Views from the Great White Brotherhood
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_____________________________________________________ Religionsvetenskap 61 – 90 hp _____________________________________________________ Views from the Great White Brotherhood A study concerning notions about race in the teachings of the Theosophical Society and the Rosicrucian Fellowship Karen Swartz C-uppsats Religionsvetenskap 61 – 90 hp Handledare: Torsten Löfstedt Högskolan i Kalmar Examinator: Daniel Alvunger Vårterminen 2009 Humanvetenskapliga institutionen I HÖGSKOLAN I KALMAR Humanvetenskapliga Institutionen Arbetets art: C-uppsats Religionsvetenskap 61 – 90 hp Titel: Views from the Great White Brotherhood: a study concerning notions about race in the teachings of the Theosophical Society and the Rosicrucian Fellowship Författare: Karen Swartz Handledare: Torsten Löfstedt Examinator: Daniel Alvunger ABSTRACT The nineteenth century witnessed a great deal interest in Esotericism, which resulted in the creation of a significant number of Occult organizations. Many of them were influenced by the Theosophical Society, arguably the most important of the groups that came into existence before the Great War, a further example being the Rosicrucian Fellowship. The writings of these two organizations’ primary founders contain teachings about race that were influenced by beliefs concerning the inferiority of certain peoples that were prevalent at the time. While this is often acknowledged in academic studies, the matter is largely marginalized. The aim of this paper is to investigate how these teachings reinforce preexisting ideas about race. The findings indicate that this is partially achieved through the use of language and partially by presenting the notions within the context of a cosmology which casts inequalities found in society as part of an evolutionary process in which any atrocities committed by a dominant group are seen as merely hastening a divinely instituted chain of events that is already in motion. This matter is relevant to the present time because these beliefs are part of living traditions and because it is arguable that the racist discourse which shaped them in the first place is still just as influential today. II ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I received much help while writing this paper, and I would like to express my gratitude to the following individuals at the University of Kalmar: Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor Torsten Löfstedt for his excellent guidance, boundless patience, fortitude and good humor. I fear to think what the result of my efforts would have been had I not had the aid of his sharp insight and admirable attention to detail. Furthermore, I am much indebted to Johan Höglund who pointed me in the right direction many times in terms of finding sources and helping me to structure my ideas. Mari Aro at the University of Jyväskylä provided valuable assistance while I was attempting to sort out a messy issue involving terminology; I am very grateful for the help she gave me. I would also like to thank my family for their love, support and interest, the latter of which may have expertly been feigned but was nonetheless deeply appreciated. Lastly, I would like to thank those adventurous Victorian explorers of unseen realms: they have given us much to study. III CONTENTS 1 INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................. 1 2 DESIGN OF THE PRESENT STUDY ............................................................. 6 2.1 Aim ............................................................................................................... 6 2.2 Material ....................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Method ......................................................................................................... 8 2.3.1 Durkheim: the social function of religion................................................ 9 2.3.2 Are Theosophy and Rosicrucianism religions? ...................................... 11 3 BACKGROUND ............................................................................................... 17 3.1 Definitions: Occult and Esoteric ............................................................. 17 3.2 Nineteenth century Occultism ................................................................. 22 3.3 The Theosophical Society ......................................................................... 27 3.4 The Rosicrucian Fellowship ..................................................................... 37 3.5 Definitions: colonialism and imperialism ............................................... 42 3.6 Racial stereotyping ................................................................................... 44 4 RESULTS .......................................................................................................... 50 4.1 The Root Races according to Blavatsky ................................................. 50 4.2 Notions regarding race in the writings of Heindel................................. 61 5 DISCUSSION .................................................................................................... 68 5.1 Theosophy and orientalism ...................................................................... 68 5.2 Parallels with Cosmotheism ..................................................................... 70 5.3 Further research ....................................................................................... 73 6 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 76 WORKS CITED AND CONSULTED .................................................................... 79 ILLUSTRATIONS ................................................................................................... 84 IV 1 INTRODUCTION Ever westward in the wake of the shining sun, the light of the world, has gone the star of empire, and is it not reasonable to suppose that the spiritual light has kept pace with civilization, or even preceded it as thought precedes action? Max Heindel, Gleanings of a Mystic (1922) The latter part of the nineteenth century witnessed a flourishing of interest in Esotericism. This is evidenced by the impressive number of Occult organizations that came into existence during the decades preceding the Great War, such as the highly influential Theosophical Society, which was founded in 1876. As Alex Owen states in her study of fin de siècle Occultism in Britain and its relation to “the modern,” The Places of Enchantment (2004), these groups were permeated by an unmistakable bourgeois tone that tended to attract those with a shared frame of both social and intellectual reference.1 This served to set them apart from the enormously popular Victorian Spiritualist movement, thereby creating an elitist alternative for seekers. In others words, interest in the late nineteenth century for Occult groups informed by Esoteric thought was largely a middle class phenomenon. Admittedly, this can partially be explained in terms of practicality. Luxuries afforded by a thicker wallet would of course naturally grant one the time and resources necessary to pursue the different lines of study offered by such groups. However, in terms of appeal, I believe that these organizations would have been particularly attractive to members of the rapidly expanding middle classes because the values and attitudes shared by this particular demographic in regard to questions concerning race, the situation of women, and sexuality informed the teachings and constitution of the groups themselves. Often based upon an elaborate hierarchical framework, the very structure of a number of these Occult organizations such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and the Ordo Templi Orientis mirrored what was becoming an increasingly complex situation concerning class division due to changes in society brought on by modernity. 1 Alex Owen, The Place of Enchantment (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004) 5. 1 During the late nineteenth century, the birth of new sciences such as genetics made a significant impact on the way many of what could be termed the educated middle classes perceived the society in which they lived. This resulted in the creation of various bourgeois ideologies, comfortably resting on the increasingly politicized name of Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) and the notion of evolution, which could shuffle the blame for the inequalities found in society onto “nature.”2 Social movements such as the then fashionable eugenics, largely the creation of Darwin’s cousin Sir Francis Galton (1822 – 1911), urged that immediate actions be taken to improve the genetic condition of the human race. It was suggested that this could be accomplished by, for example, encouraging valuable human strains such as those typically identified with the bourgeoisie and eliminating those associated with, as historian Eric Hobsbawm so neatly phrases it, “the poor, the colonized or unpopular strangers.”3 Occultists, ever eager to prepare a proper vessel for the soul, were often interested in these views. Since a number of these Occult groups, perhaps best exemplified by the Theosophical Society, became involved with progressive and humanitarian movements such as the campaign for women’s rights, one could perhaps be led to believe that such organizations (and this argument could very well be extended to refer to the present) contributed in a significant manner to the advancement of groups that have traditionally been oppressed or marginalized. Certainly,