New York Times Profiles Tony Hovater, and uses a poor source accusing H.P. Blavatsky of being an Anti-Semitic influence on the National Socialists. Theosophists are not of the past, and are thus not invisible. They still exist, independent even of the Theosophical Society, and observe what is said about them.

In this last month’s ridiculous New York Times profile article “I Interviewed a White Nationalist and Fascist, What Was I Left With?” its journalist, Richard Fausset claimed that Helena Blavatsky was an anti-semite, and this influenced Nazi thinking. He says this, as if it is an incontestable fact. Richard Fausset writes:

“Mr. Hovater was exceedingly candid with me — often shockingly so — but it seems as though his worldview was largely formed by the same recombinant stuff that influences our mainstream politics. There were exceptions, of course: I saw, on his bookshelf, two volumes of Helena Blavatsky’s “The Secret Doctrine,” 19th-century work of esoteric spiritualism whose anti-Semitism influenced Nazi thinking.

But even if I had called Mr. Hovater yet again — even if we had discussed Blavatsky at length, the way we did his ideas about the Federal Reserve Bank — I’m not sure it would have answered the question.

What makes a man start fires?”

The book he referenced readers to was Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution, Volume 1, which falsely claims H.P.B. used spirit guides, called “Ascended Masters.”

As she says herself regarding Theosophy:

“What we desire to prove is, that underlying every ancient popular religion was the same ancient wisdom-doctrine, one and identical, professed and practised by the initiates of every country, who alone were aware of its existence and importance. To ascertain its origin, and the precise age in which it was matured, is now beyond human possibility. A single glance, however, is enough to assure one that it could not have attained the marvellous perfection in which we find it pictured to us in the relics of the various esoteric systems, except after a succession of ages. A philosophy so profound, a moral code so ennobling, and practical results so conclusive and so uniformly demonstrable is not the growth of a generation, or even a single epoch. Fact must have been piled upon fact, deduction upon deduction, science have begotten science, and myriads of the brightest human intellects have reflected upon the laws of nature, before this ancient doctrine had taken concrete shape.” (H.P.B., Isis Unveiled, Vol. 2, 99)

Researchers not familiar with Theosophical History are most likely to check for sources likely in such places, despite those sources admitting that “spirit guides” exist, by claiming H.P. Blavatsky was a mere medium, madwoman, or both. Historian, Ronald Hutton described Blavatsky as “one of the century’s truly international figures,” whose ideas gained “considerable popularity.” You can find the name of H.P.B. casually mentioned every once and a while, but have her ideas gained “considerable popularity?” No. We again fail to find this considerable popularity and misled readers are forced to draw lazy conclusions about “neo-Nazi” who keeps The Secret Doctrine on his shelf. So do I.