Theos-Talk Archives (August 2003 Message tt00110)

Hi all,

I spoke to some Danish theosophists this summer and the way I heard 
it, the Danish section left, not they were expelled. 

Still, one of the issues is how much freedom do individual sections 
have? Do they have the right to only study and discuss Alice Bailey 
for instance? Do they have the right to exclude people for wanting to 
study HPB? Do they have the right (in short) to be sectarian?

It used to be the case, in the time of Olcott and Blavatsky that 
there were sections set up which were devoted to studying only one 
aspect of the wisdom tradition. The Buddhist Society started as a 
lodge in the TS, devoted to studying and spreading Buddhism. The same 
was true for the organisation which was started by Anna Kingsford and 
her coworker (I forget both the organisation that sprang from that 
and the name of the co-worker). In The Netherlands there used to be a 
lodge for artists only. Nobody used to mind that sort of specialism. 
But now each lodge is supposed to have the same broad outlook that 
the society as a whole has. Which is impossible, because it either 
means studying 'theosophical' literature only - or it means jumping 
from one subject to another and never being able to dive into 
something deeply. Now Buddhism for instance is a lifetime study, just 
like Blavatskyan Theosophy is. So the insistence on lodges to be 
unsectarian actually causes the TS to be sectarian. Only those 
interested in so called theosophical literature can join. 

And I think this started (in official policy that is) with Annie 
Besant getting rid of Steiner on the grounds that the German Section 
did not have the right to refuse members on religious grounds [that 
is: being a member of the Order of the Star]. I used to agree that 
Besant was right - freedom of thought was paramount in the TS. But he 
didn't refuse them membership of the TS, nor did he prevent them from 
setting up their own lodges and sections of the TS, in order to study 
say what Krishnamurti wrote in those days. To be sure this is a 
correct version of events, one would have to dive into the archives 
at Adyar - I hope somebody takes up that project and gets permission 
to do so. 

Katinka
--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Morten Nymann Olesen" <global-
theosophy@a...> wrote:
> Hi Bart and all,
> 
> My views are just my views:
> 
> When we talkm about Denmark - I have to say that my knowledge tells 
me
> different. I live in Denmark you know.
> The reason why Denmark was excluded - was because of their heavy 
leaning on
> the teachings of Alice A. Bailey. But as I understand it - The 
Theosophical
> Society has changed its policies on the Alice A. Bailey issue 
through the
> years depending on who was sitting at the driverseats in different 
sections.
> True ?
> 
> 
> from
> M. Sufilight with peace...