| Part of a series on |
| Theosophy |
|---|
| Founders of the Theosophical Society |
| Helena Blavatsky · Henry Steel Olcott William Quan Judge |
| Theosophists |
| Annie Besant · Abner Doubleday Geoffrey Hodson · Archibald Keightley C. W. Leadbeater · G. R. S. Mead Isabel Cooper-Oakley · William Scott-Elliot Alfred Percy Sinnett · Brian Stonehouse Katherine Tingley · Ernest Wood |
| Philosophical concepts |
| Round Seven rays · Root races |
| Organisations |
| Theosophical Society TS Adyar · TS Pasadena TS Point Loma-Covina · TSA Hargrove United Lodge of Theosophists |
| Theosophical texts |
| Isis Unveiled |
| Theosophical Masters |
| Sanat Kumara Maitreya Morya · Master Jesus · St. Germain |
| Related topics |
| Agni Yoga · Alice Bailey · Anthroposophy Ascended masters · Ascended Master Teachings Benjamin Creme · Esotericism Jiddu Krishnamurti · Liberal Catholic Church Living Ethics · Neo-Theosophy Order of the Star in the East |
As a young man, Wood became interested in Theosophy after listening to lectures by the theosophist Annie Besant, whose personality impressed him greatly. He joined the society's Manchester lodge and in 1908 followed Besant, who had become President of the Theosophical Society Adyar, to India. Wood became one of her assistants, working with Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater, who had arrived in Adyar in 1909.
Wood observed the discovery of the boy Jiddu Krishnamurti by Leadbeater, who soon declared Krishnamurti to be the vehicle for the "coming World Teacher". Wood's account of this discovery is in his autobiography, Is this Theosophy...?, published in 1936, and in two articles written after that.
At Besant's suggestion, Wood became involved in education, and after 1910, he served as headmaster of several schools and colleges founded by the Theosophical Society. Wood became Professor of Physics, Principal and President of the Sind National College and the Madanapalle College, both teaching colleges of the Bombay and Madras Universities. Wood promoted theosophical ideas, conducting lecturing tours and publishing numerous articles, essays and books on a variety of theosophical subjects, among them a digest of Helena P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine. He lectured throughout India and travelled to many countries in Asia, Europe, and the Americas. He continued to reside in India until the close of World War II, when he relocated to the United States.
Wood become disillusioned about the future of the Theosophical Society and began to study the yoga classics. Following the Krishnamurti affair, which caused a splitting of the society, Wood campaigned for election to the office of president after Annie Besant's death in 1933. He was defeated by George Arundale, one of Charles Leadbeater's close allies, in a campaign that Wood later described as unfair and questionable. Disenchanted with the society's direction, but impressed with the now mature and independent Krishnamurti, Wood turned to Yoga.
Read more about this topic: Ernest Wood