Theos-Talk Archives (January 2006 Message tt00018)

Dallas,
In your reply to Cass you Post an excerpt:

<<The Theosophical Society in London had nearly collapsed and efforts were

being made to rejuvenate it under the leadership of Mrs. Anna Kingsford. She

had “conditionally” accepted the post of President althoughthere was some

delay in her taking over the office. She was a vegetarian and

anti-vivisectionist, and in one place the Mahatma states that for these

reasons her phenomena were more reliable than those of most well-known

spiritualists. H.P.B. did not have a very high opinion of Mrs. Kingsford.

According to one letter from H.P.B. to Sinnett (LBS, p. 22), it was Massey

who first proposed her name as President of the British Theosophical

Society. Received 6-1-83. <<

In the above I asked who is the person who made this comment:

>>H.P.B. did not have a very high opinion of Mrs. Kingsford.<<

I would like to give a few examples to show it was otherwise:

<A HREF="http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/hpb-tm/hpbtm-12.htm";>H. P. Blavatsky - Chapter 12-Anna Kingsford 5th Rounder</A>

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/hpb-tm/hpbtm-12.htm

>> According to K.H. in the Mahatma Letters, she was a "fifth rounder," a 
technical theosophical term for those persons who have run ahead of the average 
in evolutionary development, a fact of which she herself had more than a 
suspicion. <<


<<
In the Mahatma Letters on pages 345-7, K.H. pays Anna Kingsford a high 
tribute for her intuitive seership. Here is one sentence: 

> Well may you admire and more should you wonder at the marvellous lucidity 
> of that remarkable seeress, who ignorant of Sanskrit or Pali, and thus shut 
> out from their metaphysical treasures, has yet seen a great light shiningfrom 
> behind the dark hills of exoteric religions. <<

Anna Bonus Kingsford was President of the Theosophical Lodge of London:
>>Not long before Olcott reached London in 1884, a complication had arisen in 
the London Lodge in regard to the presidency. Mrs. Kingsford had held the 
office for some time in response to the expressed wish of the Masters as 
indicated to Mr. Sinnett, though H.P.B. had disapproved of her occupation of the post 
notwithstanding that she was the Masters' choice for the time.


>>

H.P.B.'s notice of her death contains the following: 
> She was a Theosophist and a true one at heart; a leader of spiritual and 
> philosophical thought, gifted with most exceptional psychic attributes. .. . 
> The first and most important [of her books] was "The Perfect Way, or the 
> Finding of Christ," which gives the esoteric meaning of Christianity. It sweeps 
> away many of the difficulties that thoughtful readers of the Bible must contend 
> with in their endeavours to either understand or accept literally the story 
> 

> . . . the circle of her mystically-inclined friends will miss her greatly, 
> for such women as she are not numerous in the same century. The world in 
> general has lost in Mrs. Kingsford one who can be very ill-spared in thisera of 
> materialism. -- Lucifer, II, 78-9, March 1888 <<


<A HREF="http://www.theosophical.org/theosophy/books/esotericworld/chapter13/";>Theosophical Society in America: Chapter 13</A> 

http://www.theosophical.org/theosophy/books/esotericworld/chapter13/

>> As we sat there I felt the old signal of a message from the Master and saw 
that she was listening. She said: "Judge, the Master asks me to try and guess 
what would be the most extraordinary thing he could order now?" I said, "That 
Mrs [Anna Kingsford] should be the President of the London Lodge." <<

>> Mrs. Anna Bonus Kingsford (1846–1888), English mystical writer and doctor 
of medicine, was the author (in collaboration with Edward Maitland) of The 
Perfect Way; or, The Finding of Christ (1882), an esoteric interpretation of 
Christianity. –Editor.] 



***she also Authored another below (John):



<A HREF="http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/cws/index.htm";>Clothed With TheSun Index</A>

http://www.sacred-texts.com/wmn/cws/index.htm

Readers of this forum may be interested in the perspective of Yeats relative 
to Anna Bonus Kingsford ( I will only type the URL as my PC crashed earlier 
when I loaded the page, strictly a naunce of my PC not the Yeats Homepage)

W. B. Yeats and "A Vision": The Hermetic Society

http://www.yeatsvision.com/Herm.html

Continueing:
<A HREF="http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/maitland1913.htm";>Anna Kingsford, Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophists by Edward Maitland</A>

http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/maitland1913.htm


>>The matter went no further at this time; but we were struck by learning 
that Mary had been recognised by the mysterious chiefs of the Theosophical 
Society as "the greatest natural mystic of the present day, and countless ages in 
advance of the great majority of mankind, the foremost of whom belong to the 
last race of the fourth round, while she belongs to the first race of the fifth 
round." <<

>>Respecting that Society, the then President of the English Branch, our 
valued friend, C. C. Massey, wrote as follows: - 

> "For the attitude of the Society towards all the religions of the world, I 
> may refer you to the enclosed paper, ‘Individuality of Branches,’ now being 
> issued, along with the enclosed circular, to all our members. I believe there 
> would be much opposition among us to giving our own branch a sectarian 
> designation or direction. One grand aim of our Society is to show the underlying, 
> or esoteric, identity of all religious philosophies worthy of the name, and, 
> while respecting the particular forms or manifestations of the one truth,to 
> cut away the ground of sectarian antagonism which such partial or disguised 
> presentations appear to contain. In India, Olcott has busied himself muchwith 
> what I take to be a Buddhist propaganda, though I believe he would not admit 
> this. Anyhow, there can be no doubt whatever that to Christianity, as 
> popularly understood and taught, we are all more or less opposed. We havetwo 
> beneficed clergymen of the Church of England among us, and they would probably say 
> that the popular form is capable of a true statement, and must be regarded 
> as ‘dispensational.’ That is quite consistent with the discovery in it of a 
> true system of doctrine, which, however, would be such a ‘new departure’ as 
> almost to amount to a second revelation. And that, I believe, would be the 
> position accepted by yourselves as the writers of The Perfect Way. And I think 
> you will find the answer to the question, whether that position is 
> inconsistent with our regard for the Indian teachings, in the paper aboutthe 
> ‘Individuality of Branches.’ The liberty reserved to Branches cannot be denied to 
> individuals. I cannot, of course, conceal from myself that it is desirable that 
> our President should be in great sympathy with the acknowledged teachers of the 
> Society, - although, indeed, there is no one who is ready and able to teach 
> us whom we should not be ready and able to acknowledge. Certainly I should 
> not accept the statement that we look to ‘Koot Hoomi,’ orany one else, as the 
> ‘ultimate source of illumination.’ But at present we are studying in his 
> school. It will be for our President to read to us the expositions which come 
> from that quarter, and of course we should look to her for a sympathetic,and 
> not a controversial, attitude towards them. That does not prevent her from 
> holding and pointing out any other aspect of truth, even in relation to them.
> "If I hear from Mrs. Kingsford, I may be able to satisfy her and you more 
> fully on these points in my reply to her. I infer from your letter that the 
> return to London will not be just yet, if you find the suitable quarters for her 
> health in the Engadine. We should have to set off the hope for her 
> restoration from this residence against the postponement of her appearance among us. I 
> most earnestly trust that the Providence which guards her work will also 
> secure her to us as its best agent."
> 

The following is from the circular in which Mr. Massey notified the Society 
of his intention to nominate Mrs. Kingsford as its President: -
> 

> "I have now to give notice of an important proposition, which I shall submit 
> to the general meeting, in the earnest hope that it may meet with general 
> and cordial approval, and in the belief that its adoption will conduce tothe 
> future vitality, progress, and use of the Society. It is that Dr. Anna 
> Kingsford shall be elected President of the Society for the ensuing year.From 
> information I have received, I think there can be no doubt that this choice would 
> be acceptable to those with whom we are most anxious to come into direct 
> relations, while the knowledge many of ourselves possess of the genius, moral 
> force, and entire devotion to spiritual ideals of this accomplished lady seems 
> to designate her as the natural leader of a Society with beliefs and aimssuch 
> as ours. Nor are Dr. Kingsford’s scientific attainments an unimportant 
> consideration to the body of students who see and desire to trace in occult 
> phenomena an extension of the range of Natural Philosophy. It may also be 
> allowable, in a private letter like the present, to refer to the well-known fact that 
> she is one of the literary authors of that remarkable work, The Perfect Way, 
> or the Finding of Christ. The general resemblance of the ideas there put 
> forward to the teachings which we are studying has been expressly acknowledged by 
> our Indian authorities. It is, however, scarcely necessary to observe that 
> our selection of Dr. Kingsford will not imply unqualified acceptance of all 
> her published opinions. We could never have at our head any marked 
> individuality, if members supposed that in electing a President they wereso committing 
> themselves. On the other hand, as a result of this step, we may expect 
> important accessions to our ranks, and a union of forces which have lately been 
> tending in the same direction. It is, perhaps, quite unnecessary to urge a 
> recommendation which will, I believe, be generally acceptable; but to allwho may 
> think that my long connection with the Society, and intimate relations with 
> those most completely identified with its interest, entitle my opinion toany 
> consideration, I may say that I have not decided on making this proposal 
> without the most careful deliberation and consultation, and that I regardits 
> adoption as of vital importance. It only remains to add on this subject, that Dr. 
> Kingsford herself has, I rejoice to say, given a conditional consent to the 
> nomination."<<



>>The election of Mary as President, and myself as Vice-President, of what 
was subsequently called the London Lodge of the Theosophical Society took place 
at the first meeting in 1883, which fell on Sunday, January 7. We discovered 
in the course of the day that it was the Festival of the Three Kings of the 
East; whereupon Mary made the following entry in her Diary: -

> On the 7th of this month I was elected President of the British 
> Theosophical Society. The 7th was Epiphany Sunday, the Festival of the Kings. A strange 
> coincidence and augury.
> 
> "21 Avenue Carnot, Paris, January 11, 1883.<<


 



  









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