Neo-Theosophy

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The term Neo-Theosophy was originally a derogatory term referring to books written by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater on Theosophy, following the death of Madame Blavatsky in 1891. This material differed in a number of respects from Blavatsky's writings, and it was felt by many that this represented a depreciation or distortion of the original teachings.

The term was coined by Ferdinand T. Brooks around 1912 in a book called Neo Theosophy Exposed, which was the second part of an earlier book called The Theosophical Society and its Esoteric Bogeydom^[1]. Around 1924, Margaret Thomas published a book called Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosophy. This book is now available online ^[2], and presents a detailed and critical comparison between 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 ^[3], 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 ^[4].

Later, the term Neo-Theosophical has come to be used outside Theosophical circles to refer to groups formed by former Theosophists, as well as groups whose central premises borrow heavily from from Blavatskyian Theosophy.

Robert S. Ellwood, in his 1973 book Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America referred non-critically to to organizations that had been formed by former Theosophists as "devolutions of Theosophy" and included in his survey of them, "Neo-Gnostic groups and Neo-Rosicrucian groups [...] the Anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner, [...] Alice Bailey's groups, (Guy Ballard's) " I AM Activity", and Max Heindel's Rosicrucianism^[5]. In a later book, "Alternative Altars" (1979), Professor Ellwood added Jiddu Krishnamurti to his list of religious teachers whose ideas could be traced back to Blavatsky's Theosophy (in this case through Besant), and he said,

Alice Bailey (1880 - 1949), founder of the Arcane School and the Full Moon Meditation Groups, and Guy Ballard (1878 - 1930), of the "I AM" movement, are representative of those who have started activities based on new and special communications from Theosophical Masters.^[6]

The author Daryl S. Paulson associates "neo-Theosophy" in a non-critical manner with Alice Bailey. ^[7]

Other examples of neo-Theosophists include Steiner's contemporaries Gurdjieff^[8], Ouspensky^[9] and Peter Deunov; as well as Samael Aun Weor, who largely introduced theosophical teachings to the whole of Latin South and Central America. Dion Fortune and Aleister Crowley were also influencers of (and influenced by) the leading edge of the theosophical movement, which in turn influenced Anton LaVey's Satanism, L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology, Wiccanism, and the whole of the modern New Age and New Thought movements.^[10]

Especially through the influence of Alice Bailey, "Neo-Theosophy" has exerted a very large influence on New Age metaphysics and modern esoteric thought. Alice Bailey invented the term New Age.

A contemporary example of a prominent neo-Theosophist is Benjamin Creme.

[edit] References

1. ^ James R. Lewis, Jesper Aagaard Petersen, Controversial New Religions, Oxford University Press, 2004 ISBN 019515682X Page 292
2. ^ Theosophy vs. Neo-Theosophy:
3. ^ by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, Clare Goodrick-Clarke G. R. S. Mead and the Gnostic Quest North Atlantic Books ISBN 155643572X Page 22
4. ^ cited in Demetres P. Tryphonopoulos, The Celestial Tradition: A Study of Ezra Pound's the Cantos , Wilfrid Laurier University Press 1992 ISBN 0889202028 Page 85
5. ^ Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., "Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America", Prentice-Hall, 1973 ISBN 0-13-773317-8
6. ^ Robert S. Ellwood, Jr., Alternative Altars: Unconventional and Eastern Spirituality in America, University of Chicago Press, 1979 ISBN 0-226-20618-1
7. ^ Daryl S. Paulson, "The Near-Death Experience: An Integration of Cultural, Spiritual, and Physical Perspectives", Journal of Near-Death Studies, Springer, Netherlands, ISSN 0891-4494 (Print) 1573-3661 (Online) Issue Volume 18, Number 1 / September, 1999
8. ^ http://www.awakenings.com/sg/
9. ^ Peter Washington. Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: A History of the Mystics, Mediums, and Misfits Who Brought Spiritualism to America. New York: Schocken Books, 1995.
10. ^ See Nevill Drury. "Why Does Aleister Crowley Still Matter?" Richard Metzger, ed. Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. Disinformation Books, 2003.

[edit] External links

• Lessons in Theosophy - Lesson 2, The History of the Theosophical Society - brief neutral reference to Neo-Theoosphy
• Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosophy - online version of Margaret Thomas's book.