Theosophy: Visitor’s book

A visitor’s book for Casa de Paz, a retreat in Ojai, California, containing inscriptions, drawings, poems, including various languages and scripts, two photos, from events such as a ‘Farewell reception to the Theosophists of the Ojai Valley in honor of Dr Annie Besant’, c.70 leaves, many double-sided, featuring major early-20th century Western and Indian figures in Theosophy, also politics, feminism, and the arts, including:

Annie Besant; Dhan Gopal Mukerji; Witter Bynner; Ernest Wood; Hilda Wood; Elizabeth Thacher; Jiddu Nityananda; Jiddu Krishnamurti; Dorothy Jinarajadasa; Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa; Frank R. Gerard; Marie Poutz; C. Eugene Gardner; Rosalind Rajagopal (Williams); Desikacharya Rajagopal; Clara H. Waldo; Ed Kuhn; Ernest and Hilda Wood; Helen Knothe; Kingsley Fairbridge; Theodore St. John; John Chipman Gray; Sarojini Naidu; Syed Hossain; Philip van Pallandt; Pekka Ervast; Robert Kelsey Walton; Mary and Roland Gray; Albert Powell Warrington; Dorothea Spinney; Alice Michaelis; Alexander Samuel Keszthelyi (with a landscape sketch); Mary K. Neff; Fritz Kunz; Irving S. Cooper; and others, many having signed multiple times; bookplate of Robert Kelsey Walton to front pastedown, original gilt-tooled morocco by Giulio Giannini, spine and upper board coming loose, front free endpaper detached, slipcase, 8vo, 1910s-20s;

with 8 folders of extensive, mostly typewritten, notes by Mary Gray, including a handwritten reference sheet to each volume, sections including: Occult Training; Deva Songs; Deva Teaching 1915-38; and a copy of Mary Gray’s The Gateway of Liberation, original cloth, Theosophical Press, Wheaton, 1935 (10)

***Theosophy emerged as a religious movement in the United States towards the end of the 19th century, chiefly spearheaded by Helena Blavatsky. Scholars of religion classify Theosophy as both a new religious movement and a branch of Western esotericism with occultist elements. It integrates principles from ancient European philosophies like Neoplatonism and Eastern traditions such as Hinduism and Buddhism, reflecting a synthesis of diverse spiritual perspectives.