Theosophical Encyclopedia

(1881-1958). A Theosophist who was one of the pioneers for the cause of the common laborer, and for independence for India. He established the first labor union in India, and worked in the Home Rule Movement of India, leaving perceptible theosophical traces on all he supported; this was in the teens and the twenties of the 20th century. Wadia joined the Theosophical Society (TS) in 1903. During the thirty-five years after his resignation in 1922 from the TS he lived and labored anonymously through the UNITED LODGE OF THEOSOPHISTS (1922-1958) for the cause of Those whom Theosophists call the Masters of Wisdom.

Wadia was born on October 8, 1881, in Bombay, India. He was a direct descendant of the philanthropic brothers Bahmanji Pestonji and Ardeshir Harmosji Wadia, the founders of the Wadia Parsi (i.e., Zoroastrian) Fire temple in Bombay.

B. P. Wadia

Wadia’s studies took him up to the “matriculation examination” (1899). Thereafter, for a short time he worked for an English firm, but resigned when he found that service in its business house meant at times a deliberate departure from truth, on occasions, when business interest demanded it.

In 1896 an enigmatic person known as Count De Das, visited Uruguay, as recorded in a 1912 issue of a magazine entitled Faro Oriental (Eastern Beacon). After his visit, the word “theosophy” became known in Uruguay through the foundation of a group known as “Centro Ocultista y Teosófico” (Occult and Theosophical Center). Many intellectuals became members of this group, one of whom was Joaquín Carbonell, born in Spain but working at the University of Montevideo, the capital city of Uruguay, as professor of lineal and topographic drawing.

Uruguay from space

About 1896 or 1897, Mr. Carbonell publicly declared he believed in the existence of an occult world, a declaration that shows how much interest existed in the study of Theosophical ideas. By 1900 two Theosophical Lodges and some study centers operated as part of the Argentine Section.

(1893- 1934). Eminent Theosophical writer. He was born on August 26, 1893, and joined the Theosophical Society – Adyar in 1914. Van der Leeuw gained his LL.D. at Leiden for a treatise on cyclic law. He was ordained a priest of the Liberal Catholic Church. He was General Secretary of the Netherlands Section 1930-31, was awarded the Subba Row Medal in 1925 for his book The Fire of Creation, and founded the King Arthur School for boys in Sydney, Australia, which continued only for a year. He was killed in June 1934 when his aircraft crashed during a solo flight in South Africa.

His small book, Gods in Exile, (1986, T.P.H., Madras) is particularly significant as one of the few Theosophical texts that offers a way to apply the teaching to practical ends, that is, to raise consciousness to a higher level. First published in 1926, it has remained in print to this day, running through eight editions.

Publications include: The Conquest of Illusion, (1928); Gods in Exile, (1926); The Fire of Creation (1925).

(1912-2001). Prominent member of the Theosophical Society - Adyar. Hoskins was born December 23, 1912, in Florence, Italy. She was one of twins born to Richard and Ida Hoskins. Her twin sister was named Aglaia. At the outbreak of World War I the family was repatriated to Britain in August 1915.

After the war the family resided in Enfield, Middlesex, and it was here that Ianthe Hoskins graduated from Enfield County Grammar School, continuing her education at Westfield College, Hampstead, where she gained a B.A. degree in French and Latin. Work was hard to obtain during the years of the Great Depression, but eventually she secured a post as teacher at King Edward VI Grammar School.

Ianthe Helen Hoskins

Hoskins joined the Theosophical Society in 1936 and her professional work took her to many places in England and as a consequence she was, over time, a member of seven different lodges. In 1950, at the age of 38, she delivered the prestigious Blavatsky Lecture entitled The Science of Spirituality.

Hoskins retired from teaching in her mid-fifties to devote her time to her Theosophical work. In 1968, 1970 and 1993 she was Director of the School of the Wisdom at the International Headquarters, Adyar, and conducted courses in 1983, 1986 and 1989 at Krotona, California. In 1982 she helped to launch the European School of Theosophy at which she served as an instructor every year until the late 1990s. Being fluent in English, French, Spanish and German she was welcomed in many countries as a speaker for the Theosophical Society.

She was a keen exponent of Raja Yoga and published a book on the subject entitled The Flower of Yoga. Hoskins served for a number of years as General Secretary of the English Section.

She died in London and her body was cremated in Eltham Crematorium, South London, on September 20, 2001.

(1865-1949). Artist and author. Ryan was born in Halifax, England. His father was Irish, descended from the Ryans of Idrone, Tipperary; his mother was English. Ryan became an artist like his father whom he succeeded as headmaster of the government School of Art in Ventnor, Isle of Wight. Both father and son exhibited at the Royal Academy, London.

In 1894, Ryan joined the Theosophical Society, Point Loma, and in 1900 was invited by Katherine Tingley to its international headquarters then in Point Loma, California. For a near half-century until his death Ryan contributed his literary, artistic and scientific talents to instructing both young and adult students there and at Covina, where the headquarters and university were transferred in 1942. Ryan is best known to theosophists for his work, H. P. Blavatsky and the Theosophical Movement (1937).

(née Bonus) (1846-1888). Was born September 16, 1846, at Stratford in Essex, England. She joined the Theosophical Society (TS) in January 1883. Kingsford never enjoyed particularly good health and as the youngest, by a margin of several years, in a large family, she tended to be isolated and solitary. From her earliest childhood she seems to have been conscious of a “mission” and according to her own recollection she came into reincarnation to fulfil it, even though she was strongly discouraged from doing so because of the extreme suffering that awaited her. She seems to have tended to disregard her human parentage and claimed to have “fairy” origin. The story is told of her first visit to a pantomime; when the fairies appeared on the stage she insisted that they were her proper people, crying and struggling to get to them with such an uproar that it became necessary to remove her from the theater.

Anna Kingsford

During her girlhood she seems to have been chiefly occupied with the writing of poems and stories and had a poem published in a religious magazine when she was nine years old. A story she wrote when she was thirteen years of age, “Beatrice: A Tale of the Early Christians,” was accepted and published.

(1870-1952). Italian educator and Theosophist who was born at Chiaravalle near Acona on August 31, 1870. She gained her degree in medicine from the University of Rome in 1894, the first Italian woman to do so. She also earned a degree in literature. As a doctor, Montessori became involved in the treatment of children with disabilities and devised a special method of treating and educating them. Her method soon proved suitable for more general application and became known as the Montessori Method.

Maria Montessori

During the First World War, Montessori, who was then in India, risked internment as an enemy alien and was given sanctuary at the Theosophical Society (TS) headquarters at Adyar near Madras (now Chennai). She died at Noordwijk, Netherlands, May 6, 1952.

Montessori’s method of education focused on two essential elements: gaining the sustained interest of the child by the provision of various educational items that have significance in developing skills and also allowing the child a considerable degree of latitude for individual choice of study. Under her method, children learn to read, write and count before they are six years of age. Montessori Schools have been established in many countries and flourish to the present time. Her last book, The Absorbent Mind (1949) was devoted to the education of children under the age of three years and a book published a year earlier, To Educate the Human Potential, demonstrated the value of teaching children about pre-history.