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Of Mortals and Masters
The Strange Afterlife of a New Age Classic
Western seekers have a long history of chronicling mentorship to mysterious masters from the East.
In the late-nineteenth century, Russian-born occultist and world traveler Madame H.P. Blavatsky (1831–1891) popularized this theme in her accounts of clandestine visitations and “phenomenally produced” letters from Eastern adepts of wisdom. The controversial seeker proudly reminded listeners that she was, in fact, an American citizen, gaining citizenship during her 1870s stay in the U.S. and remaining a citizen until her death in England in 1891.
Other spiritual authors soon produced their own accounts — some historically sound, some speculative, and some a matter of debate — of tutelage to exotic masters and pilgrimages to Tibetan, Indian, Persian, and Far-Eastern spiritual settings.
