Theosophy and the Society in the Public Eye

Text and photos by Richard Dvořák

Richard Dvořák, photographer, author and fellow seeker

Immersed in the enchanting landscapes of India, my ongoing journey goes beyond mere appreciation for its beauty. Participating in the School of the Wisdom - "Love and Death in Great Spiritual Traditions" at the Blavatsky Bungalow on the TS Campus in Adyar, that was guided by Ravi Ravindra, from January 16 to January 26, 2024, but I am also deeply involved volunteering at Tiruvannamalai.

Joma at work, always modest, dedicated and inspired ...

In 2023 I concluded a series that begun in 2020 called The Manifestations of Love, a series of 9 panels, made on black canvas, 70x90cm in size, with golden and silver ink pens and crystals, including texts written by my dear friend Polì Cardoso, who lives in  Brazil.

Joma looking up at one of his fine creations

Reflecting on the panels I started doing with the series “Christ Energy and Light”, I became interested in knowing more about the Holy Shroud of Turin. There is much information available and the revealing photos of Secondo Pia, the very first photographer of the Shroud back in 1898 are awesome. All the information leads to the real cloth that covered the body of Christ when he descended from the cross and was put in the grave in a cave, although there are many speculations about its origins and even how the image was formed on the cloth. I bought the book written by Guiseppe Enrie, another photographer who took pictures of the Shroud in 1931. It  contains detailed photos and descriptions of all that was discovered on the cloth. Recently many other discoveries were made, including some letters, written in various languages bearing words used during the time of the Christ crucifixion.  

David M. Grossman – USA

The author and compiler

New York City is unquestionably one of the great visual art centers of the world with such institutions as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art just to name a few. Yet most people, not even New Yorkers are aware that on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on a quiet residential Street just off Riverside Drive in a townhouse that basically blends in with the other buildings on West 107th Street sits a quiet little jewel that is the Nicholas Roerich Museum.

Photos by Richard Dvořák

A good friend and I, hailing from Germany, had the pleasure of attending an immersive workshop called "Cooperative Work with Invisible Worlds" conducted by the esteemed Kurt Leland at the renowned International Theosophical Centre in Naarden, the Netherlands This enlightening experience offered us valuable insights into the existence of invisible realms and entities, particularly nonhuman beings like nature spirits, fairies, devas, and angels. I must admit, I have yet to discover a more conducive place in Europe for cultivating our inner senses than the enchanting forest that beckons us to take leisurely walks. During these peaceful strolls, I always make a point to pause by the garden beneath St. Michael's House, where the statues of Tara and Buddha stand, serenely facing one another.

Capturing the essence of invisible worlds through photography has always been a challenging endeavor.

On Sunday, June 4, 2023, a phenomenon known as the "strawberry moon" was to grace the night sky, possibly casting a unique ambiance and illumination. Inspired by this, I aimed to capture the ethereal glow of moonlight upon the Tara through long exposure. Around 2 AM, I embarked on a nocturnal journey through the shadowy forest, but to my disappointment, the moon failed to rise above the treetops, leaving the landscape dimly lit. Even with significantly prolonged exposure times, the resulting images would have been grainy and lacking clarity.

Fortunately, I had a small key flashlight at my disposal. With the camera shutter open for a duration of 30 seconds, I began to experiment. The two images below are the result of allowing the beam of light to pass through my thumb, painting a red line onto the photograph, while whirling and dancing towards the statues, away from the camera. Counting to 20, I then directed the bright light to illuminate the statues for just a second, capturing a fleeting moment of brilliance.

Joma the artist, smiling all over

Joma says:

“I don't care about the garment that covers the body, but the mantle of Stars that surrounds the Soul.”

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Marco Pasi – the Netherlands

Thought-Forms - At a Shipwreck. Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater

For almost a century and a half after the inception of the Theosophical Society, the central tenets of Theosophy continue to resurface in art created today

Starting from thee 1960s, and especially since the publication of the ground­ breaking book by Sixten Ringbom, The Sounding Cosmos (1970), there has been a considerable amount of research on the relationship between Theosophy, or more generally alternative spirituality, and modern art. Important books and essays have been published, major retrospectives have been held, and large research projects such as ‘Enchanted Modernities’ have been funded. Although there may still be differen­ces of opinion regarding the extent of Theosophy’s influence on the origins of abstract art, and on the development of the early twentieth­ century avant­garde, it would be naïve for an art historian today to deny that such an influence existed at all. Hilma af Klint has played a paradigmatic role in this story. Whereas it had been possible for some critics and art historians to minimize the extent of the influence of Theosophy on other early representatives of abstract or non­mimetic art, such as Kandinsky and Mondrian, things were different with af Klint. Given that her work was ‘discovered’ more recently, it has always been clear that esoteric ideas were crucial in her artistic output. Evidently, without considering this, it would be impos­sible to fully understand what she was doing or why she was doing it. The context of her ‘discovery’ was quite indicative of this, since it happened on the occasion of the groundbreaking 1986 exhibition The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, held at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The growing appreciation of af Klint as a key figure for early twentieth ­century art has perhaps helped indirectly to better understand the importance of Theosophy and alternative spirituality for the artists who were her contemporaries and who had always received most attention from critics and historians.