May 8, 2022
last change: Dec. 25, 2025
Undesirable Developments in the Theosophical Movement
What Went Wrong With the Theosophical Society?
http://www.theosophycanada.com, 2007
Dinshaw J. Buxey, a member of the Theosophical Society out of Bombay India, wrote a number of letters to The Canadian Theosophist through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. In the March-April issue of 1996, there appeared an essay that he originally wrote in 1991. This essay is centered around the resignation letter that H.P. Blavatsky penned when she left Adyar in the Spring of 1885. Buxey relates to the readers the hatred and animosity directed at HPB at that time by those involved with the Adyar headquarters. We also learn a little more about the cult of the Masters that had risen up in those days and where that cult had come from. Buxey then passes on to look at those who followed HPB. We learn of the regrets of Annie Besant and Colonel Olcott, and of the great missed opportunity that was the political attack on W.Q. Judge.
D.J. Buxey’s unique perspective comes from a lifetime of interaction with the movers and shakers of the Theosophical Society. In various letters Buxey writes:
That the T.S. had turned away from the original message. They did not even know what the teachings of H.P.B. were, and that after 100 years, members were woefully ignorant of what the Masters really taught, (Buddhism, Vedanta, etc.), the 2nd Object was changed after H.P.B.’s death. In fact, in 1895 Adyar wrote that she (H.P.B.) was an imposter. Then what was taught? Insane psychism was taught. Note the word “insane”.
The leading lights of the T.S. like Bishop Wedgewood and Oscar Kollerstrom (whom I personally met) turned insane – literally! – and from this situation came teachings. But money was made in the name of Masters. H.P.B. resigned on this account. . . . (CT May – June 1996)
Elsewhere he writes:
Once J. Krishnamurti told me . . . to do my darndest best to close it [the Esoteric School]. . . . [F]reedom of thought (T.S.) and absolute obedience (E.S.) cannot work together. . . .
. . . J.K. [Krishnamurti] and I got talking (about Ernest Wood) and this is what Wood said in 1946 or so, which he put in his “Is This Theosophy?”. There were democratic elections, but C. Jinarajadasa (a past International President) used the E.S. to say that the Masters wanted him elected.
Need I say more? (CT, Jan – Feb 1977)
And finally when commenting on an article by Gregory Tillet concerning Leadbeater, Buxey writes:
First, why should the Society reconsider its position [with respect to Leadbeater’s psychism]? C.W.L. himself reconsidered its position and his own position. He even disowned his own books, saying “I now see things differently”. Is it his fault that T.P.H. goes on reprinting them?
Then again, once he was silent when asked for an opinion. When pressed, he gave it, and as told he described the opposite of what H.P.B. had described. Was he abashed? On the contrary, he knew it, so was hesitant. But what could he do? he asked. He had to say as he saw. He said every time he differed from H.P.B. he was proved wrong, and no doubt time will prove him wrong again. (CT, Nov – Dec 1982)
Wedgwood, Leadbeater, Krishnamurti, they all came after. They came after the seeds had been planted in the fertile soil of doubt and superstition that existed at Adyar in the years leading up to 1884. Read Buxey’s analysis of H.P. Blavatsky’s letter of resignation as printed in The Canadian Theosophist.
D. J. Buxey – In Memory of H. P. Blavatsky (Can. Theos. 3+4-1996)
For those interested in the edited version of the letter printed in the May 1885 “Supplement to the Theosophist” see:
Retirement of Madame Blavatsky Theosophist May 1885
The Theosophical Society is Disloyal to Theosophy and its Ennobling Purpose
From 504 Metropolitan Building, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
To All Fellow Theosophists and Members of the Theosophical Society
A Statement by Bahman Pestonji Wadia
Constituting Letters of Resignation from The Theosophical Society with Reasons Therefor.
[With minor corrections of the author’s selections from H.P. Blavatsky’s articles and books in line with Boris de Zirkoff’s H.P. Blavatsky Collected Writings Series.]
Wadia, Bahman Pestonji – Letters of Resignation (1922)
E R K L Ä R U N G über die Situation der TG in Budapest nach 1945
Nach dem Krieg habe ich in Budapest gelebt. Ich habe dort an der Wissenschaftlichen Akademie gearbeitet, die von den Russen geleitet wurde. Aus diesem Grunde musste ich innerhalb von ein paar Wochen die russische Sprache erlernen.
Bei einer Cousine habe ich theosophische Bücher gesehen und wollte sie mir voller Interesse ausleihen. Ich wollte auch gern an theosophischen Treffen teilnehmen. Meine Cousine hat mir jedoch nicht erlaubt, die Bücher auszuleihen und mir auch ausgeredet, zu theosophischen Treffen zu gehen.
Sie erklärte mir zu meiner Überraschung, dass die Theosophische Gesellschaft verboten sei und die Treffen heimlich stattfinden würden. Sie war um meine Sicherheit besorgt und sagte mir: „Je weniger du weißt, umso besser.“ Es seien bereits einige Theosophen verhaftet worden.
Später hat mir meine Cousine von einem Gerichtsprozess gegen diese Theosophen berichtet. Der Richter habe die Angeklagten ganz interessiert gefragt, was Theosophie eigentlich sei. Daraufhin hat man es ihm erklärt und auch einige Bücher gezeigt. Daraufhin hat der Richter erklärt, dass ihn das interessiere und ihm auch die Bücher gefallen haben, er sage das aber privat und nicht öffentlich. Offiziell muss er aufgrund der gesetzlichen Bestimmungen die vorgesehenen Haftstrafen aussprechen, auch wenn er es nicht gerne tue. Er habe aber keine andere Wahl.
Das alles muss sich ca. 1950/52 ereignet haben. Einige der verurteilten Theosophen habe ich aus meinem Umfeld heraus persönlich gekannt. An Namen sind mir noch eine „Lilly“ und eine „Gerda“ in Erinnerung geblieben.
Ende 1957 bin ich dann nach Deutschland übergesiedelt. Ich bin dort in die Theosophische Gesellschaft eingetreten.
München, den 11. März 2001, Frau Etelka Laban, Arcisstr. 43, 80799 München.
Aufgezeichnet von Herrn Frank Reitemeyer, Berlin.