Jiddu Krishnamurti and The Lives of Alcyone

Jiddu Krishnamurti

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Still revising the introduction for the 2nd edition of my translation of Francisco I Madero's Spiritist Manual of 1911... and the introduction is turning into a book itself... meanwhile, here's a brief excerpt from a new bit about the Theosophists-- it's the part where I go through Madero's personal library. (For those of you new to the blog, Francisco I. Madero was the leader of the Mexican 1910 Revolution and President of Mexico 1911-1913. His Spiritist Manual has never before been translated.)

. . . . One book apparently did not belong to Madero: Las últimas treinta vidas de Alcione, Federico Climet Terrer’s 1912 Barcelona translation of Annie Besant and C.W. Leadbeater’s Lives of Alcyone, inscribed to Sara Pérez Vd. de Madero, Habana, Oct 18 1918. (Sara Pérez, Widow of Madero).

Now, as we see in Madero’s own library, Spiritist and Theosophical ideas so overlapped and intertwined, it behooves us to venture a little ways down another rabbit hole for the answer to the question, Who, pray tell, was Alcyone?

Alcyone (and Other Lives) in the 20^th Century

Greek answer:A star-nymph, daughter of Atlas and lover of Poseidon.
Literal answer: Jiddu Krishnamurti, a sickly Brahmin boy.
The Theosophists’ answer:  As revealed by the Mahatmas, the vehicle for the Lord Maitreya, the Christ, the World Teacher.

It was C.W. Leadbeater who had discovered the adolescent Krishnamurti playing on a beach in 1909, identifying him as said vehicle by clairvoyant means. Alas, no story of the Theosophical Society gets told without the taint of Leadbeater’s, shall we say, intimate involvement with other young boys. Prior to this, in 1906, after vociferous complaints from parents, Leadbeater was obliged to resign. By 1909, however, his old friend and fellow Initiate before the Mahatmas, and expert on the Bhagavad-Gita, Annie Besant, had taken the reigns of the Theosophical Society and readmitted Leadbeater. In the Theosophical Society’s headquarters in Adyar, together Besant and Leadbeater arranged Krishnamurti’s care and education, and almost immediately, Leadbeater, by psychic means known only to himself, began researching the “Akashic” or astral records, on the lives of “Alcyone,” that is, the previous incarnations of Krishnamurti, in which Annie Besant appeared under the code-name “Heracles,” Leadbeater as “Sirius,” and various other Theosophists under various other names in mind-numbing permutations reaching back to 22,662 B.C. Mary Lutyens, daughter of the Theosphical Society’s benefactress Lady Emily Lutyens, and both childhood friend and biographer of Krishnamurti, in her memoir, To Be Young, recalled of the Lives of Alcyone, “a great deal of heart-burning and snobbery.”

'Are you in the Lives?’ Became the question most constantly asked by one Theosophist of another, and, if so, ‘How closely related have you been to Alcyone?’

At night, by means of their astral bodies, Leadbeater took Krishnamurti to study with “Master Kuthumi,” that “Great White Brother” first introduced to this world by Madame Blavatsky, and in the morning, in his octagonal office, Leadbeater obliged Krishnamurti, whose English and writing skills were what one would expect of a little boy whose first language was Telegu, to record what he could remember of those lessons. Flash forward two decades to 1929, and the world traveling, English-educated World Teacher, venerated Head of Leadbeater and Besant’s creation, the 43,000 member-strong Order of the Star in the East, took the stage at Erde Castle in Holland before 3,000 members and, with a solemn salaam, dissolved that order. Krishnamurti did not deny being whatever they conceived him to be; he said:

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect… I do not care if you believe I am the World Teacher or not… I do not want you to follow me… You have been accustomed to being told how far you have advanced, what is your spiritual status. How childish! Who but yourself can tell you if you are incorruptible?... You can form other organizations and expect someone else. With that I am not concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those cages. My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally, free.

That, as one might guess, signaled the decline (though not the disappearance) of the Theosophical Society, as well as Annie Besant’s health. But fantastically, Krishnamurti’s career, unmoored from official disciples, continued to flourish. Like Teresa Urrea and the Niño Fidencio, Krishnamurti had a serene and childlike quality and an ability to draw and mesmerize crowds, but unlike them, Krishnmurti exuded an urbane polish, and he wrote some 30 books that articulated a philosophy of freedom and that appealed to such diverse figures as physicist David Bohm, writer Aldous Huxley, Indira Gandhi, and the Dalai Lama.

On YouTube, I found an old film of the white-haired Krishnamurti holding forth in a tent in Ojai, California, and what struck me was not anything he said—he sounded halting and vapid to my ears— but the faces of the hundreds of people sitting on the lawn before him, eyes shining, jaws slack. I could not help but think of Niño Fidencio— and the strange power I had seen in Francisco Madero in the films and photographs of his political rallies. . . .

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***UPDATE My book, Metaphysical Odyssey Into the Mexican Revolution, is now available***

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Veterinary Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Mexico (Terapia hiperbárica) and etc.

Providentially, I first heard about hyperbaric oxygen therapy just a couple of weeks ago and now it turns out that my own dear 13 year old pug, suffering from acute respiratory distress, has been prescribed some sessions-- and already she is breathing normally again. It's a wondrous thing and quite simple-- basically, the same therapy given to divers suffering from the bends-- and the first and only veterinary hyperbaric oxygen chamber (cámara hiperbárica) south of the border is right here in Mexico City. (¡Qué suerte!)

>An excellent informative website about hyperbaric oxygen therapy for animals is here. (Photo is from their website, Veterinary Hyperbaric Oxygen VH02.)

While waiting in the wi-fi-less veterinary clinic (admiring the parade of chihuahuas, boxers, bulldogs & mutts) I plowed through all three volumes of Mary Lutyens' study of Jiddu Krishnamurti, which make for both fascinating and perplexing reading about a both charismatic and deeply mysterious personality. The reason I delved into this is that I'm revising my introduction to Francisco I. Madero's Spiritist Manual, published in 1911-- the very same year in which he took office as President of Mexico and Annie Besant and and C.W. Leadbeater created the Order of the Eastern Star, to prepare for the coming of the Lord Maitreya, purportedly in the vehicle of Krishnamurti, then a young boy taken (at some trouble) from his natural father. The connection with Madero? Well, not much, but Madero had a lot to say about the Bhagavadgita and his personal library includes the translation by Annie Besant, among other works by Besant and Leadbeater-- including the latter's The Lives of Alcyone, about the supposed previous lives of Krishnamurti (more probably owned by Sara de Madero, given the inscription on the frontpiece, however). More anon.

So the Marfa Mondays podcasts are woefully behind. Stay tuned.

Mary Lutyens: To Be Young

Rarely have I read anything so exquisite that has also made me laugh out loud so many times as Mary Lutyens' memoir, To Be Young. Alas, I have to agree with the author that her editor was quite wrong; the better title would have been From Maryb to Mushe (read it to find out why; this scrap of a blog post couldn't begin to explain). I read it as part of my research, very round about, for writing the prologue to my translation of Francisco I. Madero's Spiritist Manual. The connection: a bit tenuous, but Madero's Spiritist Manual was published in 1911, the very same year that Theosophist Annie Besant brought Jiddu Krishnamurti to England, placing him under the wing of Mary Lutyens' mother, Lady Emily Lutyens, an ardent Theosophist. Theosophy and Spiritism and Spiritualism (note the "u" in the latter) are similar in many respects but differ on important points. Anyway, Mary Lutyen's memoir is so delicious, I know I'll be quoting from it in my writing workshops, for it would be difficult to imagine more effective use of telling detail.

On her grandmother, who had been the Vicereine of India:

When the Rector came to lunch on Sundays, the book of memoirs (her favorite reading) would be put out of sight and a religious work substituted. She already seemed to belong to history. She pronounced cucumber, cowcumber; laundry, larndry; soot, sut; and blouse and vase, bloose and vaize. She sent her hair-combings to Paris to be made up into curls which her maid pinned to the front of her head.

On her aunt Con, who had been a militant suffragette:

I was frightened enough of her when she was shuffling about downstairs doing exquisite Japanese flower decorations with her left hand (it was her right side which was paralyzed), but very much worse was when we had to visit her, each in turn, in her very hot bedroom where she lay in bed peeling grapes for her Pekingese. She always wore purple velvet, even in bed, with her suffragette medals pinned to her chest, and she had flannel sheets which made the room feel horribly stuffy; but more dreadful than anything, she expected me to sit on a chair and converse with her... I have since discovered what a wonderful person she was, and one of my deepest regrets is that I failed to value her.

On the notorious Mr Leadbeater, aka Bishop, aka Brother:

Bishop had the merriest of twinkling blue eyes, a jolly manner and a very loud though pleasant voice. I was immediately impressed by his air of sparkling health, as if every faculty, mental and physical, was kept in perfect working order for immediate use. His teeth, although very white and apparently without decay, and certainly his own, were exceptionally long and pointed (all his visible teeth were like that, not just his eye teeth) so that the word vampire jumped to my mind. Under his cloak he wore a red cassock with a large amethyst cross dangling at the breast, and on the third finger of his right hand a huge amethyst ring. The impact of his personality was like a plunge into cold water.

Her portrait of Krishnamurti, the Theosophists' designated Messiah, is equally compelling, and strange: strange indeed to read of the "Messiah" as a teenager discovering P.G. Wodehouse.

Mary Lutyens also wrote several novels, and biographies of her father, the renowned architect Sir Edward Lutyens, and, in three volumes, Krishnamurti. She died in 1999; read her fascinating obituary here.

More anon.