The London Theosophical Post
The weBlog of the London Members of the Theosophical Society in England
Welcome!
This is the journal of the London Members of the TSE. It carries details of events in and around London - and much more!
It is currently in test format; it will be launched in December 2011.
It is currently in test format; it will be launched in December 2011.
Saturday, 2 November 2019
Wednesday, 10 June 2015
Olive Hockin - Pan, Dryads, and Nymphs watercolour
A recently discovered watercolour painting by Olive Hockin, Theosophist, Suffragette, and artist. She was influenced by spiritual and occult matters, and this painting shows a mystical woodland scene with the god Pan, Nymphs, and Dryads - beings she believed she could see. The style is reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelites, and Victorian Fairy paintings, but has a definite magic of its own; dated 1914.
Olive Hockin, like many Theosophian women artists, studied at the Slade School of Art in 1901-3 & again in 1910-11; she also wrote for Orpheus, the magazine of the Theosophical Art Circle. As one of several leaders of the Suffragette movement suspected of plotting to kill the Prime Minister, she was arrested and imprisoned for four months in 1909, taking with her prints of Love and Death by G F Watts and The Golden Stairs by Edward Burne-Jones She worked as a land-girl during World War One and wrote a book, Two Girls on the Land. She married John Leared, a trainer of polo ponies and had two children: she died in 1936 but her descendants still treasure her work....
Labels:
Art,
Fairies,
Occult,
Orpheus,
Spirits,
Theosophians,
Theosophist
Wednesday, 11 July 2012
Signs, Symbols, Secrets: an illustrated guide to alchemy
Science Museum, Kensington
Seond Suggested duration: 15 mins
Opening Dates: Fri 27 Apr 2012 - Sat 27 Apr 2013
Cost: Free
The exhibition displays 22 of the most striking images from the rich collection of the Science Museum’s Library & Archives. Dating from the 16th to the 18th centuries, these works reveal the power and intricacy of alchemical art, whilst allowing us to attempt an interpretation of the hidden meanings behind the symbols.
At the heart of the exhibition is a newly discovered manuscript: a Ripley scroll. These rare scrolls include some of the most complex and fascinating alchemical imagery in existence. For the first time, this object can be viewed alongside selected texts and images from the Museum’s collections.Its rich symbolism offers clues – both practical and theoretical – for the creation of the philosophers’ stone
.
Only 23 Ripley scrolls are known to exist. This one dates from the 18th century and is the most recently discovered. Scholars believe that all the surviving examples are copies and variations upon a lost 15th-century original. They are named after the famous English alchemist George Ripley, although there is no evidence that Ripley designed the scrolls himself. The scrolls range in size, but are all too long to be viewed and understood in a single glance. Scholars are still investigating how they are meant to be read and used. It is possible that the original scroll was created for a wealthy patron interested in alchemy. Over time, the scrolls have become prized for the quality of their imagery.
Labels:
Alchemy,
exhibition,
Healing,
Philosophers' Stone,
secrets,
signs,
symbols
Location:
Science Museum, Kensington SW7 2DD
Tuesday, 19 June 2012
BBC RADIO FOUR: IN OUR TIME
THURSDAY 21 JUNE 2012, 0900 AND 2130 - AND ON BBC I-PLAYER
Annie Besant
Duration: 43 minutes
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of the campaigner and writer
Annie Besant. A radical political voice, Besant was involved in the 1888
matchgirls' strike at the Bryant and May factory, which brought the appalling
working conditions of many factory workers to greater public attention. Later
she campaigned for self-rule in India, and was a prominent member of the
mystical Theosophical Society.
Producer: Thomas Morris.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/annie_besant
Producer: Thomas Morris.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/annie_besant
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of the campaigner and writer
Annie Besant. A radical political voice, Besant was involved in the 1888
matchgirls' strike at the Bryant and May factory, which brought the appalling
working conditions of many factory workers to greater public attention. Later
she campaigned... > Show more
Labels:
Annie Besant,
BBC Radio 4,
Theosophical Society
Location:
50 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8EA, UK
Sunday, 12 February 2012
Victorian Spiritualities
One
Day Colloquium on 17 March 2012
This
one-day colloquium will explore Victorian Spiritualities from a wide range of perspectives.
Contributions on literary topics explore key figures such as Dickens and G.M. Hopkins,
as well as lesser-known writers like Fitz-James O’Brien and T.E. Brown. Contributions
on art history include a presentation on Evelyn de Morgan and Emily Ford, and
there are also papers on ballet and textiles. Psychology, postcolonial studies
and philosophy are also represented. The day will cover a wide variety of
religious traditions, including Catholicism, Anglicanism and the Oxford
Movement, Spiritualism, the Russian Orthodox Church, Quakerism, Judaism, and Buddhism.
The keynote speakers are literary critic Elisabeth Jay and art historian
Michaela Giebelhausen.
Registration Fee: £40 (includes copy of the Leeds Working Papers
volume for the colloquium containing c.25 articles, plus lunch and
refreshments). For more details and to register, contact j.hamblin@leedstrinity.ac.uk.
Colloquium convenor: Jane de
Gay
Labels:
Spiritual,
Theosophical Society
Sunday, 8 January 2012
Dreams of nature. Symbolism from Van Gogh to Kandinsky
24.02.12_17.06.12
Symbolism was a pioneering movement in painting of the late 19th-century. Its roots lie in philosophy and poetry, and it was closely associated with music. Symbolist artists endeavoured to evoke dreams and visions, rather than record visible reality. A reaction to the growing industrialisation and materialism of Europe, symbolist works reflect feelings of fear and pessimism, as well as a longing for spirituality and mythology.
This is the first exhibition dedicated to the symbolist landscape in Europe. Some 70 poetical and evocative paintings of nature from the period 1880–1910 will offer a new perspective on this intriguing movement. Artists used their landscapes to represent their vision of death, dreams, infinity and the cosmos, feelings of nationalism or ideas about science and the modern age.
Music accompanying the exhibition
Symbolism emerged from philosophy and poetry and was closely connected to music. For instance, Kandinsky was inspired by the music of Schönberg, and Rachmaninoff wrote music to accompany Böcklin’s Island of the dead. Visitors to this exhibition can experience the mutual influence between these different arts for themselves by listening to compositions from the Symbolist period.
Themes
The exhibition is organised into the following six themes:
Touring exhibition
Dreams of nature has been organised by guest curators Richard Thomson and Rodolphe Rapetti, specialists in the area of landscape painting and Symbolism. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with The National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (14 July - 14 October 2012) and the Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki (16 November 2012 - 17 February 2013).
Publication
Landscapes of the imagination. Symbolism from Van Gogh to Kandinsky by Richard Thomson, Rodolphe Rapetti, Frances Fowle and Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff.
In this publication the authors present an entirely new perspective on these special landscapes, from the precursors of symbolism, such as Böcklin and Whistler, to Mondrian and Kandinsky, whose variations on landscape themes provided the impetus for their later abstract work.
(208 pages, 130 illustrations English, Dutch, French, Finnish, Swedish, softcover, approx. € 29.95, Van Gogh Museum/The National Galleries of Scotland/ Ateneum Art Museum / Mercatorfonds, available from February 2012)
Sunday lectures
Symbolism was a pioneering movement in painting of the late 19th-century. Its roots lie in philosophy and poetry, and it was closely associated with music. Symbolist artists endeavoured to evoke dreams and visions, rather than record visible reality. A reaction to the growing industrialisation and materialism of Europe, symbolist works reflect feelings of fear and pessimism, as well as a longing for spirituality and mythology.
This is the first exhibition dedicated to the symbolist landscape in Europe. Some 70 poetical and evocative paintings of nature from the period 1880–1910 will offer a new perspective on this intriguing movement. Artists used their landscapes to represent their vision of death, dreams, infinity and the cosmos, feelings of nationalism or ideas about science and the modern age.
The exhibition will cover a wide range of artists, from forerunners of symbolism, like Böcklin and Whistler, to Mondrian and Kandinsky, who provided the impulse for major 20th-century movements, such as surrealism and abstraction. Works by renowned painters, like Monet, Gauguin, Van Gogh and Munch, will be presented alongside lesser known, but equally fascinating artists from the Nordic countries and Eastern Europe. |
Music accompanying the exhibition
Symbolism emerged from philosophy and poetry and was closely connected to music. For instance, Kandinsky was inspired by the music of Schönberg, and Rachmaninoff wrote music to accompany Böcklin’s Island of the dead. Visitors to this exhibition can experience the mutual influence between these different arts for themselves by listening to compositions from the Symbolist period.
Themes
The exhibition is organised into the following six themes:
- Ancient and new paradises: Artists like Böcklin, Von Stuck and Puvis de Chavannes took inspiration from classical antiquity and mythology. Others, such as Signac and Gauguin, looked for paradise in unspoiled places far away from modern society.
- Nature and suggestion: Rather than just faithfully representing reality, landscapes by Symbolists such as Gallen-Kallela, Sohlberg and Hodler also reflect the feelings that nature evoked in the artist.
- Dreams and visions: Gauguin, Munch and Malczewski tried to open the gates to the unconscious mind. They painted dreams and visions, the world beneath the surface of observable reality.
- Silent cities: Many Symbolist artists saw modern city life as a threat. Whistler, Degouve de Nuncques and Khnopff transformed the city into a mysterious, dreamlike landscape born of memory and imagination.
- The cosmos: Through their landscapes, painters such as Watts, Van Gogh and Willumsen expressed their ideas about natural forces, cosmic energy, the eternal cycle of the seasons and the insignificance of human beings in the face of nature.
- Into the mystic: In their quest to express the sublime and spiritual, many artists (such as Whistler, Signac and Ciurlionis) drew connections between painting and music, while others (like Mondrian and Kandinsky) took the first steps towards abstraction.
Touring exhibition
Dreams of nature has been organised by guest curators Richard Thomson and Rodolphe Rapetti, specialists in the area of landscape painting and Symbolism. The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with The National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh (14 July - 14 October 2012) and the Ateneum Art Museum, Finnish National Gallery, Helsinki (16 November 2012 - 17 February 2013).
Publication
Landscapes of the imagination. Symbolism from Van Gogh to Kandinsky by Richard Thomson, Rodolphe Rapetti, Frances Fowle and Anna-Maria von Bonsdorff.
In this publication the authors present an entirely new perspective on these special landscapes, from the precursors of symbolism, such as Böcklin and Whistler, to Mondrian and Kandinsky, whose variations on landscape themes provided the impetus for their later abstract work.
(208 pages, 130 illustrations English, Dutch, French, Finnish, Swedish, softcover, approx. € 29.95, Van Gogh Museum/The National Galleries of Scotland/ Ateneum Art Museum / Mercatorfonds, available from February 2012)
Sunday lectures
- 26 February 2012 - Europe 1900: New landscapes for changing times by Richard Thomson, Watson Gordon Professor of Fine Art, University of Edinburgh (English spoken). 1 April 2012 - Symbolist landscapes and silent cities by Frances Fowle, Curator of French Art, National Galleries of Scotland (English spoken).
- 6 May 2012 - Dream landscapes and music. From Debussy to Schönberg by Edwin Becker, Head of Exhibitions, Van Gogh Museum.
The exhibition has been supported by the Dutch government: an indemnity grant has been provided by the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. |
Dreams of nature is made possible with support from the Prince Bernhard Cultural Foundation. |
Wednesday, 21 December 2011
REMEMBERING MARY BRACE
Photo
by Mary's good friend, Queenie Hamilton
The
esoteric atmosphere created at 50 Gloucester Place by over 75 years of
Theosophy and spiritual aspiration is a source of comfort and inspiration to
many people. Mary Brace, a TS member since 1987, was undoubtedly one of them.
Not feeling truly at home where she lived, she found inner peace at TSHQ. She
was a familiar face in the front row at Sunday lectures for many years, and at
Blavatsky Lodge meetings.
Born a short
distance from 50 Gloucester Place (in Chiltern Street at 84 Wendover Court),
she much liked the atmosphere of the Marylebone area and regretted leaving it.
In her spiritual life although brought up Catholic, she became a Baptist, later
to find Theosophy. Her career began with nursing, and developed into welfare
and social work. She had multiple interests including: photography, ballet,
swimming, French, German, Egyptology. Her good heart caused her, aged about 60,
to run the London marathon, sponsored for charity.
She never
married, but with her good friend Mike, she travelled to far-flung places such
as Nepal, Sri Lanka, and The Gambia. Her next great adventure began suddenly at
home in snowy mid-December, aged about 80. Her quiet, peaceful presence at TSHQ
is much missed.
Edward Archer
(The London
Theosophical Post will have room to honour all our members and rememberances are welcomed. - Ediitor)
Labels:
50 Gloucester Place,
Spiritual,
Sunday lectures,
Theosophy,
TS member
Location:
Marylebone, London W1U 8EA, UK
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