Yearning for the New Age: Laura Holloway-Langford and Late Victorian Spirituality

3. “Better Come”

56 Laura Holloway-Langford, like many women who joined the Theosophical Society, sought opportunities for leadership and creativity that were not easily available in Victorian society.1 She wanted to reveal her clairvoyant gifts openly, to test their powers, and to be rewarded for them. Additionally, she longed to escape the persona that she had so carefully constructed in Brooklyn, daring to hope that she might refashion her personal life unhindered by bourgeois social expectations and sexual mores. Holloway-Langford did not meet Helena P. Blavatsky and Henry Steel Olcott while they lived in New York, but she had heard about their claims to occult knowledge from friends.2 She also had read articles about spiritualism that Olcott, a former U.S. Army colonel and a lawyer, had written for New York newspapers. Olcott later published these in People from the Other World, where he recounted meeting Blavatsky at a séance in Chittenden , Vermont, and described the extraordinary wonders she had performed .3 In fall 1875, Olcott proposed the formation of an organization to promote occult research. Of the sixteen people who agreed to found such a society, only two were women: Helena Blavatsky and the wellknown clairvoyant Emma Hardinge Britten, author of a popular history of American spiritualism.4 On November 17, the Theosophical Society was “fully constituted,” with Olcott as President, Helena P. Blavatsky as Corresponding Secretary, and William Quan Judge as Counselor.5 3 “Better Come” S front/backmatter 57 “Better Come” 57 The original purpose of the Society was to discover and disseminate the laws governing the universe. In its first incarnation, “the Society reflected the organization and attitude of an exclusively male institution.”6 It resembled a Masonic order, with members pledging secrecy and its activities kept private. Fellows of the Society were expected to advance through three “degrees,” demonstrating their progress in acquiring esoteric knowledge.7 Although members were admitted without regard to race, nationality, or religious belief, there was no mention of universal brotherhood. Olcott recalled that “the little group of founders were all of European blood, with no strong natural antagonism as to religions, and caste distinctions were to them non-existent. The Brotherhood plank in the Society’s future platform was, therefore, not thought of: later on, however, when our sphere of influence extended so as to bring us into relations with Asiatics and their religions and social systems, it became a necessity, and, in fact, the corner-stone of our edifice.”8 In fall 1877, Blavatsky and Olcott were visited by James Peebles, whose frequent travels across the globe had earned him the title of “the spiritual pilgrim.” Peebles described meeting spiritualists in Calcutta who were familiar with the writings of Americans such as Emma Hardinge Britten .9 Olcott showed Peebles a photograph of two Hindu gentlemen he had met on a transatlantic voyage in 1870. Peebles recognized one of them as Moolji Thackersey, and he gave Olcott his address in Bombay. Olcott immediately wrote to Thackersey about the Theosophical Society and its love of Indian wisdom. As a result, Olcott established a connection with Hindu religious reformers, and in January 1878 the Theosophical Society embarked on an alliance with the Arya Samaj, an organization that sought to revitalize Indian society through study of the Vedas.10 By the end of that year, the Society had established branches in London and Bombay. All told it had 175 members, more than forty of them in the New York area.11 Convinced that ancient wisdom was preserved in the traditions of “oriental ” religions and disappointed with the progress of Theosophy in the United States, Helena Blavatsky and Henry S. Olcott decided that the future of the movement lay in the East. In December 1878, they set sail for India. After stopping over in London to visit the American medium Mary 58 front/backmatter 58 Yearning for the New Age Hollis-Billing, they arrived in Bombay in mid-February 1879.12 According to Olcott, the Society in America had “dwindled to almost nothing,” but Theosophy “began to revive from the moment its executive centre was shifted to India.”13 In 1882, the Society established its headquarters in Adyar, a suburb of Madras, and the movement spread rapidly across the Indian subcontinent. Back in New York, Abner Doubleday and William Q. Judge were left in charge of the fledgling American branch of the Society.14 Doubleday reportedthatalthoughmanypeoplewerecuriousaboutsupernaturalphenom ena ,fewofthemcouldbeenticedtostudyoccultliteratureoreventoattend a meeting...