Theos-Talk Archives (March 2007 Message tt00167)

Sinnett's and Leadbeater's 
Claims:   Part 2

Compare what A.P. Sinnett writes in 1894 about C.W. Leadbeater and 
Maude Travers 

[see Sinnett's 1894 testimony which was quoted in Part 1:  
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/theos-talk/message/40177 ]

with what Sinnett wrote in the latter part of his life:

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In Mrs. Besant's Autobiography the last few pages deal with her 
approach to Theosophy and her relations with Madame Blavatsky. She 
never knew our "O.L" [Old Lady] during any of the stormy periods of 
her life, only making her acquaintance in 1889 when she was 
comfortably established in Lansdowne Road and surrounded with 
devotees....

During the period of Mrs. Besant's residence with her [Madame 
Blavatsky] ? the last two years of her life ? neither my wife nor I 
saw anything of her. 

[But] We were in close touch with the Master K. H. himself by our own 
PRIVATE arrangements [during the years 1886-1891] and ... were 
emphatically warned by him to guard them from any possible 
interference by Madame Blavatsky. So the result of it was a complete 
extinction of our former intimate relations. I have never known 
exactly what strange tales she [Madame Blavatsky] invented in order 
to keep Mrs. Besant from making acquaintance with us, as she might 
naturally have wished to do when [first] becoming attached to the 
theosophical movement....

In 1890 Madame Blavatsky moved from the Lansdowne Road to 19, Avenue 
Road, St. John's Wood, a house over which Mrs. Besant had control, 
and there she died in May, 1891. 

A little later on Mrs. Besant paid her first visit to India, and on 
her return established friendly relations with ourselves....

[From historical records one can see that Mrs. Besant had returned to 
England from India some time during the first or second week of April 
1894.  She remained in England until the latter part of July 1894 
when she sailed to Australia and New Zealand for a lecture tour.   
D.H.C.]

We were then [in 1894] in the middle of the period during which our 
PRIVATE methods of communicating with the Master K. H. were in full 
progress, and it was no longer necessary to maintain the secrecy that 
had at first been used to shield them from Madame Blavatsky's 
jealousy. Mrs. Besant quickly appreciated their importance, and 
applied for admission to the London Lodge , which we cordially 
welcomed. Of course she at once began to take part in the work of the 
inner group which without any formal organization as such, or 
affectation of masonic ceremonial, became the real vortex of the 
theosophic teaching of the period. The long series of London Lodge 
Transactions which were due to that teaching constitute, as we look 
back upon them, so many mile-stones on the road leading gradually to 
the later developments of theosophical knowledge.

When Mrs. Besant joined our group she became intimately acquainted 
for the first time with Mr. Leadbeater, whose wonderful clairvoyant 
faculties were of immense assistance to us in our studies....
--------------------------------------------------
Quoted from "The Early Days of Theosophy in Europe" by A.P. Sinnett 
(London, Theosophical Publishing House LTD., 1922, pp. 110-111).  
[CAPS ADDED.]

Mr. Sinnnett gives further details about this same time period 
in "Autobiography of Alfred Percy Sinnett" (London:  Theosophical 
History Centre, 1986). 

Sinnett writes:

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It must have been soon after our return from this trip [sometime 
during the first 5 months of 1892] that we formed a group of the most 
earnest students of the London Lodge for special work in which the 
Master [Koot Hoomi] undertook to help us. For a long time [from 
1886], - up till about now [1892], - we had kept the secret of Mary's 
[Mary is a pseudonym for Maude Traver] faculties and development [and 
contact with Master K.H.], but for the group these became known. The 
group included Count Bubua, - (himself endowed with psychic faculties 
and in touch with his Master Mahatma Morya) - Scott Elliott, Miss 
Arundale, Mr. and Mrs. Varley, and one or two others, and of course 
included Mary [Maude Travers] and Mr. Leadbeater..... [p. 44]
---------------------------------------------------------------- 

And on page 48, Sinnett writes that Mrs. Annie Besant "had been 
admitted by her own request to the meetings of our London Lodge group 
in June 1894. Up to that time her psychic faculties had not 
developed. Leadbeater was one of the most important elements in our 
group, - Mary [Maude Travers] of course the other."

Continued in Part 3....

Daniel
http://hpb.cc