Theosophical Society

Locations

The original organization, after splits and realignments, currently^[update] has several successors.^[2] Following the death of Helena Blavatsky, competition emerged between factions within the Society, particularly among founding members. The organization split into the Theosophical Society Adyar (Olcott-Besant) and the Theosophical Society Pasadena (Judge).

The former group, headquartered in India, is the most widespread international group holding the name "Theosophical Society" today.

Theosophical Society-Adyar is located at Adyar situated in the Indian city of Chennai.^[3]

History

Formation and objectives

The Theosophical Society was officially formed in

After several iterations the Society's objectives were incorporated at Chennai (Madras) on 3 April 1905. The Three Objects of the Theosophical Society are as follows :[8]

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

Sympathy with the above objects was the sole condition of admission to the society. The Society was organized as a non-sectarian entity. The following was stated in the Constitution and Rules of the Theosophical Society

ARTICLE I: Constitution

4. The Theosophical Society is absolutely unsectarian, and no assent to any formula of belief, faith or creed shall be required as a qualification of membership; but every applicant and member must lie in sympathy with the effort to create the nucleus of an Universal Brotherhood of Humanity

...

ARTICLE XIII Offences

1. Any Fellow who shall in any way attempt to involve the Society in political disputes shall be immediately expelled.
2. No Fellow, Officer, or Council of the Theosophical Society, or of any Section or Branch thereof, shall promulgate or maintain any doctrin[e ]as being that advanced, or advocated by the Society.^[9]

The Society reformulated this view in a resolution passed by the General Council of the Theosophical Society on December 23, 1924.^[10] Three years before, in 1921, it was signed the institutive charter of the Spanish Sociedad Teosófica, which had local branches in

The Hidden Masters

One of the central philosophical tenets promoted by the Society was the complex

Blavatsky portrayed the Theosophical Society as being part of one of many attempts throughout the millennia by this hidden Hierarchy to guide humanity – in concert with the overall intelligent cosmic evolutionary scheme – towards its ultimate, immutable evolutionary objective: the attainment of perfection and the conscious, willing participation in the evolutionary process. These attempts require an earthly infrastructure (such as the Theosophical Society) which she held was ultimately under the inspiration of a number of Mahatmas, members of the Hierarchy.^[13]

Schisms

After Helena Blavatsky's death in 1891, the Society's leaders seemed at first to work together peacefully. This did not last long. Judge was accused by Olcott and then prominent Theosophist Annie Besant of forging letters from the Mahatmas; he ended his association with Olcott and Besant in 1895 and took most of the Society's American Section with him. The original organization led by Olcott and Besant is based in India and is known as the Theosophical Society – Adyar. The group led by Judge further splintered, after his 1896 death, into a faction led by Katherine Tingley, and another associated with Judge's secretary Ernest Temple Hargrove which split off in 1898. While Hargrove's faction no longer survives, the faction led by Tingley is known as the Theosophical Society with the clarifying statement, "International Headquarters, Pasadena, California". A third organization, the United Lodge of Theosophists or ULT, in 1909 split off from the latter organization.

In 1902,

The English headquarters of the Theosophical Society are at 50 Gloucester Place, London. The Theosophical Society in Ireland [3], based in Pembroke Road, Dublin, is a wholly independent organisation which claims to have received its charter directly from Helena Blavatsky. The original group contained (among others) George William Russell (A. E.) poet and mystic, and the leadership role later fell to Russell's friend P. G. Bowen, (author and teacher of practical occultism) and later still to Bowen's long time student Dorothy Emerson. The leadership of this group were students of Emerson. The independent Dublin organisation should not be confused with a similarly named group affiliated to Adyar which is based in Belfast but claims an all-Ireland jurisdiction.

The "World Teacher"

In addition to the stated objectives, as early as 1889 Blavatsky publicly declared that the purpose of establishing the Society was to prepare humanity for the reception of a

If the present attempt, in the form of our Society, succeeds better than its predecessors have done, then it will be in existence as an organized, living and healthy body when the time comes for the effort of the 20th century. The general condition of men's minds and hearts will have been improved and purified by the spread of its teachings, and, as I have said, their prejudices and dogmatic illusions will have been, to some extent at least, removed. Not only so, but besides a large and accessible literature ready to men's hands, the next impulse will find a numerous and united body of people ready to welcome the new torch-bearer of Truth. He will find the minds of men prepared for his message, a language ready for him in which to clothe the new truths he brings, an organization awaiting his arrival, which will remove the merely mechanical, material obstacles and difficulties from his path. Think how much one, to whom such an opportunity is given, could accomplish. Measure it by comparison with what the Theosophical Society actually has achieved in the last fourteen years, without any of these advantages and surrounded by hosts of hindrances which would not hamper the new leader.[17]

This was repeated by then prominent Theosophist Annie Besant in 1896, five years after Blavatsky's death.^[18] Besant, who became President of the Society in 1907, thought the appearance of the World Teacher would happen sooner than the time-frame in Blavatsky's writings, who had indicated that it would not take place until the last quarter of the 20th century.^[19]

Jiddu Krishnamurti

One of the people who expected the imminent reappearance of the

However, by 1925 Krishnamurti had begun to move away from the course expected of him by the leaders of the Theosophical Society Adyar and by many Theosophists. In 1929 he publicly dissolved the Order of the Star, a worldwide organization created by the leadership of the Theosophical Society to prepare the world for the Coming of the Maitreya, and abandoned his assumed role as the "vehicle" for the World Teacher.^[23] He eventually left the Theosophical Society altogether, yet remained on friendly terms with individual members of the Society.^[24] He spent the rest of his life traveling the world as an independent speaker, becoming widely known as an original thinker on spiritual, philosophical, and psychological subjects.

Related individuals and organizations

Well-known intellectuals associated with the Theosophical Society include

• Ascended Master Teachings
• Christian theosophy
• Religion and mythology
• Theosophical mysticism

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Theosophical Society.

• Theosophical Society Headquarters
• The Theosophical Society in England
• The Theosophical Society in America
• A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom (PDF).
• Beginnings of the Theosophical Society.
• Blavatsky and The Theosophical Society.
• Skeptics Dictionary: entry on Theosophy.
• The Theosophical Network.
• Kerala Theosophical Federation.
• Theosophical Movement 1875–1950.
• The Theosophical Society in Ireland

Video

• The Theosophical Society in America: An Illustrated History