Taming the Astral Body: The Theosophical Society’s Ongoing Problem of Emotion and Control John L. Crow* In New York City in 1875, a group interested in Spiritualism and occult science founded what would become the Theosophical Society. Primarily the creation of Henry Steel Olcott and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the Theosophical Society went through a number of early incarnations. One original version promised to teach occult powers. After Blavatsky found that she could not honor earlier promises to teach occultism, she shifted the focus of the Society to one that promoted Universal Brotherhood instead, highlighting notions of the body and demanding the control of emotion as a means to rebuff demands for training. With this refocusing, Blavatsky reestablished control of the Society and asserted herself as the central channel of esoteric knowledge. Thus, by shifting the focus from the attainment of occult powers to the more ambiguous “spiritual enlightenment,” Blavatsky erected an elabo- rate, centralized system of delayed spiritual gratification, a system contin- gent upon the individual’s adoption of specific morals and values, while simultaneously maintaining control of the human body on all its levels: spiritual, social, physical, mental, and especially emotional. DURING A MEETING of the Theosophical Society in New York City on October 18, 1876, the co-founder and legal counsel for the *John L. Crow, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA. E-mail: jlcrow@fsu.edu. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, September 2012, Vol. 80, No. 3, pp. 691–717 doi:10.1093/jaarel/lfs042 Advance Access publication on July 29, 2012 © The Author 2012. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the American Academy of Religion. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com