Besides HPB, Who Has Had the Greatest Influence on The Theosophical Movement?

[Joe Fulton]

• Next to HP Blavatsky, who do you feel has had the strongest influence on the Theosophical Movement? Please take a couple minutes to answer the three short questions below.  We really appreciate any thoughts you might have.
  
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• Who?
• What was their influence?
• Why are they important?
• 
  

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[M K Ramadoss]

I think Jiddu Krishnamurti had the greatest influence in the theosophical movement. Leaving aside all the occult details, the thrust of theosophical movement is Universal Brotherhood.

In Key to Theosophy, HPB writes “Slowly but surely it will burst asunder the iron fetters of creeds and dogmas, of social and caste prejudices; it would break down racial and national antipathies and barriers, and will open the way to practical realization of the Brotherhood of all men.”

She also adds as a response to another question: “Each must acquire wisdom by his own experience and merits.”

JK always talked about breaking the barriers of between man and man and emphasised the importance of the individual, you and me, because major changes in the history of the world are due to individuals and coupled with it he spoke about the need for self transformation.

[EstrellaFugaz]

Olcott

[EstrellaFugaz]

i know, answer from "Theosophy for dummies" book.

[EstrellaFugaz]

Need to read more...to make a decent answer....

[Martin Euser]

Yes, his name crossed my mind too, to be honest, but I wasn't willing to respond to this question for obvious reasons (he being largely a negative influence, I believe).
This being so, it is the more a reason to consider changing the name of a group that seeks to reform/modernize/apply theosophical notions.

[bournemouthsoc]

Leadbetters books have been widely published and his books on the Aura, Chakras have been widely read.
Also the work on Occult Chemistry with Annie Besant has been validated with regards to modern knowledge of the quarks etc.

[Martin Euser]

Bournemouthsoc: You are absolutely right as to the first part. Leadbeater's book on the chakras was the first book on theosophy that I ever saw. Without him I might have discovered theosophy a whole lot later, or not at all. So, the balance is not all negative regarding him.
Still, the above remarks from K. Paul Johnson hold also true, as far as I am concerned.
Besides, I think that the whole movement failed "to make the grade", i.e. understand that in modern times something else is needed beside mysticism. I have written extensively on the need for practical models and applications in other postings, so I won't repeat it here.

As for Occult chemistry, I know the book. Where can I find this validation you speak of?

[bournemouthsoc]

I feel that CW Leadbetter and Annie Besant were disciples of some standing but made some mistakes .Perhaps amongst them was falling on the rock of organisation as DK says.
here is a link to a work by Stephen Phillips
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=5Qgfx4bXkT4C&pg=PR10&lpg...

[Richard Ihle]

Martin Luther

Two contributions of Luther to the "controlling matrix" of the Theosophical Movement of the 19th and 20th Centuries:

Sola Scriptura: "Scripture Alone." HPB's, of course.

Sola Fide: "Faith Alone." No personal work toward Self-awareness and Adeptship is really necessary.

[J. Spencer Rich]

I like Leadbetter, Sinnett, and Olcott, but Annie Besant means most to me. I think she may have made some mistakes--as everyone does--but what strikes me most, having read The Key to Theosophy, The Secret Doctrine, and being mid-way through the first volume of Isis Unveiled is how much better of a writer Annie Besant is than Blavatsky, and really, most of the others. Granted, English wasn't HPB's native tongue, and she deals in a lot deeper territory than most of Besant's work. But I guess, in a way, a lot of her strength was to put things in terms anyone can understand, and she did a marvelous job of it. I haven't made up my mind about Krishnamurti yet, but I would definitely say that where Besant went wrong was in trying to groom him to be some kind of messiah figure.

[Heidi Ann Maycroft]

Concerning Isis Unveiled--welcome fellow reader!

I have read both volumes each year for about ten years now.

Enjoy your journey and may you remember much!

[Heidi Ann Maycroft]

William Q. Judge

WQJ was the General Secretary of the American Section of the Theosophy Society and Co-Founder .

Below are some statements, public and private, formal and informal, which HPB made in reference to Mr. Judge, taken from "Letters That Have Helped Me", by WQJ.

"HPB would give 7 dozens of Bridges, 77 dozens of Noyses, the whole esoteric brood in the USA for one WQJ who is part of herself for several eons." p. 277

"It is to you (WQJ) chiefly, if not entirely, that the Theosophical Society owes its existence in 1888. Let me then thank you for it, for the first and last time publicly, and from the bottom of my heart, which beats only for the cause you represent so well and serve so faithfully. I ask you also to remember that, on this important occasion, my voice is but the feeble echo of other more sacred voices, and the transmitter of the approval of Those whose presence is alive in more than on true Theosophical heart, and lives, as I know, pre-eminently in yours." [From HPB's first message to the American Theosophists, April 1888.) p. 277

"The Esoteric Section and its life in the USA depends on WQJ remaining its agent & what he is now. The day WQJ resigns HPB will be virtually dead for the Americans. WQJ is the Antaskarana between the two Manas (es), the American thought & the Indian--or rather the trans-Himalayan Esoteric Knowledge DIXI. ...KEEP THE LINK (the antaskarana) UNBROKEN! DO NOT LET MY LAST INCARNATION BE A FAILURE. (the last words of HPB) p. 278

WQJ works:

William Q. Judge: (author biography)

* Bhagavad-Gita with Essays on the Gita $14.00 paper, $22.00 cloth (Full-text online)
* Echoes of the Orient: The Writings of William Quan Judge, Volumes I & II, $35.00 each, cloth
* Letters That Have Helped Me $13.00 paper, $20.00 cloth (Full-text online)
* The Ocean of Theosophy $13.00 paper, $20.00 cloth (Full-text online) in Russian: Океан теософии (Online version only)
* Practical Occultism $17.00 paper, $24.00 cloth (Full-text online)
* Sunrise Special Issue 1996: William Q. Judge (1851 - 1896), $6.50 (Full-text online)

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/ts/tup.htm#judge