Theosophical Encyclopedia

Alice Bailey was founder of a spiritual movement growing out of the Theosophical tradition. Born to well-to-do parents in Manchester, England, she was raised in the conservative evangelical wing of the Church of England. Although she early showed mystical tendencies, her childhood was generally unhappy. After finishing school at the age of eighteen she threw herself into religious work in the Young Women’s Christian Association. The Y.W.C.A. sent her to India, where she delivered strongly evangelical sermons to British troops. There she met Walter Evans, an American studying for the Episcopal priesthood. They were married in 1907, and she returned with him to the United States. After his ordination the couple settled in California. The marriage failed, however, and they separated in 1915 and were divorced in 1919.

Amid this personal crisis, Alice Evans – then working in a fish cannery in Pacific Grove, California – discovered Theosophy in 1915. Although her first reaction was negative, she soon found that certain of its ideas, such as karma and the existence of the Masters, appealed to her mystic side and were of help to her in her plight. She joined the Theosophical Society and, in 1917, moved to Hollywood, California, where she worked in the vegetarian cafeteria at Krotona, the Theosophical center. She there met Foster Bailey, national secretary of the Theosophical Society, whom she subsequently married.

Prominent member of the Theosophical Society in America. Raised in southern Louisiana in the U.S., he went to Cincinnati to study engineering at the university there, but a visit to its art museum caused a change in his career plans. Leaving Cincinnati University after his first year, he began a study of art at the Cincinnati Art Academy, later studying at the Art Students’ League in New York City. He then entered the field of commercial art, further preparing himself as an illustrative painter with studies at the Grand Central School of Art in that city.

He returned to Cincinnati to practice commercial art and it was there that he joined The Theosophical Society in 1928, becoming a charter member of the Cincinnati Lodge. In addition to holding a number of local offices, including President of the Ohio Federation of Theosophical Lodges for five years, he was elected to the National Board of the TS in America in 1936. He then served as its Vice President from 1939-1945 and on July 22, 1945, he was elected American Section President, succeeding Sidney A. Cook, who served in that office 1931-1945. When Perkins was succeeded in the office of American Section President by Dr. Henry A. Smith in 1960, he was named International Vice President by then International President N. Sri Ram, an office Perkins held until his death in Ojai, California. He also served as President of the Theosophical community called Taormina, located in Ojai, California, from 1986 until his death.

Mohammed ibn Mohammed Moulavi Balkhi (1207-1273). One of the greatest Sufi mystics and Persian poets. He was a professor of theology at Konya in Asia Minor until his meeting with a mysterious spiritual teacher named Shamsuddin Mohammed of Tabriz, when he abandoned his theological career and devoted himself to Sufi mysticism.

The evocation of the spirits of the dead. Other terms associated with this subject are necyomantia which refers to interaction with an animated corpse and scyomantia, communication with a shade.

A term used in Theosophical literature to describe how matter is created by “digging holes” into space by Fohat. The Secret Doctrine states that “the great Breath digs through Space seven holes into Laya to cause them to circumgyrate during Manvantara” (SD I:147).

Ark in the making

A universal legend that is found in many ancient traditions around the world.

In the Judeo-Christian-Islamic tradition, it is the story of Noah, who was told by the Lord to build an ark to save himself and his family when the Lord drowned the whole human race which had become wicked.

In various Hindu sources, such as the Satapatha Brahmana, Mahabharata, and Puranas, it is the story of Vaivasvata building a ship or ark that saved him and the seven Rishis from the flood that swept all living things. His ark rested on the Himalayas.

In Greek mythology, it was the deluge caused by Zeus when he became disgusted with the King of Arcadia, and decided to drown the entire human race. Deucalion was warned by his father, Prometheus, of the coming flood. He built an ark which saved him and his wife, Pyrrha. The ark rested on Parnassus.

This form of punishment is the application of the death penalty to certain crimes as a result of a legal process. Theosophical writers generally oppose capital punishment on various grounds, the main one being that it involves committing another murder, as well as the fact that the executed criminal, whose natural life has been cut short, becomes an earth-bound entity who can still influence the thoughts and feelings of living people to commit crime. Helena P. Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society, has made a somewhat sobering comment about capital punishment – “. . . the juryman, in deciding for a verdict of guilty, of necessity, becomes an accessory in a fresh murder.” She also, in the same article (Lucifer, June 1890, p. 335) points out that the juryman or jurywoman decides the issue on a “head” basis and not a “heart” basis, which means that not all the circumstances have been taken into account. Further, by analogy she says that a true physician wishes to cure the cause rather than the disease.