Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00054)

Dr. James A. Santucci on Annie Besant's and C.W. Leadbeater's Neo-
Theosophy

[James A. Santucci is professor of religious studies and linguistics 
at California State University, Fullerton and editor of THEOSOPHICAL 
HISTORY http://www.theohistory.org/ ]

Dr. Santucci writes:

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Although Blavatsky was certainly the most influential and the most
brilliant interpreter of Theosophy, there was a subtle challenge to 
her position as protagonist of the Theosophical movement. The 
challenge came primarily from the two shining lights of the Adyar 
Theosophical Society during the first third of the 20th century: 
Annie Besant, the President of the Society from 1907 to her death in 
1933, and Charles Webster Leadbeater, arguably the most influential 
theosophical writer from the early years of the 20th century to his 
death in 1934. The two were largely responsible for the introduction 
of new teachings that were often in total opposition to the
Theosophy of Blavatsky and her Masters. These teachings were 
designated by their opponents as Neo-Theosophy [15] or less often 
Pseudo-Theosophy. The differences between Theosophy and Neo-Theosophy 
are too numerous to mention in the context of this paper,[16] but it 
is possible to capture the broad distinctions between the two:

1. the introduction of Catholicism and its attendant sacraments into 
the Adyar Theosophical Society through the agency of the Liberal
Catholic Church and the efforts of its Presiding Bishop, James Ingall 
Wedgwood, and his close associate, the leading theosophical writer of 
the day, Charles Webster Leadbeater;

2. the claim, based on a psychic reading by Leadbeater in 1909, that a
young Indian boy, Jiddu Krishnamurti, would serve as the vehicle of
the World Teacher, the Christ or Maitreya. With such a claim came
the establishment shortly thereafter of an organization to promote
this belief, the Order of the Star in the East;

3. emphasis on the writings of Annie Besant and Charles Webster
Leadbeater as the main purveyors of Theosophy to the almost total
exclusion of those of H. P. Blavatsky;

4. more emphasis on the acquisition of and participation in psychic or
occult powers rather than on the theoretical understanding of the
occult.
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[Footnotes to Santucci's statements:]

[15] The label was most likely coined in 1914 by F.T. Brooks, author 
of Neo-Theosophy Exposed and The Theosophical Society and its 
Esoteric Bogeydom.

[16]An extensive overview is given in the unpublished booklet, 
Theosophy or Neo-Theosophy by Margaret Thomas, a member of the 
Theosophical Society in Scotland, Wales, and England. The booklet was 
written around 1925.
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The above quoted from:
http://www.theohistory.org/aquarian_foundation.pdf

Daniel H. Caldwell
BLAVATSKY ARCHIVES
http://hpb.cc