Colonel Henry Steel Olcott was an American military officer, journalist, lawyer, Freemason and the co-founder and first president of the Theosophical Society.
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott
A replica of the Certification Letter written By Henry Steel Olcott mentioning that he took Pancha Sila for the first time at Vijayananda Galle.
The spirit materialization of Safar Ali Bek, a drawing from Olcott's book People from the Other World.
Helena Blavatsky standing behind Henry Steele Olcott (middle seated) and Damodar Mavalankar (seated at his right) in Bombay 1881
The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the Theosophy movement, and Henry Steel Olcott, the society's first president. It draws upon a wide array of influences among them older European philosophies and movements such as Neoplatonism and occultism, as well as parts of Asian religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.
Notes of the meeting proposing the formation of the Theosophical Society, New York City, 8 September 1875
Seal of the Theosophical Society, Budapest, Hungary
Main building of the Theosophical Society in Adyar, India, 1890
Theosophical Society, Basavanagudi, Bangalore