Geoffrey Hodson

ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
ARTICLE UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Geoffrey Hodson (March 12, 1886, in Lincolnshire, England - January 23, 1983 in Auckland, New Zealand) was a Theosophist, occultist, mystic, philosopher and esotericist, and a leader of the Theosophical Society (Adyar) for over 70 years. He was also a freemason and a priest in the Liberal Catholic Church.

Hodson traveled the world extensively lecturing for The Theosophical Society. He was the author of over fifty books on Theosophy, Spiritualism, psychic and spiritual development, mysticism, fairies, angels, meditation, health and disease. He also wrote over two hundred articles and held radio talks. See also Hodson writings.

Geoffrey Hodson in Auckland, New Zealand, 1953.

Introduction

Geoffrey Hodson was a spiritual light-bringer to humanity who passed through the world during our time. His full significance was overlooked by many because he refused to allow himself to be the focus of a personality cult. He thus effectively avoided in his own life the ‘guru adoration syndrome’, which has caused some erroneous ideas and self-promoting behaviours to proliferate during the course of the last half century and from many who had only a fraction of Mr. Hodson's insights and abilities. Instead, he presented a profound humility, putting himself at the service of others. His inner yogic practices and service to the world rapidly brought him under the direct inspiration and guidance of Adept and Archangelic teachers of the human race. It is these high teachers who should rightfully be regarded as the authentic basis of the “guru” archetype.

Because Mr. Hodson was multi-faceted in his abilities he was difficult to characterize precisely. He was without doubt an illumined occultist (this misused and misunderstood word properly refers to someone who studies the “occult” or hidden side of nature); he was also a gnostic seer (gnostic meaning someone who knows in a spiritual sense), but could additionally be described as a mystic, a yogi, a healer, a philosopher and a humanitarian, as well as being an inspiring speaker and a friend and teacher to many. He had also been active as a priest in The Liberal Catholic Church (an independent apostolic church which came under theosophical influence) and had reached the 32nd degree in Co-freemasonry – a Masonic order that admits women co-equally with men. For his own part he modestly referred to himself as a “student of Theosophy” (Gk. Theos - God, Sophia – Wisdom) which, in its purest form, he saw as an important means whereby human-kind can save itself from itself. He devoted most of his life to exploring and teaching this perennial philosophy and used his other abilities, particularly his expanded psychic and spiritual powers, to support that ideal. Unlike most of his contemporaries who only had partial, theoretical, or incomplete experience of theosophical realities, he had actually realized these great perennial truths1 and had applied them effectively in his own life. Yet, he carried that insight with the humility and reserve that befits a genuine teacher - refusing to flaunt his own personality - whilst quietly and systematically spreading the truth as he saw it and ever responding to requests to teach, help, and heal others.

Early years

Geoffrey Hodson was born on March 12, 1886, one of five children, on a large estate in the fen district of England. His grandparents also lived on the estate. Raised in the Christian faith, his childhood memories were of “peace, beauty, and happiness --- all in all, a fine place to begin an incarnation.” He loved that faith, his family, and the land. He seems to have been clairvoyant from the start; one of his earliest memories is of an “inner thread of knowledge” regarding the existence of the Masters of the Wisdom. As a boy, he had various metaphysical experiences that he attributed to the presence and intercession of these individuals. As an adult studying Theosophy, he discovered the teachings from and about these Adepts.

When he was seven or eight years old and attending boarding school, he was riding a bicycle -- one of his favorite pastimes -- and was thrown off while going down a very steep hill. He lost consciousness, and the next thing he knew he woke up back at the school, with one side of his face "severely gravel-scarred." He had no memory of how he got there, and no one else claimed to have found him and brought him there. In later life, based on his studies and various other experiences, he came to believe that “an invisible protector” had rescued him.

A devout Christian, at the age of 24 he met a man he liked and respected who was an atheist, and who pointed out to him the impossibility of taking the Bible literally. This affected him profoundly. A coworker who was a Quaker noticed his anguish and gave him a copy of Annie Besant’s Esoteric Christianity. The book restored his faith in Christianity and evoked an interest in studying “allegories, mythologies, and symbols, and …an awareness of the fact that they reveal not so much historical events as profound and everlasting truths.” (See Mr. Hodson’s many books on Christianity for evidence of this understanding.)

Military service

Hodson was deeply troubled by the start of World War I. Given his wish to live a compassionate life, he resisted the thought of being a soldier, although he felt that a defensive war was a just one. A vision of “a very great Master, robed and shining with white light” and holding “an upward-turned shining sword,” dispelled his doubts. He joined the Cavalry Regiment and later became an officer in the Royal Tank Corps.

His clairvoyant and metaphysical experiences continued during his active duty, no doubt aided by his continuing meditative practice. A “super-physical visit” from his brother, who was in France with the Canadian Army, surprised him greatly and let him know that his brother had been mortally wounded. He soon heard from their mother that his brother had died in the Battle of Lens. At one point, trying to pray while in front of a stained-glass window in a church, he sensed the “absolute assurance” that he would survive the war and return home safely. At least twice after that, he was in imminent danger of being killed but escaped unharmed. In one case, he was walking backward in front of a tank, guiding it into position during the night. Suddenly realizing he had backed into “a great row of barbed wire,” he thought surely he was about to be crushed. The tank operator, however, for some reason he could not explain, felt obliged to stop. Another time he was hurrying alone through a village that was under fire to deliver important information via radio. As a huge shell came hurtling toward him, he felt "pressure as of a hand" between his shoulders, which pushed him to the ground. The shell missed him by a few yards; he lost his helmet and suffered a mild concussion, but lost no duty time. As an officer, his efforts in the war earned him a recommendation for the Military Cross.

Geoffrey and Sandra Hodson at Olcott, June, 1967.

Activities in the Theosophical Society

In 1912, Mr. Hodson went to hear Annie Besant (then the President of the Theosophical Society) speak in Manchester, England, which he came to see as a decisive event in his life. He was “enthralled by the philosophy she expounded” as well as by what he “later came to know was her aura, shining out from her far beyond the walls of the building .... So great was the impact of this experience that I immediately joined the Theosophical Society.” Some time later, the book Man, Visible and Invisible, by Mrs. Besant and C.W. Leadbeater, came to his attention. On the frontispiece “was depicted the aura precisely as I had seen it during Dr. Besant’s lecture.” He was very active in the Manchester Lodge, often traveling to nearby small towns to lecture. He became a well known speaker and teacher, continuing these activities until about 8 months before he died.

Hodson served as the Director of Studies of the School of the Wisdom at the International Headquarters of the Theosophical Society at Adyar, India, for four sessions, in 1953-54, then in 1954-1955 and again in 1961.

Hodson was a guest lecturer at the Krotona School of Theosophy in Ojai, California.

He gave his last lecture, on 4 May 1982 at HPB Lodge in Auckland, aged 96, and eight months later he died in Auckland, on January 23, 1983.

Clairvoyance

There were a number of seeming coincidences in Mr. Hodson's life which Carl Jung might have called synchronicities. After the War, he found a job with the Manchester branch of a large London firm, but his heart was never in the business world. He was thrilled to be invited to be a city director for the YMCA in England. He found this work absorbing, and he also began to have “very definite and peculiar occult experiences, quite unsought” in which the deva kingdom began to reveal itself to him. Fortunately his wife, Jane, began to record all of these experiences, records which made many of his books possible.

Mr. Hodson’s myriad encounters with the higher planes of being (states of consciousness) allowed him to look into what might be called the “hidden side of life.” He met spiritual Adepts quite early in his life. In 1958 (at age72), he wrote that “We should not assume that the absence of memory of higher states of consciousness and of visions of the Great Ones means that they do not occur while the body sleeps. They do occur.”

In his “Occult Diary,” he describes clear memories of meeting with the two Masters of Wisdom, Kuthumi and Morya, who assisted in the founding of the Theosophical Society. These were out-of-body experiences that would have taken place on the astral plane; hence he notes “I ‘dreamed’ again of Master Morya ….” However, his “Outstanding impressions are of complete normality, total absence of strain or even heightened consciousness … The experience is totally real and very happiness-giving. … The atmosphere was unusually still, utterly calm. … The Master’s Presence is vividly before my mind with a deep sense of privilege and happiness ….”

Like other clairvoyant theosophists, he was also aware of the deva kingdom of nature spirits --- those of trees, springs, parks, lakes, groves, and other entities. (What humanity considers angels are also part of the deva kingdom). One the Masters advised him that “the subject of the natural interrelationships between angels and men could be further investigated. … you could show that, detached and even abstract though they seem to be, the angels of Nature in all her various kingdoms --- mineral, from subsoil to mountain ranges, and vegetation from small plants to gigantic trees and forests --- are all intimately related. … Make clear that the actual spiritual Essence is the same in both angels and men, despite their seeming difference caused by the invisibility of the former.”

Other interests

Vegetarianism and treatment of animals

Geoffrey Hodson at age 96.

Later years

Mr. Hodson gave his last lecture on May 4, 1982 at H.P.B. Lodge in Auckland. He passed away at his home on January 23, 1983 at the age of 96. A funeral service was conducted three days later by Bishop Stuart Nicholls at the Liberal Catholic Church in Grafton.

Writings

See Hodson writings.

Additional resources

Articles

• Hodson, Geoffrey in Theosophy World.
• Hodson, Clairvoyant Research of in Theosophy World.

Biographies

John Kirk Robertson wrote a biography in 1971 of Geoffrey Hodson entitled Aquarian Occultist. It was never formally published, but copies of the typescript are cataloged in the national Libraries of Australia and New Zealand, and in the Rare Books collection of the Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library in Wheaton, Illinois. Sandra Hodson wrote to a prospective publisher that her husband did not want the biography published.

Autobiographical writings of Geoffrey Hodson were compiled by Sandra Hodson.

• Light of the Sanctuary. Manila, Philippines: Theosophical Publishing House, 1988. ISBN-971-9113-0-0. Available at Minhtrietmoi.org website. Extracts are available at Theosophy World.

Other biographical sketches:

• Hodson, Geoffrey in Theosophy World.
• Geoffrey Hodson in Wikipedia.
• The Geoffrey Hodson Story in Theosophy World.

Audio

Audio recordings available at Theosophy World website:

• Geoffrey Hodson Audio Archive.
• From Man to Superman in Theosophy World.
• The Story Of My Life (3 parts) in Theosophy World.
• Audio Recordings Taken In The USA in Theosophy World. These lectures were delivered in 1977 at Krotona Institute of Theosophy.

Over 40 recordings were posted by Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library on the Internet Archive of lectures given at the Theosophical Society in America. Examples are:

• Psychedelic and Yogic Pathways to Reality. 1967.
• The Rose and the Cross. 1956.
• Some Reflections on Teaching Theosophy. 1961.
• The Sublime Purpose of Human Existence. 1967.
• Man's Pathway to Perfection.
• Yoga: Man's Way to Power and Knowledge.
• Zen Practice and Zen Consciousness.

Theosophy New Zealand recordings:

• The Pathway to Perfection audio book read by Geoffrey Hodson at Theosophy New Zealand website.

Video lectures of Hodson

• The Hierarchy of Earth's Adepts: Part 1 and Part 2 by Geoffrey Hodson
• Interpretations of the Life and teachings of Christ. 1977. A presentation of Geoffrey Hodson given at the Krotona Institute in 1977.
• Atlantis. Geoffrey Hodson presents a talk on Atlantis thought to have been given in Australia around the 1960s.

Videos about or inspired by Hodson

• Geoffrey Hodson and the Cottingley Fairies by in the New Thinking Allowed series. Jeffrey Mishlove shares many colorful illustrations of spiritual entities from Geoffrey Hodson's book, The Kingdom of the Gods.
• Super Human Consciousness, covering the life of clairvoyant occultist Geoffrey Hodson, discussing clairvoyance, seers, theosophy, occultism, self mastery, super human consciousness, esoteric science, angels, masters of the wisdom and more.
• You think you are not clairvoyant?. Ramsey Dukes relates how he discovered his own clairvoyance, inspired by Geoffrey Hodson's Kingdom of the Gods.
• Be Ye Perfect. 70 pages of book displayed as a video with music.

Archival resources

• The Theosophical Society in America Archives has two large photo albums about Hodson donated by Diana Dunningham-Chapotin; a small collection from the family of Barbara Bradley Hebert; and correspondence scattered throughout several collections. Two films have been digitized and made available through YouTube.
• The Rare Books Room of the Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library holds a copy of a biography written by John Kirk Robertson in 1971, entitled Aquarian Occultist.
• Copies of the same typescript of Aquarian Occultist are cataloged in the national Libraries of Australia and New Zealand.
• The headquarters of the Theosophical Society in New Zealand has Hodson materials.