Constance Wachtmeister: Difference between revisions
No edit summary |
|||
| Line 53: | Line 53: | ||
=== Books === | === Books === | ||
* '''''Practical Vegetarian Cookery'''''. San Francisco: Mercury Publishing Co., 1897. Written with Kate Buffington Davis. | * '''''Practical Vegetarian Cookery'''''. San Francisco: Mercury Publishing Co.; Chicago: Theosophical Book Concern, 1897. Written with Kate Buffington Davis. Available at [http://wellcomelibrary.org/item/b20402405 Wellcome Library], [https://library.biblioboard.com/content/94aa357e-1304-4a7d-8d94-9f8d2b427322 Biblioboard], and others. | ||
* '''''Spiritualism in the Light of Theosophy'''''. San Francisco: Mercury Publishing Co., 1897. | * '''''Spiritualism in the Light of Theosophy'''''. San Francisco: Mercury Publishing Co., 1897. | ||
* '''''Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine'''''. | * '''''Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine'''''. London: Theosophical Publishing Society; New York: The Path; Madras: Theosophical Society, 1893. Available at [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/api/volumes/oclc/4196250.html Hathitrust] and [https://archive.org/details/cu31924029173016 Internet Archive]. Translated into Swedish and French. | ||
* '''''H. P. B. and The Present Crisis In The Theosophical Society'''''. 1894, 1895. | * '''''H. P. B. and The Present Crisis In The Theosophical Society'''''. [London]: Privately printed, Women's Printing Society, 1894-1895. translated into Swedish, 1895. | ||
* '''''Theosophy In Every-Day Life'''''. 1895 | * '''''Theosophy In Every-Day Life'''''. Sydney, 1895. "Compiled by a fellow of the Theosophical Society, repr. from Theosophical Siftings, Vol. 3, by kind permission of the editor, the Countess Wachtmeister." Translated into French by Annie Besant. | ||
== Notes == | == Notes == | ||
Revision as of 21:15, 31 January 2017
The Countess Wachtmeister was the companion and coworker of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky from 1885 until HPB's death in 1891.[1] She lectured widely in the 1890s, and helped Annie Besant to form lodges in the United States.
Personal life
Constance Georgina Louise Bourbel de Monpincon was born in Florence, Italy on March 28, 1838, to a French father and an English mother. In 1863 she married her cousin, the Count Wachtmeister. They had a son, count Axel Raoul. The family moved to Stockholm, Sweden, and in 1868 the count was appointed as the Minister of Foreign Affairs.[2] Her husband died in 1871. She joined joined the Theosophical Society in 1881.
She died in 1910.
Life with H. P. Blavatsky
Encounters with Mahatma Morya
"On one or other of his early visits to Europe, Countess Wachtmeister also met Master Morya. H. P. B. mentions the fact in a letter to Mr. N. D. Khandalvala, dated July 12, 1888:
Constance Wachtmeister joined the T.S. because she recognised in the portrait of my Master her living Master who saved her on several occasions, whom she saw in his physical body years ago when he was in England, whom she saw in her astral body a number of times, and who wrote to her from the first in the same handwriting he uses for our Society. When she assured herself of this, she joined the T.S. at his advice; and now for three years and more she lives with and takes care of me."[3]
Experiences with phenomena
In the autumn of 1885 the Countess was getting ready to go to Italy to spend the winter with some friends, when a singular phenomenon happened:
I was making preparations to leave my home in Sweden to spend the winter with some friends in Italy. . . . I was arranging and laying aside the articles I intended to take with me to Italy when I heard a voice saying, "Take that book, it will be useful to you on your journey." I may as well say at once that I have the faculties of clairvoyance and clairaudience rather strongly developed. I turned my eyes on a manuscript volume I had placed among the heap of things to be locked away until my return. Certainly it seemed a singular inappropriate vade mecum for a holiday, being a collection of notes on the Tarot and passages in the Kabbalah that had been compiled for me by a friend. However, I decided to take it with me, and laid the book in the bottom of one of my traveling trunks.
On her way to Italy she stopped at Elberfeld and satyed for some days with Madame Gebhard. When she was about to depart she got a telegram from H. P. Blavatsky requesting the Countess to join her at Wurzburg. Soon after she arrived, she had the following incident:
I remember very well that it was then, on going into the dining room together to take some tea, that she said to me abruptly, as of something that had been dwelling on her mind.
"Master says you have a book for me of which I am much in need."
"No, indeed," I replied, "I have no books with me."
"Think again," she said, "Master says you were told in Sweden to bring a book on the Tarot and the Kabbalah".
Then I recollected the circumstances that I have related before. From the time I had placed the volume in the bottom of my box it had been out of my sight and out of my mind. Now, when I hurried to the bedroom, unlocked the trunk, and dived to the bottom, I found it in the same corner I had left it when packing in Sweden, undisturbed from that moment to this.[4]
Lecture tours
Writing and editing
The Countess was an excellent writer in English and in French, and edited Theosophical Siftings. She worked with Bertram Keightley to organize the Theosophical Publishing Society. The Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists 446 articles by or about Constance and Axel Wachtmeister.
Articles
- "The Countess Wachtmeister Defends Madame Blavatsky," The Religio-Philosophical Journal (Chicago, Illinois) May 5, 1888, p. 6. Available at Blavatsky Archives.
Books
- Practical Vegetarian Cookery. San Francisco: Mercury Publishing Co.; Chicago: Theosophical Book Concern, 1897. Written with Kate Buffington Davis. Available at Wellcome Library, Biblioboard, and others.
- Spiritualism in the Light of Theosophy. San Francisco: Mercury Publishing Co., 1897.
- Reminiscences of H. P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine. London: Theosophical Publishing Society; New York: The Path; Madras: Theosophical Society, 1893. Available at Hathitrust and Internet Archive. Translated into Swedish and French.
- H. P. B. and The Present Crisis In The Theosophical Society. [London]: Privately printed, Women's Printing Society, 1894-1895. translated into Swedish, 1895.
- Theosophy In Every-Day Life. Sydney, 1895. "Compiled by a fellow of the Theosophical Society, repr. from Theosophical Siftings, Vol. 3, by kind permission of the editor, the Countess Wachtmeister." Translated into French by Annie Besant.
Notes
- ↑ George E. Linton and Virginia Hanson, eds., Readers Guide to The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett (Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1972), 245.
- ↑ "Mme. Blavatsky's Companion Here: the Countess Wachtmeister Will Lecture on Theosophical Questions," New York Times (September 20, 1894)
- ↑ Mary K. Neff, The "Brothers" of Madame Blavatsky (Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1932), 82.
- ↑ A Casebook of Encounters with the Theosophical Mahatmas Case 54, compiled and edited by Daniel H. Caldwell