The controversial C.W. Leadbeater (1854-1934) was one
of the leaders of the Theosophical Society Adyar, a new religious movement
often regarded as the forerunner of current New Age thinking. He seems to have
been number two within the society, immediately below the supreme leader Annie
Besant. Leadbeater was also a bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church (LCC),
essentially a front group for the Theosophists. Otherwise, Leadbeater is mostly
known for having discovered Jiddu Krishnamurti. Both the Adyar society and the
LCC still exist. (I attended one of the LCC's masses some years ago, and almost
collided with the poor priest!)
"The Astral Plane", also known as "Manual No. 5", is Leadbeater's description of the astral world, a spirit-world the Theosophists believe is situated immediately above the material world. However, the astral world is nevertheless lower than the mental world or Heaven. It corresponds most closely to what Christians would call purgatory, and all souls of dead humans must pass through it on their way to the real heavenly world. (The words "above" and "below" are, of course, figurative.)
According to Leadbeater, the astral plane is experienced in many different ways by the souls passing through it. Evil souls are stuck on its lowest rung and experience something similar to Hell. To others, it looks like Heaven. It seems everyone at this plane reaps what he has sown. Sooner or later, all souls leave the astral plane, shed their astral bodies, and move on to the mental, devachanic or heavenly realms. In this sense, Leadbeater was a "universalist". Of course, most souls eventually reincarnate, but the book says little about this. Parts of the book are critical of Spiritualism, claiming that most spirits talking through mediums are impostors.
I was struck by two things while reading this book. One is the non-sensationalist tone of the author, very different from current New Age writings on the subject. "The Astral Plane" could actually be described as boring! Various evil entities such as warewolves and vampires are mentioned, but they (and the hellish realms) nevertheless play a relatively minor role. The other thing I found striking is the complex nature of Leadbeater's descriptions. There seems to be innumerable kinds of souls, spirits, elementals and even artificial thought forms at the astral plane. Frankly, the author has some problems sorting them all out.
Those interested in what (supposedly) awaits us at the other side, should presumably continue with "Manual No. 6", or "The Devachanic Plane or the Heaven World". I haven't read it yet, but please stay tuned for any further developments...
Interesting things happen today in the Liberal Catholic Church (LKK) in Stockholm. It seems that it gradually becomes de-theosphized, and is going back to what one could call the period before Leadbeater.
ReplyDeleteNot to the roots in Sweden, i suppose, but internationally.
Because the Liberal Catholic Churches were created by some form of theosophical "entrysm" in the "Old Catholic Churches" that were founded as a reaction to the new dogma of papal infallibility. They denied this dogma, and split away form the mother church. And then. the theosophists often took over, and created Liberal Catholicism.
LKK in Sweden has never had an official theosophical teaching. But in practice it was more or less Theosophy combined with Catholic rituals.
The Catholic rituals remain, but it seems now that the most active have a befief systems that are more Catholic than Theosophic. And since they still reject pappan infallibility, they seems very interested in the Orthodox churches, especially the Russian one.
The priest that most often hold the sermons today don't believe in reincarnation, and is very interested in the Russian Orthodox Church.
LKK in Stockholm today is certainly no longer Theosophy in disguise.
"And since they still reject PAPAL infallibility"....
DeleteExtremely interesting! When I visited the LCC (around 2000), they were obviously Theosophical - for starters, it was the same old ladies at the mass as in the Adyar bookstore at Karlaplan! Also, the priest said he believed in reincarnation. Their material in Swedish also contained references to reincarnation and karma, for instance.
DeleteI almost collided with the poor priest at the beginning of the mass (when the priest suddenly appeared in procession at the back of the hall), since I expected him to appear in the front! I could have gone down to history as the only person who ever succesfully sabotaged an LCC service...
One of the persons attending was a Spiritualist who believed he could communicate with the spirits through the Internet. Always wondered what happened to that guy, I mean if there is a "presence" on the web, I´d say its demonic, LOL.
But why the Russian Orthodox Church? Are they pro-Russian? Or is it because most Anglicans and Old Catholics have become too "liberal" these days? Do Theosophists still attend the masses?
Well, there are one of the older bishops that still goes there, and he ihas Theosophical views, but he almost never hold masses. No, I don't think other theosophists use to go there now.
DeleteMy brother used to go there, and still goes there sometimes, and he says that earlier they were interested in topics like mysticism, and paranormal things, but they are not that now.
They are not pro-russian politically, as far as I know. Well, they have no political line at all, there are members with. many political views. Even I was a member some years ago, when I thought they were basically theosophical. I thought it could be fascinating to be a member in a theosophical church. When I realized where they were going, l left.
Being the only revolutionary socialist in an Orthodox-leaning church might have been...original.
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