In the cosmic soup that made up W.D. Fard’s hodgepodge of religious influences, scholars have noted the impact of the Theosophical Society to varying degrees. The Theosophical Society was a late nineteenth century esoteric religious movement founded by “Madame” Helena Blavatsky, a Russian American mystic and writer. Theosophy grew out of the same milieu as the Spiritualist movement, and it laid some of the groundwork for what would later become New Age spirituality. It sought to connect Western occult traditions (including Hermeticism and Kabbalah) to Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism, whilst synthesizing elements of rationalism, modern science, Rosicrucianism and Romanticism.
Blavatsky’s stated goal was to create universal brotherhood[1] and cultivate “an ever-deepening understanding and realization of the Ageless Wisdom, spiritual Self-transformation, and the Unity of all Life.”[2]
In his new book The Supreme Wisdom Lessons: A Scripture of American Islam, Dr. Michael Muhammad Knight highlights that San Quentin prison – wherein W.D. Fard served time in the 1920s – had “a strong Theosophical presence both in the prison library and … regularly held … services for its Theosophist inmates.”[3] Knight notes Theosophy’s anticlericalism,[4] race mythology,[5] occult hierarchies,[6] and diet,[7] all of which have parallels in Fard’s teachings.
Some researchers, like Karl Evanzz, have suggested that W.D. Fard may have been George Farr, a local Garveyite leader in early 1920s San Francisco;[8] and George Farr may have been involved with the Theosophical Society.[9] According to Knight, there is no record of a George Farr in Theosophical lodges in San Francisco.[10] However, judging from the scant references to George Farr anywhere, and the potential subversive activities he was involved in (attracting the Office of Naval Intelligence’s attention), it is likely that “George Farr” was just an alias.
On race, Knight points out that Fard’s racial view of history corresponds to his milieu in 1930s America. The books that Fard assigned according to Beynon included Hendrik Van Loon’s Story of Mankind and James Henry Breasted’s Conquest of Civilization, both of which were contemporary to Fard (published in the 1920s), and both “imagined races rising and falling and supplanting each other as the prime makers of civilization.”[11] Similarly, Theosophy developed the concept of seven “root races”, tied to epochs of human development and cycles of millions of years.[12] [13]
For Theosophists, the Aryan race (comprising of Indo-Europeans) is the fifth root race, and it is the dominant race today and the youngest race on the planet.[14] Black people were associated with the earlier third root race (Lemurians), who were “the first physical beings with material bodies”.[15] Prior to Lemurians, there were ethereal, luminous races that existed in harmony with divine forces. This can be compared to Fard’s idea that the Black man is the “original man”, and that whites came later. For Theosophists, some of these root races come from mythical islands and continents (Atlantis, Lemuria); this is similar to Fard’s narrative that whites came from Patmos island. For both groups, esoteric knowledge is a source of empowerment. For both groups, there is also a utopic racial post-history – coinciding with the final root race for Theosophy, and coinciding with the destruction of the white man and the reign of the Black man in heaven on Earth.
Fard’s eschatology, of course, has significant overlaps with Jehovah’s Witness doctrine.[16] The Jehovah’s Witnesses were probably most relevant in the 1910s-1940s, a period which saw the consolidation of their theology, the development of their organizational infrastructure, and mainstream attention in America. Most of this occurred while W.D. Fard was active.
Furthermore, one cannot forget the burgeoning discussions on evolution, genetics, and eugenics in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Darwin hypothesized that humans originated in Africa, the discovery of the Taung Child Australopithecus africanus in 1924 provided evidence for this, and racial theorists were using Mendelian genetics to describe African traits as dominant. White supremacists also looked at history from a racial lens, and it is possible that Fard took these racial hierarchies and flipped them on their head. The bottom line is, all these influences helped shape the environment from which Fard’s theology would stem.
Dr. Mattias Gardell compares Fard’s idea of history moving in 25,000-year cycles to a similar idea in Theosophy,[17] where precessional cycles last 25,868 years.[18] This is probably based on the Great Year in astronomy, where a gradual shift in the orientation of Earth’s rotational axis causes equinoxes to move backward through the zodiac over a period of approximately 25,920 years. Karl Evanzz suggests that the 25,000-year cycles were borrowed from Hinduism.[19] Dr. John Andrew Morrow points out that Yezidis believe in 26,000-year cycles,[20] Ismailis believe in cyclical time, and the Nation of Islam (NOI) tied these cycles to the twelve Imams or the twenty-four scientists.[21]
Since the Great Year is an astronomical and astrological concept, it would not be surprising to find variations of this concept in different parts of the world. However, W.D. Fard presumably spent most of his life in the United States (at least since 1908, when he was known as Fred the Turk or Fred the Greek).[22] When trying to locate the origins of his teachings, scholars should primarily look to America’s spiritual fabric in the times and places where Fard was known to be active. While it is possible that Fard was borrowing ideas directly from his (presumably) native Asia, where he may have spent some of his youth, Asian religious traditions are extremely vast, and it is easy for scholars to find points of comparison between NOI lore and obscure ideas from the Islamicate. While experts in Islamic studies may know something about cyclical time in Ismailism or Yezidism, it was perhaps less likely for a child from (say) Afghanistan in the late modern period to internalize these concepts and later teach them in America. Similarly, as Knight also noted, it is likely that the belief in twenty-four scientists finds its origins in the Bible;[23] and perhaps Fard or Elijah Muhammad further developed the idea and connected it to the Shia Imams after reading available literature on orthodox Islam. It is technically possible that Fard was exposed to Ismailism, Yezidism, or Ghulat Shiism while he was in America, but these traditions would have been less accessible in 1920s America than the Theosophical Society or the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Both the Theosophical Society and W.D. Fard seemed to hold that there were periodic spiritual masters or saviours (unlike Christianity’s sole focus on Jesus). For Theosophists, there is the World Teacher (sometimes referred to as the Maitreya or Christ), who periodically manifests to guide humanity during times of crisis.[24] For W.D. Fard, Jesus was just a prophet, there were many gods and scientists throughout history, and (perhaps) he saw himself as the “supreme being”[25] or World Teacher of this time. Supreme Minister John Muhammad mentioned “sixteen saviours”,[26] which may be a reference to the book The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviors written by Kersey Graves in 1875. Although Graves was not a Theosophist, the book was written in the same year that the Theosophical Society was founded, and it enjoyed popularity among freethinkers, religious syncretists, and skeptics of Christianity – people like W.D. Fard.
There are some important points of distinction between the NOI and the Theosophical Society. For the NOI, the history of the white race only goes back 6,000 years, while for Blavatsky, the Aryan race was one million years old.[27] The Theosophical Society teaches universal brotherhood, while the NOI advocates for the unity of Black people against whites. There is no direct equivalent to the Yakub story in the Theosophical Society, but one could say that both Blavatsky and Fard engaged in racial mythmaking. Fard did not seem to believe in spiritual or ethereal beings and preached a very naturalistic theology. Regarding Hinduism, Fard was apparently antagonistic toward Hindus, telling Elijah Muhammad that between a Hindu and a Christian, one should “kill the Hindu first.”[28] Perhaps this attitude reflected a sort of “falling out” with Hindus after possible association with them in the Theosophical Society, the Ghadar movement, or elsewhere in America or in the world.
While locating W.D. Fard’s origins or whereabouts is a trying task for researchers, we have a good idea of what he taught to his followers and in his writings. Scholars have attempted to trace the origins of some of these ideas; and while W.D. Fard was a sponge that soaked up many influences, he was also incredibly creative. Despite some antecedent ideas in his milieu, Fard seems to have created much of the lore himself – from the tribe of Shabazz to the Yakub story, the explosive origin of the Moon, the Mother Plane, and Black people on Mars. Scholars are encouraged to find more parallels in the Theosophical Society, Freemasonry, the Ghadar movement, and other movements that were contemporary to W.D. Fard. It may be easier to locate the origins of ideas than it is to find missing persons.
[1] Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy, 2nd ed. (Pasadena, CA: Theosophical Publishing House, 1889), accessed December 31, 2024, https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/key/key-hp.htm.
[2] The Theosophical Society, “Mission Statement,” Theosophical Society in Australia, accessed December 31, 2024, https://theosophicalsociety.org.au/statics/objects-and-ideals-of-the-theosophical-society.
[3] Michael Muhammad Knight, The Supreme Wisdom Lessons: A Scripture of American Islam, pp. 15.
[4] Ibid, pp. 26.
[5] Ibid, pp. 30-31.
[6] Ibid, pp. 36
[7] Ibid, pp. 40.
[8] Karl Evanzz, The Messenger: The Rise and Fall of Elijah Muhammad, pp. 402.
[9] Michael Muhammad Knight, The Supreme Wisdom Lessons: A Scripture of American Islam, pp. 70.
[10] Ibid, pp. 70.
[11] Ibid, pp. 24-25.
[12] Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. 2 (London: Theosophical Publishing Company, 1888), 68–75, accessed December 31, 2024, https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-0-co.htm.
[13] Ibid, 159–165, accessed December 31, 2024, https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd1-0-co.htm.
[14] Ibid, 434–445, accessed December 31, 2024, https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-0-co.htm.
[15] Ibid, 195–210, accessed December 31, 2024, https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-0-co.htm.
[16] Bilal Muhammad, “The War of Armageddon: The NOI, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and Imperial Japan.” https://bliis.org/essay/the-war-of-armageddon-the-noi-jehovahs-witnesses-and-imperial-japan/
[17] Mattias Gardell, In the Name of Elijah Muhammad: Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, pp. 183.
[18] Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. 2 (London: Theosophical Publishing Company, 1888), pp. 330.
[19] A.K. Arian, Chameleon: The True Story of W.D. Fard, pp. 125.
[20] John Andrew Morrow, Finding W.D. Fard: Unveiling the Identity of the Founder of the Nation of Islam, pp. 64.
[21] Ibid, pp. 85-93.
[22] Ibid, pp. 243.
[23] Michael Muhammad Knight, The Supreme Wisdom Lessons: A Scripture of American Islam, pp. 22.
[24] P. Pavri, The Coming World-Teacher, pp. 1-30.
[25] John Andrew Morrow, Finding W.D. Fard: Unveiling the Identity of the Founder of the Nation of Islam, pp. 206.
[26] SUPREME MINISTER JOHN MUHAMMAD, “SUPREME MINISTER JOHN MUHAMMAD HOW JESUS DIED”, YouTube, 1:24:00-1:24:40. https://youtu.be/GxfIpGnXT_M
[27] Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, vol. 2 (London: Theosophical Publishing Company, 1888), 433–435, accessed December 31, 2024, https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sd/sd2-0-co.htm.
[28] Michael Muhammad Knight, The Supreme Wisdom Lessons: A Scripture of American Islam, pp. 40.
