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Blavatsky, Madame : Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-91), born at Ekaterinoslav: daughter of Col. Peter Hahn of a noble family of Mecklenburg, settled in Russia: married at 17 a husband of 60 but soon separated: travelled widely, in Europe, America & Asia round the Cape to Bombay: after an unsuccessful attempt to enter Tibet via Nepal, she entered it in disguise in 1855 via Kashmir, was lost in the desert & brought back to the frontier: after numerous adventures & further travel in India, she went to USA in 1873 & studied spiritualism: in 1875 founded, with Col. Alcott, the Theosophical Society, wrote books & pamphlets promoting Theosophy, an occult philosophical-religious system. Theosophists believe in a pantheistic evolutionary process integrating deity, cosmos, & self. She came to India in 1879 & established a Theosophical temple at Ādyār near Madras. [Buckland]