The Transvaluation of “Soul” and “Spirit”: Platonism and Paulism in H.P. Blavatsky’s Isis Unveiled1
Issued Date: 12 Aug 2014
Abstract
This paper in the doxographic history of Western esotericism examines H.P. Blavatsky's use of the terms “soul” and “spirit” in Isis Unveiled. “Soul” and “spirit” have been given great importance both in early Greek thought and throughout the subsequent history of Western philosophy, religion, and science, and uses of these terms are generally bound up with the attributions of one Greek school or another. As Isis Unveiled specifically frames itself as a “Hermetic” work, it would be reasonable to assume that Blavatsky’s early use of “soul,” “spirit,” and their cognates in other languages would comport to the usage of the Alexandrian Hermetists—who phrased the relationship between the two in terms of spirit being distinct from and inferior to soul, with spirit acting as an intermediary substance which bridges the gap in the emanative descent from the soul to body. However, Blavatsky’s use both of the English and Greek terms (as well as their Latin equivalents) curiously follow an inversion of this usage. As such, the principal purpose of this study is to examine her understanding of these terms, and of the sources to which she appeals in an attempt to uncover how and why this transvaluation occurred. This is accomplished by first examine Blavatsky’s usage, and then those of the historical precedents, charting the semantic shift from antiquity to that of Isis Unveiled.
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References
Primary Sources
Agrippa, Henry Cornelius. De occulta philosophia libri tres. Edited by V. Perrone Compagni. Studies in the History of Christian Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1992.
Apuleius. De deo Socratis. In vol. 2 of Opera omnia, edited by G.F. Hildebrand, 102–69. Leipzig: Sumtibus C. Cnoblochii, 1842.
Aristotle. Movement of Animals. In Parts of Animals, Movement of Animals, Progression of Animals, edited and translated by E.S. Forster, 440–542. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1961.
——. Generation of Animals. Edited and translated by A.L. Peck. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1953.
Blavatsky, H.P. Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology. 2 vols. Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1988.
——. The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. 2 vols. Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1999.
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward. Zanoni. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1888.
Cicero. Academica. In De natura deorum, Academica, edited and translated by H. Rackham, 410–659. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1968.
——. De natura deorum. In De natura deorum, Academica, edited and translated by H. Rackham, 2–383. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1968.
Corpus Hermeticum: Tome I, Traités I–XII. 3rd ed. Edited and translated by A.D. Nock and A.J. Festugière. Paris: Belles Lettres, 1972.
Damascius. Damascii successoris dubitationes et solutiones. 2 vols. Edited by Charles Émile Ruelle. Paris: Klincksieck, 1899.
Ficino, Marsilio. Platonic Theology. 6 vols. Edited by James Hankins. Translated by Michael J.B. Allen. The I Tatti Renaissance Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001–2006.
Galen. On the Natural Faculties. Edited and translated by Arthur John Brock. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1952.
——. De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis. 3 vols. Edited by Phillip De Lacy. Corpus medicorum Graecorum, Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1978.
Iamblichus. In Timaeum. In Iamblichi Chalcidencis: In Platonis diologos commentariorum fragmenta, 106–205. Edited and translated by John M. Dillon. Platonic Texts and Translations, 1. Wiltshire: The Prometheus Trust, 2009.
——. Iamblichus On the Mysteries: Translated With Introduction and Notes. Edited and translated by Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon and Jackson P. Hershbell. Writings from the Greco-Roman World, 4. Atlanta: Society for Biblical Literature, 2003.
Lévi, Éliphas. Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. 2 vols. Paris: Germer Baillière, 1861.
Macrobius. Commentarii in Ciceronis somnium Scipionis et excerpta e libro de differentiis et societatibus Graeci Latinque verbi. Edited by Ludwig von Jan. Opera quae supersunt, 1. Quedlinburg and Leipzig: Godofredi Bassii, 1848.
Marcus Aurelius. Meditations. In Marcus Aurelius, edited and translated by C.R. Haines, 1–345. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930.
Olympiodorus. Olympiodorus: Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato. Edited by L.G. Westerink. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1956.
Paracelsus. Astronomia Magna, oder die ganze Philosophia Sagax der großen und kleinen Welt. In vol. 12 of Sämtliche Werke, 1–406. 14 vols. Edited by Karl Sudhoff. Munich and Berlin: R. Oldenbourg, 1929–33.
——. Paragranum. In Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541): Essential Theoretical Writings, 61–296. Edited and translated by Andrew Weeks. Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism, 5. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
Philo of Alexandria. Questions and Answers on Genesis. Edited and translated by Ralph Marcus. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1953.
Plotinus. Enneads. 7 vols. Edited and translated by A.H. Armstrong. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1966–88.
Proclus. In Platonis rem publicam commentarii. 2 vols. Edited by W. Kroll. Leipzig: Teubner, 1849–1901.
Proclus. In Platonis Timaeum commentaria. 3 vols. Edited by Ernst Diehl. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903–6.
Seneca. Epistles. 3 vols. Edited and translated by Richard M. Gummere. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1917–25.
Simplicius. Simplicii in Aristotelis physicorum libros octo commentaria. 2 vols. Edited by H. Diels. Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, 9 and 10. Berlin: Reimer, 1882–95.
Syrianus. Syriani in metaphysica commentaria. Edited by W. Kroll. Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, 6.1. Berlin: Reimer, 1902.
Tertullian. Apology. In Aplogy, De spectaculis, edited and translated by T.R. Glover, 2–229. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1928.
The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Edited and translated by Ruth Majercik. Studies in Greek and Roman Religion, 5. Leiden: Brill, 1989.
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Edited by Michael W. Holmes. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010.
Vaughan, Thomas. Anima Magica Abscondita: Or a Discourse of the Universal Spirit of Nature. In The Works of Thomas Vaughan: Mystic and Alchemist (Eugenius Philalethes), edited by Arthur Edward Waite, 63–118. New Hyde Park: University Books, 1968.
——. Anthroposophia Theomagica: Or a Discourse of the Nature of Man and His State After Death. In The Works of Thomas Vaughan: Mystic and Alchemist (Eugenius Philalethes), edited by Arthur Edward Waite, 1–62. New Hyde Park: University Books, 1968.
——. The Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, and a Short Declaration of Their Physical Work. In The Works of Thomas Vaughan: Mystic and Alchemist (Eugenius Philalethes), edited by Arthur Edward Waite, 339–82. New Hyde Park: University Books, 1968.
Secondary Sources
Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Burton, Ernest DeWitt. Spirit, Soul, and Flesh: The Usage of , Ψυχή, and Σάρξ in Greek Writings and Translated Works from the Earliest Period to 224 A.D.; and of Their Equivalents , and in the Hebrew Old Testament. Historical and Linguistic Studies, 2.3. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1918.
Campbell, Bruce F. Ancient Wisdom: A History of the Theosophical Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
Coleman, Emmette. “The Sources of Madame Blavatsky’s Writings.” In A Modern Priestess of Isis, by Walter Leaf, 353–66. London: Longmans, Greek, and Co., 1895.
Corrias, Anna. “Imagination and Memory in Marsilio Ficino’s Theory of the Vehicles of the Soul.” The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 6 (2012): 81–114.
DeSilva, David A. “Paul and the Stoa: A Comparison.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 38, no. 4 (1995): 549–64.
Dillon, John. The Middle Platonists: 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Revised edition. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.
Engberg-Pedersen, Troels. “The Material Spirit: Cosmology and Ethics in Paul.” New Testament Studies 55, no. 2 (2009): 179–97.
Finamore, John. Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul. American Classical Studies, 14. Chico: Scholars Press, 1985.
Godwin, Joscelyn. The Theosophical Enlightenment. SUNY Series in Western Esotericism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. Helena Blavatsky. Western Esoteric Masters Series. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2004.
Guinsburg, Arlene Miller. “Henry More, Thomas Vaughan and the Late Renaissance Magical Tradition.” Ambix 27, no. 1 (1980): 36–58.
Hammer, Olav. Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Numen Book Series: Studies in the History of Religions, 40. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Hanegraaff, Wouter J. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.
Jackson, Carl T. The Oriental Religions and American Thought: Nineteenth-Century Explorations. London: Greenwood Press, 1981.
Jevons, F.R. “Paracelsus’ Two-Way Astrology: I. What Paracelsus Meant by ‘Stars.’” The British Journal for the History of Science 2, no. 2 (1964): 139–47.
Kissling, Robert Christian. “The of the Neo-Platonists and the De Insomniis of Synesius of Cyrene.” The American Journal of Philology 43, no. 4 (1922): 318–30.
Lehoux, Daryn. What Did the Romans Know: An Inquiry Into Science and Worldmaking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Newman, William. “Thomas Vaughan as an Interpreter of Agrippa von Nettesheim.” Ambix 29, no. 3 (1982): 125–40.
Rist, John M. “Plotinus and the ‘Daimonion’ of Socrates.” Phoenix 17, no. 1 (1963): 13–24.
Rudbøg, Tim. “Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s Esoteric Tradition.” In Constructing Tradition: Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism, edited by Andreas B. Kilcher, 161–77. Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Schibli, H.S. “Hierocles of Alexandria and the Vehicle of the Soul.” Hermes 121 (1993): 109–17.
Schoemaker, William Ross. The Use of in the Old Testament and of in the New Testament. PhD diss. University of Chicago, 1904.
Agrippa, Henry Cornelius. De occulta philosophia libri tres. Edited by V. Perrone Compagni. Studies in the History of Christian Thought. Leiden: Brill, 1992.
Apuleius. De deo Socratis. In vol. 2 of Opera omnia, edited by G.F. Hildebrand, 102–69. Leipzig: Sumtibus C. Cnoblochii, 1842.
Aristotle. Movement of Animals. In Parts of Animals, Movement of Animals, Progression of Animals, edited and translated by E.S. Forster, 440–542. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1961.
——. Generation of Animals. Edited and translated by A.L. Peck. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1953.
Blavatsky, H.P. Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology. 2 vols. Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1988.
——. The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. 2 vols. Pasadena: Theosophical University Press, 1999.
Bulwer-Lytton, Edward. Zanoni. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott, 1888.
Cicero. Academica. In De natura deorum, Academica, edited and translated by H. Rackham, 410–659. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1968.
——. De natura deorum. In De natura deorum, Academica, edited and translated by H. Rackham, 2–383. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1968.
Corpus Hermeticum: Tome I, Traités I–XII. 3rd ed. Edited and translated by A.D. Nock and A.J. Festugière. Paris: Belles Lettres, 1972.
Damascius. Damascii successoris dubitationes et solutiones. 2 vols. Edited by Charles Émile Ruelle. Paris: Klincksieck, 1899.
Ficino, Marsilio. Platonic Theology. 6 vols. Edited by James Hankins. Translated by Michael J.B. Allen. The I Tatti Renaissance Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001–2006.
Galen. On the Natural Faculties. Edited and translated by Arthur John Brock. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1952.
——. De placitis Hippocratis et Platonis. 3 vols. Edited by Phillip De Lacy. Corpus medicorum Graecorum, Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 1978.
Iamblichus. In Timaeum. In Iamblichi Chalcidencis: In Platonis diologos commentariorum fragmenta, 106–205. Edited and translated by John M. Dillon. Platonic Texts and Translations, 1. Wiltshire: The Prometheus Trust, 2009.
——. Iamblichus On the Mysteries: Translated With Introduction and Notes. Edited and translated by Emma C. Clarke, John M. Dillon and Jackson P. Hershbell. Writings from the Greco-Roman World, 4. Atlanta: Society for Biblical Literature, 2003.
Lévi, Éliphas. Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. 2 vols. Paris: Germer Baillière, 1861.
Macrobius. Commentarii in Ciceronis somnium Scipionis et excerpta e libro de differentiis et societatibus Graeci Latinque verbi. Edited by Ludwig von Jan. Opera quae supersunt, 1. Quedlinburg and Leipzig: Godofredi Bassii, 1848.
Marcus Aurelius. Meditations. In Marcus Aurelius, edited and translated by C.R. Haines, 1–345. Loeb Classical Library. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1930.
Olympiodorus. Olympiodorus: Commentary on the First Alcibiades of Plato. Edited by L.G. Westerink. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1956.
Paracelsus. Astronomia Magna, oder die ganze Philosophia Sagax der großen und kleinen Welt. In vol. 12 of Sämtliche Werke, 1–406. 14 vols. Edited by Karl Sudhoff. Munich and Berlin: R. Oldenbourg, 1929–33.
——. Paragranum. In Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, 1493–1541): Essential Theoretical Writings, 61–296. Edited and translated by Andrew Weeks. Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism, 5. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
Philo of Alexandria. Questions and Answers on Genesis. Edited and translated by Ralph Marcus. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1953.
Plotinus. Enneads. 7 vols. Edited and translated by A.H. Armstrong. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1966–88.
Proclus. In Platonis rem publicam commentarii. 2 vols. Edited by W. Kroll. Leipzig: Teubner, 1849–1901.
Proclus. In Platonis Timaeum commentaria. 3 vols. Edited by Ernst Diehl. Leipzig: Teubner, 1903–6.
Seneca. Epistles. 3 vols. Edited and translated by Richard M. Gummere. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1917–25.
Simplicius. Simplicii in Aristotelis physicorum libros octo commentaria. 2 vols. Edited by H. Diels. Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, 9 and 10. Berlin: Reimer, 1882–95.
Syrianus. Syriani in metaphysica commentaria. Edited by W. Kroll. Commentaria in Aristotelem Graeca, 6.1. Berlin: Reimer, 1902.
Tertullian. Apology. In Aplogy, De spectaculis, edited and translated by T.R. Glover, 2–229. Loeb Classical Library. London: William Heinemann, 1928.
The Chaldean Oracles: Text, Translation, and Commentary. Edited and translated by Ruth Majercik. Studies in Greek and Roman Religion, 5. Leiden: Brill, 1989.
The Greek New Testament: SBL Edition. Edited by Michael W. Holmes. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2010.
Vaughan, Thomas. Anima Magica Abscondita: Or a Discourse of the Universal Spirit of Nature. In The Works of Thomas Vaughan: Mystic and Alchemist (Eugenius Philalethes), edited by Arthur Edward Waite, 63–118. New Hyde Park: University Books, 1968.
——. Anthroposophia Theomagica: Or a Discourse of the Nature of Man and His State After Death. In The Works of Thomas Vaughan: Mystic and Alchemist (Eugenius Philalethes), edited by Arthur Edward Waite, 1–62. New Hyde Park: University Books, 1968.
——. The Fraternity of the Rosy Cross, and a Short Declaration of Their Physical Work. In The Works of Thomas Vaughan: Mystic and Alchemist (Eugenius Philalethes), edited by Arthur Edward Waite, 339–82. New Hyde Park: University Books, 1968.
Secondary Sources
Bloom, Harold. The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry. 2nd edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Burton, Ernest DeWitt. Spirit, Soul, and Flesh: The Usage of , Ψυχή, and Σάρξ in Greek Writings and Translated Works from the Earliest Period to 224 A.D.; and of Their Equivalents , and in the Hebrew Old Testament. Historical and Linguistic Studies, 2.3. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1918.
Campbell, Bruce F. Ancient Wisdom: A History of the Theosophical Movement. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.
Coleman, Emmette. “The Sources of Madame Blavatsky’s Writings.” In A Modern Priestess of Isis, by Walter Leaf, 353–66. London: Longmans, Greek, and Co., 1895.
Corrias, Anna. “Imagination and Memory in Marsilio Ficino’s Theory of the Vehicles of the Soul.” The International Journal of the Platonic Tradition 6 (2012): 81–114.
DeSilva, David A. “Paul and the Stoa: A Comparison.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 38, no. 4 (1995): 549–64.
Dillon, John. The Middle Platonists: 80 B.C. to A.D. 220. Revised edition. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996.
Engberg-Pedersen, Troels. “The Material Spirit: Cosmology and Ethics in Paul.” New Testament Studies 55, no. 2 (2009): 179–97.
Finamore, John. Iamblichus and the Theory of the Vehicle of the Soul. American Classical Studies, 14. Chico: Scholars Press, 1985.
Godwin, Joscelyn. The Theosophical Enlightenment. SUNY Series in Western Esotericism. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas. Helena Blavatsky. Western Esoteric Masters Series. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2004.
Guinsburg, Arlene Miller. “Henry More, Thomas Vaughan and the Late Renaissance Magical Tradition.” Ambix 27, no. 1 (1980): 36–58.
Hammer, Olav. Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Numen Book Series: Studies in the History of Religions, 40. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
Hanegraaff, Wouter J. New Age Religion and Western Culture: Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.
Jackson, Carl T. The Oriental Religions and American Thought: Nineteenth-Century Explorations. London: Greenwood Press, 1981.
Jevons, F.R. “Paracelsus’ Two-Way Astrology: I. What Paracelsus Meant by ‘Stars.’” The British Journal for the History of Science 2, no. 2 (1964): 139–47.
Kissling, Robert Christian. “The of the Neo-Platonists and the De Insomniis of Synesius of Cyrene.” The American Journal of Philology 43, no. 4 (1922): 318–30.
Lehoux, Daryn. What Did the Romans Know: An Inquiry Into Science and Worldmaking. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Newman, William. “Thomas Vaughan as an Interpreter of Agrippa von Nettesheim.” Ambix 29, no. 3 (1982): 125–40.
Rist, John M. “Plotinus and the ‘Daimonion’ of Socrates.” Phoenix 17, no. 1 (1963): 13–24.
Rudbøg, Tim. “Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s Esoteric Tradition.” In Constructing Tradition: Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism, edited by Andreas B. Kilcher, 161–77. Aries Book Series: Texts and Studies in Western Esotericism. Leiden: Brill, 2010.
Schibli, H.S. “Hierocles of Alexandria and the Vehicle of the Soul.” Hermes 121 (1993): 109–17.
Schoemaker, William Ross. The Use of in the Old Testament and of in the New Testament. PhD diss. University of Chicago, 1904.
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