London, and had went for the first time at Tottenham Court Road, which is the epicenter of bookstores in the english capital.
For some peculiar reason i decided to not enter one of the known stores, but instead venture onto the opposite side of the road. I even passed a small parallel road, and finally arrived at a small bookstore, which had- something very surprising- greek letters on its windows.
It turned out to be a greek bookstore, but this was not all that was unusual about it. It moreover sold only very old greek editions, so it was an antique bookshop.
I found three books, one which i do not recall at all, another i do not wish to name (it was by a greek author) and finally a collection of Blavatsky's short prose.
I do not doubt that it was that last one which made me buy the books, since it was an edition of the early 1960's, which was at the time a 36 year old book, definitely out of print, and instantly became my rarest acquisition.
I suspect that i read the short, first story in the bookstop. It was about an ancient old man who lived without eating, wandering around in the snow. It felt strange.
At the time i had no idea who Blavatsky was, nor any connotations of her work, but i did feel a bit as if i was opening something which was forbidden.
Curiously, that same night, while returning to my apartment in central London i nearly died three different times, in road accidents...
Weeks later i returned to the shop, to buy some more books. But when i tried to find it i failed. I was dead certain i had the correct location, but nothing was there at all, just some other shop that sold groceries. I was perplexed, and started to leave, but then i heard a voice behind me, calling me, in english. I turned, and surely the person (a black man with black, poor-man's attire) was addressing me, and soon asked me if i was trying to find the bookstore.
To that i replied, quite in shock, that i was indeed. So he then informed me that the shop had closed down.
All the time he was joyous, smiling, and now, as i turned away from him, i could almost sense that his smile had become a muted laugh.
That is all of the story of my first encounter of a Blavatsky book. Days later i felt disgusted by it and threw it away, along with the other two books i got from that shop.
In this thread you can discuss about Blavatsky, if you have read anything by her, or reflect on my story (which i assure you is entirely real; besides, i had noted down the latter part of it in a thread here years before)
Helena Blavatsky was the founder of the theosophical movement. She dealt in mysticism, apocryphism, and even wrote some volumes of short stories. The latter is how i came into contact with her work.
Around 13 years ago, in my second year at university, i was looking for books in London, and had went for the first time at Tottenham Court Road, which is the epicenter of bookstores in the english capital.
For some peculiar reason i decided to not enter one of the known stores, but instead venture onto the opposite side of the road. I even passed a small parallel road, and finally arrived at a small bookstore, which had- something very surprising- greek letters on its windows.
It turned out to be a greek bookstore, but this was not all that was unusual about it. It moreover sold only very old greek editions, so it was an antique bookshop.
I found three books, one which i do not recall at all, another i do not wish to name (it was by a greek author) and finally a collection of Blavatsky's short prose.
I do not doubt that it was that last one which made me buy the books, since it was an edition of the early 1960's, which was at the time a 36 year old book, definitely out of print, and instantly became my rarest acquisition.
I suspect that i read the short, first story in the bookstop. It was about an ancient old man who lived without eating, wandering around in the snow. It felt strange.
At the time i had no idea who Blavatsky was, nor any connotations of her work, but i did feel a bit as if i was opening something which was forbidden.
Curiously, that same night, while returning to my apartment in central London i nearly died three different times, in road accidents...
Weeks later i returned to the shop, to buy some more books. But when i tried to find it i failed. I was dead certain i had the correct location, but nothing was there at all, just some other shop that sold groceries. I was perplexed, and started to leave, but then i heard a voice behind me, calling me, in english. I turned, and surely the person (a black man with black, poor-man's attire) was addressing me, and soon asked me if i was trying to find the bookstore.
To that i replied, quite in shock, that i was indeed. So he then informed me that the shop had closed down.
All the time he was joyous, smiling, and now, as i turned away from him, i could almost sense that his smile had become a muted laugh.
That is all of the story of my first encounter of a Blavatsky book. Days later i felt disgusted by it and threw it away, along with the other two books i got from that shop.
In this thread you can discuss about Blavatsky, if you have read anything by her, or reflect on my story (which i assure you is entirely real; besides, i had noted down the latter part of it in a thread here years before)
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