The Wisdom of the Mahatmas

2021 ◽  
pp. 89-115
Author(s):  
Simon Cox
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Subtle Body ◽  
Early Formation

This chapter begins with the early formation of academic Tibetology and examines how Tibet was folded into Europe’s nineteenth-century India-centric Orientalism. The chapter then moves on to the story of Helena Blavatsky and the foundation of the Theosophical Society in 1875, examining how the subtle body was portrayed in her books published in the 1870s and 1880s. It shows how her engagement with the subtle body—that is, her weaving together of Neoplatonic, Kabbalistic, Darwninan, German idealist, Transcendentalist, and Orientalist strands—significantly laid the groundwork for future permutations of the subtle body in both popular and academic arenas.

Samurai: A Very Short Introduction

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Wert
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Popular Culture ◽  
The Political ◽  
Short Introduction ◽  
Early Formation ◽  
Warrior Class ◽  
Life Work ◽  
Over Time

A book about the samurai from their origins in the eighth and ninth centuries until their demise in the mid-nineteenth century. It describes samurai life, work, philosophy, and warfare as it changed over time and covers what samurai were doing when they weren’t fighting. The first half of the book tends to focus on warriors who were essentially aristocrats; warrior families who looked to non-warrior nobles for models of behaviour, lifestyle, and politics. It traces the early formation of a warrior regime, how it interacted with an emperor-centered noble court located permanently in Kyoto, and the political and cultural struggles within the warrior class. The second half of the book zeroes in on the details of warlord families, the struggles of “rank-and-file” samurai typically depicted in popular culture—warriors from the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. It also shows how samurai history, culture, and values were consumed by non-samurai and, in so doing, contributed to an idealized warrior image that even samurai themselves tried to emulate.

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