Neo-Theosophy is a term, originally derogatory, used by the followers of
Helena Blavatsky to denominate the system of
Theosophical ideas expounded by
Annie Besant
Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist.
Regarded as a champion of human ...
and
Charles Webster Leadbeater
Charles Webster Leadbeater (; 16 February 1854 – 1 March 1934) was a member of the Theosophical Society, Co-Freemasonry, author on occult subjects and co-initiator with J. I. Wedgwood of the Liberal Catholic Church.
Originally a p ...
following the death of Madame Blavatsky in 1891. This material differed in major respects from Blavatsky's original presentation, but it is accepted as genuinely Theosophical by many Theosophists around the world.
Main innovations of post-Blavatsky Theosophy as expounded by Besant and Leadbeater were the focus on exploring
past lives
Reincarnation, also known as rebirth or transmigration, is the philosophical or religious concept that the non-physical essence of a living being begins a new life in a different physical form or body after biological death. Resurrection is a ...
and the
astral plane
The astral plane, also called the astral realm or the astral world, is a plane of existence postulated by classical, medieval, oriental, and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions.G.R.S.Mead, ''The Doctrine of the Subtle Body in Western Tra ...
using
clairvoyance
Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...
, the promotion of the young Indian boy
Krishnamurti as the vehicle of the coming "
World Teacher" and the introduction of Catholicism and its religious rituals in the form of the
Liberal Catholic Church.
Overview
After Blavatsky died in 1891,
William Quan Judge
William Quan Judge (April 13, 1851 – March 21, 1896) was an Irish-American mystic, esotericist, and occultist, and one of the founders of the original Theosophical Society. He was born in Dublin, Ireland. When he was 13 years old, his famil ...
became involved in a dispute with
Henry Steel Olcott
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (2 August 1832 – 17 February 1907) was an American military officer, journalist, lawyer, Freemason and the co-founder and first president of the Theosophical Society.
Olcott was the first well-known American of Euro ...
and
Annie Besant
Annie Besant ( Wood; 1 October 1847 – 20 September 1933) was a British socialist, theosophist, freemason, women's rights activist, educationist, writer, orator, political party member and philanthropist.
Regarded as a champion of human ...
over Judge allegedly forging letters from the Mahatmas. As a result, he ended his association with Olcott and Besant during 1895 and took most of the Society's American Section with him. He managed his new organization for about a year until his death in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, whereupon
Katherine Tingley
Katherine Augusta Westcott Tingley (July 6, 1847 - July 11, 1929) was a social worker and prominent Theosophist. She led the American Section of the Theosophical Society after W. Q. Judge. She founded and led the Theosophical community Lomala ...
became manager. The organization originating from the faction of Olcott and Besant is based in India and known as the
Theosophical Society - Adyar, while the organization managed by Judge is known nowadays simply as the
Theosophical Society
The Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, is a worldwide body with the aim to advance the ideas of Theosophy in continuation of previous Theosophists, especially the Greek and Alexandrian Neo-Platonic philosophers dating back to 3rd century CE ...
, but often with the specification, "international headquarters,
Pasadena, California
Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial district.
...
." The ''Theosophical Society - Adyar'' is the group denounced as ''Neo-Theosophy'' by those who are followers of William Q. Judge and the original teachings of Madame Blavatsky; they do not accept what they regard as the ''Neo-Theosophical'' teachings of Annie Besant, Henry Olcott, and
C. W. Leadbeater
Charles Webster Leadbeater (; 16 February 1854 – 1 March 1934) was a member of the Theosophical Society, Co-Freemasonry, author on occult subjects and co-initiator with J. I. Wedgwood of the Liberal Catholic Church.
Originally a pr ...
.
The term ''Neo-Theosophy'' was coined by Ferdinand T. Brooks around 1912 in a book called ''Neo Theosophy Exposed'', the second part of an earlier book called ''The Theosophical Society and its Esoteric Bogeydom''. Around 1924, Margaret Thomas published a book called ''Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosophy''. This book, now available online, presents a detailed critical comparison of Blavatskyian Theosophy and Neo-Theosophy.
G. R. S. Mead who was also highly critical of the clairvoyant researches of Besant and Leadbeater, remaining loyal to Blavatskyian Theosophy, also used the term Neo-Theosophy to refer to Besant's movement. For him "Theosophy" meant the wisdom element in the great world religions and philosophies.
Later, the term Neo-Theosophical came to be used outside Theosophical circles to refer to groups formed by former Theosophists as well as groups whose central premises borrow heavily from Blavatskyian Theosophy. Robert S. Ellwood, in his 1973 book ''Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America'' referred to organizations that had been formed by former Theosophists as "devolutions of Theosophy" and included in his survey "Neo-Gnostic groups and Neo-Rosicrucian groups
..the
Anthroposophy
Anthroposophy is a spiritualist movement founded in the early 20th century by the esotericist Rudolf Steiner that postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world, accessible to human experience. Follower ...
of
Rudolf Steiner
Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (27 or 25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925) was an Austrian occultist, social reformer, architect, esotericist, and claimed clairvoyant. Steiner gained initial recognition at the end of the nineteenth century as ...
,
..Alice Bailey
Alice Ann Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949) was a writer of more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects, and was one of the first writers to use the term New Age. Bailey was born as Alice La Trobe-Bateman, in Mancheste ...
's groups, (
Guy Ballard
Guy Warren Ballard (July 28, 1878 – December 29, 1939) was an American mining engineer who, with his wife Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard, founded the "I AM" Activity.
Ballard was born in Newton, Kansas and married his wife in Chicago in 1916. B ...
's)
"I AM" Activity
The "I AM" Activity Movement is the original ascended master teachings religious movement founded in the early 1930s by Guy Ballard (1878–1939) and his wife Edna Anne Wheeler Ballard (1886–1971) in Chicago, Illinois.Saint Germain Found ...
and
Max Heindel's
Rosicrucianism
Rosicrucianism is a spiritual and cultural movement that arose in Europe in the early 17th century after the publication of several texts purported to announce the existence of a hitherto unknown esoteric order to the world and made seeking it ...
. In a later book, ''Alternative Altars'' (1979) Professor Ellwood added;
The author Daryl S. Paulson associates "Neo-Theosophy" with
Alice Bailey
Alice Ann Bailey (June 16, 1880 – December 15, 1949) was a writer of more than twenty-four books on theosophical subjects, and was one of the first writers to use the term New Age. Bailey was born as Alice La Trobe-Bateman, in Mancheste ...
.
Other neo-Theosophists include
Steiner's contemporary
Peter Deunov
Peter Dunoff ( ; bg, Петър Дънов ; July 11, 1864 – December 27, 1944), also known by his spiritual name Beinsa Douno ( bg, Беинса Дуно, links=no ), and often called the Master by his followers, was a Bulgarian philosopher an ...
and
Samael Aun Weor, who introduced theosophical teachings to Latin America.
Dion Fortune
Dion Fortune (born Violet Mary Firth, 6 December 1890 – 6 January 1946) was a British occultist, ceremonial magician, novelist and author. She was a co-founder of the Fraternity of the Inner Light, an occult organisation that promoted ph ...
and
Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley (; born Edward Alexander Crowley; 12 October 1875 – 1 December 1947) was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, poet, painter, novelist, and mountaineer. He founded the religion of Thelema, identifying himself as the pr ...
were also influencers of (and influenced by) the leading edge of the theosophical movement, which in turn influenced
Anton LaVey's
Satanism
Satanism is a group of Ideology, ideological and Philosophy, philosophical beliefs based on Satan. Contemporary religious practice of Satanism began with the founding of the atheistic Church of Satan by Anton LaVey in the United States in 19 ...
,
L. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard (March 13, 1911 – January 24, 1986) was an American author, primarily of science fiction and fantasy stories, who is best known for having founded the Church of Scientology. In 1950, Hubbard authored '' Dianetic ...
's
Scientology
Scientology is a set of beliefs and practices invented by American author L. Ron Hubbard, and an associated movement. It has been variously defined as a cult, a Scientology as a business, business, or a new religious movement. The most recent ...
,
Wicca
Wicca () is a modern Pagan religion. Scholars of religion categorise it as both a new religious movement and as part of the occultist stream of Western esotericism. It was developed in England during the first half of the 20th century and w ...
, and the modern
New Age
New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars consi ...
and
New Thought
The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...
movements. (Alice Bailey introduced the term ''New Age'').
Neo-Theosophists today
Some examples of Neo-Theosophists today include
Benjamin Creme, Douglas Baker and
Victor Skumin.
In 1990, Skumin elaborated on the
theosophical conceptions of
spiritual evolution and proposed a classification of ''Homo spiritalis'' (
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
: ''spiritual man''),
the sixth root race, consisting of eight sub-races (subspecies) – HS0 Anabiosis spiritalis, HS1 Scientella spiritalis, HS2 Aurora spiritalis, HS3 Ascensus spiritalis, HS4 Vocatus spiritalis, HS5 Illuminatio spiritalis, НS6 Creatio spiritalis, and HS7 Servitus spiritalis.
According to
Victor Skumin, *''Anabiosis spiritalis'' is spirituality in the potential of unmanifest accumulations of personality, the charge of the fires of spiritual creation.
Sub-races of ''Homo spiritalis'':
*''Scientella spiritalis'' is the cordial presentiment of the presence and demands of the spirit, spiritualization of the fire of centers, glimpses of self-consciousness of a spiritual person;
*''Aurora spiritalis'' is the imperative of the spirit, the action of the spiritual fire of the centers in the heart, the kindling of the fire of the spirit, the formation of the orientation of the personality to the spiritual improvement of life;
*''Ascensus spiritalis'' is the dawn of spiritual aspirations, the action of the fire of the spirit in the heart, searching spiritual work, aspiration of self-consciousness to merge with the One Spirit;
*''Vocatus spiritalis'' is the maturation of spiritual accumulations, the purposeful spiritual creation, self-awareness and realization of a person as a warrior of the spirit;
*''IIluminatio spiritalis'' is the beginning of the fiery transmutation, the lighting of the achievement fire; revealing the identity of man - the earthly carrier of the Thoughts of the One Spirit;
*''Creatio Spiritalis'' is the beginning of fiery creation, the action of the fire of achievement in the heart, the revealing self-consciousness of man as the earthly carrier of the Light of the One Spirit;
*''Servitus Spiritalis'' is the carrying a consciously accepted duty-commission, the synthesis of spirituality in the clarity of knowledge of a ''fiery man''.
See also
References
External links
''Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosophy''- online version of Margaret Thomas's book.
{{Theosophy series
Theosophy
Esotericism
Religious belief systems founded in the United States