BLAVATSKY, H. P. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891) was the principal founder of the modern theosophical movement. Blavatsky, née von Hahn, was born in Ekaterinoslav, Russia, of distinguished parentage. Her father, of German descent, was an army officer. Her mother, a popular novelist, died during Helena's childhood. Helena was raised largely on the estate of her maternal grandfather, then civil governor of Saratov. An unusual and gifted child, she read widely in her grandfather's library, taking a special interest in science and occultism. She also enjoyed riding vigorously with her father's regiment. In 1849 she married the middle-aged Nikifor Blavatsky, vice-governor of Yerevan, but quickly left him to make her way to Constantinople and, by her own account, to travel the world in pursuit of esoteric teachings, culminating with study and initiation in Tibet in the late 1860s under the tutelage of mahatmas (highly evolved teachers...