At the Lodge - 29th March 2004

Lodge Lecture

Lodge Lecture

The Theosophical Society, whose building we have our meetings in every week, was under the spotlight this week. We invited Colin Price the current National President, to give us a history lesson of the Society. Peppered throughout his talk, charts were shown of some the characters and of the Society and of the Astrological Lodge itself by Kim Farnell.

The Theosophical Society was founded in 1875, the three founding members being Helena Blavatsky, William Quan Judge and Colonel Henry Steel Olcott.

Helena Blavatsky was a well educated Russian aristocrat who had demonstrated psychic abilities from an early age. She married while young but ran away from her husband and began her travels around the world.

When she went to the USA in 1873, spiritualism was all the rage. The tappings, heard by Kate and Margaret Fox in 1848, had led to a new world movement. Blavatsky met Colonel Olcott in America through her interest in spiritualism, and it was with him and WQ Judge that she founded the Theosophical Society on the 17th November 1875, at 8 pm in New York.

The chart for the foundation of the Theosophical Society is extremely difficult, most of the planets are in fixed signs and there are ten squares and three oppositions. There was from the start a lot of friction in the organisation.

Late in 1878 Olcott and Blavatsky left New York for Bombay via England and established the Headquarters of the Society there. A scandal broke out in 1884 when Blavatsky was accused of being a fraud, and local missionaries jumped at the opportunity to further their attacks in print. While Blavatsky returned to Europe, Olcott remained in India and Judge held the reigns of the Theosophical Society in America.

After Blavatsky death, Olcott was president of the Society for a while and following his death, Annie Besant took over the presidency. Annie Besant had been a theosophist for some years. She was already renowned before joining the Theosophical Society, partly because of a notorious case when she, along with Charles Bradlaugh, published a book advocating birth control. And also for taking up the cause of the match girls and helping them to establish one of the first trade unions. Annie Besant was revered for her oratory skills and an incredibly popular speaker, thousands would turn out to hear her lecture. In later life she was integral towards the Indian move towards independence.

Then we had Charles Webster Leadbeater, originally an Anglican priest who became a major figure in the Liberal Catholic Church. Whilst active in the Theosophical Society he discovered Jiddu Krishnamurti and together with Annie Besant, took him under their wing.

Alan Leo formed the Astrological Lodge as a separate Lodge within the TS on 13th July 1915 at 7:15 pm in London. In 1982 the name of the Astrological Lodge of London was adopted at its home in Queen's Square, but it was not until 1992 that it actually broke all its ties with the TS. Bessie Leo, Alan 's wife next served as president and she was followed by Charles Carter who became President of the Astrological Lodge in 1922. He introduced and edited the Lodge magazine Astrology, from 1923 to 1959. Finally, we looked at the chart of Alice Bailey; one of the most influential people in terms of esoteric astrology, following on from the work Alan Leo had done in that area.

Kim Farnell

Lodge Lecture