ESOTERIC: ANNIE BESANT'S PHOTOGRAPHS

Annie Besant was the second president of the Theosophical Society of Adyar, she was born in 1847, and here I'm going to show you the photos where she appears.

The oldest photo I know of is the following when Annie Besant was a child:

WHEN BESANT WAS YOUNG

Photo taken in 1869 by Dighton's Art Studio, in Cheltenham, when Annie Besant was 21 years old.

Other photos probably taken during this session:

Here with her mother:

Other photos taken during her youth in other photo shoots:

AROUND FORTY YEARS OLD

Photo taken in 1885 by photographer H.S. Mendelssohn, located at 27 Cathcart Road, South Kensington, London.

The following photos appear to have been taken around this time:

Photos taken in 1897.

Portrait painted by Dan Doolin.

Photos taken around the year 1900.

PHOTO SHOWING BESANT AS A SOCIAL ACTIVIST

In 1888, the strike of the match factory workers broke out in England, which resulted in the founding of the matchmakers' union.

This is a photo of the strike committee. Annie Besant is in the middle; she was the first secretary of this union. Next to her is Herbert Burrows, who was also an activist and Besant's friend.

Besant becomes involved in the Theosophical Society

Annie Besant and Herbert Burrows met Blavatsky in March 1889 and became her students, but sadly Blavatsky died two years later on May 8, 1891.

The following photo was taken between July 9 and 10, 1891 in London at the Blavatsky Lodge, where Blavatsky's closest students gathered to commemorate their recently deceased teacher.

Burrow is seated on the left, Besant two chairs behind, Countess Wachtmeister in the middle, and Colonel Henry Olcott can be seen in the background on the left.

Besant's Zoom

This photo features Annie Besant, Colonel Olcott, and William Judge.

At that time the Theosophical Movement had three great leaders:

- William Judge in America

- Annie Besant in Europe.

- And Colonel Olcott in Asia, who was also the president of the T.S.

PLOT AGAINST WILLIAM JUDGE

Two years after Blavatsky's death, Annie Besant allied herself with Colonel Olcott to expel William Judge from the Theosophical Society.

This began at the World Parliament of Religions, an event that took place from September 11 to 27, 1893, in Chicago, and one of the Theosophical delegates who attended this Parliament was Annie Besant.

Image showing the delegates of the Theosophical Society who attended this event:

There Besant met the orthodox Brahmin Chakravarti who became her guru and incited her to attack William Judge,

Zoom:

Three months later Annie Besant and Countess Wachtmeister (who was her main collaborator) traveled from London to India to attend the International Convention of the Theosophical Society held at its headquarters in Adyar (which is one of the neighborhoods of the city of Madras, now known as Chennai).

Photo of the Adyar Convention held in December 1893.

Detail of the photo showing Annie Besant, Colonel Olcott, and behind them Anagarika Dharmapala, a famous Sri Lankan who spread Buddhism; the Countess is on the other side of Olcott but does not appear in the zoom.

Here is another photo probably taken at this same convention where the following appear in the front row: Colonel Olcott, Countess Wachtmeister, Annie Besant and Upendranath Basu.

Another group photo, in the middle are Besant and Olcott, and perhaps the lady on the right is Countess Wachtmeister.

Another group photo, in the middle are Besant, Olcott, and Countess Wachtmeister.

Photo probably taken around this time showing Annie Besant, Colonel Olcott and Countess Wachtmeister.

Privately during this Convention, the plan to accuse William Judge of being a fraud was discussed, and after a long lawsuit that lasted for months, this caused the first division of the Theosophical Society and the premature death of William Judge, who died in 1896.

PHOTOS OF BESANT WITH HER DESCENDANTS

These photos were taken in 1895 by O. Shanessy and Co., in Melbourne. In the second photo, Besant appears with her daughter and granddaughter.

PHOTOS TAKEN WHEN BESANT WAS AROUND SIXTY YEARS OLD

This photo was taken in London in 1901. The chalatan Charles Leadbeater is standing behind Annie Besant watching what she is writing.

This photo was taken in Adyar in December 1905, and shows Colonel Olcott, Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater.

Leadbeater was expelled from the Theosophical Society for perversity, but in 1907 Colonel Olcott died and Besant was elected as the new president, and she readmitted Leadbeater into the Theosophical Society, expelled all those who did not agree with her decision, and allowed herself to be completely manipulated by Leadbeater until the end of her life.

This photo was taken in Munich in 1907 where Annie Besant appears with Rudolf Steiner (who was also a charlatan), who was the leader of the German Theosophical Section, but later separated from the Theosophical Society to found his Anthroposophical Society.

The following image shows several photos taken of Annie Besant while she was giving a lecture in the Indian city of Varanasi.

PHOTOS OF ANNIE BESANT DRESSED AS A MASON

PHOTOS WHERE ANNIE BESANT LOOKS OLDER

Photo taken around 1910 by Falk Studio.

This photo was published in 1911 in "Andhra Patrika," which was the weekly newspaper of the nationalist movement in the Telugu-speaking region.

Other photos:

This photo was taken in Sydney in 1922.

PHOTOS WITH TEENAGE KRISHNAMURTI

Charles Leadbeater met Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1909 when Krishnamurti was fourteen years old, and Leadbeater claimed that this boy had the potential to become the vehicle of Lord Christ Maitreya, the World Teacher (who was a fictional character invented by Leadbeater) and that therefore Krishnamurti had to be trained for this purpose.

Annie Besant completely believed this lie and worked hard to maintain it.

This photo was taken in 1911 and from left to right are Nitya (Krishnamurti's younger brother), Besant (who was 64 at this time), Krishnamurti and George Arundale who was one of Besant's main assistants.

Here we see Leadbeater, Besant, Krishnamurti and below is Jinarajadasa who was Leadbeater's protégé.

This photo was taken in 1911 in Adyar where a group of members pose around the bust of Colonel Olcott; in the middle from left to right are Leadbeater, Krishnamurti, Nitya and Besant.

Another group photo, in the center are Krishnamurti, Besant and Nitya.

This photo was taken in late 1911 during the annual convention of the Theosophical Society of Adyar, but on this occasion it was held in Benares.

Zoom; in the middle appear Besant, Krishnamurti and Leadbeater, and Nitya is below Besant;

Detail of another group photo featuring Krishnamurti and Besant.

This photo was taken in the Sicilian city of Taormina, Italy, in 1912; standing are George Arundale (who was also one of Krishnamurti and Nitya's tutors) and Jinarajadasa, seated are Krishnamurti (who already looks like a young adult), Besant, Leadbeater and Nitya.

BESANT ACTING LIKE SHE IS INDIAN

When Annie Besant went to live in India, she wore Indian clothing and pretended to adopt Indian customs, I suspect to please the Indians.

BESANT ENTERS POLITICS

Photo showing Annie Besant with a delegation of Indians who support local self-government.

Besant is driving a car, BP Wadia is next to her.

Photo taken in Adyar in 1915 showing Gandhi and his wife.

Zoom: on the left is Annie Besant, in the middle is Gandhi (he's the short one), and on the right is Gandhi's wife: Katurba.

Photo taken in Adyar in 1917 with members of the Order of the Brethren of Service founded by Besant

Photo taken in 1917 where Besant appears next to Sir Subbier Subramania Iyer, who was an Indian lawyer and jurist who worked with Annie Besant to establish the Indian Autonomy Movement.

Photo taken in 1917 when Annie Besant was under house arrest for promoting Indian independence.

Photo taken in Madras in 1921 where Annie Besant is walking behind Gandhi.

In this photo Annie Besant is at a meeting with Gandhi and other independence activists.

Annie Besant with some members of the Home Rule League, which was a key movement in the fight for Indian independence:

Other photos:

FIRST WORLD CONGRESS

Photo taken at the First World Congress of the Theosophical Society of Adyar, which took place in Paris in 1921, and where Annie Besant gave the opening speech.

These photos also appear to be from this event, but I'm not sure:

PHOTOS WITH ADULT KRISHNAMURTI

From 1924 onwards, Krishnamurti's followers met every year at a camp that was organized near the village of Ommen in the Netherlands.

This photo shows Annie Besant arriving by plane in the city of Arhnen, also located in the Netherlands, to then head to that camp.

Photos from this camp:

The following photo is a group shot taken at one of those meetings where Annie Besant is in the middle.

Zoom: to the left of Annie Besant is George Arundale, and behind him appears to be Charles Leadbeater.

Photo where Annie Besant lights a bonfire and Krishnamurti is behind her:

Zoom:

Another photo from this meeting:

In the following photos, Annie Besant accompanies Krishnamurti on some of the world tours she organized to promote him as the new messiah.

In the city of Arnhem, in the Netherlands, in 1924.

Arrival in Bombay of Nitya, Besant and Krishnamurti in November 1924.

This photo was taken on August 29, 1926. Annie Besant lays the first stone in a ceremony attended by Krishnamurti and a crowd, to begin construction of the headquarters of the Theosophical Society of Adyar in the United States, which was established in Wheaton, Illinois.

This photo was taken on October 3, 1926, when Annie Besant visited the Krotona Institute of Theosophy located in Ojai, California. Next to Besant is Max Wardall, and Eugene Munson, dressed in white, is in the center.

In Ommen in 1928.

These photos appear to have been taken at that meeting as well.

In New York in 1928.

The following photos appear to have been taken when they disembarked in New York from Europe.

I'm not sure if the next photo was also taken that same day, or when they took the train to travel to California, or if it was when they returned from their tour in the United States.

Leadbeater sometimes accompanied them, but he was already very focused on living like a king in Australia.

THE LIBERAL CATHOLIC CHURCH

Under Leadbeater's direction, Besant replaced the original Theosophy with a pseudo-Theosophy that is full of errors and lies, transformed the Theosophical Society into a dogmatic Adventist group, introduced Freemasonry into the Theosophical Society (despite Blavatsky saying that it should not be done), and developed a so-called Theosophical-Christian sect called "The Liberal Catholic Church" which its false bishops have since controlled and lived off of the Theosophical Society of Adyar.

This photo was taken during the consecration of George Arundale which took place in Huizen, in the Netherlands, on August 4, 1925; in the front row from left to right are: Adrian Mazel, George Arundale, Annie Besant, James Wedgwood and Frank Pigott .

This photo shows Annie Besant and the false bishops Oscar Kollerstrom, James Wedgwood and George Arundale (who became the third president of the Adyar Theosophical Society after Besant died in 1933).

In this photo, Besant and Leadbeater appear on the left during one of the liturgies of the Liberal Catholic Church.

PHOTOS WHERE BESANT IS ALREADY OLD

This photo was taken in July 1925.

Other photos:

In this photo Annie Besan is with the Belgian painter Jean Delville.

This photo features Annie Besant, Jinarajadasa, and Charles Leadbeater.

Photo taken at one of the conventions to promote "the imminent arrival of Lord Christ-Maitreya", and in the front row you can see Krishnamurti, Leadbeater, Besant and Jinarajadasa.