Theos-Talk Archives (March 2005 Message tt00711)

C.W.L. joined the Society in 1883. He did 
not, unlike Annie Besant receive a welcome 
from H.P.B., nor was he admitted to her Inner Group. 

He was given some instruction by a regular 
chela at Adyar for a period and developed 
his clairvoyance but there is no reference 
that this relationship continued. 

He did receive a reply to his early 
communication with the Masters but there 
is no corroborative evidence that he ever 
had any more contact with them after these 
introductory letters. 

It also came to light that his veracity is much in question: his 
statements, for example, about his age, his family in South America, 
and his implying that he had been to Oxford as an undergraduate were 
discovered later to be false. 

In the light of what the Master K.H. said about God, religion and 
the priestly caste in Mahatma Letter X, had Leadbeater been a chela 
he could never have allied himself with the Liberal Catholic Church 
and certainly he could never have allowed himself to be made a 
Bishop and thereafter always dress as such. The Masters had 
said "Our chief aim is to deliver humanity of this nightmare ... 
etc. " (A personal God of Theology) (M.L.X, 2nd and 3rd editions). 

This is important in the light of C.W.L.'s later claims of an 
intimate and continued relationship with not only one but a number 
of Masters, even up to the highest in the Hierarchy from whom he 
claimed periodically to have received instruction in such matters as 
the upbringing of Krishnamurti. 

In the light of some of these supposed contacts e.g. Comte St 
Germain, Jesus, etc. the association of the Liberal Catholic Church 
with the Society was justified. 

However, both the Church and the CoMasons were representative of 
past dispensations. They both had their roots in ceremonial magic, 
the practice of which H.P.B. did not endorse on account of the 
possible dangers involved. In a letter which Damodar wrote to 
Sinnett, Masonry and Rosicrucianism were specifically forbidden 
(M.L. Old Edition No. 142A, Chronological No. 14A). 

During the founding of the Society it had been proposed that the 
Society might become Masonic. This was specifically decided against. 
Other behavior of the then leaders is also questionable. 

In view of H.P.B.'s sundry comments about Masonry (into which she 
was admitted on account of her knowledge of it, but never 
formally 'initiated'), having lost its secrets, how came it that the 
Leaders of the Society not only espoused Co-Masonry but the Egyptian 
Rite which C.W.L. together with a colleague in Australia had devised 
and which is still widely practiced by some members in the E.S.? 

Quoted from:
http://www.theos-world.com/archives/html/tw199706.html#ARTICLE0097

See also

C.W. Leadbeater's Birthdate by Gregory Tillett
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/8593

Leadbeater and Blavatsky by Gregory Tillett
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/8593

The Elder Brother: A Biography of Charles Webster Leadbeater by 
Gregory Tillett.
http://www.wisdomtraditions.com/PLPCat9_1.html

Theosophy Versus Neo-Theosophy (abridged edition, reprint of 
Section I only) compiled by Margaret Thomas with additions by Mark 
Jaqua.
http://blavatskyarchives.com/thomas/index.htm