United Lodge of Theosophists

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The United Lodge of Theosophists or ULT or ULT for short is a theosophical organization founded in 1909 by Robert Crosbie in Los Angeles .

prehistory

Robert Crosbie was a member of the Theosophical Society in America (TGinA). In 1904 there was a break with the director Katherine Tingley . Crosbie then left the TGinA and founded a theosophical study group in 1906 with some interested neighbors in South Pasadena . Shortly afterwards he received from Ernest T. Hargrove and his Theosophical Society in America (Hargrove) (TGinA-Hargrove) a deed of foundation for the establishment of a lodge in Los Angeles . When the TGinA-Hargrove was considering changing its name to The Theosophical Society in 1907, Crosbie considered establishing a new organization.

Foundation of the ULT

In 1907, together with seven other members, Crosbie drafted a Declaration of the United Lodge of Theosophists , which provided for the foundation of the ULT on the basis of the ideas of Blavatsky and Judge. The Declaration is today (2006) is the only basis of the ULT. It consists of about 280 words and regulates the entire direction and organization of the group. It proclaims the independence of the ULT and rejects any argument about the direction of the theosophical teaching. On November 17, 1908, Crosbie published his thoughts in a circular To all open-mindet Theosophists, and on February 18, 1909, the ULT was founded in Los Angeles .

There is no membership and lectures and publications are mostly held anonymously. Personality cult is avoided.

development

After it was founded by Robert Crosbie in 1909, the ULT grew slowly. In November 1912, Crosbie published the magazine Theosophy as the publication organ of the ULT. In the same year he called the first (ULT) theosophical school , this corresponded roughly to the esoteric section of other TGs. In 1916 he was able to open two new boxes with an attached school in San Francisco and Berkeley . After Crosbie died on June 25, 1919, the dissolution of the ULT or a reintegration into the TGinA-Hargrove was considered.

Bahman Pestonji Wadia was dissatisfied with the changes in Blavatsky's theosophy in the Adyar-TG, which is why he resigned on July 18, 1922 and became a member of the ULT. He promoted the existing study groups and created new groups through lectures and written instructions. In 1923 he founded several new lodges on the east coast of the USA , and in 1925 he succeeded in establishing the first lodge outside the USA in Great Britain . France followed in 1928 and, as a competitor to the Adyar-TG in his own country, a lodge in Mumbai in 1929 , from 1930 he brought out a new magazine, The Aryan Path , especially for India . On August 11, 1945, Wadia founded The Indian Institute of World Culture (IIWC) in Bangalore , a sister organization of the ULT specially geared to Indian conditions. During his work for the ULT, other lodges were founded in the USA , India, the Netherlands and Belgium .

Teaching

The works of Blavatsky and Judge form the basis of ULT theosophy. Titles consistent with theosophy, especially Eastern philosophy and ancient Greek literature, are also regarded as canonical, with reservations. Only these have a student to study and implement in practical life. In order to ensure the “purity” of the teaching, facsimile reprints of the Blavatsky first editions were produced by ULT . Other editions, above all those from other Theosophical Societies (TG), which sometimes contain minor corrections or adjustments to today's spellings, are rejected as heretical .

swell

  1. ↑ Kocku von Stuckrad: What is esotericism? Beck, Munich 2004, p. 213.

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