Annie Besant

Esoteric Christianity Annie Besant

Annie Wood Besant was a prominent Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator. Annie was born in London in 1847. After her father died her mother supported the family by running a boarding house. Annie's mother asked her friend Ellen Marryat to raise Annie. This gave her an excellent education and the opportunity to travel. Annie became an educated independent woman acutely aware of social causes. When Annie married a clergyman they had difficulties over Annie's money she earned writing and their opposing political views. The couple eventually separated. Annie along with C W Leadbeater became interested in thought-form and clairvoyant studies. Annie fought for the causes she thought were right, starting with freedom of thought, women's rights, secularism, birth control, the Fabian socialism and workers' rights. Her lectures are an excellent glimpse into the culture and moral questions of the turn of the century in England. Besant says in the Introduction "The object of this book is to suggest certain lines of thought as to the deep truths underlying Christianity, truths generally overlooked, and only too often denied." She then says, "This is the way of the Divine Wisdom, the true THEOSOPHY. It is not, as some think, a diluted version of Hinduism, or Buddhism, or Taoism, or of any special religion. It is Esoteric Christianity as truly as it is Esoteric Buddhism, and belongs equally to all religions, exclusively to none. This is the source of the suggestions made in this little volume, for the helping of those who seek the Light--that "true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."