Australian Theosophist, The.
1926--1933 Monthly
Sydney, Australia.
Publisher: Australian Section, Theosophical Society.
Editor: General Secretary of the Australian Section (initially, George S. Arundale); after 1928 "With the co-operation of the Rt. Rev. C.W. Leadbeater."
Succeeds: Advance ! Australia; Theosophy in Australia
Succeeded by: Theosophy in Australia (1934)
Corporate author: The Official Organ of the Theosophical Society in Australia 1/1, July 15, 1926-April 1928; August 1928-August 1933.
7s. in the British Empire, 8s. in other countries, 32 pp.

From mid-1928 C.W. Leadbeater was editor of the journal. This was a fairly typical sectional journal of the Adyar Theosophists, but its bland contents (tolerance, child welfare, Indian independence, practical domestic economy, the World Mother, messages from Leadbeater, Annie Besant, C.J. Jinarajadasa, etc.) conceal and gloss over the bitter internecine strife that preceded it. Dissatisfaction with the direction the Theosophical Society had taken under the guidance of Besant and Leadbeater had begun with Leadbeater's (temporary) expulsion from the T.S. in 1906 growing out of the accusations of Helen Dennis of Chicago about his "immoral sexual practices" with her son and another boy. Similar charges against Leadbeater and his protege James Wedgwood were made in Australia after World War I, principally by Thomas Hammond Martyn (- d. 1924), the head of the Sydney Lodge of the Society. Martyn, besides his outrage over Leadbeater's and Wedgwood's sexual conduct, also played a role in the bitter discussions over whether Besant had or had not said Wedgwood was an initiate -- and over whether she herself was an initiate or merely the dupe of Leadbeater. The furor in Australia centered around the Sydney Lodge and its attacks on the roles of Co-Masonry, Krishnamurti, the E.S., pederasty, ceremonialism, the "Back to Blavatsky" movement and the "T.S. Loyalty League." The convention of the Australian Section of the Society in 1922 was split, leading to the expulsion of the Sydney Lodge the next year -- though it continued for decades as the Independent Theosophical Society. George Sydney Arundale (1878-1945), who edited this journal, was General Secretary of the Australian Section, 1926-1928, and went on to become third president of the T.S. in 1934. He was an English Theosophist, prominent Co-Mason and bishop in the Liberal Catholic Church and firmly brought Theosophy in Australia back into the Besant-Leadbeater fold. D.T. Suzuki archives, Japan; Monash University; Theosophical Society in America (Wheaton); State Library of New South Wales; National Library of Australia, etc.

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