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Members of the Toronto Theosophical Society were among the first in Canada to apply Eastern philosophy to the social justice issues of the period - from poverty and religious division to the changing role of women in society. Among the most radical and culturally creative movements of their time, the Theosophists called for a new social order based on principles of cooperation and creativity. Intrigued by this compelling vision of a new age, luminaries such as members of the Group of Seven, feminist Flora MacDonald Denison, Emily Stowe, and anarchist Emma Goldman were drawn to the society. Meticulously researched and compellingly written, this careful reconstruction preserves Theosophist founder Albert Smythe’s dream of a culturally distinct, egalitarian, and religiously pluralist nation.
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At [The Toronto Theosophical Society’s] height in the 1920s, it numbered not much more than 200 members. Small though its membership may have been, it could boast of being in the vanguard of cultural developments. It supported suffragettes, tolerance for all religions, homeopathy, “natural medicine,” vegetarianism, anti-vivisection, bicycle riding for ladies, and cremation. The appeal of this religion, as formulated by its inventor, the Victorian mystic Madame Blavatsky, is obvious. Its Secret Doctrine promises immortality via reincarnation, while dispensing with inconvenient notions of Heaven and Hell. It speaks of the displacement of our material world by a universe governed by spiritual laws. And while Theosophists, like atheists, deceive themselves when they claim to be rid of dogma, there is no doubt their philosophy is streamlined and free of the more elaborate forms of ritual and doctrine. Read the full review here