Tree of Knowledge, No. 1
Hilma af Klint, 1913, watercolour, gouache, graphite, metallic paint and ink on paper.
Hilma af Klint (1862–1944) was a Swedish artist, Spiritualist and seeker whose ecstatic works have become known as some of the first examples of abstract art. Af Klint became greatly involved in various religious and philosophical movements in her lifetime, but it was Theosophy that would shape her and her work for years to come.
The word ‘Theosophy ’, meaning ‘God’s wisdom’, was first used in writing during the third to the sixth century by the Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers as a term to indicate an experiential knowledge attained through spiritual means. Over time, various mystics and spiritual movements in the West adopted the word ‘Theosophy’ in their teachings, until in 1875, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and a group of like-minded colleagues founded the Theosophical Society in New York, thus bringing the term back into the mainstream. These individuals espoused that Theosophy was not a religion but a system synonymous with eternal truth, which underlies not only all religions, but also philosophy and science. The aim of its founders was to ‘liberate man from bondage by presenting a philosophy of life that would show him how to find the truth within himself’.
Born to an aristocratic family in Russia in 1831, Mme Blavatsky was a Spiritualist and clairvoyant, and was said to have been possessed of certain psychic powers. From a young age, she had been fascinated by the Hermetic tradition, travelling the world in search of esoteric wisdom. Some people say she visited spiritual masters in Tibet, while others attribute her with less aspirational travels and experiences (she had an illegitimate child, worked in a circus, and earned a living as a medium in Paris.) An extraordinary and controversial character, Blavatsky has been called many things: the fountainhead of modern occult thought, a trailblazing psychologist of the visionary mind, and one of most ‘accomplished, ingenious, and interesting impostors in history’, whose contributions to the occult are numerous.
In 1877 she published Isis Unveiled, which outlined her Theosophical world view, a synthesis of science, religion and philosophy. The Secret Doctrine, published in 1888, was an ‘influential example’ of the revival of interest in occult ideas in the modern age, in particular because of its claim to reconcile ancient Eastern wisdom, such as karma and reincarnation, with modern science. Blavatsky alleged that its contents had been revealed to her by the ‘mahatmas’ or ‘great souls’ of India, who had retained the knowledge of humanity’s spiritual history, knowledge that it was now possible, in part, to reveal.
The most fundamental teaching of Theosophy, according to the Theosophical Society, is that all people have the same spiritual and physical origin because they are ‘essentially of one and the same essence, and that essence is one – infinite, uncreate, and eternal, whether we call it God or Nature’. Its objectives concern forming a universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or colour; encouraging the study of comparative religion, philosophy and science; and investigating unexplained laws of Nature and the powers latent in human beings.
Considering the casual, yet wonderfully profound philosophies and tenets of Theosophy, one might imagine this liberating way of thinking would appeal to the free-spirited souls of the day who possessed an artistic temperament and creative tendencies, and who were seeking a higher cosmic truth. And one would be correct in assuming so, for amongst the members of the Theosophical Society were a great number of artists, many of whom are considered the founders of the modern abstract art movement: Wassily Kandinsky, Frantisek Kupka, Piet Mondrian and Hilma af Klint. It was inevitable that artists might turn their attention to spirituality at the dawn of the materialistic age of the twentieth century, and Theosophy gave them a perspective that became the fundamental groundwork of their beliefs; from this vantage point, they believed they were able to see beyond the natural world into otherworldly realms. They stood in this doorway between worlds as messengers, and communicating this knowledge became the objective of their art. Mme Blavatsky wrote the following of artists:
Thoreau pointed out that there are artists in life, persons who can change the colour of a day and make it beautiful to those with whom they come in contact. We claim that there are adepts, masters in life who make it divine, as in all other arts. Is it not the greatest art of all, this which affects the very atmosphere in which we live? That it is the most important is seen at once, when we remember that every person who draws the breath of life affects the mental and moral atmosphere of the world, and helps to colour the day for those about him.
Perhaps she intended it as whimsical musing, but I prefer to read it literally, as an appreciation for these creative messengers of higher truths, cosmic knowledge, the adepts who ‘make it divine’.
The Portrait of Mrs Stuart Merrill
Jean Delville, 1892, coloured pencil on paper.
Jean Delville (1867–1953) maintained throughout the course of his life that art should be the expression of a higher spiritual truth. Not much other than second-hand accounts are known of the mysterious Mrs. Stuart Merrill in Delville’s most enigmatic work (although it is likely her visage appears in other works by Delville), but the artist was obviously struck by her strange beauty and immortalised her.
Evolution
Piet Mondrian, 1911, oil on canvas.
Influential painter, Pieter Cornelis ‘Piet’ Mondrian (1872–1944), became a member of the Dutch section of the Theosophical Society in 1909 and much of artist’s work for the rest of his life was inspired by his search for that spiritual knowledge. While Mondrian was still experimenting with Symbolist art, he painted Evolution – a triptych that made use of mystical triangles, hexagons and Stars of David. The images, read from left to right, depict a movement from the material to the spiritual, a common concept in Theosophy.
Heiliger Turm im Gebirge mit den vier Quellen der Lebensströme
Melchior Lechter, 1917, pastel on cardboard.
Artist and publisher Melchior Lechter (1865–1937) is best known for his glass paintings, drawings and decorative designs for books, calendars, catalogues, ex libris and posters, whose symbolic style combined Gothic elements with Art Nouveau. In his paintings and writings, Lechter integrated ‘ideas of both the medieval German and the ancient Indian mystics’. His travels to India intensified his long-held interest in Theosophy and Buddhist mysticism – themes which later became prevalent in his work – although he continued his involvement with Catholic mysticism and theology.
Extract published with permission from White Lion Publishing. The Art of the Occult by S. Elisabeth is available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher