What Theosophy did for us – III: Cartographers of the Occult – I
For this essay, I’m going to look more closely at some of the occult theories associated with Theosophy – and in particular, the contributions of Charles Webster Leadbeater and to a lesser extent Annie Besant, as it is the collaborative work of these two individuals that did much to popularise the beliefs of the Theosophical Society, yet at the same time, introduced ideas which were at variance from those of Blavatsky – differences of doctrine – sometimes described as “Neo-Theosophy” or “Pseudo-Theosophy” – which are still being discussed by contemporary Theosophists. Furthermore, it is in the works of Leadbeater such as The Astral Plane, The Inner Life, Man Visible and Invisible, and The Chakras, that we can find the basis of much contemporary occult thought, although the Theosophical sources are, more often than not, unacknowledged.
I’ve titled this third essay “Cartographers of the Occult” as one feature of the Victorian era was the rise of interest in mapping – in surveying territories, taking censuses of colonial populations, in the growth of the use of Statistics. This was the period which saw the beginnings of fingerprinting and the popularity of anthropometry (measuring skulls or noses) as a “scientific tool”.
According to Felix Driver 1 maps of Africa became symbols of British missionary, scientific and imperial endeavour during the 19th century. Popular exhibitions celebrating British achievements in Africa used maps to show the growth of British influence and the light of the scientific discovery of the continent, yet at the same time, the rhetoric of “darkest Africa” was popularised. For Driver, maps not only serve to describe – they also create space – recording the drive to master land and fix it in charts and plans: maps lie at the very centre of the Victorian encounter with the unknown. This Victorian drive to map – to categorise – to make the unknown knowable through classification and organisation is reflected in the occultism of the period, and in particular in the works of CW Leadbeater and Annie Besant. Indeed, Leadbeater, in the introduction to his book The Astral Plane specifically draws attention to the similarity between the work of the “psychic investigator” and explorers “on the physical plane” in attempting to chart the scenery of the astral world.
Besant & Leadbeater: Mapping Inner Space
Whilst HPB’s writings, notably Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, deal in major themes, articulating the Perennial Wisdom of which Theosophy is the modern exponent, it was Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater who fused the often disconnected themes of Blavatsky’s writings into a unified and modern ‘system’ – influenced by contemporary scientific ideas – they were certainly a lot less critical of modern science than Blavatsky, for example.
Together, Mrs Besant and Bishop Leadbeater’s psychic investigations ranged from the occult investigation of the periodic table, detailed in a book called Occult Chemistry, in which they record both a new element – Occultum – as yet undiscovered by exoteric science, and the smallest particle of physical matter – the Anu. They psychically explored most of the planets in the solar system and were regularly in contact with the occult brotherhood who were the secret government of the Earth. Through the Akashic records, they explored the past lives of those around them and were able to shed much light on the esoteric histories of Atlantis and Lemuria.
In order to highlight some of the key themes in the work of Leadbeater and Besant, I’m going to briefly look at some of the ideas found in two texts – The Astral Plane (1897), and Thought-Forms (1911) – within both of which can be found numerous occult concepts which are still with us today.
The Astral Plane
I’m going to begin with Leadbeater’s book The Astral Plane – first published in 1897, which I believe is one of Leadbeater’s most influential works. Written in a manner-of-fact style, it provides a field guide to the astral and its inhabitants and provides an account of a good deal of related phenomena along the way.
When The Astral Plane was going to press, the Master Koot Hoomi, (one of the great adepts Leadbeater exchanged psychic communications with) requested that the original ms of The Astral Plane be placed in the great museum of the masters, as it was “a landmark in the intellectual history of humanity.” The ms was apparently “dematerialised”
Leadbeater holds that the astral plane is absolutely real (in contrast, for example, to Aleister Crowley)– and he is quite clear that he is using ‘real’ in the everyday sense –” as real as Charing Cross” – and that it is a reality that “we” cannot afford to ignore, despite the fact that the majority of humanity is unaware, or only vaguely aware of its existence. He says:
“No one can get a clear grasp of the teachings of the Wisdom-Religion until he has, at any rate, an intellectual grasp of the fact that in our solar system there exist perfectly definite planes, each with its own matter of different density.”
Leadbeater divides these planes – from the denser to the finer as the Physical, the Astral, the Mental (or Devachanic), the Buddhic, and the Nirvanic. Leadbeater says that there are two planes higher than the Nirvanic, but these two are above our present power of conception. This schema is further complicated by the fact that each plane has seven sub-divisions. According to Leadbeater, the astral plane is much larger than the physical and extends some thousands of miles above its surface. He also notes that astral matter is subject to the law of gravitation.
Leadbeater notes that the Astral Plane has often been referred to as the realm of illusion. This he says, is because of the extremely unreliability of the impressions brought back from it by the untrained seer. This is a point that recurs throughout Leadbeater’s work – he (and those who followed his views) were aware of what we would now call the subjectivity of astral experience, but they believed that the key difference was Leadbeater had been properly trained – by Masters such as Koot Hoomi, and would not, therefore, make mistakes. Although the power of astral perception is latent in man, gaining that ability – for most people – is a matter of “long and slow evolution” – however, according to Leadbeater, “cultured” people of the “most advanced races” have a head start.
Leadbeater says that every material object – “down to the tiniest particle”, has its astral counterpart and that this counterpart is usually very complex, being composed of various kinds of astral matter. Each human being of course, is surrounded by an aura – an oval mass of luminous mist of highly complex structure.
Not content with the difficult task of describing the nature of the astral world, Leadbeater then proceeds to catalogue the immense variety of its inhabitants, which he does by dividing them into three broad categories; human, non-human and artificial.
Human denizens of the astral fall into two groups – those who have a physical body (i.e. the living) and those who do not (the dead). He categorises this first group as:
The Adept and his pupils – meaning, one presumes masters such as Koot Hoomi and pupils such as Leadbeater himself.
Psychically-developed persons who are not under the guidance of a master – these may be people who are psychically aware – perhaps due to past-life training – but are likely to be greatly deceived by what they experience.
Leadbeater stresses that mere observation is not, in itself, enough – one must be trained to see properly; one must be methodical. A notion which is echoed in The Royal Geographical Society’s 1841 guide In What to Observe – where it is insisted that travel, in of itself, is not sufficient, it becomes useful “only when travellers shall have learnt how and what to observe”.
Ordinary persons – the person who, without any psychic development, floats about in his astral body during sleep. Most people, Leadbeater says, are on the astral plane, as asleep as their physical bodies. Some, however, may be vaguely conscious and interpret their experiences as remarkable dreams.
The final class is the Black Magician or his pupil – these are those who have developed powers but use them entirely for selfish purposes:
“Among its lower ranks come members of the negro race who practice the ghastly rites of the Obeah or Voodoo schools, and the medicine-men of many a savage tribe.”
Also in this category, Leadbeater includes tantric, and Tibetan black magicians such as the Bonpa “the votaries of the aboriginal religion, who have never accepted any form of Buddhism.”
Leadbeater continues this meticulous categorizing of astral denizens, explaining along the way what happens to the human being after physical death, the astral corpse called the shell, which spiritualist mediums mistakenly contact, and the origins of succubi and incubi, which are humans that have led lives of such brutality, selfishness and sensuality, that they develop into evil entities, “they take a devilish delight in using all the arts of delusion which the astral plane puts in their power in order to lead others into the same excesses which have proved so fatal to themselves.” Leadbeater says that the psychically sensitive will see crowds of these creatures hanging around butcher’s shops, public-houses or other even more disreputable places – wherever the gross influences in which they delight can be found.
In part two of this essay, I will take a look at Besant & Leadbeater’s concept of Thought-forms.
Sources
Besant, A & Leadbeater, C.W. 1908. Occult Chemistry: Investigations by Clairvoyant Magnification into the Structure of the Atoms of the Periodic Table and Some Compounds Adyar. Theosophical Publishing House.
Driver, Felix. 2001. Geography Militant, Cultures of Exploration and Empire Oxford. Blackwell.
Leadbeater, C.W. 1897. The Astral Plane: Its Scenery, Inhabitants and Phenomena. London. Theosophical Publishing Society.
Notes:
- see Geography Militant, Cultures of Exploration and Empire Blackwell 2001 ↩
