Person · Theosophist & clairvoyant
Charles Webster Leadbeater
Also known as C.W. Leadbeater, CW Leadbeater
The English Theosophist, former Anglican priest and clairvoyant Charles Webster Leadbeater (16 February 1854 - 1 March 1934), the chief lieutenant of Annie Besant at Adyar. Leadbeater joined the Theosophical Society in 1883, resigned his Anglican orders, and became a close collaborator of Besant from the 1890s. His clairvoyant investigations with Besant (published as Occult Chemistry 1908, Thought-Forms 1901, The Chakras 1927) remain foundational texts of the Theosophical movement. In 1909 he identified the 14-year-old Jiddu Krishnamurti at Adyar beach as having unusual spiritual qualities, triggering the Theosophical Society's 1911-1929 promotion of Krishnamurti as the awaited World Teacher through the Order of the Star in the East. Leadbeater's various controversies — recurring allegations about his conduct with teenage boys — produced several internal Theosophical crises but never ended his close working relationship with Besant. He died at Perth, Australia in 1934.
- Date
- 1854–1934
- Function
- Social reform & movement
- Patron dynasty
- British Raj
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (1)
- Disciple ofJiddu Krishnamurti
Charles Webster Leadbeater encountered the 14-year-old Jiddu Krishnamurti at the Adyar beach in April 1909 and identified him as possessing unusual spiritual qualities (specifically, the absence of selfishness in his aura in Leadbeater's clairvoyant reading). This encounter dramatically altered Krishnamurti's life, bringing him from his Madanapalle Telugu Brahmin family into the Theosophical Society's international network. Leadbeater and Annie Besant subsequently oversaw his education and preparation for the role of World Teacher that they believed he would fulfil. Krishnamurti was tutored by Leadbeater in Theosophical theology and by Besant in English, Latin and Western culture through the 1910s. Krishnamurti's 1929 dissolution of the Order of the Star rejected the Leadbeater-Besant framework that had identified him as World Teacher.
Sources
Standard biography; Theosophical Society archives.
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