Charles Webster Leadbeater - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Charles Webster Leadbeater (16 February 1854 – 1 March 1934) was an influential member of the Theosophical Society

Theosophical Society

The Theosophical Society is an organization formed in 1875 to advance the spiritual principles and search for Truth known as Theosophy. The original organization, after splits and realignments has several successors...

, author on occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

subjects and co-initiator with J. I. Wedgwood of the Liberal Catholic Church

Liberal Catholic Church

The Liberal Catholic Church is a form of Christianity open to theosophical ideas and even reincarnation. It is not connected to the Roman Catholic Church, which considers it heretical and schismatic...

. Originally a clergyman of the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

, his interest in spiritualism

Spiritualism

Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...

caused him to end his affiliation with the Church of England in favour of the Theosophical Society, where he became an associate of Annie Besant

Annie Besant

Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...

. He became a high ranking officer of the Society, but resigned in 1906, after accusations that he had been engaging in mutual masturbation with teenage boys in his care. With Besant's assistance he was readmitted a few years later, and although similar rumours occurred throughout his career, Leadbeater's talents as a prolific author on occultism kept him an important presence in Theosophy until his death in 1934.

Early life

Leadbeater was born in Stockport

Stockport

Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...

, Cheshire, in 1854. His father, Charles Sr., was born in Lincoln and his mother Emma was born in Liverpool

Liverpool

Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

. Public records indicate that he was an only child. By 1861 the family had relocated to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, where his father was a railway contractor's clerk. Charles Sr. died from tuberculosis during 1862, when Leadbeater was only eight years old. Four years later a bank in which the family's savings were invested became bankrupt. Thus without finances for college, Leadbeater sought work soon after graduating from high school in order to provide for his mother and himself. He then worked various clerical jobs. During the evenings he became largely self-educated. For example, he studied astronomy and had a 12-inch reflector telescope (which was very expensive at the time) to observe the heavens at night. He also learned the French, Latin and Greek languages.

An uncle, his father's brother-in-law, was the well-known Anglican clergyman, William Wolfe Capes. By this uncle's influence, Leadbeater was ordained an Anglican priest in 1879 at Farnham

Farnham

Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...

by the Bishop of Winchester

Bishop of Winchester

The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...

. By 1881, he was living with his widowed mother at Bramshott

Bramshott

Bramshott is a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It lies 0.9 miles north of Liphook.-Overview:The nearest railway station is 1.3 miles south of the village, at Liphook....

in a cottage which his uncle had built, where he is listed as "Curate of Bramshott". He was an active minister and teacher who was remembered later as "a bright and cheerful and kindhearted man." About this time, after reading about the séances of medium Daniel Dunglas Home

Daniel Dunglas Home

Daniel Dunglas Home was a Scottish physical medium with the reported ability to levitate to a variety of heights, speak with the dead, and to produce rapping and knocks in houses at will. His biographer Peter Lamont opines that he was one of the most famous men of his era...

(1833–1886), Leadbeater developed an active interest in spiritualism.

Joins the Theosophical Society

His interest in occultism was stimulated by A.P. Sinnett's Occult World, and he joined the Theosophical Society

Theosophical Society

in 1883. The next year he met Helena Petrovna Blavatsky when she came to London

London

;
she accepted him as a pupil and he became a vegetarian.

Around this time he received a number of so-called Mahatma Letters
Mahatma Letters
The Mahatma Letters are letters that were claimed to be written by the Theosophical Mahatmas or Masters of the Ancient Wisdom to certain Theosophists, especially A. P. Sinnett, A. O. Hume, Henry Steel Olcott, Helena Blavatsky, C. W. Leadbeater and others....

which he stated influenced him to go to India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

; he arrived at Adyar in 1884. He wrote that while in India, he had received visits and training from some of the "Masters" that according to Blavatsky were the inspiration behind the formation of the Theosophical Society, and were its hidden guides. This was the start of a long career with the Theosophical Society.

Headmaster in Ceylon

During 1885, Leadbeater traveled with Henry Steel Olcott

Henry Steel Olcott

Colonel Henry Steel Olcott was an American military officer, journalist, lawyer and the co-founder and first President of the Theosophical Society....

(1832–1907), first President of the Theosophical Society, to Burma, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...

). In Ceylon they founded the English Buddhist Academy, with Leadbeater staying there to serve as its first headmaster under very austere conditions. This school gradually expanded to become Ananda College

Ananda College

Ananda College , Colombo which is considered as the leading National school in Sri Lanka, was established on November 1, 1886, by the Buddhist Theosophical Society led by Colonel Henry Steel Olcott...

, which now has more than 6,000 students and has a building named for Leadbeater.

Return to England

In 1889, Sinnett asked Leadbeater to return to England to tutor his son and George Arundale

George Arundale

Dr. George Sidney Arundale was a theosophist, freemason, president of the Theosophical Society Adyar and bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church...

(1878–1945). He agreed and brought with him one of his pupils Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa

Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa

Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa was a freemason, theosophist and president of the Theosophical Society Adyar. Jinarajadasa's interests and writings included religion, philosophy, literature, art, science and occult chemistry...

(1875–1953). Although struggling with poverty himself, Leadbeater managed to send both Arundale and Jinarajadasa to Cambridge University. Both would eventually serve as International Presidents of the Theosophical Society. Jinarajadasa related how Leadbeater had already done some occult investigations, then in May 1894, did his first past life
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...

reading.

He became one of the best known speakers of the Theosophical Society for a number of years and was also Secretary of the London Lodge

London Lodge

The London Lodge was an English lodge of the Theosophical Society. Until the 1910s, the lodge was an important part of the theosophical movement.- History :...

.

He added seven years to his stated age. For a ship's manifest in 1903, he listed his age as 56, and his occupation as "lecturer" when he did a lecture tour to Vancouver

Vancouver

Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...

and San Francisco. He also stated that he had come previously to Seattle in 1893.

Occult powers

Mary Lutyens

Edith Mary Lutyens was a British author who is principally known for her authoritative biographical works on the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.-Early life:...

stated that starting in 1895 Leadbeater and Annie Besant

Annie Besant

reputedly made "...occult investigations together into the cosmos

Cosmos

In the general sense, a cosmos is an orderly or harmonious system. It originates from the Greek term κόσμος , meaning "order" or "ornament" and is antithetical to the concept of chaos. Today, the word is generally used as a synonym of the word Universe . The word cosmos originates from the same root...

, the beginnings of mankind, chemistry and the constitution of the elements, as well as frequently visiting the Masters together in their astral bodies

Astral body

The astral body is a subtle body posited by many religious philosophers, intermediate between the intelligent soul and the physical body, composed of a subtle material. The concept ultimately derives from the philosophy of Plato: it is related to an astral plane, which consists of the planetary...

Accused of pederasty

In 1906 Leadbeater was accused of having encouraged adolescent boys, pupils under his spiritual and secular instruction, to masturbate. Mary Lutyens

Mary Lutyens

Edith Mary Lutyens was a British author who is principally known for her authoritative biographical works on the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti.-Early life:...

wrote in Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening
Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening
Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening is the first volume of a three-volume biography of Jiddu Krishnamurti by Mary Lutyens . It was originally published in 1975.-About the work:...

:

Then in 1906, after Leadbeater's return to England, the fourteen-year-old son of the Corresponding Secretary of the Esoteric Section in Chicago, whom Leadbeater had taken with him to San Francisco on his first lecture tour, confessed to his parents the reason for the antipathy he had conceived for his mentor, to whom he had at first been greatly devoted—- Leadbeater had encouraged him in the habit of masturbation. Almost simultaneously the son of another Theosophical official in Chicago charged Leadbeater with the same offense without apparently there being any collusion between the two boys. Then a typewritten, unsigned, undated, cipher-letter was produced; it had been picked up by a suspicious cleaner on the floor of a flat in Toronto in which Leadbeater had stayed with the second boy and was said to have been written by Leadbeater. The code was simple and when broken revealed one passage of such obscenity, for those days, that the letter could not by law be printed in England. When decoded the offending passage read: "Glad sensation is so pleasant. Thousand kisses darling."

A commission was appointed by the American Section, but before the meeting Leadbeater resigned from the Society to, as he told Olcott, "save the Society from embarrassment." On the nature of the accusation itself, Leadbeater wrote to Annie Besant:

So when boys came under my care, I mentioned this matter to them [masturbation], among other things, always trying to avoid all sorts of false shame, and to make the whole appear as natural and simple as possible.

Leadbeater argued that the build-up of natural sexual pressure could lead boys to seek sexual relief either with prostitutes or with each other. He claimed that by discharging the pressure at regular intervals through masturbation, the boys could avoid the more serious karmic and moral consequences of illicit sexual encounters: "If he [one of the boys] finds any accumulation, he should relieve."

A similar accusation was made later by Hubert van Hook of Chicago, who at age 11 was selected by Leadbeater as a candidate for the "vehicle" of an expected "World Teacher"

Maitreya (Theosophy)

Maitreya or Lord Maitreya is described in Theosophical literature of the late 19th-century and subsequent periods as an advanced spiritual entity and high-ranking member of a hidden Spiritual Hierarchy, the so-called Masters of the Ancient Wisdom...

. Of this accusation, Mary Lutyens states: "Hubert later swore to Mrs Besant that Leadbeater had 'misused' him, but as he was extremely vindictive by that time, his testimony, though unshaken, was perhaps not altogether reliable." On a separate occasion, Lutyens had this to say regarding Leadbeater and another of his favorite boys:

[Leadbeater] came prancing down the wharf like a great lion, hatless and in a long purple cloak, holding on to the arm of a very good-looking blond boy of about fifteen. This was Theodore St John, an Australian boy of great charm and sweetness, who was Leadbeater's current favourite and who slept in his room.

Author John Kersey in Arnold Harris Mathew and the Old Catholic Movement in England 1908-52, offers the following assessment:

Leadbeater was not interested in defending his position, but in a letter to Annie Besant wrote: "a natural function exists, which in itself is no more wrong than eating or drinking." Besant did not agree with this, taking an attitude more typical of her time... Leadbeater's approach was not that of the libertine, for he taught self control and moderation in sexual habits... but certainly he was frank in his talk of sex, as well as promoting a generally open attitude to the body that was forward-looking in the early years of the century.

Leadbeater... believed that by teaching masturbation and encouraging it, he was making it less likely that sexual experimentation would lead to unwanted pregnancies, since contraception was not widely available at this time. A factor in this approach was also that initiates in the Theosophical Society, including Leadbeater himself, were expected to remain chaste and not engage in sexual relationships with others. In this context, Leadbeater's teachings on auto-eroticism were a means, as he saw it, to enable initiates to remain within these bounds.

In Victorian England such ideas and practices were considered shocking and unacceptable; they were universally condemned even by the most radical of medical writers. Medical warnings about the physical and emotional damage caused by "self abuse" were seconded by clergymen, and the consequent fears were exploited by quacks who touted patent devices and heroic cures for the affliction of masturbation. Scores of books and pamphlets encouraged young men to a higher standard of chastity. These pamphlets blended medical rhetoric with religious exhortation, and encouraged boys to store up these sexual energies for a more moral use.

None of the accusations resulted in trials in a court of law. A judge in a related custody case in India (Naranian vs. Besant, regarding the legal guardian

Legal guardian

A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...

ship of Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti or J. Krishnamurti or , was a renowned writer and speaker on philosophical and spiritual subjects. His subject matter included: psychological revolution, the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships, and bringing about positive change in society...

and his brother Nityananda) remarked in his ruling that Leadbeater held "immoral ideas" – this prompted Annie Besant to support Leadbeater in a letter regarding the facts of the case and its coverage by The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...

of London.

Readmission to the Theosophical Society

After Olcott died in February 1907, Annie Besant, after a political struggle, became President of the Society. By the end of 1908, the International Sections voted for Leadbeater's readmission. He accepted and came to Adyar on 10 February 1909.

Discovers Krishnamurti

In 1909 Leadbeater "discovered" fourteen-year-old Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti

at Adyar. Leadbeater believed Krishnamurti to be the "vessel" for the indwelling of the so-called World Teacher

Maitreya (Theosophy)

, whose imminent appearance he and many Theosophists were expecting. Like Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

, Siddhārtha Gautama

Gautama Buddha

Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...

, Zarathustra (Zoroaster)

Zoroaster

Zoroaster , also known as Zarathustra , was a prophet and the founder of Zoroastrianism who was either born in North Western or Eastern Iran. He is credited with the authorship of the Yasna Haptanghaiti as well as the Gathas, hymns which are at the liturgical core of Zoroastrianism...

, Jesus of Nazareth

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

, and Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

, the new teacher would reputedly divulge a new religious dispensation.

Leadbeater assigned the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

Alcyone to Krishnamurti and under the title "Rents in the Veil of Time", he published 30 so-called past lives

Reincarnation

Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...

of "Alcyone" in a series in The Theosophist
The Theosophist
The Theosophist is a theosophical journal. It was founded in 1879 by Helena Blavatsky, who was also its editor, and is still being published. The journal features articles about philosophy, art, literature and occultism.- External links :...

magazine beginning April 1910. "They ranged from 22,662 BC to 624 AD ... Alcyone was a female in eleven of them."

During 1910, Leadbeater conducted additional research into the so-called akashic records
Akashic Records
The akashic records is a term used in theosophy to describe a compendium of mystical knowledge encoded in a non-physical plane of existence. These records are described as containing all knowledge of human experience and the history of the cosmos...

, which he stated that he clairvoyantly inspected at the Theosophical Society headquarters in Adyar. He recorded the results in the book Man: How, Whence, and Whither? The reputed past lives of "Alcyone" are described. The book also features a Theosophical account of the theorized lost continent of Atlantis and of other civilizations. The future, nuclear power

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

-using society of Earth during the 28th century is also described.

Leadbeater stayed in India until 1915, overseeing the education of Krishnamurti; he then relocated to Australia. During the late 1920s, Krishnamurti disavowed the role that Leadbeater and other Theosophists expected him to fulfil. He disassociated himself from the Theosophical Society and its doctrines and practices, and during the next six decades became known as an influential speaker on philosophical and religious subjects.

Australia and The Science of the Sacraments

Leadbeater moved to Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

in 1915. He was responsible for the construction of the Star Amphitheatre

Star Amphitheatre

The Star Amphitheatre was an open air temple constructed by the Order of the Star of the East, which at the time was an organisation founded to promote the works of, and involve followers of Jiddu Krishnamurti...

at Balmoral Beach in 1924. While in Australia he became acquainted with J. I. Wedgwood, a Theosophist and bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

in the Liberal Catholic Church

Liberal Catholic Church

who initiated him into Co-Masonry in 1915 and later consecrated him as a bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church

Liberal Catholic Church

in 1916.

Public interest in Theosophy in Australia and New Zealand increased greatly as a result of Leadbeater's presence there, and Sydney became comparable to Adyar as a centre of Theosophical activity.

In 1922, the Theosophical Society began renting a mansion known as The Manor in the Sydney suburb of Mosman. Leadbeater began residence there as the director of a community of Theosophists. The Manor became a major site and was regarded as "the greatest of occult forcing houses".
There he accepted young women students. They included Clara Codd, future President of the Theosophical Society in America

Theosophical Society in America

The Theosophical Society in America is a member-based nonprofit organization dedicated to the teaching of Theosophy and affiliated with the international Theosophical Society based in Adyar, Chennai, India. The name "Theosophical Society in America" was legally adopted by the American Theosophical...

, clairvoyant Dora van Gelder

Dora Van Gelder

Dora van Gelder Kunz was an American writer, psychic, alternative healer, occultist and leader in the Theosophical Society in America...

, another future President of the Theosophical Society in America who during the 1970s also worked with Delores Krieger to develop the technique of Therapeutic touch

Therapeutic touch

Therapeutic touch , also known as Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch , is an energy therapy which practitioners claim promotes healing and reduces pain and anxiety. Practitioners of therapeutic touch state that by placing their hands on, or near, a patient, they are able to detect and manipulate the...

, and Mary Lutyens, who would later write an authorized Krishnamurti biography.
Lutyens stayed there in 1925, while Krishnamurti and his brother Nitya stayed at another house nearby. The Manor became one of three major Theosophical Society sites, the others being at Adyar and the Netherlands. The Theosophical Society bought The Manor in 1925 and during 1951 created The Manor Foundation Ltd, to own and administer the house, which is still used by the Society.

It was also during his stay in Australia that Leadbeater became the Presiding Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church and co-wrote the Liturgy

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

Book for that denomination, still in use today. This work represents a revision of the Roman Catholic liturgy of his time, for which Leadbeater sought to remove what he regarded as undesirable elements, such as the in his view blatant anthropomorphisms and expressions of the fear and wrath of God, which he regarded "as derogatory alike to the idea of a loving Father and to the men He has created in His own image. If Christians," he wrote, "had been content to take what Christ taught of the Father in heaven, they would never have saddled themselves with the jealous, angry, bloodthirsty Jehovah of Ezra, Nehemiah and the others - a god that needs propitiating and to whose 'mercy' constant appeals must be made."

Thus the Credo

Credo

A credo |Latin]] for "I Believe") is a statement of belief, commonly used for religious belief, such as the Apostles' Creed. The term especially refers to the use of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in the Mass, either as text, Gregorian chant, or other musical settings of the...

of the Liberal Catholic Church Liturgy written by Leadbeater reads:

"We believe that God is Love and Power and Truth and Light; that perfect justice rules the world; that all His sons shall one day reach His Feet, however far they stray. We hold the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man; we know that we do serve Him best when best we serve our brother man. So shall His blessing rest upon us and peace for evermore. Amen."

Previously Leadbeater had investigated the energies of the Christian sacraments and written The Science of Sacraments: An Occult and Clairvoyant Study of the Christian Eucharist – one of the most significant works of Christian esotericism. In his prologue to the latest edition of this book, John Kersey refers to the Eucharist proposed by Leadbeater as "a radical reinterpretation of the context of the Eucharist seen within a theological standpoint of esoteric magic and universal salvation; it is Catholicism expressing the love of God to the full without the burdens of needless guilt and fear, and the false totem of the temporal powers of the church."

Reputed clairvoyance and legacy

Leadbeater remains well-known and influential in his work through his reputed clairvoyance

Clairvoyance

The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...

with, for instance, his books The Chakras and Man, Visible and Invisible dealing with the human aura

Aura (paranormal)

In parapsychology and many forms of spiritual practice, an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object . The depiction of such an aura often connotes a person of particular power or holiness. Sometimes, however, it is said that all living things and all objects...

and chakras. Leadbeater's reputed clairvoyance, however, was not without grave errors. In his book The Inner Life he wrote that there is a population of human-like beings on the planet Mars

Mars

Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

(a popular belief at the time).

His writings on the sacraments and Christian esotericism remain popular, with a constant stream of new editions and translations of his opus magnum 'The Science of the Sacraments'. His Liturgy book is still used by many Liberal and Independent Catholic Churches

Independent Catholic Churches

Independent Catholic churches are Catholic congregations that are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church or any other churches whose sacraments are recognized by the Roman Catholic Church...

across the world.

Selected writings

Dreams (What they are and how they are caused) (1893)
Theosophical Manual Nº5: The Astral Plane (Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena) (1896)
Theosophical Manual Nº6: The Devachanic Plane or The Heaven World Its Characteristics and Inhabitants (1896)
The Story of Atlantis (with William Scott-Elliot
William Scott-Elliot
William Scott-Elliot was a theosophist who elaborated Helena Blavatsky's concept of root races in several publications, most notably The Story of Atlantis and The Lost Lemuria , later combined in 1925 into a single volume called The Story of Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria.-Theosophical...

) (1896)
Reincarnation (1898)
Our Relation to Our Children (1898)
Clairvoyance (1899)
Thought Forms (With Annie Besant
Annie Besant
Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...

) (1901)
An Outline of Theosophy (1902)
Man Visible and Invisible (1902)
Some Glimpses of Occultism, Ancient and Modern (1903)
The Christian Creed (1904)
The Inner Life (1911)
The Perfume of Egypt and Other Weird Stories (1911)
The Power and Use of Thought (1911)
The Life After Death and How Theosophy Unveils It (1912)
A Textbook of Theosophy (1912)
Man: Whence, How and Whither (With Annie Besant
Annie Besant
Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...

) (1913)
Vegetarianism and Occultism (1913)
The Hidden Side of Things (1913)
Occult Chemistry (book)
Occult Chemistry (book)
Occult Chemistry: Investigations by Clairvoyant Magnification into the Structure of the Atoms of the Periodic Table and Some Compounds is a book written by Annie Besant, C.W. Leadbeater and Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa, who were all members of the Theosophical Society...

(1916)
The Monad and Other Essays Upon the Higher Consciousness (1920)
The Inner Side Of Christian Festivals (1920)
The Science of the Sacraments (1920)
The Lives of Alcyone (With Annie Besant
Annie Besant
Annie Besant was a prominent British Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator and supporter of Irish and Indian self rule.She was married at 19 to Frank Besant but separated from him over religious differences. She then became a prominent speaker for the National Secular Society ...

) (1924)
The Liturgy According to the Use of the Liberal Catholic Church (With J.I. Wedgwood
J.I. Wedgwood
James Ingall Wedgwood was the first Presiding Bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church.Wedgwood was a former Anglican, a member of the Theosophical Society and a member of a co-Masonic order...

) (Second Edition) (1924)
The Masters and the Path (1925)
Talks on the Path of Occultism (1926)
Glimpses of Masonic History (1926) (later pub 1986 as Ancient Mystic Rites)
The Hidden Life in Freemasonry (1926)
The Chakras (1927) (published by the Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, Illinois, USA)
Spiritualism and Theosophy Scientifically Examined and Carefully Described (1928)
The Noble Eightfold Path (1955)
Messages from the Unseen (1931)

External links

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Early life

Joins the Theosophical Society

Headmaster in Ceylon

Return to England

Occult powers

Accused of pederasty

Readmission to the Theosophical Society

Discovers Krishnamurti

Australia and The Science of the Sacraments

Reputed clairvoyance and legacy

Selected writings

See also

External links