THEOSOPHY

ANNIE BESANT

 

Cardiff Theosophical Archive

 Cardiff Theosophical Society, 206 Newport Road, Cardiff, Wales, UK, CF24 – 1DL 

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The Writings of Annie Besant

Annie Besant

(1847 -1933)

 

INDEX

 

Memories Of Past Lives

 

Death and After ?

 

Reincarnation

 

The Seven Principles Of Man

 

Mysticism

 

Study in Karma

 

The Ancient Wisdom

 

Dharma

 

In The Twilight

Series of Articles Published 1898 -1913

 

Theosophy

 

Theosophy

From a Lecture circa 1889

 

Theosophy and the

Theosophical Society

London Lecture 1907

 

Study in Consciousness

 

Materialism Undermined by Science

 

Esoteric Christianity

 

The Hatha-Yoga and

Raja-Yoga of India

 

The Destinies of Nations

 

A Rough Outline of Theosophy

 

Avataras

 

Jainism

 

The Law of Rebirth

 

The Inner Government of the World

Lectures delivered at the North Indian Convention, T.S.,

held at Varanasi, September, 1920

 

Autobiography

 

Writings by Annie Besant on the Great War

 

Great Britain and the War

 

War is Declared

 

The Deeper Issues of the War

 

"God’s Temples"

 

India and England

 

Sacrilege

 

The Horrors of War

 

Two World Empires

 

India and the Future

 

Divine Incarnation

 

The Theosophical Society and the War

 

Christ and War

 

A Bishop and Animals

 

St George for England – and Why

 

East and West-The destinies of Nations

 

Britain's Place in the Great Plan

Lectures delivered in 1921 with a positive message for the future

in the aftermath of the Great War

 

Annie Besant and Indian Home Rule

 

England and India 1906

 

Annie Besant and

The Indian National Congress

 

The Case for India

 

Welsh Theosophists protest against

 the Internment of Annie Besant 1917

 

Artikelen in Nederlands

 

Vier Voordrachten over Theosofie

 

Escritas em Português

 

O Cristianismo Esotérico

ou Os Mistérios Menores

 

Os Sete Principios Do Homem

 

Escrituras en Español

 

La Sabidura Antigua

 

 

 

Annie Besant

History of the Theosophical Society

Cardiff Blavatsky Archive

Instant Guide to Theosophy

Theosophical Society Cardiff Lodge

 

Nederlandse en Nederlandstalige Theosofische Siten

 

Websites e Liações Teosóficas da Lingua Portuguese

 

Websites Teosoficales Españoles de la Lengua

 

 

Return to Homepage

 

Cardiff Theosophical Archive

 Cardiff Theosophical Society, 206 Newport Road, Cardiff CF24 – 1DL   

 

 

For more info on Theosophy

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Theosophy

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The Cardiff Theosophical Society Website

 

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The National Wales Theosophy Wesbsite

 

Dave’s Streetwise Theosophy Boards

The Theosophy Website that

Welcomes Absolute Beginners

If you run a Theosophy Group then please

Feel free to use any material on this Website

 

Theosophy Cardiff’s Instant Guide to Theosophy

 

Cardiff Theosophical Archive

 

Cardiff Blavatsky Archive

A Theosophy Study Resource

 

Cardiff Theosophy Start-Up

A Free Intro to Theosophy

 

Cardiff Theosophy Burn-Up

_______________________________

 

Theosophy Cardiff leaves the

Welsh Regional Association (Formed 1993)

Letter of Separation, March 2008

 

In March 2008, Theosophy Cardiff, after

considerable discussion and taking legal advice,

made the decision to separate from the

Welsh Regional Association (formed 1993), while

remaining part of the Adyar Theosophical Society.

An amazing level of confusion has arisen

surrounding our decision and we have had

numerous enquiries about the reasons.

It is hoped that this page will

answer most of the questions.

 

______________________________

 

Blavatsky Blogger

Independent Theosophy Blog

 

Quick Blasts of Theosophy

One Liners & Quick Explanations

 

Feelgood

Theosophy

Visit the Feelgood Lodge

The main criteria for the inclusion of

links on this site is that they are have some

relationship (however tenuous) to Theosophy

and are lightweight, amusing or entertaining.

Topics include Quantum Theory and Socks,

Dick Dastardly and Legendary Blues Singers.

 

Theosophy

Aardvark

No Aardvarks were harmed in the

preparation of this Website

 

Great Theosophists

The Big Names of Theosophy

 

Pages About Wales

General pages about Wales, Welsh History

and The History of Theosophy in Wales

 

H P Blavatsky and The Masters

Her Teachers Morya & Koot Hoomi

 

The Blavatsky Blogger’s

Instant Guide To

Death & The Afterlife

 

 

Moving Theosophy Forward

By

Starting a Theosophy Group

A guide to starting your own

Independent Theosophy Group

By Dave Marsland

 

 

The Most Basic Theosophy Website in the Universe

If you run a Theosophy Group you can use

this as an introductory handout

 

Theosophy

The New Rock ‘n Roll

 

The Voice of the Silence

 

The Key to Theosophy

 

The South of Heaven Guide

To Theosophy and Devachan

 

The South of Heaven Guide

To Theosophy and Dreams

 

The South of Heaven Guide

To Theosophy and Angels

 

Theosophy and Help From

The Universe

 

Death & How to Get Through It

Lentil burgers, a thousand press ups before breakfast and

the daily 25 mile run may put it off for a while but death

seems to get most of us in the end. We are pleased to

present for your consideration, a definitive work on the

subject by a Student of Katherine Tingley entitled

“Man After Death”

 

Wales! Wales! Theosophy Wales

The All Wales Guide to

Getting Started in Theosophy

 

Theosophy and the Number Seven

A selection of articles relating to the esoteric

significance of the Number 7 in Theosophy

 

The Tooting Broadway

Underground Theosophy Website

The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy

 

The Mornington Crescent

Underground Theosophy Website

The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy

 

Classic Introductory Theosophy Text

A Text Book of Theosophy By C W Leadbeater

 

What Theosophy Is  From the Absolute to Man

 

The Formation of a Solar System  The Evolution of Life

 

The Constitution of Man  After Death  Reincarnation

 

The Purpose of Life  The Planetary Chains

 

The Result of Theosophical Study

 

 

Elementary Theosophy

An Outstanding Introduction to Theosophy

By a student of Katherine Tingley

 

Elementary Theosophy  Who is the Man?  Body and Soul   

 

Body, Soul and Spirit  Reincarnation  Karma

 

The Seven in Man and Nature

 

The Meaning of Death

 

 

Try these if you are looking for a

local Theosophy Group or Centre

 

UK Listing of Theosophical Groups

 

Worldwide Directory of Theosophical Links

 

International Directory of 

Theosophical Societies

 

 

WALES

Pages about Wales

General pages about Wales, Welsh History

and The History of Theosophy in Wales

 

 

Wales is a Principality within the United Kingdom

and has an eastern border with England.

The land area is just over 8,000 square miles.

Snowdon in North Wales is the highest mountain at 3,650 feet.

The coastline is almost 750 miles long.

The population of Wales as at the 2001 census is 2,946,200.

 

 

 

Key Concepts of Theosophy

 

 

 

 

1) Infinitude

 

Nature is infinite in space and time -- boundless and eternal, unfathomable and ineffable. The all-pervading essence of infinite nature can be called space, consciousness, life, substance, force, energy, divinity -- all of which are fundamentally one.

 

 

2) The finite and the infinite

 

Nature is a unity in diversity, one in essence, manifold in form. The infinite whole is composed of an infinite number of finite wholes -- the relatively stable and autonomous things (natural systems or artefacts) that we observe around us. Every natural system is not only a conscious, living, substantial entity, but is consciousness-life-substance, of a particular range of density and form. Infinite nature is an abstraction, not an entity; it therefore does not act or change and has no attributes. The finite, concrete systems of which it is composed, on the other hand, move and change, act and interact, and possess attributes. They are composite, inhomogeneous, and ultimately transient.

 

 

3) Vibration/worlds within worlds

 

The one essence manifests not only in infinitely varied forms, and on infinitely varied scales, but also in infinitely varying degrees of spirituality and substantiality, comprising an infinite spectrum of vibration or density. There is therefore an endless series of interpenetrating, interacting worlds within worlds, systems within systems.

 

The energy-substances of higher planes or subplanes (a plane being a particular range of vibration) are relatively more homogeneous and less differentiated than those of lower planes or subplanes.

 

 

4) Space and time

 

Just as boundless space is comprised of endless finite units of space, so eternal duration is comprised of endless finite units of time. Space is the infinite totality of worlds within worlds, but appears predominantly empty because only a tiny fraction of the energy-substances composing it are perceptible and tangible to an entity at any particular moment. Time is a concept we use to quantify the rate at which events occur; it is a function of

change and motion, and presupposes a succession of cause and effect. Every entity is extended in space and changes 'in time'.

 

 

5) Causation/karma

 

All change (of position, substance, or form) is the result of causes; there is no such thing as absolute chance. Nothing can happen for no reason at all for nothing exists in isolation; everything is part of an intricate web of causal interconnections and interactions. The keynote of nature is harmony: every action is automatically followed by an equal and opposite reaction, which sooner or later rebounds upon the originator of the initial act. Thus, all our thoughts and deeds will eventually bring us 'fortune' or 'misfortune' according to the degree to which they were harmonious or disharmonious. In the long term, perfect justice prevails in nature.

 

 

6) Analogy

 

Because nature is fundamentally one, and the same basic habits and structural, geometric, and evolutionary principles apply throughout, there are correspondences between microcosm and macrocosm. The principle of analogy -- as above, so below -- is a vital tool in our efforts to understand reality.

 

 

7) Relativity

 

All finite systems and their attributes are relative. For any entity, energy-substances vibrating within the same range of frequencies as its outer body are 'physical' matter, and finer grades of substance are what we call energy, force, thought, desire, mind, spirit, consciousness, but these are just as material to entities on the corresponding planes as our physical world is to us. Distance and time units are also relative: an atom is a solar system on its own scale, reembodying perhaps millions of times in what for us is one second, and our whole galaxy may be a molecule in some supercosmic entity, for which a million of our years is just a second. The range of scale is infinite: matter-consciousness is both infinitely divisible and infinitely aggregative.

 

 

8) Hierarchy

 

All natural systems consist of smaller systems and form part of larger systems. Hierarchies extend both 'horizontally' (on the same plane) and 'vertically' or inwardly (to higher and lower planes). On the horizontal level, subatomic particles form atoms, which combine into molecules, which arrange themselves into cells, which form tissues and organs, which form part of organisms, which form part of ecosystems, which form part of planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc. The constitution of worlds and of the organisms that inhabit them form 'vertical' hierarchies, and can be divided into several interpenetrating layers or elements, from physical-astral to psychomental to spiritual-divine, each of which can be further divided.

 

The human constitution can be divided up in several different ways: e.g. into a trinity of body, soul, and spirit; or into 7 'principles' -- a lower quaternary consisting of physical body, astral model-body, life-energy, and lower thoughts and desires, and an upper triad consisting of higher mind (reincarnating ego), spiritual intuition, and inner god. A planet or star can be regarded as a 'chain' of 12 globes, existing on 7 planes, each globe comprising several subplanes.

 

The highest part of every multilevelled organism or hierarchy is its spiritual summit or 'absolute', meaning a collective entity or 'deity' which is relatively perfected in relation to the hierarchy in question. But the most 'spiritual' pole of one hierarchy is the most 'material' pole of the next, superior hierarchy, just as the lowest pole of one hierarchy is the highest pole of the one below.

 

 

9) From within outwards

 

Each level of a hierarchical system exercises a formative and organizing influence on the lower levels (through the patterns and prototypes stored up from past cycles of activity), while the lower levels in turn react upon the higher. A system is therefore formed and organized mainly from within outwards, from the inner levels of its constitution, which are relatively more enduring and developed than the outer levels. This inner guidance is sometimes active and selfconscious, as in our acts of free will (constrained, however, by karmic tendencies from the past), and sometimes it is automatic and passive, giving rise to our own automatic bodily functions and habitual and instinctual behavior, and to the orderly, lawlike operations of nature in general. The 'laws' of nature are therefore the habits of the various grades of conscious entities that compose reality, ranging from higher intelligences  (collectively forming the universal mind) to elemental nature-forces.

 

 

10) Consciousness and its vehicles

 

The core of every entity -- whether atom, human, planet, or star -- is a monad, a unit of consciousness-life-substance, which acts through a series of more material vehicles or bodies. The monad or self in which the consciousness of a particular organism is focused is animated by higher monads and expresses itself through a series of lesser monads, each of which is the nucleus of one of the lower vehicles of the entity in question. The following monads can be distinguished: the divine or galactic monad, the spiritual or solar monad, the higher human or planetary-chain monad, the lower human or globe monad, and the animal, vital-astral, and physical monads. At our present stage of evolution, we are essentially the lower human monad, and our task is to raise our consciousness from the animal-human to the spiritual-human level of it.

 

 

11) Evolutionary unfoldment

 

Evolution means the unfolding, the bringing into active manifestation, of latent powers and faculties 'involved' in a previous cycle of evolution. It is the building of ever fitter vehicles for the expression of the mental and spiritual powers of the monad. The more sophisticated the lower vehicles of an entity, the greater their ability to express the powers locked up in the higher levels of its constitution. Thus all things are alive and conscious, but the degree of manifest life and consciousness is extremely varied.

 

Evolution results from the interplay of inner impulses and environmental stimuli. Ever building on and modifying the patterns of the past, nature is infinitely creative.

 

 

12) Cyclic evolution/re-embodiment

 

Cyclic evolution is a fundamental habit of nature. A period of evolutionary activity is followed by a period of rest. All natural systems evolve through re-embodiment. Entities are born from a seed or nucleus remaining from the previous evolutionary cycle of the monad, develop to maturity, grow old, and pass away, only to re-embody in a new form after a period of rest. Each new embodiment is the product of past karma and present choices.

 

 

13) Birth and Death

 

Nothing comes from nothing: matter and energy can be neither created nor destroyed, but only transformed. Everything evolves from preexisting material. The growth of the body of an organism is initiated on inner planes, and involves the transformation of higher energy-substances into lower, more material ones, together with the attraction of matter from the environment.

 

When an organism has exhausted the store of vital energy with which it is born, the coordinating force of the indwelling monad is withdrawn, and the organism 'dies', i.e. falls apart as a unit, and its constituent components go their separate ways. The lower vehicles decompose on their respective subplanes, while, in the case of humans, the reincarnating ego enters a dreamlike state of rest and assimilates the experiences of the previous incarnation. When the time comes for the next embodiment, the reincarnating ego clothes itself in many of the same atoms of different grades that it had used previously, bearing the appropriate karmic impress. The same basic processes of birth, death, and rebirth apply to all entities, from atoms to humans to stars.

 

 

14) Evolution and involution of worlds

 

Worlds or spheres, such as planets and stars, are composed of, and provide the field for the evolution of, 10 kingdoms -- 3 elemental kingdoms, mineral, plant, animal, and human kingdoms, and 3 spiritual kingdoms. The impulse for a new manifestation of a world issues from its spiritual summit or hierarch, from which emanate a series of steadily denser globes or planes; the One expands into the many. During the first half of the evolutionary cycle (the arc of descent) the energy-substances of each plane materialize or condense, while during the second half (the arc of ascent) the trend is towards dematerialization or etherealization, as globes and entities are reabsorbed into the spiritual hierarch for a period of nirvanic rest. The descending arc is characterized by the evolution of matter and involution of spirit, while the ascending arc is characterized by the evolution of spirit and involution of matter.

 

 

15) Evolution of the monad

 

In each grand cycle of evolution, comprising many planetary embodiments, a monad begins as an unselfconsciousness god-spark, embodies in every kingdom of nature for the purpose of gaining experience and unfolding its inherent faculties, and ends the cycle as a self conscious god. Elementals ('baby monads') have no free choice, but automatically act in harmony with one another and the rest of nature. In each successive kingdom differentiation and individuality increase, and reach their peak in the human kingdom with the attainment of selfconsciousness and a large measure of free will.

 

In the human kingdom in particular, self-directed evolution comes into its own. There is no superior power granting privileges or handing out favours; we evolve according to our karmic merits and demerits. As we progress through the spiritual kingdoms we become increasingly at one again with nature, and willingly 'sacrifice' our circumscribed selfconscious freedoms (especially the freedom to 'do our own thing') in order to work in peace and harmony with the greater whole of which we form an integral part. The highest gods of one hierarchy or world-system begin as elementals in the next. The matter of any plane is composed of aggregated, crystallized monads in their nirvanic sleep, and the spiritual and divine entities embodied as planets and stars are the electrons and atomic nuclei -- the material building blocks -- of worlds on even larger scales. Evolution is without beginning and without end, an endless adventure through the fields of infinitude, in which there are always new worlds of experience in which to become selfconscious masters of life.

 

 

16) Universal brotherhood

 

There is no absolute separateness in nature. All things are made of the same essence, have the same spiritual-divine potential, and are interlinked by magnetic ties of sympathy. It is impossible to realize our full potential, unless we recognize the spiritual unity of all living beings and make universal brotherhood the keynote of our lives.

 

 

 

 

Wales Theosophy Links Summary

 

All Wales Guide to Theosophy

 

Instant Guide to Theosophy

 

Theosophy Wales Hornet

 

Theosophy Wales Now

 

Cardiff Theosophical Archive

 

Elementary Theosophy

 

Basic Theosophy

 

Theosophy in Cardiff

 

Theosophy in Wales

 

Hey Look! Theosophy in Cardiff

 

Streetwise Theosophy

 

Grand Tour

 

Theosophy Aardvark

 

Theosophy Starts Here

 

theosophycardiff.org