#Finnish Theosophists

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"Mark Leier recounts the story of Robert Gosden, a radical activist in the BC Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) who later turned labour spy and whose life illustrates some of this flexibility [between socialism and religion]. Although Leier does not say so, Gosden very probably disavowed Christianity during his IWW period, as most radical IWW leaders did. Leier is certainly clear that Gosden was a materialist at this time, and in 1911 he dismissed spiritualism as “metaphysical dope [that] especially appeals to some emasculated persons.” Like many socialists, Gosden denounced any association with spirituality as effeminate weakness. However, a few years later, after a stint as a labour spy, when Gosden was “nearly forty years old, with no career, stable job, or home life,” he turned to spiritualism and “became particularly interested in Theosophy.”

Theosophy had emerged from spiritualism during the 1870s but was quite different in many ways. Even so, the two movements did maintain some relationship with each other, and in the United States, Britain, and Canada a number of people, especially social activists, feminists, intellectuals, and artists, appear to have moved from spiritualism to Theosophy during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Theosophy espoused the Western occult tradition but was also influenced by many ideas from Eastern religions – Buddhism and most particularly Hinduism. As a result, karma and reincarnation were integral to its beliefs, and cremation, a Hindu practice, was common among Theosophists at a time when it was beyond the pale for most Euro-Canadians. As Gillian McCann reveals in her study of the Toronto Theosophical Society, the adoption of many major tenets of Hinduism led Theosophists to respect and appreciate Eastern religions. They were very critical of the Christian missionaries who attempted to convert the followers of these religions. They were not immune to the “Orientalism” that pervaded Euro-Canadian society, however, and they sometimes viewed Eastern religions and cultures as exotic “others,” but they were much more positive than other Canadians about these religions and were generally respectful of the South Asians who occasionally provided lectures on links between Hindu teachings and Theosophical beliefs.

The intent of Theosophy was to reach a deeper understanding of the divine. As Michele Lacombe points out, Theosophists believed in “a divinity indistinguishable from a Universe which is living, conscious, and endlessly evolving.” This evolution moved toward a positive endpoint, which included the brotherhood of mankind. Not all Theosophists subscribed to the same views, but a belief in the interconnectedness of the world and in universal brotherhood was central for all. During the early twentieth century, Canada had few Theosophists (at least as listed on the census), but between 1901 and 1921 more than 30 percent lived in British Columbia, and the province claimed over 35 percent in 1911 and 1921, although even by 1921 British Columbians composed only 6 percent of the Canadian population.

Theosophy made its first official appearance in British Columbia in 1892, with the establishment of a “headquarters” in downtown Victoria. By 1894, this headquarters was also equipped with a free library of Theosophical books. The Victoria chapter seems to have been one of Canada’s first three Theosophical Societies. The Theosophists offered regular public lectures, provided by their own members or visiting speakers, and though their numbers were small, the new religion appears to have aroused considerable public interest. Sometimes the local paper noted that their talks attracted large audiences, as in the case of visiting speakers Dr. Griffith and Sidney Coryn, whose 1896 and 1898 lectures were titled “Theosophy in Ancient Egypt” and “Adepts and the Mysteries of Antiquity. In the spring of 1911, Mr. C. Jinarajadasa, a protégé of international Theosophical leader Annie Besant and a member of the executive of the International Theosophical Society, gave a series of three lectures in Victoria titled “The Growth and Evolution of the Soul,” “Theosophy in the Christian Church,” and “The Laws of Reincarnation.” After his lectures, a letter appeared in the Victoria Colonist from a local Sikh leader, protesting the fact that even Hindus “of good social standing” like Jinarajadasa had difficulty entering the country because of its racist immigration laws. Jinarajadasa was not the only Theosophist lecturer to discuss the relationship between Christianity and Theosophy, as this was an occasional topic at the Victoria Theosophical Society’s public lectures in the decades preceding the First World War. Titles such as “What Is True Christianity?” and “Some Forgotten Teachings of Jesus” imply that Theosophists hoped to interest Christians in shared Theosophical and Christian beliefs such as universal brotherhood – beliefs that they felt many Christians failed to practise.

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Theosophy’s focus on the brotherhood of man and the amalgamation of Eastern and Western religious beliefs led at least some Canadian Theosophists to follow the example of their international leaders, such as Annie Besant, in attacking racism and British imperialism. Not surprisingly, this critique tended to concentrate on the behaviour of the British government and Christian missionaries in India, although in the Canadian context considerable focus was also placed on Canada’s racist immigration and citizenship laws. Hugh Johnston points out that both this critique and the adoption of Hindu beliefs forged links between BC Theosophists and at least a few South Asian immigrants, who were themselves highly critical of both Canada’s immigration laws and British rule in India. Johnston discusses Teja Singh, a well-educated and pious Sikh immigrant who was planning to undertake graduate work at Harvard and who spent some time in Vancouver during the pre-war years. Local Theosophists lionized him, “treating him as a guru and inviting him to their homes for intimate philosophical talks.” Canadian security officials considered Singh a subversive at least in part for his efforts to assist his compatriots in dealing with Canada’s racist immigration laws. Gillian McCann identifies another South Asian man, Kartar Singh, who immigrated to Vancouver during the pre-war years, moved to Toronto during the war, and became involved with the Toronto Theosophists. He returned to Vancouver in the late 1920s to assist the BC Sikhs in their struggle to become Canadian citizens.

Johnston also mentions another Sikh immigrant, Kapoor Singh, who was associated with the Theosophists. Singh came to British Columbia in 1912 as a labourer and became a businessman and community leader, developing increasingly close links with Theosophists in both Toronto and Vancouver. He was initially attracted to them because of their respect for Indian religious traditions and beliefs. Some Euro-Canadian Theosophists assisted South Asians in dealing with a racist society wherever they could, and by the interwar period were actively involved with them in challenging Canada’s immigration laws. Some Theosophists studied and practised their religion with the despised “Hindus” while also working to address their oppression in Canada, but the new religion was not socially transformative for everyone. Some Toronto Theosophists, who could not escape the values of Euro-Canadian society, treated visiting South Asian speakers in a highly racist manner.

Whereas some Theosophists challenged racial oppression or fought for women’s rights, others were strong socialists. Robert Gosden, although a complex figure by the time he embraced spiritualism and then Theosophy in the mid- to late 1910s, retained at least some of his socialist ideals. Perhaps the most famous BC activist to incorporate both socialist and Theosophist ideals in the years before the First World War was Matti Kurikka, the leader of Sointula, a Finnish socialist utopian community on Malcolm Island, just off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island. The extent to which the Sointula community accepted Kurikka’s Theosophical beliefs is not clear. Certainly, his embrace of the free-love currents of Theosophical thought helped to break up the community fairly soon after its founding. Those who remained, however, stayed true to socialist, cooperative beliefs but seemed more irreligious than Theosophist. As a longtime resident told Imbert Orchard in the 1960s, long-time inhabitants of Sointula “were all pretty against” the church and Christianity.

Most scholars have focused on the relationship between socialism and Theosophy in Ontario, whereas Samuel Wagar provides an in-depth exploration of the subject in the BC context. He concentrates largely on the 1920s, when active socialist and Theosophist Jack Logie ran a number of summer camps in the Okanagan that promoted both Theosophist and socialist beliefs. However, Wagar also identifies earlier links between socialism and Theosophy, arguing that materialism was not the only model available to BC socialists, since a number of prominent socialists espoused Theosophy. Wagar discusses a major front-page article titled “Socialism and Theosophy,” which appeared in the April 1903 issue of the Western Socialist, an organ of the Socialist Party of British Columbia. It was written by Phillips Thompson, an Ontario Theosophist and well-known leftist, whose career reflects an ongoing spiritual journey. In the 1880s, Thompson had promoted a radical Christian social gospel critique of capitalism, and later in the century he became involved in spiritualism. He was also an active member of Toronto’s freethought community for a time but had embraced Theosophy by the early 1890s, which he saw as the best way of integrating spirituality with socialism. As he told Western Socialist readers,

I am a class-conscious Socialist from the ground up, and I claim that my Socialism is reinforced by [Theosophy]; in fact, I might go further and say based upon the truths of Theosophy.

Thompson was clear that he did not accept Christianity, but at the same time, his article was rather different from the general hostility to religion that characterized Marxist journals in British Columbia. Wagar notes that in 1907, Jack Logie ran as a candidate for office in the Socialist Party of Canada, although he does not provide evidence that Logie was a Theosophist at the time. He has clear evidence that by 1920 some individuals combined Theosophy and socialism: for example, socialist James Taylor was also president of the Vancouver Theosophical Society in 1920, and A.M. Stephen, president of the Julian Theosophical Society in Vancouver during the early 1920s, was also a committed Marxist and a well-known author and poet. Those who integrated Theosophy and socialism were able to abandon a capitalist-tainted Christianity but retain a spiritual belief system that focused on human betterment and the brotherhood of man."

- Lynne Marks, Infidels and the Damn Churches: Irreligion and Religion in Settler British Columbia. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2017. p. 197-199, 203-205

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Author: Kyösti Suonoja

Title: Yrjö Kallinen - Pasifisti puolustusministerinä (”Yrjö Kallinen - Pacifist as a Minister of Defence”)

Publisher: Into

Year: 2019

Pages: 289

Pitkän elämänsä aikana Yrjö Kallinen nousi Suomen politiikan ikimuistoisimpien hahmojen joukkoon. Hänet tunnettiin kansanvalistajana, osuustoimintamiehenä, sosiaalidemokraattina, puhujana, mystikkona, pasifistina ja puolustusministerinä.

Yrjö Kallinen – Pasifisti puolustusministerinä tarkastelee Kallisen paradoksaalista elämää, ajattelua ja politiikkaa, ristiriitoja ja perintöä. Runsain lainauksin ja muisteloin varustettu teos päästää ääneen henkilöitä Kallisen elämän eri vaiheilta.

VTT Kyösti Suonoja (s. 1937) on tietokirjailija, joka on työskennellyt järjestöelämässä, yliopistoissa, valtionhallinnossa ja kehitysyhteistyössä. Hänen vaikutusalueensa ulottuu Suomesta Mosambikiin. Hän on vanha osuuskuntalainen, joka tunsi Yrjö Kallisen henkilökohtaisesti.

https://kauppa.intokustannus.fi/kirja/yrjo-kallinen-pasifisti-puolustusministerina

Yrjö Kallisen mysteerit – kun pasifisti toimi puolustusministerinä (Helsingin Sanomat, 9.2. 2019)

Pasifisti puolustusministerinä (YLE Elävä Arkisto)

http://jormamelleri.vapaavuoro.uusisuomi.fi/kulttuuri/270340-yrjo-kallinen-kaveleva-paradoksi

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Author: Yrjö Kallinen

Title: Elämmekö unessa (”Are we living in sleep?”)

Publisher: Tammi

Year: 1971

Pages: 185

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Yrjö Kallinen (1886 - 1976) celebrated his 80th birthday on the 15th of June, 1966.

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Yrjö Kallinen’s obituary @ Helsingin Sanomat, 3 January 1976

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Yrjö Kallinen: Elämän syvyysaspektin arviointia (1969)

Opetusneuvos Yrjö Kallinen - pasifisti, teosofi, entinen puolustusministeri ja osuustoimintamies - puhuu tässä 18.4.1969 tallennetussa esitelmässä innoittavasti ja innostuneesti aikansa poliittisesta tilanteesta, sodasta, ihmisluonnosta, kulttuurin suggestiovoimasta, elämän syvyysaspektin tutkimisesta, parapsykologiasta, psykologiasta, hindulaisuudesta ja tietenkin siitä, kuinka unessa me olemme.

Äänitetty Stefan Tallqvistin toimesta Sällskapet för psykisk forskning -yhdistyksen kokouksessa 18.4.1969. Julkaissut 2011 Tajunta.net.

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Author: Fyrqvist, Minna-Maria

Title: Teosofien Suur-Suomi (”The Greater Finland of Theosophists”)

Publication date: December 2016

Publisher: Teos (Helsinki)

Hardcover with dust jacket.

Finnish Public Libraries Classification Number: 21.5 Size: 140 × 210 mm 208 pp. Cover art: Akseli Gallen-Kallela / Mika Tuominen ISBN: 978-951-851-611-1 

“Rakensiko kalevalainen kansa Egyptin pyramidit? Tekeekö älyn pysyminen pään alueella ihmisestä vaalean ja sinisilmäisen? Kävikö Väinämöinen Jeesuksen salakoulua? Onko perunansyönti tyhmentänyt eurooppalaisia ja tehnyt heistä materialisteja? Näitä ja monia muita pistäviä kysymyksiä on Suomessakin vakavasti pohdittu, erityisesti 1900-luvun ensimmäisellä puoliskolla. Maahamme levinneet esoteeriset opit, ennen kaikkea teosofia ja Rudolf Steinerin antroposofia, innoittivat vuosisadan alun kulttuuriväkeä etsimään korkeampia henkisiä sfäärejä ja kuvaamaan niiden viisauksia niin teoriassa kuin taiteessakin. Tärkeä ‘kotouttava’ tekijä oli Kalevala, jonka nationalistis-teosofiset tulkinnat synnyttivät mitä erikoisimman ajatuksen henkisestä Suur-Suomesta. Aihetta jo pitkään tutkineen Minna-Maria Fyrqvistin tietokirja Teosofien Suur-Suomi avaa ainutlaatuisella tavalla esoteeristen liikkeiden historiaa Suomessa. Teosofia ja antroposofia ovat vaikuttaneet vahvasti esimerkiksi modernin länsimaisen taiteen kehitykseen, myös meillä, ja niiden kaiut ovat läsnä 2000-luvullakin.“

Links in Finnish:

http://www.vihrealanka.fi/kulttuuri/teosofien-suur-suomi http://heikinvaraventtiili.blogspot.fi/2017/02/houreista-hutiloiden-ja-liikaa-luvaten.html https://www.aamulehti.fi/kulttuuri/suomalaisen-kulttuurin-suurmiehilla-oli-salamyhkaisia-harrastuksia-taiteilijat-tavoittelivat-yliluonnollisia-kykyja-200128802/ http://www.is.fi/kotimaa/art-2000005148383.html

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Jyväskylän keskusta kätkee harvojen tunteman temppelin – perustajan mukaan Väinämöisen enkeli määräsi rakennuksen paikan, mutta keitä siellä käy? Suomalaisen salatieteen historian olennainen palanen sijaitsee Jyväskylässä. Puinen temppeli kantaa Pekka Ervastin nimeä, mutta kuka hän oli, ja mitä tekemistä Kalevalalla on Kristuksen kanssa? (Yle Uutiset, 1.7. 2018)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekka_Ervast

http://www.pekkaervast.net/

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Pekka Elias Ervast (26 December 1875 - 22 May 1934)

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Pekka Ervast - suuri suomalainen haaveilija 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekka_Ervast

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Author: Yrjö Kallinen Title: Tässä ja nyt ("Here and now") Year: 1965 Publisher: Tammi, Helsinki

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Title: Luettelo Pekka Ervastin kirjoista ("An index of the books by Pekka Ervast")

Author: Pekka Okko

Publisher: Ruusu-Ristin Kirjallisuusseura ry

Year: 1997

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekka_Ervast http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pekka_Ervast

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http://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veikko_Palomaa