Produced by Thierry Alberto, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net London Lectures of 1907 By Annie Besant President of the Theosophical Society London and Benares The Theosophical Publishing Society City Agents: Lund, Humphries & Co., Ltd. Adyar, Madras: The _Theosophist_ Office New York: John Lane Chicago: The Theosophical Book Concern 1907 * * * * * Contents PART I PSYCHISM AND SPIRITUALITY THE PLACE OF MASTERS IN RELIGIONS THEOSOPHY AND THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY PART II THE PLACE OF PHENOMENA IN THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY SPIRITUAL AND TEMPORAL AUTHORITY THE RELATION OF THE MASTERS TO THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY THE FUTURE OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY PART III THE VALUE OF THEOSOPHY IN THE WORLD OF THOUGHT PART IV THE FIELD OF WORK OF THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY * * * * * Part I Psychism and Spirituality The Place of Masters in Religions Theosophy and the Theosophical Society _Three public Lectures delivered in the smaller Queen's Hall, London, on 16th, 23rd, and 30th June 1907._ Psychism and Spirituality Our subject to-night consists of two words: psychism--spirituality. I am going to speak to you on the subjects denoted by these two words, because there is so much confusion about them in ordinary conversation, in ordinary literature, and out of that confusion much of harm arises. People think of one thing and use the name of the other, and so continually fall into blunders and mislead others with whom they talk. I want to-night to draw a sharp and intelligible division between psychism and spirituality; if possible, to explain very clearly what each of them means; so that, thoroughly understanding the meaning of the things, people may choose for themselves which of the two they desire to evolve, or unfold, within themselves. For if a person, desiring to unfold the spiritual nature, uses the means which are only adapted for developing the psychic nature, disappointment, possibly danger, will result; while, on the other hand, if a person desires to develop the psychic nature, and thinks that he will reach that development quickly by unfolding his spiritual powers, he also is equally doomed to disappointment; but in the second case, only to disappointment for a time. For while it is not true that the great psychic is necessarily a spiritual person, it is true that the great spiritual person is inevitably a psychic. All the powers of Nature are subject to the Spirit, and hence, when a man has truly unfolded his spiritual nature, there is nothing in the lower