Edward Maitland

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Edward Maitland

Edward Maitland (October 27, 1824 - October 2, 1897). English humanitarian, writer, and seer. He is best known for his collaboration with Dr. Anna Kingsford on their 1882 book, The Perfect Way, or the Finding of Christ.

Personal life

Maitland was born at Ipswich, England, on October 27, 1824. His father, Charles David Maitland, a noted preacher, and Edward Maitland was brought up among strict evangelical ideas, and rigorous theories about original sin and atonement.

He was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, from which he graduated B.A. in 1847. Although his family expected him to take orders, he did not, due to doubts about faith and church. Maitland died on October 2, 1897.

Involvement with Theosophical Society

On January 3, 1883, Maitland was admitted as a member of the Theosophical Society in London.[1]

Hermetic Society

Clairvoyance

In 1857 he took up an advanced humanitarian attitude and also claimed to have developed a new sense by which he was able to discern the spiritual condition of people.[2] He said had succeeded at. . .

. . . developing the intuitional faculty as to find the solution of all problems having their basis in man's spiritual nature, with a view to the formulation of a perfect system of thought and rule of life.[3]

In one of his letters, Mahatma K.H. recognizes the fact that Maitland was clairvoyant. However, because he had not been systematically trained, his visions were not accurate. The Mahatma comments on the fact that, although "Jesus and John the Baptist" as well as "Hermes the first and second and Elijah" were clearly visible and audible to Maitland, these visions were the creation of what he believed in and wanted to see.[4]

Writings

The Perfect Way

Other work with Anna Bonus Kingsford

Fiction

Other nonfiction

Periodicals

The Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals lists 36 articles by or about Edward Maitland.

Notes

  1. Theosophical Society General Membership Register, 1875-1942 at http://tsmembers.org/. See book 1, entry 1584 (website file: 1A/49).
  2. Margaret Conger, Combined Chronology for use with The Mahatmas Letters to A. P. Sinnett and The Letters of H. P. Blavatsky to A. P. Sinnett, (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical University Press, 1973) 24.
  3. George Smith et al., The Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 22 (London:The MacMillan Company, 1909) 1004.
  4. Vicente Hao Chin, Jr., The Mahatma Letters to A.P. Sinnett in chronological sequence No. 38 (Quezon City: Theosophical Publishing House, 1993), 109.