MYSTERY OF MYSTICISM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12955, 26 August 1905, Page 5 (Supplement)

MYSTERY OF MYSTICISM.

MRS. ANNIE BESANT, THE HIGH

PRIESTESS OF 'THEOSOPHISTS. One thousand mystics of the West, steeped in the philosophy of the East, are now in London for the great Congress of European Theosophists. There are old men and women in this cosmopolitan crowd who have garnered knowledge from the sacred writings of the past; ascetics, visionaries, and dreamers, who are themselves leaders of Theosophic thought in their own countries, but each and all of them turn instinctively for inspiration, for counsel, and for guidance to Annie ' Besant, who is their chosen leader. Sirs. Besant is ii clever woman of the world, born to lead. She wears a loosely-cut cream robe of Indian silk. In India she always wears the dress of the native woman, her hair is white and cut short to the head, her eyes deep and mysterious, and her complexion clear' in spile of the Indian sun. Strength is the keynote to her character, but there is an undercurrent of sadness in her face, and her smile, though serene, is sorrowful. To understand the marvellous power which she wields over her'world-scattered followers you must hear the appeal of her curiously sympathetic voice, feel the mysterious influence of her wonderful smile. ' JI'KR LIFE STORY. More romantic than that of any heroine of fiction is the life story of the woman who, after a stormy, troubled life, hits found peace in the study of a mystic faith, in the mastery of an abstruse philosophy. The Evangelical schoolgirl, the woman writing High Church tracts, the clergyman's wife torn by religious doubt, the Atheist and Materialist; the mother deprived of the custody of Tier child, the Socialist',' the- Spiritualist; and, last, the Theosopliisi. unite in Mrs. Besant. She has been subjected to the bitterest crusade that ever men -waged against one woman. Scepticism docs not worry her in the least. There is much of the optimist in Mrs.. Besant's nature, and she looks forward with a faith that admits of no doubt to the ultimate triumph of Theosophic thought. With a smile of quiet satisfaction she looked around at her cosmopolitan follow-' ing when asked of the progress of Theosophy in the East and in the West. "Theosophy is spreading in the West," she said. " And lam glad. But what helps me infinitely more is the certain knowledge that Theosophie thought is permeating all other religions. ' Greater by far is the progress, made by Theosophy outside what is known as 'the movement.' Theosophie beliefs, laughed clown a' dozen years ago, are commonly accepted by thinking people to-day."

WORK IN, INDIA. Of • the work in India and the gradual drawing together of Islam and Hinduism Mrs. Besant spoke most hopefully. Eleven years ago she went to Benares, the sacred city of the highest of all Indian castes, and there she established a college for the development of■ Theosophy. This college, she now says, is' a complete success; it contains 600, boys, and in addition has -twelve schools affiliated 'to it. There is a flourishing girls' school at Lahore, and at Benares a girls' college is now in course of building. Altogether there are 280 branches in India. In ■ England the Theosophical Society, founded thirty years ago by-Mine. Blavatsky, is the headquarters pf the movement, and every country of Europe is represented in the Federation of European Sections now conferring in London. ' From a practical statement of facts Mrs. Besant passed to the misty mysticism 'of Theosophic thought. Theosophy, she claims, is the oldest religion in the world, a pre-Vedic faith. It is not anti-Christian, it is not anti-religious. It is the old thought of the East, the cradle of all philosophy, permeating the ■ religions, of the West. It is' a religious philosophy which recognises that man in his innermost nature is a spiritual being, one in essence with the universal spirit. Theosophy claims ' that living man may evolve the spiritual part of his nature until he'gains a control over natural forces, and can traverse in his astral body worlds that lie beyond the portals of death. At death the physical body, and the astral double ■ disintegrate together, the vitality returning to the' universal' life. ASTRAL TELEGEAMS. Mrs. Besant, the woman of mystery, who talks of her astral spirit leaving her physical body to enter the world of shades and converse with the dead as other's speak of a casual afternoon call, who claims that she has dug out of the ancient writings strange secrets, who says that what the world calls miracles are. wrought by natural, though little understood, laws, sees nothing supernatural in all these startling phenomena. "It is so queer," she quietly says, "to hear astral phenomena regarded as supernatural marvels. There is not anything wonderful in sending a telegram, and to an occultist it is equally simple to project an astral communication to someone in another part 'of the world or on another plane." Reincarnation, the grim belief that we made our present destiny in the past and are making our future destiny in the pre-, sent, is a theory of progressive evolution in which Mrs. Besant and her disciples place implicit faith. She herself boldly states that in a previous existence upon this plane sho was Brahmin woman; and she said that she had met many people who had vague recollections of their previous incarnations.