In considering a group that identified with Victorian American culture and its anxieties while adhering to an occult worldview that most of their contemporaries found strange, if not dangerous, the book explains why these middle-class Americans found Theosophy so persuasive and why they left family and friends behind to take up residence at this California settlement."--BOOK JACKET.

Provides an expansion of the first four volumes, containing both specially written essays and a related compilation of primary sources, drawn from the writings of the day. The text explores the wider context of religion in Victorian Britain, both in relation to the development of the Empire and its consequences. The introduction sets the scene and also provides an overview of scholarship on Victorian religion in the years since the first four volumes were published in 1988.

The author examines the careers of the most distinguished disciples of the Theosophical Masters. He begins by examining the concept of initiation promoted by the Theosophical movement's founders. Each section investigates a separate category of initiates, focusing consecutively on Hindus, Muslims, Bahais, Buddhists, and the Western female occultists. More than just a study of Theosophy, this book explores many related developments in political and religious history. Among the figures it illumines in new ways are Anagarika Dharmapala, Alexandra David-Neel, George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff, and Isabelle Eberhardt. Its approach brings needed objectivity and balance to a topic too long mythologized by cultists and ignored by scholars.

A professor of religion explores Theosophical ideas in modern times. Major concepts discussed include reincarnation, karma, evolution, the Oneness of all life, the cyclic nature of creation, and the mystery of consciousness.

Replete with fresh immediacy, rich spiritual content, innovation and occasional humour, these talks were given at a time when Rudolf Steiner was preparing for independence from the Theosophical Society. Alongside the much-loved lectures 'Nervousness and Ego Development' – in which Steiner shares practical exercises for coping with contemporary life's challenges – and 'Love and Its Significance in the World', the collection finds a focal point in descriptions of the 'Three Soul Paths to Christ'. The first of these is via the Gospels, the second through 'Inner Experience' and the third 'Initiation', which Steiner characterizes as a path transcending religion. He further elaborates these themes in a lecture entitled, 'Mysteries of the Kingdoms of Heaven in Parables and in Real Form'. Elijah, John the Baptist, Raphael and Novalis form a golden thread throughout, appearing as a fourfold herald of a true Christianity of the future. A moving yet astringent tribute to the founder of Theosophy, H.P. Blavatsky, on the tenth anniversary of her death, adds the Christian verities not embraced by Blavatsky during her lifetime, and two stirring talks that set the mood for Christmastide – via St Matthew, Eudocia and St Luke – round off the volume with paeans to Novalis. The lectures are complemented with an introduction by Margaret Jonas, detailed notes and an index. Fourteen lectures, various cities, Jan.–Dec. 1912, GA 143