Mrs. Besant Meets Mr. Sinnett
Excerpt from
The Early Days
of Theosophy in Europe
by A.P. Sinnett
London,
Theosophical Publishing House LTD., 1922
CHAPTER XX.
IN Mrs. Besant's Autobiography the last few pages deal with her approach to Theosophy and her relations with Madame Blavatsky. She never knew our "O.L" during any of the stormy periods of her life, only making her acquaintance in 1889 when she was comfortably established in Lansdowne Road and surrounded with devotees. Under these calm conditions and naturally eager to enlist Mrs. Besant in the great Theosophical cause, which she was always ready to serve, according to her lights even by means that "western morality" which she openly despised would condemn, she evidently took care to keep her loftiest characteristics well in evidence. To Mrs. Besant, for the brief remainder of her life, she was always entitled to '' the reverence due from a pupil to a teacher who never failed her " and to "the passionate gratitude which, in our school, is the natural meed of the one who opens the gateway and points out the path".* No doubt Madame Blavatsky realised the importance of Mrs. Besant as a recruit for the Theosophical Society and did all she could to confirm her attachment to it. Though for many years at this period "phenomena" were scornfully denounced by the "O.L." herself and her later followers, as unworthy of association with the dignified ethics of pure Theosophy, their potent agency seems to have been invoked to rivet Mrs. Besant's devotion to her revered teacher. She writes: "I had asked her as to the agency at work in producing the taps so constantly heard at Spiritualistic
*"Annie Besant: An Autobiography", p 344
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seances. 'You don't use spirits to produce taps ' she said: ' See here ! ' She put her hand over my head, not touching it, and I heard and felt slight taps on the bone of my skull, each sending a little electric thrill down the spine. She then carefully explained how such taps were produced at any point desired by the operator and how interplay of the currents to which they were due, might be caused otherwise than by conscious human volition. It was in this fashion that she would illustrate her verbal teachings, proving by experiments the statements made as to the existence of subtle forces controllable by the trained mind". *
Mrs. Besant takes care to add: " The proof of the reality of her mission from those whom she spoke of as Masters lay not in these comparatively trivial physical and mental phenomena, but in the splendour of her heroic endurance, the depths of her knowledge, the selflessness of her character, the lofty spirituality of her teaching, the untiring passion of her devotion, the incessant ardour of her work for the enlightening of men". **
The view of her that some of us derive from experience of the "Early Days" renders some part of this glowing eulogy almost more amusing than impressive, but though my plain narrative of actual happenings may sometimes cast light on the less alluring aspects of Madame Blavatsky's very varied character, I can easily understand how, with them entirely in suppression, and a strong motive in operation, she gave rise to the impressions in Mrs. Besant's mind set forth in the glowing language above quoted. Her character would not have been "varied" as I have described it, if it had not included some very fine aspects — as well as the others.
* IBID, p. 353
**IBID, p 354109
During the period of Mrs. Besant's residence with her — the last two years of her life — neither my wife nor I saw anything of her. We were in close touch with the Master K. H. himself by our own private arrangements and, as I have already explained, were emphatically warned by him to guard them from any possible interference by Madame Blavatsky. So the result of it was a complete extinction of our former intimate relations. I have never known exactly what strange tales she invented in order to keep Mrs. Besant from making acquaintance with us, as she might naturally have wished to do when becoming attached to the theosophical movement. In her autobiography she describes how long before becoming acquainted with Madame Blavatsky and when investigating occult ideas of all kinds — "Into the darkness shot a ray of light — A. P. Sinnett's 'Occult World' with its wonderfully suggestive letters". When the illumination had expanded and Occultism in its loftiest aspects became the main purpose of Mrs. Besant's life it must have required some inventive ingenuity on Madame Blavatsky's part to restrain her from coming into touch with us. But the ingenuity was effective, and it was only after Madame Blavatsky's death, only after Mrs. Besant had gone to India, had been in touch with the Master Morya on her own account and had come back to London that the mysterious barrier set up between us was broken down. In a manner as touching to me as it was simple and straightforward Mrs. Besant told me that she had misjudged me altogether at first and was sorry for it. We became good friends at once and I have never striven to penetrate the mystery which lay in the background.
In 1890 Madame Blavatsky moved from the Lansdowne Road to 19, Avenue Road, St. John's Wood,
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a house over which Mrs. Besant had control, and there she died in May, 1891. A little later on Mrs. Besant paid her first visit to India, and on her return established friendly relations with ourselves in the manner I have already described. We were then in the middle of the period during which our private methods of communicating with the Master K. H. were in full progress, and it was no longer necessary to maintain the secrecy that had at first been used to shield them from Madame Blavatsky's jealousy. Mrs. Besant quickly appreciated their importance, and applied for admission to the London Lodge [*] , which we cordially welcomed. Of course she at once began to take part in the work of the inner group which without any formal organization as such, or affectation of masonic ceremonial, became the real vortex of the theosophic teaching of the period. The long series of London Lodge Transactions which were due to that teaching constitute, as we look back upon them, so many mile-stones on the road leading gradually to the later developments of theosophical knowledge.
When Mrs. Besant joined our group she became intimately acquainted for the first time with Mr. Leadbeater, whose wonderful clairvoyant faculties were of immense assistance to us in our studies.... [Rest of text on this page deleted.]
[* In Autobiography of Alfred Percy Sinnett (London: Theosophical History Centre, 1986, p. 48), Mr. Sinnnett writes that Mrs. Besant "had been admitted by her own request to the meetings of our London Lodge group in June 1894. Up to that time her psychic faculties had not developed. Leadbeater was one of the most important elements in our group, - Mary [Maude Travers] of course the other...."
Mrs. Besant had returned to England from India some time during the first or second week of April 1894. She remained in England until the latter part of July 1894 when she sailed to Australia and New Zealand for a lecture tour. D.H.C.]
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