THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY . Founded in 1875 in New York City, the Theosophical Society is an organization whose name was chosen to align it with the larger theosophical tradition. This tradition embraced Neoplatonism, Gnosticism, medieval mystics like Meister Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa, Renaissance philosophers like Giordano Bruno and Paracelsus, and Romantic mystics and philosophers like Jakob Boehme and Friedrich Schelling as well as wider religious philosophies like Vedānta, Mahāyāna Buddhism, Qabbalah, and Sufism. The Theosophical Society functions as a bridge between East and West, emphasizing the commonality of human culture.

The First Generation

Among the sixteen persons who participated in the formation of the Theosophical Society, two were notable for their roles in its future development: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831–1891), a charismatic Russian of upper-class family, and Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), an American lawyer and journalist. Blavatsky was the energetic force that brought the society into existence, and she remained its chief theoretician throughout her life. At the age of eighteen, to escape the bonds of an unwanted marriage, she began her world travels, in the course of which she circumnavigated the globe and became familiar with a wide range of intellectual and mystical traditions. In 1873 she moved to New York, eventually meeting Olcott in Chittenden, Vermont, at Spiritualist meetings he was reporting for a New York newspaper. The Theosophical Society subsequently grew out of evening gatherings held in Blavatsky's New York apartment, at which papers and conversation about arcane matters attracted a small company of intellectuals. Blavatsky's first significant publication was Isis Unveiled (1877); her major book is The Secret Doctrine (1888), setting forth a cosmology; her most readable work is The Key to Theosophy (1889). Her periodical articles (in English and French, but excluding those in Russian) fill fourteen volumes of Collected Writings (1950–1991).

Olcott provided the organizing force that held the Theosophical Society together. During the American Civil War he had investigated procurement fraud for the military, and his early writings covered agriculture, insurance, and Spiritualism. He became the first president of the society and held that post until his death. He also became a champion of civil rights for the Ceylonese in Sri Lanka, where he remains a national hero; a promoter of education for the common people of Sri Lanka and India; and a key figure in the Buddhist revival, espousing an ecumenical Buddhism.

Three years after the Theosophical Society's founding, Olcott and Blavatsky left New York for Bombay, arriving there in 1879. A short-lived alliance with the Hindu reform movement of the Ārya Samāj failed because both sides misunderstood the basic orientation of the other. But Olcott and Blavatsky enjoyed a considerable popularity with some native Indians and members of the British raj, Blavatsky particularly among the latter for her ability to produce phenomena, such as the materialization of objects, and for her claim to be in touch with human teachers of extraordinary abilities.

In 1882 the Theosophical Society acquired property in southern India at Adyar, on the outskirts of Madras (now Chennai) where the Adyar River flows into the Bay of Bengal, property that is still the international headquarters of the society. In 1885 Blavatsky left India after an investigation by a staff member of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) resulted in a report calling her an imposter, although the report was later shown by another member of the SPR to have been biased and flawed (Harrison, 1997). Blavatsky eventually settled in London, where she spent the last four years of her life producing the major body of her writings.

Meanwhile the Theosophical Society continued to grow, with national sections (semiautonomous bodies) being formed within the international organization. The first three sections were established in the United States (1886), England (1888), and India (1891).

Later Generations

The most important person in the Theosophical Society's history after Blavatsky and Olcott was Annie Wood Besant (1847–1933). Already a proponent of free thought as well as an activist and the most famous woman orator in England, Besant met Blavatsky after reviewing the latter's book The Secret Doctrine for an English periodical. Besant joined the Theosophical Society just two years before Blavatsky's death and was almost immediately recognized as Blavatsky's spiritual successor. Besant became international president of the society upon Olcott's death in 1907.

Shortly after Blavatsky's death a disagreement arose about the role within the Theosophical Society of William Quan Judge (1851–1896), who was one of the society's original organizers and who had become the chief executive of the American section. As a result in 1895 most of the members and branches in the United States seceded from the parent society and formed an independent organization that is now headquartered in Pasadena, California. The parent society soon reestablished itself in the United States through lecture tours by Besant and others.

Besant was a supporter of Indian independence within the British Empire, and she became the first woman and the only non-Indian to serve as president of the Indian National Congress. Besant was also a vigorous promoter of education and of human and animal welfare. With her colleague Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854–1934), she added significantly to the body of Theosophical literature and sponsored the young Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986), who later became an independent religious philosopher.

During the second generation the presentation of Theosophy focused on Indic and particularly Hindu spirituality in a Westernized form. Besant and Leadbeater also promoted several Western traditions interpreted in Theosophical terms, particularly Christianity through the Liberal Catholic Church and Freemasonry through a French-derived form of Co-Masonry that admitted women on equal footing with men. Besant also organized the Order of the Star in the East to promote Krishnamurti as the spokesperson for a new world teaching. These ancillary movements were organizationally autonomous but had overlapping memberships and leaderships with the Theosophical Society.

The Theosophical Society had its largest membership and influence during the 1920s. The 1929 decision of Krishnamurti to dissolve the Order of the Star and withdraw from the role envisioned for him, coupled with the effects of the Great Depression and World War II, reduced public awareness of the society. The society fared badly under totalitarian regimes, whether of the right or the left, being outlawed and persecuted in Francisco Franco's Spain, Adolf Hitler's Germany, Joseph Stalin's Russia, and other dictatorships. Yet Krishnamurti went on to become an important spiritual teacher in the late twentieth century, and the Theosophical Society continued under able leaders. Besant was followed in the presidency by an Englishman, George Arundale (1934–1945); a Sri Lankan, Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa (1945–1953); an Indian, N. Sri Ram (1953–1973); another Englishman, John Coats (1973–1979); and another Indian, Radha Burnier (1980–), daughter of Sri Ram. In the early twenty-first century the society has branches in some seventy countries and a membership of approximately thirty-two thousand.

Theosophy

The Theosophical Society has no requirement of belief or practice for its members other than subscription to its three "objects" and a way of life not incompatible with them. These objects are:

• To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color
• To encourage the study of comparative religion, philosophy, and science
• To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in humanity.

In addition to these objects a body of teachings has evolved that attempts to state in present-day terms concepts called the ancient wisdom, the perennial philosophy, or simply theosophy. These concepts, which are not incumbent on members of the society, although they are widely espoused by members, have no official statement. The concepts may include such ideas as the following, each with ethical implications:

• There is only one ultimate reality, of which all existent things are expressions. Theosophy is philosophically monistic, with implications of human equality (formulated in the society's first object) and concern for animal welfare (resulting in the practice of vegetarianism for ethical reasons and the avoidance of other animal exploitation).
• The orderliness of the world is expressed in cyclical patterns, which can be seen in all aspects of reality from the macrocosm to the microcosm, including the reincarnation of an individual human consciousness in a long series of lives. The belief that an individual has lived or will live in bodies of both sexes and of various races and cultures fosters an understanding of and respect for human differences.
• The orderliness of the world is based on a principle of causation called karma, which operates in both material and moral realms, positing for every action a corresponding reaction, both physical and ethical. The fact that every action by a person has unavoidable consequences is a basis for practical morality: to do harm to another is to generate harm for oneself; to do good to another is to ensure good for oneself.
• World history follows an evolutionary pattern, not only of material forms but of intellect and spirit, governed by both causes and purposes. Evolution is teleological, and consequently human life is meaningful and purposeful, a recognition of which aids successful living.
• All objects in the universe are imbued with consciousness of some sort, and consciousness evolves through the ages so that, for example, mineral consciousness becomes successively vegetative, animal, human, and eventually something beyond human. Furthermore the interconnection and interdependence of all consciousness implies an ecological rather than exploitative approach to life.
• The final purpose of evolutionary development is that the ultimate reality may become conscious of itself through its expression as the world (similar to the philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead), and the purpose of human life is to further that evolutionary development by a conscious participation in it. All individuals have a high and serious calling, which may be responded to by carrying out the duties of their stations in life.
• Human beings are assisted in fulfilling the purpose of their lives by the teachings and examples of sages, prophets, saints, avatars, or bodhisattvas; but the responsibility for that fulfillment and the impulse to meet it arise from within the individual, who is responsible for his or her own salvation. A means to fulfill one's purpose for being is an intelligent and spiritually sensitive activism, tempered by the realization that one's knowledge of the world and of oneself is still severely limited, making humility and tolerance the best guideposts to ultimate success.

Extensions and Influences

For a small and nonproselytizing organization, the Theosophical Society has had some notable effects. Offshoots of the parent society, headquartered at Adyar, Chennai, India, include the Theosophical Society with international headquarters at Pasadena, California (the direct descendant of the Judge group); the United Lodge of Theosophists; the Temple of the People at Halcyon, California; the Anthroposophical Society, which began as the German section of the Theosophical Society; the Buddhist Society U.K., which began as the Buddhist Lodge of the Theosophical Society; the Arcane School, Lucis Trust, and other organizations springing from Alice Bailey (1880–1949), who was an employee of the Theosophical Society; and a number of organizations often loosely categorized as New Age.

The concepts of the Theosophical Society have affected modern life especially in the areas of religious and social reform, art, literature, and what may loosely be called spirituality. Olcott was a leading force in the modern Buddhist revival, as was a protégé of his, Anagārika Dharmapāla (1864–1933), who founded the Maha Bodhi Society to preserve Buddhist sites and to extend Buddhism. Besant's prominence in Indian politics and in social movements inspired a number of others in India, England, and the United States to promote reform, especially for women's rights. An earlier Theosophical exponent of woman's rights was Matilda Joslyn Gage (1826–1898), American feminist and coauthor with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony of the History of Woman Suffrage (1881–1887). Wassily Kandinsky framed his theory of nonobjective art in Theosophical terms, citing Blavatsky in his manifesto, Concerning the Spiritual in Art (1912); another pioneer in abstraction, Piet Mondrian, developed the neoplastic style of art on Theosophical principles. The Irish literary revival was influenced by Theosophy, particularly in the person of its chief exponent, William Butler Yeats. On a more general level, the Theosophical Society popularized such concepts as reincarnation, karma, and the aura as well as practices such as yoga and the complementary healing technique called Therapeutic Touch.

See Also

Anthroposophy; Besant, Annie; Blavatsky, H. P.; Olcott, Henry Steel; Steiner, Rudolf.

Bibliography

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology. 2 vols. London, 1877; reprint, Wheaton, Ill., 1972. The author's first major work, which established her reputation as a figure in nineteenth-century esotericism.

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. 2 vols. London, 1888; reprint, 3 vols., Wheaton, Ill., 1978. The author's major work, a commentary on the otherwise unknown Stanzas of Dzyan, dealing with the origin of the universe (cosmogenesis) and of the human species (anthropogenesis) and including essays on symbolism and contemporary science.

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. The Key to Theosophy: Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science, and Philosophy for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society Has Been Founded. London, 1889; reprint, Pasadena, Calif., 1995. One of the author's last works, a presentation of her ideas for the general reader.

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. Collected Writings. 15 vols. Compiled and edited by Boris de Zirkoff. Wheaton, Ill., 1950–1991. A collection of all known periodical articles and some other incidental writings by Blavatsky, with an extensive index by Dara Eklund as vol. 15.

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna. The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky, vol. 1: 1861–1879. Edited by John Algeo. Wheaton, Ill., 2003. The beginning of a collection of all of Blavatsky's known correspondence, this volume contains letters written before she settled in India in 1879, with extensive background essays and notes.

Ellwood, Robert. Theosophy: A Modern Expression of the Wisdom of the Ages. Wheaton, Ill., 1986. A popular presentation of basic Theosophical concepts as viewed by a religion scholar who is also a Theosophist.

Harrison, Vernon. H. P. Blavatsky and the SPR: An Examination of the Hodgson Report of 1885. Pasadena, Calif., 1997. An examination by an expert in forgery of the 1885 report submitted to the Society for Psychical Research, which branded Blavatsky as a fraud, concluding that the report was biased and that the crucial handwriting evidence was misinterpreted.

Olcott, Henry Steel. Old Diary Leaves: The True Story of the Theosophical Society. 6 vols. New York, 1895–1935; reprint, Adyar, India, 1974–1975. The founder-president's recollections of events between 1874 and 1898, originally published partly as journal articles that were later collected.

Prothero, Stephen. The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott. Bloomington, Ind., 1996. A biography of Olcott focusing on his interactions with the Buddhist community and his role in the modern Buddhist revival, especially in Sri Lanka, where he became a national hero.

John Algeo (2005)