MRS ANNIE BESANT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 10482, 20 October 1894, Page 6

MRS ANNIE BESANT.

“THEOSOPHY AND ITS TEACHINGS.” There was a large audience at tne Theatre Royal last night, when Mrs Besant lectured on “ Theosophy and i* s Feacninge.” The high priestess of the “ Wisdom Religion” gave an erudite and eloquent exposition thereof. She sketched its history from the time when it was taught by great teachers among the Aryan race in its cradle in the north of India. Its doctrines, she said, had been taught in Egypt, Persia, Chaldea and China, in ancient Greece and Rome, among the early Christians, especially amongst the Gnostics. It received the name Theosophy in the Neo-Platonic school of Alexandria. Its principles were taught by the Arabian philosophers of a later time. In Europe its teachings were found in the writings or Roger Bacon, Paracelsus, Giordano Bruno, ana the German and English mystics. In our time ita spread was checking the advance of materialism. Summarising the teachings of Theosophy, Mrs Besant said that every universe was the outcome of the one boundless existence which manifested itself as life and intelligence. The divine nature was triple in manifestation, its first aspect being life, its second life and form, ita third thought. This idea was found in all religions. The first living _ intelligences breathed out of the divine life, wore the builders, the planetary spirits, the Davas of the Indian religion, the angels and archangels of Christians and Hebrews. Their action was seen in the laws of nature, and the fact that they were of varying degrees of power and intelligence explained why there were blunders and imperfections in nature. Man was a spiritual intelligence in process of evolution; and his nature, which was co-relatcd to that of the universe, was sevenfold, its seven principles being the physical body, the astral body, tha vital energy, the body of desire, the mind, the soul, the spirit’s divine life. The first four were mortal, and the last three immortal. The lecturer gave a lucid portrayal of the power of thought. What we thought we became. Our future was inevitable, but it was we who made it. She concluded with an eloquent exposition of the doctrine of reincarnation, the means by which the soul progressed to higher and higher stages. This morning Mrs Besant will leave by the express for Dunedin. During the week she has had a very large number of callers with inquiries asto her teaching. -