Literature and the Theosophical Movement

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Art as an expression of spirituality is important to the Theosophical Movement. This article explores how Theosophy has influenced literature, how Theosophists have written fiction and poetry informed by Theosophical concepts. See also:

Art and the Theosophical Movement

Music and the Theosophical Movement

Performing Arts and the Theosophical Movement

Popular Culture and the Theosophical Movement

Occult fiction

Theosophical concepts explored in literature

Lost worlds

The subgenre of fiction about lost worlds has been heavily influenced by Theosophical ideas about Atlantis and Lemuria. Three main contributors to the American horror and fantasy pulp fiction magazine Weird Tales H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Clark Ashton Smith acknowledged this influence. Edward Douglas Fawcett wrote Swallowed by an Earthquake (1894), an adventure about discovering an underground world of dinosaurs and cannibals. H. Rider Haggard is known for King Solomon's Mines (1885), She (1887) and other novels. Edward Bulwer-Lytton wrote of an underground world in The Coming Race (1872) in which the subterranean race, the "Vril-ya," uses a form of energy called Vril, comparable to Prana, or in its finer form, Akasha.

Ghosts and shells

Algernon Blackwood and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky both published ghost stories.

Fiction writers influenced by Theosophy

These are writers of novels and short fiction who were Theosophists, were influenced by Theosophy, or were influential to Theosophists.

• L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He and his wife Maud were members of the Theosophical Society.
• Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951) was an English short story writer and novelist, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was active in Theosophical lodges in Toronto and London.
• Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) the Russian-American founder of the Theosophical Society wrote some ghost stories but is best known for The Secret Doctrine and other works delineating Theosophy.
• Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-1873) was a English aristocrat and a member of the English Rosicrucian Society. His enormously popular novels were much appreciated by early Theosophists.
• Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950) was an American writer best known for his creations of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres. There is evidence in his novels of Theosophical influence.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a British physician and writer who is most noted for his novels and stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. His interest in Spiritualism and Theosophy is well documented.
• Francis Marion Crawford (1854–1909) was an American writer noted for his many novels set in Italy, and for his classic weird and fantastic stories. His novel Mr. Isaacs was well known to early Theosophists.
• Edward Douglas Fawcett (1866-1960) was an English writer who knew Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. He wrote fiction, poetry, and nonfiction about many topics, including metaphysics and flying.
• Nicolas Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) was a French astronomer, prolific author of more than fifty titles and member of the Theosophical Society. His writings include popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and works on psychical research and related topics.
• Dion Fortune (1890-1946) was a prominent British Occultist and Theosophist who founded the Society of the Inner Light. She wrote occult novels such as The Sea Priestess and many non-fiction works.
• Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856–1925) was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He is most famous for his book King Solomon's Mines. He was aware of Theosophy and Mme. Blavatsky praised one of his books, She.
• Manly Palmer Hall ([1901–1990) was a Canadian-born mystic, eclectic philosopher and founder of the Philosophical Research Society. He was the 20th century’s most prolific writer on mysticism, magic, and ancient philosophies, authoring more than 200 books. Some were fiction, such as the occult stories in Shadow Forms.
• Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) was an American author who wrote fiction in several genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. Howard was influenced by H. P. Lovecraft, and also by Theosophists H. P. Blavatsky and William Scott-Elliott.
• Marc Edmund Jones was an American writer, lecturer, and Presbyterian minister. An active Theosophist and Rosicrucian, he has been called "the dean of American astrology." Jones wrote numerous screenplays and novelizations of films.
• Alma Karlin (1889–1950) was a Slovene traveler, writer, poet, collector, polyglot and Theosophist. She was one of the first European women who circled the globe alone. Her written works include novels and occult non-fiction.
• D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter. As a member of the Symbolist movement, he was influenced by the Theosophical literature.
• Jack London (1876–1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the field of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to achieve worldwide celebrity. He wrote of the influence of reading Theosophical literature.
• H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was influenced by Theosophists H. P. Blavatsky and William Scott-Elliott.
• Edward Maitland (1824-1897) was an English Theosophist, writer, and humanitarian. He is best known for his collaboration with Dr. Anna Kingsford on their 1882 book, The Perfect Way, or the Finding of Christ, but he also wrote several novels, some describing dystopian futures.
• Kenneth Morris (1879-1937) was a Welsh writer of fantasy novels. He lived at the Point Loma colony of Theosophists from 1908 to 1930 as a staff member.
• Talbot Mundy (1879–1940) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was a friend of Katherine Tingley and joined the Point Loma community. Many of his stories and 35 novels like King of the Khyber Rifles featured exotic locations and mystical experiences.
• Countess Lydia Alexandrovna de Pashkov (1845-19xx) was a Russian writer who was an early friend of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. She wrote novels in French under the name Lydie Paschkoff.
• Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) was a French-American composer, writer, artist, and astrologer. He wrote several novels and numerous non-fiction works.
• Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of short stories. Smith was one of the main contributors to the American horror and fantasy pulp fiction magazine Weird Tales. His work is marked chiefly by an extraordinarily wide and ornate vocabulary, a cosmic perspective and a vein of sardonic and sometimes ribald humor.
• Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was a Russian writer known for his novels and short stories, plays and essays. Mme. Blavatsky held him in high regard, and he had her books.
• Violet Tweedale (1862–1936), was a Scottish psychic who became involved in Spiritualism and Theosophy, and was a close associate of Helena Blavatsky. Tweedale became also a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. She was a prolific writer of short stories, published as anthologies, and novels, often with a romantic or supernatural theme.

Poets influenced by Theosophy

• James Henry Cousins (1873-1956) was an Irish writer, poet, playwright, actor, critic, editor, and educator who was active in the Theosophical Society in India.
• Jean Delville (1867–1953) was a Belgian symbolist painter, who also wrote at least four volumes of poetry. He was the first General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Belgium, from 1911-1913.
• Robert Duncan (1919–1988) was an American poet and key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance. He was adopted by a family of devoted Theosophists, and became a student of the Western esoteric tradition.
• Jean Overton Fuller was an English writer of poetry and biographies, and a member of the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, India. She published numerous volumes of poetry.
• George Cardinal LeGros (1905-1988) was a Theosophist and astrologer who was widely known in Theosophical circles for his writings, magazines, poetry, and correspondence courses.
• Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. His plays form an important part of the Symbolist art movement, which was influenced by Theosophy.
• Dane Rudhyar was a French-American composer, writer, artist, and astrologer who wrote several volumes of poetry.
• Epes Sargent (1813–1880) of Boston was an American editor, poet and playwright. He was very interested in spiritualism and was acquainted with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky.
• George William Russell (1867–1935) was an eminent Irish poet, painter and essayist who wrote with the pseudonym Æ (sometimes written AE or A.E.). He was a political activist and a key figure in the Irish Literary Renaissance.
• William Shakespeare (1564-1616) was a English playwright, poet, and dramatist. Shakespeare's poetry is still widely read, and his plays are continuously performed today.
• Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of short stories. Smith was one of the main contributors to the American horror and fantasy pulp fiction magazine Weird Tales. While he is mainly known for his stories, he wrote a significant body of poetry influenced by Theosophical literature.
• John Osborne Varian was an Irish-American poet and a member of the Temple of the People Theosophical community.
• Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) was an American who was keenly interested in Theosophy, New Thought, Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism, and the Order of the Star in the East. She was an enormously popular and prolific writer of poetry and magazine articles, and also wrote a few novels.
• E. A. Wodehouse (1879-1936) was an English Theosophist, poet, and educator best known as the tutor of Jiddu Krishnamurti. He was the older brother of novelist P. G. Wodehouse, and was awarded the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1902.
• William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was a poet and leader of the Irish Literary Revival. He was heavily involved in the Dublin Theosophical Lodge, and was also interested in hermeticism, spiritualism, and Rosicrucianism. In 1923, Yeats was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• Ella Young (1867–1956) was an Irish poet and Celtic mythologist active in the Irish literary revival of the late 19th century. She was interested in Theosophy, and was an early member of the Hermetic Society, the Dublin branch of the Theosophical Society, where she met writer Kenneth Morris. She was also acquainted with "Æ" (George William Russell).

Numerous other Theosophists wrote poetry, but were not primarily known as poets. Some were Burton Callicott, Clara Codd, Dorothy Codd, C. Jinarajadasa, Alma Karlin, Anna Bonus Kingsford, Charles E. Luntz, Robert Logan, Kenneth Morris, Elliott B. Page, Frederick Gordon Pearce, Nicholas Roerich, Cyril Scott, Mercie M. Thirds, Samuel Ward,

Poets important to Theosophists

• Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is best known for his poetic story of Gautama Buddha, The Light of Asia, which is much admired by Theosophists. He mastered Sanskrit, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian languages and was a skilled artist.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), was a American writer, lecturer, and poet whose beliefs founded the Transcendentalism movement. Originally a Unitarian pastor, he soon became disillusioned with the conventional forms of worship, becoming a renowned lecturer who advocated the natural intuition of the soul. H. P. Blavatsky and other Theosophists greatly admired his work.
• Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) was a Lebanese artist, poet, and writer. Many of his writings deal with Christianity, especially on the topic of spiritual love, but his mysticism is a convergence of several different influences such as Christianity, Islam, Sufism, Judaism and Theosophy.
• Gerald Massey (1828-1907) was an English poet and writer. A radical and freethinker, he was keenly interested in Egyptology and wrote about the possible Egyptian origins of Christianity. His writings had a large impact on many Theosophists including Paul Gauguin.
• Frederic W. H. Myers (1843–1901) was a poet, classicist, philologist, Theosophist, and a founder of the Society for Psychical Research. He was an early researcher in what is now called depth psychology.
• Roden Noel (1834—1894) was an English poet whose work is permeated by philosophic thought. He was interested in Spiritualism, and was well acquainted with Theosophy.
• Jalāl ad-Dīn Rūmī (commonly known in English as Jalaluddin Rumi) (1207–1273), was a 13th-century Persian Muslim poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic.
• Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, painter, philosopher, and composer who was awarded the Nobel prize for literature. He was heavily involved with members of the Theosophical Society in England and India.
• Henry David Thoreau 1817–1862) was an American writer, naturalist, and philosopher of the Transcendentalist movement. Best known for his essays, Thoreau also wrote poetry.
• Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) was an Irish writer and poet, who became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Wilde attended numerous Theosophical Society functions with his mother and in 1888 his wife Constance entered the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, of which W. B. Yeats was a member.

See also

• Artists

Additional resources

Bibliographies

• Bibliography on Arts and Music from the Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library.