A. J. Hamerster

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

A. J. Hamerster

A. J. Hamerster (1883-1951), was a Dutch Theosophist active in the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, India. He was a government official in the Dutch East Indies. He used the anagram pen name James Arther, and was also known as M. Bhikshu Arya Asanga or Arya Asanga (presumably in tribute to the historical Arya Asanga).

Life and career

A. J. (Albertus Jacobus) Hamerster was born on May 11, 1883, in The Hague, The Netherlands. He was the second child of Albertus Jacobus Hamerster (1849-1919) and Anna Pauwlona Maria de Dees. His grandfather was a Dutch Reformed minister and theologian, Albertus Jacobus Hamerster (1815-1864).

A.J. Hamerster was married to Agnes Louise Tijdeman with whom he had two children. He also held a government post in Java, in the Government Financial Affairs bureau, for a period of time. Toward the end of his life, following the death of his wife, he was ordained as a Buddhist monk (Bhikshu). He died in The Hague on April 13, 1951, at the age of 67.

Theosophical Society involvement

Hamerster lectured at lodges in the Dutch East Indies. He met C. W. Leadbeater in 1926 in Australia, and corresponded with him. Later Hamerster was asked to lecture about Leadbeater's life, and to publish the lecture in a publication of the Order of the Star. He bound the biographical notes and left the volumes in the Adyar Library.

Hamerster served as international Treasurer of the Society during the early 1930s, and around that time became a Buddhist monk in Ceylon. In 1937 he was appointed by George S. Arundale to succeed Anna Kamensky as head of the International Centre in Geneva, Switzerland, where the Society hoped to influence the League of Nations. He later worked as Joint Director and Curator of the Western section of the Adyar Library and Research Centre.

Other activities

A.J. Hamerster was also a researcher and a noted proponent of the Baconian theory of William Shakespeare's authorship. Among members of the Francis Bacon Society, he was known as the author, under the anagrammatic pen name James Arther, of the book A Royal Romance (published in 1941) and three booklets titled In Baconian Light.

"He was a staunch advocate of the Bi-literal and other ciphers and indeed he puts up a cogent case for "Bacon’s Clock, Symbol and Anagram ciphers,” illustrated with the results of his own painstaking research."

Writings

Articles

According to the Union Index of Theosophical Periodicals, Hamerster wrote 4 articles under the name A J Hamerster, 21 under the name AJH, 12 as James Arther, and 33 as Arya Asanga". Note that "AJH van Leeuwen" was probably not the same person. A. J. Hamerster also wrote for the Maha Bodhi under the name James Arther.

Books and pamphlets

Under the name "Arya Asanga" he wrote introductions to several editions from the Theosophical Publishing House:

• The Secret Doctrine, 1940.
• The Voice of the Silence, introduction, notes and index in 1939, 1944, and 1959 editions. Available at the Internet Archive.
• Two books of the Stanzas of Dzyan , Introduction and notes in 1941 and 1956 editions. Available at the Internet Archive.

Using the name James Arther, he wrote:

• A Royal Romance, Bacon-Shakespeare. Madras: Theosophical Publishing House, 1941. 363 pages.
• Occult Chronology. Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1943.
• Spinozian Wisdom or Natural Religion. [Madras]: The Adyar Library, 1943. 108 pages.
• Hollandische Verzen (Dutch Poems).
• The Buddha's Vow (and other poems).
• The Way of the Buddha (Book I-III).
• In Baconian Light.

Additional resources

• De Tollenaere, Herman A. O. The Politics of Divine Wisdom, Theosophy and Labour, National, and Women's Movements in Indonesia and South Asia 1875-1947. Leiden 1949. Available at Internet Archive.
• Mr. A.J. Hamerster [Obituary notices]. In Baconiana. Vol. XXXVI, no 144 (November 1952), pages 141-142. Available at Sirbacon.org.