Charles Webster Leadbeater

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Charles W. Leadbeater
C. W. Leadbeater at The Manor, Sydney, Australia

Charles Webster Leadbeater was an English Theosophist best known for his writings, his clairvoyant observations, and his involvement in the early life of Jiddu Krishnamurti.

Charles Leadbeater as a young man

Early life

Early Theosophical work

Colonel Olcott sent Leadbeater to Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) to become the first principal of Ananda College. While in Ceylon, Leadbeater served as General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in that country from 1888-1889.[1]

International lecture tours

Krishnamurti

In May, 1909, C. W. Leadbeater ran into 13-year old J. Krishnamurti who was playing in the beach, and sees "the most wonderful aura he has ever seen, without a particle of selfishness". Although Theosophist and scholar Ernest Wood, who had tried to help him with his homework, considered him dim-witted, Leadbeater predicted that he would become a spiritual teacher and a great orator "much greater" than even Annie Besant.[2]

J. Krishnamurti arrived to Sydney in April 1922 to attend the Australian National Convention. There, he saw again CWL after many years. He wrote in a letter to Lady Emily C.W.L. was "just the same", and added: "He is much whiter in hair, just as jovial & beaming with happiness. He was very glad to see us. He took my arm & held on to it & introduced me to all with a 'voilà' in his tone. I was very glad to see him too."[3]

During one of the meetings at the Convention an argument pro and con CWL broke out. J. Krishnamurti, who was present, spoke out and declared that he knew Leadbeater better than most of those present, and that he could speak with some authority. As he reported later, he then declared that CWL "was one of the purest and one of the greatest men I had ever met. His clairvoyance may be doubted but not his purity."[4]

Liberal Catholic Church

Years at The Manor

Writings

Later years

Online resources

Articles and pamphlets

Additional resources

Notes

  1. "General Secretaries". The Theosophical Year Book, 1938. (Adyar, Madras, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1938), 152.
  2. Mary Lutyens, Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975), 21.
  3. Mary Lutyens, Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975), 140.
  4. Mary Lutyens, Krishnamurti: The Years of Awakening (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1975), 143.