George Robert Stow Mead

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George Robert Stow Mead

George Robert Stow Mead (sometimes also George Robert Stowe Mead , mostly just GRS Mead or GRS Mead ) (born March 22, 1863 in Peckham (now London ), England ; † September 28, 1933 in London) was an English author , Theosophist and founder of the Quest Society .

Live and act

Childhood, job, marriage

Mead was born on March 22, 1863 in Peckham, now part of the London Borough of Southwark , the younger of two children of Robert and Charlotte Mead . He grew up in Nuneaton on, the father was colonel of artillery in the British Army . After attending King's School in Rochester , he studied mathematics at St John's College in Cambridge from 1881 . After a short time he gave up this course and switched to classical studies (Classics) as well as Latin and ancient Greek . 1884 Bachelor of Arts and 1886 Master of Arts . He seems to have started studying Eastern Philosophy at the University of Oxford , whether or not he finished it is unclear. Until 1889 he worked as a teacher at a private school.

In 1899 Mead married the theosophist Laura Mary Cooper (1857-1924), whom he had met in the Theosophical Society . The marriage remained childless.

The theosophist

After completing his first bachelor's degree, he joined the London Lodge and thus the Theosophical Society in 1884 . After he first met Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in May 1887 , he gave up his teaching profession in 1889, became her private secretary and joined the Blavatsky Lodge , which he later also ran as president. In addition to the execution of Blavatsky's correspondence he supported her as an assistant with the publication of her magazine Lucifer and was on July 9, 1890 Secretary General of the newly established European Section of the Theosophical Society , the European Section of the Theosophical Society . After Blavatsky's death on May 8, 1891, he organized and directed her cremation .

When Annie Besant became editor of the journal Lucifer , he was her deputy, from September 1887 as the main person in charge , he was responsible for renaming the paper in The Theosophical Review . In 1891 he also took over the publication of the theosophical journal The Vahan and in 1893, together with Besant, undertook the revision of the work The Secret Doctrine (Volume 1 + 2) for its 3rd edition (the complete German translation is based on this revised 3rd edition). However , he declined to collaborate on the controversial third volume of the Secret Doctrine , which was published by Besant in 1897. Because of the increase in his work as an author and translator, he resigned in April 1898 from his office as Secretary General of the European Section.

Charles Webster Leadbeater was expelled from the Theosophical Society on May 16, 1906 for alleged homosexual relationships with his students. After Annie Besant became the new president of the Theosophical Society in June 1907, she pushed through the resumption of Leadbeater in January 1909. Mead strongly opposed this decision and when this was unsuccessful, he resigned from the Theosophical Society on February 20, 1909, along with a number of other theosophists, and resigned from all offices.

Then on March 11, 1909, he founded his own organization, the Quest Society, independent of the Theosophical Society . To this end, he founded the magazine The Quest , for which he also acted as editor. The Great Depression of 1929 also put Mead and a number of members of the Quest Society in financial difficulties, so that the organization had to be dissolved in 1930 and The Quest magazine was discontinued.

The author

His work encompassed the themes of Gnosticism , Neoplatonism , Hermetics and Religion . In 1896 he was the first to translate the Pistis Sophia into English ; to this day (2006) there is no better translation of this work. He has also published a number of articles in Lucifer , The Theosophical Review , The Vahan, and The Quest . As one of the few theosophical authors, some of his works also gained recognition in established science. Friedrich Max Müller and Carl Gustav Jung thanked him for his work. Because of his membership in the Theosophical Society, his work was and is often viewed only with prejudice.

Works (selection)

As an author

As translator

  • Orpheus, The Theosophy of the Greeks . Adamant Media, Boston 2005, ISBN 1-4021-8316-X . (Reprint from 1896)
  • Pistis Sophia, The gnostic tradition of Mary Magdalene, Jesus, and his disciples . Dover Publications, Mineola 2005, ISBN 0-486-44064-8 .
  • Thrice Greatest Hermes . Samuel Weiser, Newburyport 2001, ISBN 0-87728-947-6 . (Reprint from 1906)

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Mead, George Robert Stow
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mead, George Robert Stowe; Mead, GRS; Mead, GRS
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English author, theosophist and founder of the Quest Society
DATE OF BIRTH March 22, 1863
PLACE OF BIRTH Peckham (now part of London ), England
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 1933
Place of death London , England