Helena Blavatsky lived at a time when many Americans and Europeans were questioning their religious beliefs, hungry for new ideas and perspectives. Some looked to other cultures for insight; others abandoned ideas of divinity entirely, or invented their own faith traditions.

Sound familiar? The Victorian era was as full of spiritual searching and experimentation as our own. The Russian-born Blavatsky – who died in London 132 years ago this week, now commemorated as White Lotus Day – spent years traveling and pouring her ideas into writing before co-founding the Theosophical Society. Aiming to create a universal brotherhood of humanity, the group claimed it was inspired by spiritual masters in the Himalayas. Its descriptions of Hinduism and Buddhism were often romanticized and inaccurate. Yet it inspired a surge of Western interest in Asian religions, popularizing concepts like karma and reincarnation.

Cultural historian Marina Alexandrova traces Blavatsky’s eclectic, esoteric life – and the ways her complicated legacy is still felt in our own age of restless spiritual seeking.

This week we also liked articles about peanut butter, the cultivation of mindfulness and self-compassion and Don Lemon and Tucker Carlson.