Theos-Talk Archives (January 2002 Message tt00527)

In earlier mails I described the re-invention of the TS after the 
founders moved to India, from a psuedo-spiritualist organisation 
involved with drugs, astral travel, and the search for "magicians", 
to the second re-invention after Blavatsky moved from Oostende to 
London, with the support of members from the "Blavatsky Lodge"that 
helped the promotion of the form of Theosophy considerred today 
as "traditional" Blavatskyan Theosophy, although it really was a re-
invention again. 

The outbreak of war in 1914 next was a crucial factor in the move to 
a more devotional emphasis within the TS. Even before the war began, 
this devotional tendency had begun to characterize a range of 
theosophical activities. There was a new emphasis on what was 
described in the title of one popular pamphlet as The Hidden Side of 
Lodge Meetings. At least 2,500 copies of this book were sent out to
members and local lodges in igog in an attempt to popularize a new
attitude to lodge meetings among the members." While "to the dim
physical eyes all that is visible at a lodge meeting is a small band 
of humble students," to the clairvoyant vision such a meeting was 
actually a swirling vortex of thought power, spiritual magnetism, and 
divine energy." Marie Russak's description of the "astral forces" at 
work during Besant's public lectures in London in igiz provided a 
further confirmation of the powerful forces many theosophists 
believed were active in the Theosophical Society. As Russak described 
it, the audience in The Queen's Hall was joined by a great mass of 
nature spirits and by the Great Ones themselves, charging the 
auditorium with "brilliant force" and producing the effect of "a mass 
of searchlights flashing brilliantly in and through the transparent 
rainbow clouds. 

In December 1910 the Theosophical Publishing House at Adyar released 
At the Feet of the Master,Alcyone's account of teaching given to him 
by the Master KH. The work was immensely popular, and within a few 
years it had been translated into twenty seven languages, gone 
through over forty editions,and sold over a hundred thousand copies."

The formation of the OSE reflected the new mood in the TS. Mem
bers of the order vowed to make devotion (along with gentleness and
steadfastness) "prominent characteristics of our daily life," and 
beganand ended each day "with a short period devoted to the asking of 
His blessing upon all that we try to do for Him and in His name. 1145 
The new general secretary, James Wedgwood, argued that there was 
now a new spirit of warmth and cordiality in the TS, which he linked 
to "the near coming of the Lord of Love Himself, Who already is 
shedding His divine benediction over the Society." In his general 
report for that year,Wedgwood argued further that the OSE had served 
to counterbalance "the tendency to over-intellectualism, inherent in 
a scientific and metaphysical Society such as ours, 1141 Where late 
nineteenth-century theosophists had postulated either the inner self 
or an impersonal Logos (the absolute divine principle) as the highest 
good, theosophists now Posessed their own object of worship.

The war reinforced and exaggerated disillusionment with the ability
of western science and technology to improve human existence, 
strengthening many people's need to find alternative sources of 
meaning. Michael Adas notes that the war experience in particular, 
the spectacle of a scientifically and technologically sophisticated 
European civilization drowning the best of its youth in the mud and 
blood of Flanders created a new audience for critics of western 
materialism. Writers like Rabindranath Tagore or Herman Hesse, whose 
idealized vision of a mystic East, Siddbartba, appeared in 1921, 
found new popularity .

Some of Leadbeater's supporters argued that, as an occultist, he as
above or beyond ordinary morality. George Arundale, for example, de
fended him on the grounds that "the extraordinary purity of his own
life enables him to handle, as no other teacher, as no other 
individual,would dare to handle, problems of vital moment to the 
growing Youth. They continually invoked his authority as an eminent 
occultist in defending his actions. For example, William Glenny 
Keagey's "General Memorandum" on the subject pronounced 
Leadbeater's "qualifications for expressing an authoritative opinion 
on the subject to be exeptional." Keagey referred his readers to 
Leadbeater and Besant's work Thought-Forms and added that laymen had 
no right to "try" and "sentence" an occultist for "things admittedly 
claimed to have to do with Occult training. Besant herself argued 
that occult morality "cares for realities not conventions" and 
concluded, "I speak on this as an Occultist. "He that is able to 
receive it this teaching, let him receive it." (Reminds of course of 
the words by Adalasie)

The towering edifice that opponents called neo-theosophy had been 
founded in large part on Leadbeater's authority as an occultist. His 
teachings on everything from "occult chemistry" to reincarnation and 
past-life experiences were enormously popular. The discovery of 
Krishnamurti, the founding of the Order of the Star in the East, the 
formation of the Liberal Catholic Church, and the theosophical 
commitment to Co-Masonry: all were linked in some way to Leadbeater's 
influence.

Critics of Wedgwood and Leadbeater began a campaign to provide .:":al 
police authorities with information on the two men, in America, NexN 
Zealand, England, and Holland, as well as in Australia. H. N. Stokes, 
the editor of the 0. E. Library Critic (founded in Washington, D.C.. 
as the organ of the theosophical Towards Democracy League), began 
publishing all the "Private and Confidential" documents in the case.

Preparation for the emergen, of the new subrace included preparation 
of a fit environment for the new humanity. The new humanity was also 
to have a new Messiah. The Coming of the Lord Maitreya through the 
vehicle of Krishnamurti would mark the formal inauguration of the New 
Age. Social reform therefore became a spiritual duty. In The 
Dayspring, the journal of the Order of the Star in the East in 
England, George Arundale announced to members that the head of the 
order "wishes to draw your attention to the fact that the Order of 
the Star in the East has the duty of examinng all the great world 
problems the light of its knowledge of the nuture and of the general 
lines of the teaching which the World-Teacher may be expected to 
deliver to the world when He comes. " Relationships between races and 
religions, between the human and animal kingdoms, between the classes 
and the sexes were now officially OSE issues."

The expectation of a new race and a new Messiah produced a 
millenialist anticipation of a New Age. The Theosophical Order of 
Service TOS) was founded in 19o8 to allow theosophists to organize 
around -ocial and political issues without violating the TS 
commitment to neu-rality. It was soon harnessed to this millennialist 
vision. English theoso-,hists formed lea ues for social brotherhood; 
for the abolition of vivesection, vaccination, and inoculation; and 
for sociology and the social problem. 

Through the TOS it was possible to translate the teaching of the One
Life into political action. All this activity was self-consciously 
interpreted in the light of the Theosophical Society's role in 
preparing for the emergence of a New Messiah, a New Race, and a New 
Age. Ingio the TOS organizer Elizabeth Severs noted that one of the 
primary functions of the TOS was to do the "'immediate, insistent 
work' of preparing for the new Sub-race, the new Root Race, and the 
coming of the Christ." This work of preparation was a way of 
recognizing the demands of the body: "Until the Order of Service was 
founded, the T * S an organised body, entirely omitted the needs of 
the body, which, after all, is the medium of communication on the 
physical plane between man and man, between the soul and the spirit.

One can see how now Theosophical fundamentalism was fully develloped, 
and one could talk about a third re-invention.

Every such attempt as the Theosophical Society has hitherto ended in 
failure, because, sooner or later, it has degenerated into a sect, 
set up hard-and-fast dogmas of its own, and so lost by imperceptible 
degrees that vitality which living truth alone can impart...If, then, 
they [future Theosophists] cannot be freed from such inherent bias, 
or at least taught to recognize it instantly and so avoid being led 
away by it, the result can only be that the Society will drift off 
onto some sandbank or other, and there remain a stranded carcass to 
moulder and die. (HPB, Key to Theosophy, p. 305.)




Brigitte