Theos-Talk Archives (September 1995 Message tl00608)

Mikhail Moiseikin,

 Welcome to the discussion group, and allow me to express my
personal delight at having someone from the Kiev as a part of
this group. I hope that we will be hearing from you often and
that you will be telling us about yourself and about your
theosophical activities in Russia.

 Regarding Roerich, I very much admire his work and have most
of his and his wife's writings. We also have a copy of one of
his paintings over the fireplace (a place of honor) in our living
room. We have also visited the Roerich museum in New York, and
we were completely absorbed and delighted over the magnificent
subtleties of color in the originals. He had a way of creating
contrasts of light and shadow that cannot be reproduced in a
photograph.

 Concerning the development of Theosophy after Blavatsky's
death, the story is rather complicated, and theosophy began to
develop in several main directions. After Blavatsky's death in
1891, Henry Steel Olcott (the International President) remained
influential in India, while Annie Besant was primarily important
in Europe and William Quan Judge was the primary figure in the
United States and Canada. In 1895, the American Section (United
Sates and some European Lodges) became a separate Organization,
beginning what people call "the Judge line." Many more
theosophical Organizations came out of the Judge line. This
original American section--now separate Organization still exists
and has its headquarters in California, and is usually called the
"Pasadena Theosophical Society." Godfried de Purucker (1875-
1942) is perhaps the most important theosophical writer from this
movement. An important member of this organization was Boris
Mihailovich de Zirkoff (1902-1981). He was the Grand Nephew of
Blavatsky, and as far as he knew, her only surviving blood
relative. His mother's was a von Hahn, as was Blavatsky's name
at birth. Boris de Zirkoff was primarily responsible for
collecting together Blavatsky's writings, which are now published
in 15 volumes by the Adyar Theosophical Society. This was a
fifty year labor for him. Sometimes we refer to the Pasadena
Society that Boris was a member as the "Point Loma line", or
"Point Loma Tradition" because they at one time had a community
in Point Loma, near San Diego in California from 1897 until 1942.

 Another line that may interest you was begun in New York in
1897, called the "Hargrove line." An important member of this
Organization was Charles Johnson, who married HPB's niece, Vera
Zhelihovsky. Johnson was an orientalist, translated and
commented many important Indian scriptures. This Organization
disappeared around 1942.

 The United Lodge of Theosophist is another very important
Organization coming out of the Judge tradition. They have
remained very loyal to Blavatsky and Judge's original writings
and have kept them available in their original forms. B.P. Wadia
is an important figure that ultimately gained prominence through
this line. He founded the U.L.T. in New York and Bombay India,
published a Journal called ~The Theosophical Movement~ and a
journal for world culture called ~The Aryan Path.~

 Another theosophical Organization that began in New York in
1897, is called the "Halcyon Theosophical Society" An important
person in this Organization was Francia LaDue, a clairvoyant who
published several more Stanzas of Dzyan.

 Besides the Judge line, there is also what we call the
Besant/Leadbeater line. Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater were
the two most important figures rising from the Adyar Society,
published many books, and were very influential in this country
concerning what Theosophy is understood to be by the general
population.

 From this Besant/Leadbeater line several more Organizations
broke away. Of note is the Arcane school founded by Alice and
Foster Bailey around 1920. They are, by the way, as a whole,
very sympathetic to Roerich and the Agni Yoga school. There is
also the Anthroposophical Society founded around 1912 by Rudolf
Steiner, which tried to develop theosophical philosophy into more
practical lines.

 There are many more developments than those I have mentioned
here, but I don't wish to make things more complicated. In a
simplified graph form the developments might look like this:

 Theosophical Society (1875)
 [Adyar India founded by
 Blavatsky, Olcott, Judge]
_________________________________________________________________
| Universal Brotherhood and TS (1897)
| |--- T.S. (Hargrove) 1897-1942
| |--- Halcyon 1897-Pres.
|-- Anthroposophical Society (1912 |--- U.L.T. (1909-pres)
| -pres) |
|--- Arcane School (1920-pres) |
| |
| |
| |
| (Long)---|---(Hartley) 1951
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
| | |
|--- Yugoslavian T.S. (1984) | |
| | |
|--- Canadian T.S. (@ 1993) | |
|--- Danish T.S. (@1993) | |
(Present) (Present)

Jerry Hejka-Ekins
Please reply to: jhe@toto.csustan.edu