Mead, G.R.S.
George Robert Stowe Mead (22 March 1863–28 September 1933)[1][2] was an author, editor, translator, and an influential member of the Theosophical Society as well as the founder of the Quest Society.
[edit] Birth and family
George Robert Stowe Mead was born at Neneaton, Warwickshire, England on the 22nd of March 1863. He was born to Colonel Robert Mead, an Officer in the British Army and to Mary Mead, who had received a traditional education at Rochester Cathedral School.
[edit] Education at Cambridge University
Having shown academic potential George Mead began studying mathematics at St John's College, Cambridge.[3] Eventually shifting his education towards the study of Classics he gained much knowledge of both Greek and Latin. In 1884 he completed a bachelor of arts degree, in the same year he also began to practice the position of public school master.
[edit] Activity with the Theosophical Society
While still at Cambridge University Mead read Esoteric Buddhism by Alfred Percy Sinnett, this comprehensive theosophical account of the eastern religion prompted Mead to contact two theosophists in London named Bertam Keightly and Mohini Chatterji which eventually led him to join the Theosophical Society.
Mead became a member of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky's Theosophical Society in 1884. He abandoned his teaching profession in 1889 to be Blavatsky's private secretary and also became a joint-secretary of the Esoteric Section (E.S.) of the Theosophical Society, the E.S. was for those whom the Theosophical Society deemed more advanced.
G.R.S Mead received Blavatsky's six Esoteric Instructions and other teachings at twenty-two meetings headed by Blavatsky which were only attended by the Inner Group of the Theosophical Society. It was because of the intimacy Mead felt with the Inner Group that he married Laura Cooper in 1899.
Contributing intellectually to the Theosophical Society, at first most interested in eastern religions he quickly became more and more attracted to western esotericism of religion and philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism, Gnosticism and Hermeticism though his scholarship and publications continued to engage with eastern religion. Making many contributions to the Theosophical Society's Lucifer as joint editor he eventually became the sole editor of The Theosophical Review in 1907 (as Lucifer was renamed in 1897).
As of February 1909 George Robert Stowe Mead and some seven-hundred members of the Theosophical Society's British Section resigned from the Theosophical Society in protest of Annie Besant's reinstating of Charles Webster Leadbeater to the Theosophical Society. Leadbeater had been a prominent member of the Theosophical Society in 1906 until he was met with allegations of teaching masturbation under the guise of occult training to the sons of some American Theosophists. While this prompted Mead's leave of the society his frustration at the dogmatism of the Theosophical Society may have been a major contributor to his breaking with the society. He had been a member for twenty-five years.
[edit] The Quest Society
In March 1909 Mead founded the Quest Society, composed of 150 defectors of the Theosophical Society and 100 other new members. Very intentionally this new society was planned to be an undogmatic approach to the comparative study and investigation of religion, philosophy, and science. The Quest Society had lectures at Kensington Town Hall in central London but its most focused effort was in its publishing of The Quest: A Quarterly Review which ran from 1909-1931 with many contributors.
[edit] Influence
Among notable names influenced by G.R.S. Mead there can be found: Ezra Pound, W.B. Yeats, Hermann Hesse, Kenneth Rexroth, and Robert Duncan. Carl Gustav Jung was also influenced by George Mead, himself owning at least eighteen of Mead's books.
[edit] Works
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[edit]
- 1891 England Census, showing a household including "Constance Wachtmeister Manager of Publishing Office; G.R.S. Mead, Author Journalist; Isabel Oakley, Millener; Helena Blavatsky, Authoress; and others"
- 1901 England Census, showing "George R S Mead, age 38, Editor and author born Battersea, Surrey and his wife Laura M Mead, age 44, no occupation, born Dellie[sic], India"
- Mead, George Robert Stow in Venn, J. & J. A., Alumni Cantabrigienses, Cambridge University Press, 10 vols, 1922–1958.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
- Poemandres
- Gospel of Marcion
- Pistis Sophia
- Thomas Taylor
- Hermetica
- Acts of John
- Mandaeanism
- Marcionism
- Gnosticism
| Persondata |
| Name |
Mead, G. R. S. |
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| Short description |
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| Date of birth |
1863 |
| Place of birth |
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| Date of death |
1933 |
| Place of death |
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