Theosophy (from Greek θεοσοφία theosophia, from θεός theos, divine + σοφία sophia, wisdom; literally "divine wisdom"), refers to systems of speculative philosophy concerning, or investigation seeking direct knowledge of, presumed mysteries of being and nature, particularly concerning the nature of divinity.

Theosophy is considered a part of the broader field of esotericism, referring to hidden knowledge or wisdom that offers the individual enlightenment and salvation. The word esoteric dates back to the 2nd century C.E.^[1] The theosophist seeks to understand the mysteries of the universe and the bonds that unite the universe, humanity and the divine. The goal of theosophy is to explore the origin of divinity and humanity, and the end of world, life and humanity. From investigation of those topics theosophists try to discover a coherent description of the purpose and origin of the universe.

Etymology[link]

The word theosophia appeared in both Greek and Latin in the works of early church fathers as a synonym for “theology”.^[2] The theosophoi are “those who know divine matters.” During the Renaissance, use of the term diverged to refer to gnostic knowledge that offers the individual enlightenment and salvation through a knowledge of the bonds that are believed to unite her or him to the world of divine or intermediary spirits. By the 16th century the word theosophy was being used in at least one of its current meanings.^[3]

History[link]

Antiquity and Medieval ending c. 1450 B.C.E.[link]

The term theosophy was used as a synonym for theology as early as the 3rd century C.E.^[2]

Hellenistic Alexandrian culture expressed religion through a syncretism that included influences from Egypt, Chaldea, Greece etc. It became a "philosophizing and systematizing" culture containing mythology, theosophy and gnosis of the East. ^[4]

The 12th c. philosopher Al-Shahrastānī (d. A.H. 548 / C.E. 1153) explored theosophy in the context of Islamic thought. In the 13th century a clear distinction was made between classical philosophers, modern (to the people then) philosophers, theosophers, and theologians in the work Summa philosophiae attributed to Robert Grosseteste. In Summa theosophists were described as authors inspired by holy books while theologians were described as persons whose task was to teach theosophy. During that time the term theosopher was applied retroactively to include earlier people including Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Origen.^[5]

Theosophy in early modern Europe beginning in the 1500s[link]

Modern theosophy arose in Germany in the 1600s.^[6]

In the 16th century Johannes Arboreus’ Theosophia (volumes published 1540-1553) provided a lengthy exposition that included no mention of esotericism.^[7] In contrast fellow Germans Paracelsus (1493-1541), Aegidius Gutmann (1490-1584), Valentin Weigel (1533-1588), Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605), Johann Arndt (1555-1621), and Caspar Schwenckfeld (1490-1584) demonstrated an interest in theosophy.

The 17th century philosopher and self-identified theosophist Jakob Boehme (1575-1624) produced a complete explanation of theosophy that included esotericism. Boehme’s system of philosophical speculation bases knowledge of nature upon knowledge of the divine nature. During that time the Aristotelian method had lost favor among intellectuals. Boehme presented his system as an alternative to the Aristotelian method which he believed could provide a more profound knowledge and more control of nature than the Aristotelian method did.^[8]

Other notable contributors to the theosophical literature of the 16th and 17th centuries hailed from Holland, England, and France. They included both theosophists and historians and theologians with a strong interest in theosophy. This group includes Jan Baptist van Helmont (1618-1699), Robert Fludd (1574-1637), John Pordage (1608-1681), Jane Leade (1623-1704), Henry More (1614-1687), Pierre Poiret (1646-1719), and Antoinette Bourignon (1616-1680).

Theosophists of this period often inquired into nature using a method of interpretation founded upon a specific myth or revelation, applying active imagination in order to draw forth symbolic meanings and further their pursuit of knowledge toward a complete understanding of these mysteries.^[9][10]

Enlightenment theosophy, 1650-1775[link]

In the 18th century, the word theosophy came into widespread use in philosophy. Johann Jakob Brucker(1696-1770) included a long chapter on theosophy in his monumental work Historia critica philosophia (1741). He included all the theosophists in what was then a standard reference in the history of philosophy. German philosophers produced major works of theosophy during this period: Theophilosophia theoritica et practica (1710) by Samuel Richter (alias Sincerus Renatus) and Opus magocabalsticum et theosophicum (1721) by Georg von Welling (alias Salwigt, 1655-1727). Other notable theosophists of the period include Johann George Gichtel (1638-1710), Gottfried Arnold (1666-1714), Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702-1782), William Law (1686-1761), and Dionysius Andreas Freher (1649-1728). By the 18th century the word theosophy was often used in conjunction with panosophy, i.e., a knowledge of divine things that is acquired by deciphering the supposed hieroglyphics of the concrete universe. The term theosophy is more properly reserved for the reverse process of contemplating the divine in order to discover the content of the concrete universe.^[11]

In France, Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (1743-1803) and Jean-Philippe Dutoit-Membrini (alias Keleph Ben Nathan, 1721-1793) contributed to a resurgence of theosophy in the late 18th century. Other theosophical thinkers of this period include Karl von Eckartshausen (1752-1803), Johann Heinrich Jung-Stilling (1740-1817), Frederic-Rodolphe Salzmann (1749-1821), Michael Hahn (1758-1819), and Franz von Baader (1765-1841). Denis Diderot gave the word theosophie a permanent place in the French language by including it in an article in his Encyclopedie, published during the French Enlightenment.^[12]

The nineteenth century[link]

The Parliament of the World's Religions in 1893 marked the first formal gathering of representatives of Eastern and Western spiritual traditions. Today it is recognized as the occasion of the birth of formal interreligious dialogue worldwide.

During the late 19th century theosophical initiate societies emerged. Some of these reflected a fluid boundary between theosophy and occultism. In 1875 Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891) and others founded one of these theosophical initiate societies, The Theosophical Society, an organization related to earlier theosophical ideas which also departed from them significantly.^[13]

Meanwhile outside of the initiate societies others such as the Martinist Order founded by Papus in 1891 followed a prior theosophical current which was closely linked to the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition and Western esotericism. Theosophists outside of the initiate societies included people such as Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900). According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Solovyov thought, “Although empiricism and rationalism (= idealism) rest on false principles, their respective objective contents, external experience, qua the foundation of natural science, and logical thought, qua the foundation of pure philosophy, are to be synthesized or encompassed along with mystical knowledge in 'integral knowledge,' what Solovyov terms 'theosophy.'"^[14]

The twentieth century to present[link]

Several organizations developed from the popularization of Blavatsky's ideas and are considered new religious movements.^[15] Theosophical Society lodges also continue to exist in many places. Anthroposophy was founded by Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) as a schism of the Theosophical Society.^[16] Theosophical concepts can be seen in the work of Sergei Bulgakov (1877-1945), Nikolai Berdyaev (1874-1945), Leopold Ziegler (1881-1958), Valentin Tomberg (1901-1973), Auguste-Edouard Chauvet (1885-1955), Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1888-1975) and Henry Corbin (1903-1978).^[17]

Common characteristics[link]

The use of the term theosophy has changed over time. As such, the use of the term in antiquity, or even using a strictly etymological definition, is not common in the academy. Theosophy actually designates a specific flow of thought, current, stream or tradition within the modern study of esotericism. Thus it follows the path starting from the more modern period of the 15th century onward (e.g. neo-Alexandrian, hermeticism, Christian Kaballah, Rosicrucianism, Alchemy etc.). The usage here is not intended to be inclusive of the concept as used in The Theosophical Society.^[18]

Theosophists engage in analysis of the universe, humanity, divinity, and the reciprocal effects of each on the other. The starting point for theosophists may be knowledge of external things in the world or inner experiences and the aim of the theosophist is to discover deeper meanings in the natural or divine realm. Antoine Faivre notes, “the theosophist dedicates his energy to inventing (in the word’s original sense of ‘discovering’) the articulation of all things visible and invisible, by examining both divinity and nature in the smallest detail.”^[19] The knowledge that is acquired through meditation is believed to change the being of the meditator.^[20]

Antoine Faivre successfully created a taxonomy approach as a means to comparing the various traditions. He proceeded by taking the concordance of neoplatonism, Hermeticism, Kaballah, astrology, alchemy, magic etc. and deduced six fundamental characteristics of esoteric spirituality. ^[21] He discovered that the first four characteristics of esotericism are always present, while the latter two are sometimes present.^[22][23] Along with these six characteristics of esotericism, he identified three characteristics of theosophy.^[24]

Esotericism:

1. Correspondence: Everything in Nature is a sign. The signs of Nature can be read. The microcosm and macrocosm interplay. Synchronicity exists, and can be found as signs from Nature and may lead to the understanding of the divine.
2. Nature is Alive: It is not just correlations between pieces of matter. It is a living entity that will, and does, surge and evolve through its expanding self, replete with dynamic flows of energy and light.
3. Imagination and mediations: Imaginations as a power that provides access to worlds and levels of reality intermediary between the material world and the divine.^[25]
4. Experience of Transmutation: The Gnosis and illuminations of self and mind performing a transmutation of consciousness. The birth of an awareness, a second new life becomes born.
5. Practice of Concordance: Primordial Tradition. Studying traditions, religions etc. seeking the common one Root from which all esoteric knowledge grows.
6. Transmission: Master-Disciple, master-Initiate, initiation into the Occult.

The three characteristics of theosophy are listed below.

Theosophy:

1. Divine/Human/Nature Triangle: The inspired analysis which circles through these three angles. The intradivine within; the origin, death and placement of the human relating to Divinity and Nature; Nature as alive, the external, intellectual and material. All three complex correlations synthesize via the intellect and imaginative processes of Mind.
2. Primacy of the Mythic: The creative Imagination, an external world of symbols, glyphs, myths, synchronicities and the myriad, along with image, all as a universal reality for the interplay conjoined by creative mind.
3. Access to Supreme Worlds: The awakening within, inherently possessing the faculty to directly connect to the Divine world(s). The existence of a special human ability to create this connection. The ability to connect and explore all levels of reality; co-penetrate the human with the divine; to bond to all reality and experience a unique inner awakening.

Blavatskyan Theosophy and the Theosophical Society[link]

In 1875 Helena Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, and William Quan Judge co-founded The Theosophical Society. Blavatsky combined Eastern religious traditions with Western esoteric teachings to create a synthesis she called the Perennial Religion. She developed this in in Isis Unveiled (1877) and The Secret Doctrine (1888), her major works and exposition of her Theosophy.

Eventually the Theosophical Society became virtually synonymous with Theosophy in the vernacular sense. There are many differences between traditional Western theosophy and the Theosophical movement begun by Helena Blavatsky, though the differences "are not important enough to cause an insurmountable barrier."^[26] When referring to the ideas related to Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society, the word "Theosophy" is capitalized; otherwise it is not.

Overview of Blavatsky's teachings[link]

The three fundamental propositions expounded in The Secret Doctrine are:^[27]

1. That there is an omnipresent, eternal, boundless, and immutable reality of which spirit and matter are complementary aspects.
2. That there is a universal law of periodicity or evolution through cyclic change.
3. That all souls are identical with the universal oversoul which is itself an aspect of the unknown reality.

Helena Blavatsky taught that Theosophy is neither revelation nor speculation.^[28] Blavatsky stated that Theosophy was an attempt at a gradual, faithful reintroduction of a hitherto hidden science called The Occult science in Theosophical literature. According to Blavatsky Occult science provides a description of reality not only at a physical level but also on a metaphysical one. Blavatsky said Occult science had been preserved and practiced throughout history by carefully selected and trained individuals.^[29]

The Theosophical Society believes its precepts and doctrinal foundation will be verified when a Theosophist follows prescribed disciplines to develop metaphysical means of knowledge that transcend the limitations of the senses.^{[citation needed]}

Criticisms of Helena Blavatsky and The Theosophical Society[link]

Helena Blavatsky's skeptics[link]

René Guénon wrote a detailed critique of Theosophy titled Theosophy: history of a pseudo-religion (1921). In the book Guenon claimed that Blavatsky had acquired all her knowledge naturally from other books not from any supernatural masters. Guenon points out that Blavatsky spent a long time visiting a library at New York where she had easy access to the works of Jacob Boehme, Eliphas Levi, the Kabbala and other Hermetic treatises. Guenon also wrote that Blavatsky had borrowed passages taken from a translation of extracts from the Kanjur and Tanjur published in 1836 in the twentieth volume of the Asiatic Researchers of Calcutta by Sándor Kőrösi Csoma an eccentric orientalist.^[30]

K. Paul Johnson suggests in his book The Masters Revealed: Madam Blavatsky and Myth of the Great White Brotherhood that the Masters that Madam Blavatsky claimed she had personally met are idealizations of certain people she had met during her lifetime.^[31]

Also see the article “Talking to the Dead and Other Amusements” by Paul Zweig New York Times October 5, 1980, which maintains that Madame Blavatsky's revelations were fraudulent.^[32]

Robert Todd Carroll in his book The skeptic's dictionary (2003) wrote that Blavatsky used trickery into deceiving others into thinking she had paranormal powers. Carroll wrote that Blavatsky had faked a materialization of a tea cup and saucer as well as written the messages from her masters herself.^[33]

Blavatsky's Theosophy connected to antisemitism, racism[link]

Jackson Spielvogel and David Redles of the Simon Wiesenthal Center's Museum of Tolerance analyze Blavatsky's racial ideas in her book Secret Doctrine. According to Spielvogel and Redles Blavatsky labeled some races superior and others inferior. They clarify that Blavatsky did not advocate "domination of one race over another" and that she was against violence. They comment that Blavatsky's work "helped to foster antisemitism, which is perhaps one of the reasons her esoteric work was so rapidly accepted in German circles." They state Blavatsky "sharply differentiated Aryan and Jewish religion" and believed "The Aryans were the most spiritual people on earth." They quote Blavatsky's writing in Secret Doctrine as stating Aryans used religion as an "everlasting lodestar" in contrast to Judaism which Blavatsky claimed was based on "mere calculation" while characterizing it as a "religion of hate and malice toward everyone and everything outside itself."^[34]

Post-Blavatskyan Theosophy and New Religious Movements[link]

Notes: Reasons regarding to the division of traditional theosophy from the Theosophical Society^{[clarification needed][35] [36]}

G.R.S. Mead was an early Theosophist. In 1909 he resigned from the Theosophical Society which was Orientalist. Prior to his break from the Society Mead had already begun emphasizing sources from the Western esoteric tradition in his writing. Mead was among the first Theosophists to explicate a "'Western' theosophy deriving from Alexandrian and Hellenistic sources in the early centuries A.D."^[37]

See Also[link]

• Grace F. Knoche
• James A. Long
• Jakob Böhme
• Wouter Hanegraaff
• Antoine Faivre
• Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke
• Alice Bailey
• Rudolf Steiner
• Anthroposophy
• Guy Ballard
• Theosophical Society Pasadena
• Halcyon, California (Temple of the People)
• Lomaland
• Sunrise (magazine)
• New Age
• Church Universal and Triumphant
• Valentin Tomberg
• Henry Corbin

References[link]

Citations[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Faivre, Antoine (1987). “Theosophy” in The Encyclopedia of Religion; Mircea Eliade, Charles J Adams, et al. New York: Macmillan. 
• Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (2006). “Esotericism” in The Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism; Wouter J. Hanegraaff, Editor. The Netherlands: Brill Academic Publishers. 
• Santucci, James A. (2004). “The Theosophical Society” in Controversial New Religions; James R. Lewis, Jesper Aagaard Petersen. USA: Oxford University Press. 
• Sellon, Emily (1987). “Blavatsky, H. P.” in The Encyclopedia of Religion; Mircea Eliade, Charles J Adams, et al. New York: Macmillan. 
• Faivre, Antoine (2000). Theosophy, Imagination, Tradition: Studies in Western Esotericism. Albany, NY: SUNY. 
• Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas (2008). The Western Esoteric Traditions. New York: Oxford University Press. 
• Godwin, Joscelyn (1994). The Theosophical Enlightenment. Albany, NY: SUNY. 
• OED (1989). Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press. 
• Blavatsky, Helena (1888). The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. London: The Theosophical Publishing Company. 
• Blavatsky, Helena (1889). The Key to Theosophy. London: The Theosophical Publishing Company. 

Online Sources[link]

• Ellwood, Robert S. (1986). Theosophy: A Modern Expression of the Wisdom of the Ages. Wheaton, IL: Theosophical Publishing House. pp. 237. ISBN 0-8356-0607-4. http://books.google.ca/books?id=_-mfy2EaKWwC. 

• Hammer, Olav (2004). Claiming Knowledge: Strategies of Epistemology from Theosophy to the New Age. Studies in the history of religions. Volume 90 (reprint ed.). Leiden, Netherlands: Brill. pp. 550. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/97890041136380|97890041136380]]. http://books.google.ca/books?id=EZYsPQgBNioC. 

• Judge, William Q. (1893). The Ocean of Theosophy (Second ed.). Pasedena, CA: Theosophical University Press online edition. ISBN 978-1-55700-034-7. http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/ocean/oce-hp.htm. 

• Antes, Peter; Geertz, Armin W.; Warne, Randi Ruth, editors (2004). New Approaches to the Study of Religion: Regional, critical, and historical approaches. 1. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 559. ISBN 978-3-11-017698-8. http://books.google.ca/books?id=OYsk8ZtJaMIC&dq=%22the+white+buddhist%22%2C+theosophy&q=theosophy#v=snippet&q=theosophy&f=false. 

External links[link]

• European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism
• Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism
• Association for the Study of Esotericism
• Theosophical History
• Esoterica
• Western Esotericism in the Academy
• Meta religion

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Annie Besant
Annie Besant in 1897
Born	(1847-10-01)1 October 1847 Clapham, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Died	20 September 1933(1933-09-20) (aged 85) Adyar, Madras Presidency, India
Known for	Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator
Spouse	Frank Besant
Children	Arthur, Mabel

Annie Besant (/ˈbɛsənt/; née Wood, 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.

She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society (NCS) and writer and a close friend of Charles Bradlaugh. In 1877 they were prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. The scandal made them famous and Bradlaugh was elected Member of Parliament for Northampton in 1880.

She became involved with Union organisers including the Bloody Sunday demonstration and the London matchgirls strike of 1888 and was a leading speaker for the Fabian Society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). She was elected to the London School Board for Tower Hamlets, topping the poll even though few women were qualified to vote at that time.

In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky and over the next few years her interest in Theosophy grew while her interest in secular matters waned. She became a member of the Society and a highly successful lecturer in Theosophy. As part of her Theosophy-related work, she travelled to India where in 1898 she helped establish the Central Hindu College, and in 1902 she established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain in England. Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became President of the Theosophical Society.

She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When World War I broke out in 1914 she helped launch the Home Rule League to campaign for democracy in India and dominion status within the Empire. This led to her election as president of the India National Congress in late 1917. After the war she continued to campaign for Indian independence and for the causes of Theosophy until her death in 1933.

Early life[link]

St. Margaret's church, Sibsey, where Frank Besant was vicar, 1871–1917

Annie Wood was born in 1847 in London into a middle-class family of Irish origin. She was proud of her heritage and supported the cause of Irish self-rule throughout her adult life. Her father died when she was five years old, leaving the family almost penniless. Her mother supported the family by running a boarding house for boys at Harrow School. However, she was unable to support Annie and persuaded her friend Ellen Marryat to care for her. Marryat made sure that Besant had a good education. She was given a strong sense of duty to society and an equally strong sense of what independent women could achieve. As a young woman, she was also able to travel widely in Europe. There she acquired a taste for Roman Catholic colour and ceremony that never left her.

In 1867, at age nineteen she married 26-year-old clergyman Frank Besant, younger brother of Walter Besant. He was an evangelical Anglican who seemed to share many of her concerns. On the eve of marriage, she had become more politicised through a visit to friends in Manchester, who brought her into contact with both English radicals and the Manchester Martyrs of the Irish Republican Fenian Brotherhood,^[1] as well as with the conditions of the urban poor.

Annie Besant

Grave of Frank Besant at Sibsey, where he remained vicar until his death

Soon Frank became vicar of Sibsey in Lincolnshire. Annie moved to Sibsey with her husband, and within a few years they had two children, Arthur and Mabel; however the marriage was a disaster. The first conflict came over money and Annie's independence. Annie wrote short stories, books for children, and articles. As married women did not have the legal right to own property, Frank was able to take all the money she earned. Politics further divided the couple. Annie began to support farm workers who were fighting to unionise and to win better conditions. Frank was a Tory and sided with the landlords and farmers. The tension came to a head when Annie refused to attend Communion. In 1873 she left him and returned to London. They were legally separated and Annie took her daughter with her.

Besant began to question her own faith. She turned to leading churchmen for advice, going to see Edward Bouverie Pusey, leader of the Catholic wing of the Church of England. When she asked him to recommend books that would answer her questions, he told her she had read too many already.^[2] Besant returned to Frank to make a last unsuccessful effort to repair the marriage. She finally left for London.

Birkbeck[link]

For a time she undertook part-time study at the Birkbeck Literary and Scientific Institution, where her religious and political activities caused alarm. At one point the Institution's governors sought to withhold the publication of her exam results.^[3]

Reformer and secularist[link]

Annie Besant – 1880s

She fought for the causes she thought were right, starting with freedom of thought, women's rights, secularism (she was a leading member of the National Secular Society alongside Charles Bradlaugh), birth control, Fabian socialism and workers' rights.

Divorce was unthinkable for Frank, and was not really within the reach of even middle-class people. Annie was to remain Mrs Besant for the rest of her life. At first, she was able to keep contact with both children and to have Mabel live with her; she also got a small allowance from her husband.

Once free of Frank Besant and exposed to new currents of thought, she began to question not only her long-held religious beliefs but also the whole of conventional thinking. She began to write attacks on the churches and the way they controlled people's lives. In particular she attacked the status of the Church of England as a state-sponsored faith.

Soon she was earning a small weekly wage by writing a column for the National Reformer, the newspaper of the NCS. The NCS stood for a secular state and an end to the special status of Christianity, and allowed her to act as one of its public speakers. Public lectures were very popular entertainment in Victorian times. Besant was a brilliant speaker, and was soon in great demand. Using the railway, she criss-crossed the country, speaking on all of the most important issues of the day, always demanding improvement, reform and freedom.

For many years Besant was a friend of the Society's leader, Charles Bradlaugh. It seems that they were never lovers, but their friendship was very close. Bradlaugh, a former seaman, had long been separated from his wife; Besant lived with him and his daughters, and they worked together on many issues. He was an atheist and a republican; he was also trying to get elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Northampton.

Besant and Bradlaugh became household names in 1877 when they published a book by the American birth-control campaigner Charles Knowlton. It claimed that working-class families could never be happy until they were able to decide how many children they wanted. It suggested ways to limit the size of their families. The Knowlton book was highly controversial, and was vigorously opposed by the Church. Besant and Bradlaugh proclaimed in the National Reformer:

We intend to publish nothing we do not think we can morally defend. All that we publish we shall defend.

The pair were arrested and put on trial for publishing the Knowlton book. They were found guilty, but released pending appeal. As well as great opposition, Besant and Bradlaugh also received a great deal of support in the Liberal press. Arguments raged back and forth in the letters and comment columns as well as in the courtroom. Besant was instrumental in founding the Malthusian League during the trial, which would go on to advocate for the abolition of penalties for the promotion of contraception.^[4] For a time, it looked as though they would be sent to prison. The case was thrown out finally only on a technical point, the charges not having been properly drawn up.

The scandal cost Besant custody of her children. Her husband was able to persuade the court that she was unfit to look after them, and they were handed over to him permanently.

Bradlaugh's political prospects were not damaged by the Knowlton scandal and he got elected to Parliament in 1881. Because of his atheism, he refused to swear the oath of loyalty. Although many Christians were shocked by Bradlaugh, others (like the Liberal leader Gladstone) spoke up for freedom of belief. It took more than six years before the whole issue was sorted out (in Bradlaugh's favor) after a series of by-elections and court appearances.

Meanwhile Besant built close contacts with the Irish Home Rulers and supported them in her newspaper columns during what are considered crucial years, when the Irish nationalists were forming an alliance with Liberals and Radicals. Besant met the leaders of the Irish home rule movement. In particular, she got to know Michael Davitt, who wanted to mobilise the Irish peasantry through a Land War, a direct struggle against the landowners. She spoke and wrote in favour of Davitt and his Land League many times over the coming decades.

However, Bradlaugh's parliamentary work gradually alienated Besant. Women had no part in parliamentary politics. Besant was searching for a real political outlet, where her skills as a speaker, writer and organiser could do some real good.

Political activism[link]

For Besant, politics, friendship and love were always closely intertwined. Her decision in favour of Socialism came about through a close relationship with a struggling young Irish author living in London, and a leading light of the Annie was impressed by his work and grew very close to him too in the early 1880s. It was Besant who made the first move, by inviting Shaw to live with her. This he refused, but it was Shaw who sponsored Besant to join the Fabian Society. In its early days, the Society was a gathering of people exploring spiritual, rather than political, alternatives to the capitalist system.^{[citation needed]} Besant began to write for the Fabians. This new commitment – and her relationship with Shaw – deepened the split between Besant and Bradlaugh, who was an individualist and opposed to Socialism of any sort. While he defended free speech at any cost, he was very cautious about encouraging working-class militancy.^{[citation needed]}in India

Unemployment was a central issue of the time, and in 1887 some of the London unemployed started to hold protests in Trafalgar Square. Besant agreed to appear as a speaker at a meeting on 13 November. The police tried to stop the assembly, fighting broke out, and troops were called. Many were hurt, one man died, and hundreds were arrested; Besant offered herself for arrest, an offer disregarded by the police.^{[citation needed]}

The events created a great sensation, and became known as Bloody Sunday. Besant was widely blamed – or credited – for it.^{[citation needed]} She threw herself into organising legal aid for the jailed workers and support for their families. Bradlaugh finally broke with her because he felt she should have asked his advice before going ahead with the meeting.

Another activity in this period was her involvement in the London matchgirls strike of 1888. She was drawn into this battle of the "New Unionism" by a young socialist, Herbert Burrows. He had made contact with workers at Bryant and May's match factory in Bow, London, who were mainly young women and were very poorly paid. They were also prey to industrial illnesses, like the bone-rotting Phossy jaw, which was caused by the chemicals used in match manufacture.^[5] Some of the match workers asked for help from Burrows and Besant in setting up a union.

Besant met the women and set up a committee, which led the women into a strike for better pay and conditions, an action that won public support. Besant led demonstrations by "match-girls", who were cheered in the streets, and prominent churchmen wrote in their support. In just over a week they forced the firm to improve pay and conditions. Besant then helped them to set up a proper union and a social centre.

At the time, the matchstick industry was a very powerful lobby, since electric light was not yet widely available, and matches were an essential commodity; in 1872, lobbyists from the match industry had persuaded the British government to change its planned tax policy. Besant's campaign was the first time anyone had successfully challenged the match manufacturers on a major issue, and was seen as a landmark victory of the early years of British Socialism.

During 1884, Besant had developed a very close friendship with Edward Aveling, a young socialist teacher who lived in her house for a time. Aveling was a scholarly figure and it was he who first translated the important works of Marx into English. He eventually went to live with Eleanor Marx, daughter of Karl Marx. Aveling was a great influence on Besant's thinking and she supported his work, yet she moved towards the rival Fabians at that time. Aveling and Eleanor Marx had joined the Marxist SDF and then the Socialist League, a small Marxist splinter group which formed around the artist William Morris.

It seems that Morris played a large part in converting Besant to Marxism, but it was to the SDF, not his Socialist League, that she turned in 1888. She remained a member for a number of years and became one of its best speakers. She was still a member of the Fabian Society; neither she nor anyone else seemed to think the two movements incompatible at the time.

Soon after joining the Marxists, Besant stood for election to the London School Board. Women at that time were not able to take part in parliamentary politics, but had been brought into the local electorate in 1881.

Besant drove about with a red ribbon in her hair, speaking at meetings. "No more hungry children," her manifesto proclaimed. She combined her socialist principles with feminism: "I ask the electors to vote for me, and the non-electors to work for me because women are wanted on the Board and there are too few women candidates." Besant came out on top of the poll in Tower Hamlets, with over 15,000 votes. She wrote in the National Reformer: "Ten years ago, under a cruel law, Christian bigotry robbed me of my little child. Now the care of the 763,680 children of London is placed partly in my hands."

Besant was also involved in the London Dock Strike (1889), in which the dockers, who were employed by the day, were led by Ben Tillett in a struggle for the "Dockers' Tanner". Besant helped Tillett draw up the union's rules and played an important part in the meetings and agitation which built up the organisation. She spoke for the dockers at public meetings and on street corners. Like the match-girls, the dockers won public support for their struggle, and the strike was won.

Theosophy[link]

Besant was a prolific writer and a powerful orator. In 1889, she was asked to write a review for the Pall Mall Gazette ^[6] on The Secret Doctrine, a book by H.P. Blavatsky. After reading it, she sought an interview with its author, meeting Blavatsky in Paris. In this way she was converted to Theosophy. Besant's intellectual journey had always involved a spiritual dimension, a quest for transformation of the whole person. As her interest in Theosophy deepened, she allowed her membership of the Fabian Society to lapse (1890) and broke her links with the Marxists. When Blavatsky died in 1891, Besant was left as one of the leading figures in Theosophy and in 1893 she represented it at the Chicago World Fair.

In 1893, soon after becoming a member of the Theosophical Society she went to India for the first time. After a dispute the American section split away into an independent organization. The original Society, then led by Henry Steel Olcott and Besant, is today based in Chennai, India, and is known as the Theosophical Society Adyar. Following the split Besant devoted much of her energy not only to the Society, but also to India's freedom and progress. Besant Nagar, a neighborhood near the Theosophical Society in Chennai, is named in her honor.

Co-freemasonry[link]

She pursued freemasonry with equal vigour when it was mentioned to her that there was a masonry that "accepted women as well as men". She saw freemasonry, in particular co-freemasonry, as an extension of her interest in the rights of women and the greater brotherhood of man and saw co-freemasonry as a "movement which practised true brotherhood, in which women and men worked side by side for the perfecting of humanity. She immediately wanted to be admitted to this organisation", known now as The International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain.

The link was made in 1902 by the Theosophist Francesca Arundale, who accompanied Besant to Paris, along with six friends. "They were all initiated, passed and raised into the first three degrees and Annie returned to England, bearing a Charter and founded there the first Lodge of International Mixed Masonry, Le Droit Humain." Besant eventually became the Order's Most Puissant Grand Commander, and was a major influence in the international growth of the Order.^[7]

President of Theosophical Society[link]

Annie Besant with Henry Olcott (left) and Charles Leadbeater (right) in Adyar, Madras in December 1905

Besant met fellow Theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater in London in April 1894. They became close co-workers in the Theosophical Movement and would remain so for the rest of their lives. Leadbeater claimed clairvoyance and reputedly helped Besant become clairvoyant herself in the following year. In a letter dated 25 August 1895 to Francisca Arundale, Leadbeater narrates how Besant became clairvoyant.^[8] Together they clairvoyantly investigated the universe, matter, thought-forms, and the history of mankind, and co-authored several books.

In 1906 Leadbeater became the centre of controversy when it emerged that he had advised the practice of masturbation to some boys under his care and spiritual instruction. Leadbeater stated he had encouraged the practice in order to keep the boys celibate, which was considered a prerequisite for advancement on the spiritual path.^[9] Due to the controversy, he offered to resign from the Theosophical Society in 1906, which was accepted. The next year Besant became President of the Society and in 1908, with her express support, Leadbeater was readmitted to the Society. Leadbeater went on to face accusations of improper relations with boys, but none of the accusations were ever proven and Besant never deserted him.^[10]

Until Besant's presidency, the society had as one of its foci Theravada Buddhism and the island of Sri Lanka, where Henry Olcott did the majority of his useful work.^[11] Under Besant's leadership there was more stress on the teachings of "The Aryavarta", as she called central India, as well as on esoteric Christianity.^{[citation needed]}

Besant set up a new school for boys, the Central Hindu College (CHC) at Benares which was formed on underlying Theosophical principles, and which counted many prominent Theosophists in its staff and faculty. Its aim was to build a new leadership for India. The students spent 90 minutes a day in prayer and studied religious texts, but they also studied modern science. It took 3 years to raise the money for the CHC, most of which came from Indian princes.^{[citation needed]} In April 1911, Besant met Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and they decided to unite their forces and work for a common Hindu University at Varanasi. Besant and fellow trustees of the Central Hindu College also agreed to Government of India's precondition that the college should become a part of the new University. The Banaras Hindu University started functioning from 1 October 1917 with the Central Hindu College as its first constituent college.

Blavatsky had stated in 1889 that the main purpose of establishing the Society was to prepare humanity for the future reception of a "torch-bearer of Truth", an emissary of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy that according to Theosophists guides the evolution of Humankind.^[12] This was repeated by Besant as early as 1896; Besant came to believe in the imminent appearance of the "emissary", who was identified by Theosophists as the so-called World Teacher.^[13][14]

Thought-form of the music of Charles Gounod, according to Besant and C.W. Leadbeater in Thought-Forms (1901)

The World Teacher Project[link]

In 1909, soon after Besant's assumption of the presidency, Leadbeater "discovered" fourteen-year-old Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986), a South Indian boy who had been living next to the headquarters of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, and declared him the probable "vehicle" for the expected World Teacher.^[15] The "discovery" and its objective received widespread publicity and attracted worldwide following, mainly among Theosophists. It also started years of upheaval, and contributed to splits in the Theosophical Society and doctrinal schisms in Theosophy. Following the discovery, Jiddu Krishnamurti and his younger brother Nityananda ("Nitya") were placed under the care of Theosophists and Krishnamurti was extensively groomed for his future mission as the new vehicle for the "World Teacher". Besant soon became the boys' legal guardian with the consent of their father, who was very poor and could not take care of them. However, his father later changed his mind and began a legal battle to regain the guardianship, against the will of the boys.^[16] Early in their relationship, Krishnamurti and Besant had developed a very close bond and he considered her a surrogate mother – a role she happily accepted. (His biological mother had died when he was ten years old).^[17]

In 1929, twenty years after his "discovery", Krishnamurti, who had grown disenchanted with the World Teacher Project, repudiated the role that many Theosophists expected him to fulfil. He dissolved the Order of the Star in the East, an organization founded to assist the World Teacher in his mission, and eventually left the Theosophical Society and Theosophy at large.^[18] He spent the rest of his life travelling the world as an unaffiliated speaker, becoming in the process widely known as an original, independent thinker on philosophical, psychological, and spiritual subjects. His love for Besant never waned, as also was the case with Besant's feelings towards him;^[19] concerned for his wellbeing after he declared his independence, she had purchased 6 acres (24,000 m²) of land near the Theosophical Society estate which later became the headquarters of the Krishnamurti Foundation India.

The Home Rule movement[link]

Along with her Theosophical activities, Besant continued to actively participate in political matters. She had joined the Indian National Congress. As the name suggested, this was originally a debating body, which met each year to consider resolutions on political issues. Mostly it demanded more of a say for middle-class Indians in British Indian government. It had not yet developed into a permanent mass movement with local organisation. About this time her co-worker Leadbeater moved to Sydney, Australia.

In 1914 World War I broke out, and Britain asked the support of its Empire in the fight against Germany. Echoing an Irish nationalist slogan, Besant declared, "England's need is India's opportunity". As editor of the New India newspaper, she attacked the colonial government of India and called for clear and decisive moves towards self-rule. As with Ireland, the government refused to discuss any changes while the war lasted.

Annie Besant in Sydney, Australia, 1922

In 1916 Besant launched the Home Rule League along with the Lokmanya Tilak, once again modeling demands for India on Irish nationalist practices. This was the first political party in India to have regime change as its main goal. Unlike the Congress itself, the League worked all year round. It built a structure of local branches, enabling it to mobilise demonstrations, public meetings and agitations. In June 1917 Besant was arrested and interned at a hill station, where she defiantly flew a red and green flag. The Congress and the Muslim League together threatened to launch protests if she were not set free; Besant's arrest had created a focus for protest.

The government was forced to give way and to make vague but significant concessions. It was announced that the ultimate aim of British rule was Indian self-government, and moves in that direction were promised. Besant was freed in September 1917 to great welcome from crowds all over India and in December she took over as President of the Indian National Congress for a year.

After the war, a new leadership emerged around Mohandas K. Gandhi – one of those who had written to demand Besant's release. He was a lawyer who had returned from leading Asians in a peaceful struggle against racism in South Africa. Jawaharlal Nehru, Gandhi's closest collaborator, had been educated by a Theosophist tutor.

The new leadership was committed to action that was both militant and nonviolent, but there were differences between them and Besant. Despite her past, she was not happy with their socialist leanings. Until the end of her life, however, she continued to campaign for India's independence, not only in India but also on speaking tours of Britain. In her own version of Indian dress, she remained a striking presence on speakers' platforms. She produced a torrent of letters and articles demanding independence.

Later years[link]

Besant tried as a person, Theosophist, and President of the Theosophical Society, to accommodate Krishnamurti's views into her life, without success; she vowed to personally follow him in his new direction although she apparently had trouble understanding both his motives and his new message.^[20] The two remained friends until the end of her life. Besant died in 1933 and was survived by her daughter, Mabel. After her death, colleagues Jiddu Krishnamurti, Aldous Huxley, Guido Ferrando, and Rosalind Rajagopal, built Happy Valley School, now renamed Besant Hill School in her honour.

Descendants[link]

The subsequent family history became fragmented. A number of Besant's descendants have been traced in detail from her son Arthur Digby's side. One of Arthur Digby's daughters was Sylvia Besant, who married Commander Clem Lewis in the 1920s. They had a daughter, Kathleen Mary, born in 1934, who was given away for adoption within three weeks of the birth and had the new name of Lavinia Pollock. Lavinia married Frank Castle in 1953 and raised a family of five Besant's great-great grandchildren – James, Richard, David, Fiona and Andrew Castle – the last and youngest sibling being a former British professional tennis player and now television presenter and personality.

Selected works[link]

• The Political Status of Women (1874)
• My Path to Atheism (1877)
• The Law Of Population (1877)
• Marriage, As It Was, As It Is, And As It Should Be: A Plea For Reform (1878)
• Autobiographical Sketches (1885)
• Why I became a Theosophist (1889)
• The Devachanic Plane. Theosophical Publishing House, London, ca 1895.
• The Ancient Wisdom (1898)
• Thought Forms (1901)
• Bhagavad Gita (translation) (1905)
• Study in Consciousness – A contribution to the science of psychology. Theosophical Publishing House, Madras, ca 1907.
• Introduction to Yoga (1908)
• Australian Lectures (1908)
• Jainism
• Man and his bodies. Theosophical Publishing House, London, 1911.
• Man's life in this and other worlds. Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, 1913.
• Occult Chemistry (With Charles Webster Leadbeater)
• Initiation: The Perfecting of Man (1923)
• The Doctrine of the Heart (1920)
• Esoteric Christianity.
• The Future of Indian Politics (booklet), Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, 1922
• The Life and Teaching of Muhammad, Madras, 1932
• Memory and Its Nature, Theosophical Publishing House, Madras, ca 1935. (With Helena Blavatsky).

Further reading[link]

• Chandrasekhar, S. "A Dirty, Filthy Book": The Writing of Charles Knowlton and Annie Besant on Reproductive Physiology and Birth Control and an Account of the Bradlaugh-Besant Trial. University of California Berkeley 1981
• Grover, Verinder and Ranjana Arora (eds.) Annie Besant: Great Women of Modern India – 1  : Published by Deep of Deep Publications, New Delhi, India, 1993
• Kumar, Raj Rameshwari Devi and Romila Pruthi. Annie Besant: Founder of Home Rule Movement, Pointer Publishers, 2003 ISBN 81-7132-321-9
• Manvell, Roger. The trial of Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh. Elek, London 1976
• Nethercot, Arthur H. The first five lives of Annie Besant Hart-Davis: London, 1961
• Nethercot, Arthur H. The last four lives of Annie Besant Hart-Davis: London (also University of Chicago Press 1963) ISBN 0-226-57317-6
• Taylor, Anne. Annie Besant: A Biography, Oxford University Press, 1991 (also US edition 1992) ISBN 0-19-211796-3

See also[link]

• Theosophical Society
• History of feminism

References[link]

External links[link]

Find more about Annie Besant on Wikipedia's sister projects:
	Definitions and translations from Wiktionary
	Images and media from Commons
	Learning resources from Wikiversity
	News stories from Wikinews
	Quotations from Wikiquote
	Source texts from Wikisource
	Textbooks from Wikibooks

• Works by Annie Wood Besant at Project Gutenberg
• Annie Wood Besant: Orator, Activist, Mystic, Rhetorician By Susan Dobra
• Annie Besant's Quest for Truth: Christianity, Secularism, and New Age Thought
• Thought power, its control and culture Cornell

University Library Historical Monographs Collection.

• The British Federation of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain, founded by Annie Besant in 1902

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