Theosophy And Weird Fiction

The more reading of/on weird fiction I do, the more I come across the topic of theosophy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theosophy). It seems that most of the major weird fiction writers of the 20s and 30s (H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, etc.), while not necessarily taking theosophical thought terribly seriously, seemed to be tremendously inspired by it. Smith, for example, wrote (in a letter to HPL):

"Theosophy, as far as I can gather, is a version of esoteric Yoga prepared for western consumption, so I dare say its legendry must have some sort of basis in Oriental records. One can disregard the theosophy, and make good use of the stuff about elder continents, etc. I got my own ideas about Hyperborea, Poseidonis, etc. from such sources, and turned my imagination loose."

What do you folks know about this fascinating topic? Can anyone recommend a good introductory text on this philosophy?

This is kind of my forte, actually. I have a paper in the forthcoming issue of Theosophical History.

A text that treats Blavatskian Theosophy expressly in the context of weird fiction is The Book of Dzyan by my friend Tim Maroney (PBUH).

Blavatsky herself is actually a hoot to read; I recommend starting with Isis Unveiled or The Key to Theosophy. I'm a big fan of Anna Kingsford, but she's something of an outlier among first-generation Theosophical leaders. Second-generation authors of note include Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater. The latter's The Masters and the Path is a decent primer on the Theosophical weltanschauung.

For a popular history of Theosophy and related movements, there's Madame Blavatsky's Baboon, among others. More scholarly treatments that situate it in larger currents of alternative American religions include A Republic of Mind and Spirit, Alternative Altars, and New Religions and the Theological Imagination in America.

Godwin's Theosophical Enlightenment is a magisterial orientation to the source traditions behind modern Theosophy. K. Paul Johnson has done impressive historical research on Theosophical origins.

I've reviewed many of the above-referenced books on LT.

Thanks, paradoxosalpha. I figured you'd be a good resource on this topic. :)

I see that there's a few books by Besant available at my local public library; specifically The Riddle of Life, Esoteric Christianity ; or, The lesser mysteries, and The ancient wisdom : an outline of theosophical teachings. Are there any of those that you think would suit my purposes particularly well? (They also have Blavatsky's An abridgement of The secret doctrine, but that appears to be checked out).

One more question: are you familiar with W. Scott-Elliot's The Story of Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria (it's referenced in HPL's "Call of Cthulhu")? If so, is that worth a look or will I simply be left scratching my head?

I haven't read any of the titles you cite. The Besant Ancient Wisdom book sounds like a reasonable place to start, though.

Well, THE ANCIENT WISDOM appears to be pretty readily available online (as at the link below, for example), so I suppose the thing to do would be to sample it there & go grab a physical copy if it seems to be what I'm looking for.

http://books.google.com/books?id=P1AwAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=edi...

HPB's major works are pretty easy to find online as well.

Thanks. I'll take a look at those, too. :)

I love this stuff too. Its been a long time. I was transformed by Dion Fortune's The Mystical Qabalah. She was one of Madame Blavatsky's contemporaries so she's probably dead now.

Dion Fortune (1890-1946) was considerably younger than HPB, although their lives did just overlap. And Fortune really only participated in the Hermetic offshoot of the Theosophical milieu, via the Golden Dawn (Kingsford's initiatic progeny!). But Fortune was a remarkable author of weird fiction in her own right, with several novels to her credit. Blavatsky, by comparison, only wrote a handful of short stories as far as fiction goes. I keep meaning to read more of Fortune's fiction.

Other major modern occultists who wrote interesting fiction (often quasi-autobiographical fantasies) include Aleister Crowley, P. B. Randolph, and Franz Bardon. Novelist Bulwer-Lytton seems to have been conscripted into the ranks of Rosicrucian occultists on the strength of his weird fiction, especially Zanoni.

Ah yes. Mr. Crowley (que relevant Black Sabbath tune). SUNY at Buffalo has a numbered signed copy of one of his (disturbing) reference tomes. I don't think it was Liber 777 but it might have been.

Didn't know Fortune did fiction. I'll have to check it out.

Actually, if we consider the Golden Dawn an offshoot of Theosophy (which would be fair considering that its first organizers were all members of Kingsford's breakaway Hermetic Society from the London Theosophical lodge), we can count Arthur Machen in to the mix here too. He was an initiate, although not necessarily a very active one, in the early Golden Dawn.

>12 artturnerjr:

"Other major modern occultists who wrote interesting fiction... include Aleister Crowley, P. B. Randolph, and Franz Bardon."

Don't forget Alan Moore! :D

Well, if we're going for contemporaries, I'd also add Lon Milo DuQuette and Grant Morrison. Kenneth Grant isn't quite contemporary, and I don't think much of his fiction, but it certainly qualifies as weird!

Strange Life of Ivan Osokin must fit into this nexus somehow...

If I remember correctly Sax Rohmer wrote a non-fiction called 'Romance of Sorcery' which covers Theosophy in one chapter. Although a long time since I read it, his novel 'Orchard of Tears' is a very odd book, and definitely mentions Theosophy (I'm not sure I could recommend it to read, it's very different from his adventure and weird stuff, and is one of his novels that I liked least)

I attended a performance of Juno and the Paycock in the Abbey Theatre last night. It is set in Dublin during the civil war. One of the characters claimed to be a Theosophist. He turned out to be quite a cad!

2 > You recommend (in the review) The Book of Dzyan to the "serious student of occultism". Does that mean someone who studies occult things, ie. an occultist, or someone who studies occultism as a social phenomenon?

> 17

Either of them: the ambivalence is calculated! (I am myself both.)

ETA: It probably has more to offer the latter, really.

18 > Thank you. My interests lie in the latter direction (tho describing my forays into the subject as "serious" would be generous), so onto the wishlist it goes.

>15 cosmicdolphin:

The influence of Theosophy on literature is incredibly wise-ranging, actually. In addition to the folks already mentioned, The Encyclopedia of Fantasy notes the following Theosophy-influenced authors:

John Crowley
Kenneth Morris (no touchstone)
William Butler Yeats
Edgar Rice Burroughs
James Hilton
Talbot Mundy
Michael Moorcock

Quite a bunch, eh? :)

I'm pretty familiar with the writings of Crowley and Moorcock, and I think Theosophy fails to stand out among the wide range of other esoteric source-matter they've each exploited. Interesting sidelight, though: P. Craig Russell said in an interview that he had been greatly influenced by Besant and Leadbeater's book on Thought-Forms when developing his visual vocabulary of magic for the Elric comics.

I can see the argument for Hilton (although honestly Lost Horizon may ultimately have had more influence on Theosophy than vice versa). Burroughs is similar but still more tenuous: little more than an appetite for the idea of lost civilizations.

Morris and Mundy were pretty much Theosophists first and fantasy authors second, from what I can tell.

>22 artturnerjr:

I'm just quoting the source I cited - haven't really done enough research on the subject to confirm or deny the influence of Theosophy on the above-mentioned authors (although I have read elsewhere that ERB was at least indirectly influenced by it).

ETA: More info on Edgar Rice Burroughs and Theosophy:
http://www.erbzine.com/mag11/1107.html

Here's MacGrethor Mathers of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn

It's OT but I get a kick out of his ceremonial magick costume :-P

> 22

Interesting ERBzine piece, but all still very speculative. Funny about that correction early on: we're told Burroughs was in Illinois, not California where the "cultists" were. But Burroughs' home in Oak Park was in fact quite close to the Theosophical HQ set up in Wheaton, Illinois in the mid-1920s.

Interesting - that's about 90 miles from where I live (north-central Illinois). Ernest Hemingway was from Oak Park, too, and ERB fan Ray Bradbury is from Waukegan, about 40 miles to the north. Must be something unusual in the water in those parts. :D

A brief but fascinating entry on theosophy from the online version of The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:

http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/theosophy

>26 artturnerjr:

Those notes about Moorcock at the end are interesting. Una Persson is a gap in my Moorcock reading; I wonder what it means for her to be "unmistakably Blavatskyan." Also, to say that Moorcock was influenced by Theosophy because of his childhood enrollment in a Waldorf School seems like a bit of a stretch. Anthroposophy, by the way, sheds many of the distinctive Theosophical characteristics, to arrive at a modernized form of Rosicrucian-style occultism -- a natural product of the German-speaking Theosophical milieu, which seems to have been more heavily into Isis Unveiled than The Secret Doctrine (i.e. the early Gnostic-Hermetic emphasis, rather than the later Tibetan-Indian one).

That's not to say that there wasn't interest in Asian-based occultism among German speakers of the day, though. Karl Kellner, the "spiritual father" of O.T.O. was a pioneering European student of yoga. (Meanwhile, one of that order's active founders, Franz Hartmann, was a former Secretary General of the Theosophical Society.)

>2 paradoxosalpha: >27 paradoxosalpha:

You mentioned a paper in an issue of Thesophical History: any chance that's available online? Or do you have other pieces written? I could of course check out any number of the various sources in this very interesting thread, but there's something about starting with someone I know!

>28 elenchus:

My paper on Kingsford ran in Theosophical History XV:4. The text is online as a pdf, but it's password-protected for subscribers.

paradoxosalpha, do you have any opinions on Gary Lachman's Madame Blavatsky?

It tempts me since I've read his article in Fortean Times. (And he was in the band Blondie which also makes me curious.)

I really enjoyed the Lachman I read. It was on the survey level, not deep study, but great read, even where I already had familiarity AND copious notes to sources so you could follow up any of the threads he pulled.

The only one of Lachman's various books on occultism I've read is A Dark Muse. It was so-so.

>32 paradoxosalpha:

I see I gave A Dark Muse 4 stars, but the subject was largely new to me, so the novelty factor may have tipped the scales a bit.

I really liked his book on the dark side of the 60s, enough to buy the second edition too. But I'd have to agree with >31 slickdpdx: that it's an introductory survey rather than a very in-depth, scholarly treatment of the subject.

>20 artturnerjr: E. Hoffmann Price was an actual Theosophist. I've only read his Lovecraft collaboration, so I don't know how it affected his work though.

Speaking of Ms. Blavatsky - I was looking for an online version of Dostoevsky's The Grand Inquisitor the other day. I found one on Gutenberg (http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8578), translated by... H.P. Blavatsky! A woman of many talents.