Tim Boyd – India, USA
Lily and Tim Boyd in Australia
[Note from the editor: This article is based on a talk that was delivered during the 150th International Convention in Adyar-India, on January 4,, 2026]
Our Convention theme has been centered around the concept of newness, particularly the emergence of a new humanity. We have touched upon this aspect, but it is not possible to fully explain or define what we are moving towards. However, I’d like to spend some time exploring the newness aspect of this. I may touch upon the past to better understand the present, but we’ll see how we proceed.
Now that medical science tends to include some of the psychological and spiritual aspects of the human being, one of the things that has become clear is that there is a positive, accelerating quality to our exposure to new things — a chemical and neurological effect affecting our mood, memory, learning, motivation, inspiration, and so on. However, these are initial effects which fade with growing familiarity. For many the altered feelings result in a constant craving, an addiction to the new. This attraction to novelty relates to a level of sensations, feelings, and ideas with little relation to a New Humanity that is more than just changing circumstances.
When we talk about what is new, there are two ways to look at it. On the one hand, we tend to lean toward the idea that new is something that has never before existed, that has been invented, brought into being, or discovered now for the first time. Another approach is that there are things, ideas, conditions, states of being that already exist, but for whatever reason, we are seeing them for the first time. So, there is the new already existing, and the new, never before existing. Let us look at it through the lens of our Theosophical Society and its history.
In the early days of the Theosophical Society, its history was intrinsically linked to a single individual, H. P. Blavatsky (HPB). Without her, the Society would not have existed. There would have been no one to bring this movement into being.
Blavatsky’s life was marked by extraordinary experiences. At the age of 17, she embarked on a journey around the world, a trait that would characterize her life until her death. Her travels were driven by a profound desire to immerse herself in the deep esoteric teachings of the world and seek guidance from diverse mentors. Her initial travels took her to Turkey, Greece, Egypt, India, and North and South America. These were times when air travel did not exist, and travel was a vastly different and challenging endeavor. Despite these obstacles, Blavatsky set out on this transformative journey, which would continue throughout her life.
In her early years, she had experiences of the presence of someone she regarded as her teacher. She even had instances where, at moments when her life or safety was in danger, she was physically helped by his intervention. She had visions of him, but not in a physical form.
At the age of 20, she was in London. While observing a passing procession of Indian princes on the streets, she saw her master for the first time in physical form. The story is that she tried to run to him, but he made a sign, and she stopped.
Later that evening, as she was walking outdoors thinking about this experience, she actually met him in the flesh. During that meeting, he described to her something about the future that lay ahead for her. He said that she required additional training, but she would be involved in bringing a movement into existence. The details of this movement were not specifically described, only that it was related to the Ageless Wisdom.
Her travels continued, and for the next twenty years, she continued making contact with profound teachers and students of occultism. She made her way to India, where she spent two years. Then she found herself in Paris in 1873. At that point, she says that her master told her it was time for her work to begin, and that the future that awaited her lay in the United States.
For someone like HPB, the allure of Spiritualism was irresistible. At the time, the US was experiencing a vibrant and much reported spiritualist movement. This resonated deeply with her, as it offered a tangible connection between the physical world and other realms. Newspapers reported on these phenomena, and HPB found herself drawn to witness and participate in bringing a deeper understanding to the phenomena of spiritualism, of what was actually happening in bridging the gap between the living and the dead. She recognized the reality of communication with some aspect of departed people. But she also recognized that actual knowledge was absent from the movement to counteract the wild speculation and manufacture of theories and doctrines on the afterlife.
Over the past 17 years, Theosophy Forward has regularly published articles by TIM BOYD, International President of the Theosophical Society. Type his name in the search bar on the homepage, or on the top right of this page, scroll down some pages and find a collection of his articles there
HPB described her journey to the United States as akin to the feeling of the devout Muslim visiting Mecca, filled with excitement and anticipation. It was there that she met Col. Olcott, who was observing and reporting on séance activity at the Eddy brothers’ farm. Olcott, while not a skeptic by nature, was an investigator requiring visible proofs. What he witnessed at the sessions he attended convinced him of its authenticity. One notable observation was the sudden shift in the nature and intensity of the phenomena when HPB arrived. Remarkable occurrences began to unfold, including the appearance of Asiatic people in attire that Americans could not imagine or comprehend. HPB attributed a portion of these events to her own psychic atmosphere and a significant portion to her own purposeful materializations.
Following her meeting with Olcott, the Society was officially founded in New York City in 1875. The United States at that time was a mere 99 years old — a baby among nations, young, fresh, new. It was only a decade after the laws had changed, abolishing the legal ownership and sale of people as property. Prior to this, individuals of African descent were imported to the country as goods for sale. The laws of the time were far more lenient towards the mistreatment of horses and dogs than towards human beings of African descent. It is striking that it was here that a Society that would later embrace universal brotherhood regardless of race, caste, and other distinctions was born.
It was a nation that had just endured a civil war, a conflict that claimed the lives of one out of every 50 people in the country. Every family and household was touched. Out of this trauma, the spiritualist movement emerged, fueled by a deep longing to connect with recently lost loved ones. Although there have always been individuals with heightened sensitivity to other realms — mediums, psychics, and so on — this longing brought them to popular prominence. This was what HPB came to research, and to use Spiritualism as a platform to present the deeper more comprehensive view that Theosophy was intended to provide about the scope and capacity of latent human powers.
Initially, HPB’s mission was to establish a “philosophical-spiritual organization”. It took on the name “Theosophical Society” as the proponent of Theosophy — the Divine Wisdom. She was entrusted with the task of communicating the teachings that resonated with the ancient wisdom.
In 1877, HPB published her first book, Isis Unveiled: A Master Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology. By comparing and contrasting current views with those of ancient wisdom traditions, it presented a strong view of the inadequacies of contemporary science and religion.
So, returning to the question of, what was new? Literally everything she presented was new — ancient in every way, but thoroughly new, unknown, unseen in the West of the 19th century. One idea she emphasized throughout her life was the importance of the intertwined doctrines of reincarnation and karma. While we may never fully comprehend the workings of karma, understanding it necessarily implies the concept of reincarnation — the idea that causes work themselves out to produce effects over periods of time that extend beyond one individual lifetime. These words are now in every dictionary and encyclopedia in the world. However, during that time they were considered exotic and largely unknown in America.
She also elaborated other “new” concepts such as the multi-dimensional nature of the human being, which evolved into the concept of seven planes; the idea that there is no such thing as empty space; that intelligence is omnipresent; that there is an ongoing spiritual evolution, not merely the Darwinian unfoldment of physical forms, but an evolution of the “inner man” that for human beings necessitates the stage of the Masters of the Wisdom — the perfected human being; and that we can be proactive in our evolutionary progress. These were exotic, ancient, but utterly new concepts she introduced to the Western mind. Many of these ideas, particularly the concept of the unity of all life, were novel and garnered significant attention.
Part of HPB’s appeal lay in her ability to produce various psychic phenomena at will. When she held her salons in New York City, people were astounded by some of her extraordinary abilities. There is a wonderful book by Daniel Caldwell called The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky. It is a collection of letters, newspaper reports, and diary entries of people who knew HPB. Not all of them were friends, or agreed with her thinking, but all of them had some first-hand experiences with her.
Just one of the phenomenal things witnessed: HPB, a chain smoker, could hold a conversation, write, and roll a cigarette with one hand all at the same time. In one of the reports it was told that she had left her tobacco [pouch] in another room. Rather than get up and walk to get it, to the amazement of the people gathered there, she summoned it, and they watched as it floated across the room to her hand. In our Blavatsky Museum of Arts you can see some of the drawings and objects that were phenomenally created in this manner.
HPB remained in the United States for approximately five years until 1878 when she and Colonel Olcott relocated the TS to India. They left the New World and came, not just to the Old World, but to the oldest world, India, where an active and profound spiritual tradition had been alive for millennia. Although the TS was founded in the United States, it truly came to life in India. Here, these two Westerners arrived and began speaking about the profound truths inherent in the religious and spiritual practices of this place, refusing to allow them to be suppressed by colonial rule, and encouraging rediscovery. From this point, the Society was embraced and it flourished.
When the TS was founded it had only one stated Object — “to collect and diffuse a knowledge of the laws which govern the universe”.
Over the next few years, the organization’s Objects evolved from one to six, to seven, to four, and finally, to three. All of these refinements in the Objects occurred during HPB’s lifetime. However, a very significant change occurred five years after her passing. It involved exchanging the positions of a three-letter word with a one-letter word in the First Object. The wording changed from “to form the nucleus of a Universal Brotherhood”, to “to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood”. This was a significant transformation that moved the TS from specific, geographically local to global traditions, and from Ancient (time-specific-traditions) to Ageless Wisdom, and made possible its unfolding into new directions.
At the time of its founding, the Theosophical Society was basically a men’s club, a fraternity, not unlike the Freemasons, Rotary, Knights of Columbus, and so forth, composed exclusively of people of European descent, with a few having an American lineage of one or two generations. Although the intention of the founders was directed toward the highest ideals, Olcott himself made the distinction that at the outset very few actually got it. He divided those who participated in the birth of the TS into two groups, “Founders” (those who understood and were aligned with its deep purposes), of which there were three (HPB, Olcott, and Judge) and “Formers”, the remaining sixteen original members drawn to it by a passing interest.
In India, the Society flourished and expanded its influence to other parts of the world. HPB lived in India for six years. The remaining six years of her life, she spent in Europe, ultimately settling in London, where she wrote the renowned works that are widely recognized today.
Despite HPB’s passing, the Society continued to thrive. The foundation was laid, but a new wave of leadership and attention emerged. Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater (CWL) played a pivotal role in this new phase. While the focus remained on Theosophy, a new emphasis was placed on clairvoyant investigation. Annie Besant’s influence led to a greater understanding of the application of deep truths to our daily lives and societal issues.
A century later, the effects of that wave continue to be felt. Annie Besant, CWL, and that cohort lived and passed away. Subsequently, a new generation of thinkers emerged, notably N. Sri Ram, J. Krishnamurti, and Radha Burnier. In my opinion, these individuals maintained the core focus of Theosophy as it had evolved and expanded, but they also brought a fresh perspective to our understanding of it. They placed a strong emphasis on the mind, its use, its understanding, recognizing and addressing its potential for both expansion and limitation. This focus was pivotal in bringing the psychological element to the application of Theosophy.
This historical context is crucial in understanding our present situation.When we examine the conditions and circumstances of our world, again the question must be asked: What is new? A variety of conditions come to mind. One notable and extremely impactful change is the global population. In 1875, the world’s population was just slightly over a billion. Today, it has surpassed 8 billion, which is unprecedented in the planet’s history. Eight billion human beings, their bodies, personalities, and habits of behavior moving across the Earth and interacting in the ways we do. As students of the Ageless Wisdom, we know that birth involves more than a body and a personality. The animating principle inhabiting each and every one of these more than 8 billion people is what we would describe as the soul.
So, we are living in a moment in the Earth’s history when an unprecedented number of souls have incarnated. Why? What is it that is so attractive about this particular moment within which we live?
From the perspective of the Ageless Wisdom, one result of the massive influx of souls is that there are souls at various stages of development. There are very young souls whose past, karma, and unfoldment necessitate intense physical and emotional experiences, who crave excitement and forceful involvement, who are still becoming acquainted with the tools that living through a body and personality presents, and who are drawn to exercising their powers in destructive ways. There is also an influx of very old souls. Souls who are not here to destroy, but to envision and build the framework of a new and sustainable humanity. They too are present and active here in our midst.
It seems that every day’s cycle of news brings reports of some new form of destruction or atrocity. I find myself asking, “How did anybody even dream of something this destructive and debased?” Yet such things seem to recur continuously. What does not make the news is something like this gathering where a group of hundreds of people are not only engaged in a global meditation, but understand what they are doing; people who are able to still their minds, to envision themselves as a consciousness embracing the planet, apart from the chaos and noise, embodying a consciousness of harmony and openness and radiating it to the planet as a whole. These are not dark times; these are not bright times; we are living in a moment of both darkness and light, and engaged in choosing our role within it. From my point of view, it is a wonderful time for humanity.
In the midst of these new conditions that have never existed before, what do we do? How can we address this moment? The poet William Wordsworth wrote: “With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things.” When the eye which focuses on surfaces becomes quiet, a deeper possibility emerges, always present, but unseen to us. The factor that brings this quieting is the “power of harmony” and “the deep power of joy”.
There was a contemporary musician who had a line in one of his songs that said: “Jesus taken serious by the many, Jesus taken joyous by a few.” * We could say the same about HPB or the Masters of the Wisdom. Honestly, I know many people whose seriousness toward HPB hides the joy that fueled her entire existence. It goes unnoticed. HPB did not endure her lifetime of hardship, betrayal, and physical pains just to have her name on a few books. There were no tangible rewards for her work. The reward was the deep and abiding joy of a life linked to what she viewed as the Masters’ work.
For clarity’s sake we do not want to confuse joy with happiness. The two are related but are qualitatively different. Joy is not happiness, or even extreme happiness. Happiness is closely linked to desire. It occurs when our desires temporarily die down. For example, if you want ice cream, you get it and feel happy. Similarly, if you find your ideal mate, you are happy, but then you have to live together. With the quieting of the desire, in a temporary condition of being desireless, we experience happiness. It is a symptom of something else.
In Buddhism, there is a practice called the Four Immeasurable Minds, or the Brahma Viharas. One of these four relates to joy. This immeasurable mind is something we can cultivate. But, “What is joy?” One example that is given to communicate the nature of joy is this: Imagine a person lost in the desert. They have been wandering in the dryness and heat for some time and are dying of thirst. This person looks ahead and sees a mirage — an oasis with palm trees, shade, and springs of water. Imagine the feeling that arises in that person. The example is intended to give a sense of what is meant by joy. Despite the fact that in reality there is no oasis, and despite the fact that the thirsting person has not drunk a drop of water, an internal state of being, with no connection to the satisfaction of desire arises — a sense of joy. This state of being is continuously available to us if we learn how to access it.
Joy, by its very nature inspires, but also it opens us to a deeper level of vision, to a higher understanding. It gives access to a certain type of guidance — the direction of the intuitive or illumined mind. It is magnetic. It attracts others to us who can recognize and magnify it, and it draws us to others who have found a way to root themselves in this joyful mind. It is something that magnifies itself through others. Wherever you find groups of these sorts of people — people who understand it — remarkable things happen. It is infectious — the disease we all want to get.
We are here to bring in what is new. The need of the moment, the need of the world, and our individual need is all around us at every moment. The power of harmony and the deep power of joy are the needs for a renewal of humanity.
FOOTNOTE *
Leonard Cohen sang those lyrics in his song "Jazz Police," featured on his 1988 album I'm Your Man. Listen to the song, click HERE
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This article was also published in The Theosophist, VOL. 147 NO. 5 FEBRUARY 2026
The Theosophist is the official organ of the International President, founded by H. P. Blavatsky on 1 Oct. 1879.
To read the FEBRUARY 2026 issue click HERE