Name: Early Years of the TTS ~ Context, Founding and Mission
Start: 2026-06-07T19:30:00-04:00
Location: 792 Glencairn Ave., Toronto, ON, Canada, Ontario M6B 2A3

Early Years of the TTS ~ Context, Founding and Mission

🏛️ 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐓𝐒: 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐱𝐭, 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐌𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧
𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐲, June 7, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔, In-person & live on Zoom
Lecture begins at 7:30 PM | Doors open at 7:00 PM
Join us for an evening with historian and author Gillian McCann Ph.D as she takes us back to the remarkable origins of the Toronto Theosophical Society.
𝐓𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐨'𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬 & 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 (𝟏𝟖𝟗𝟎𝐬)
What did Toronto look like spiritually and culturally at the close of the nineteenth century? This was a city on the edge of something new, where certain educated Torontonians were hungry for spiritual frameworks that reached beyond conventional religion, drawn toward questions of consciousness, the nature of reality, and the deeper currents of human existence. It was precisely this moment that made Toronto ripe for Theosophy to take root.
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 & 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐌𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 (𝟏𝟖𝟗𝟏)
Who were the people who came together to found the TTS, and what brought them into the same room? Gillian will explore the backgrounds, professions, and aspirations of the founding members — what they were seeking spiritually, intellectually, and socially — and what the early life and culture of the lodge actually looked like.
𝐀𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐆𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐜𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐧, 𝐏𝐡.𝐃
Gillian McCann is a scholar of religion whose work focuses on New Religious Movements, the intersection of Eastern and Western spiritual thought, and the history of alternative spiritual communities in North America. She holds a doctorate in Religious Studies from the University of Toronto and teaches at Nipissing University in North Bay, Canada.
Her research into the Toronto Theosophical Society brought her to the TTS archive, where she was given full access — research that became the foundation for her book Vanguard of the New Age: The Toronto Theosophical Society 1891–1945.
𝐙𝐨𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88633355986?pwd=1ZtLX5bjCYWLWy5QTC3bjjOd9QLUG4.1
𝐈𝐧-𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧: Toronto Theosophical Society, 792 Glencairn Ave, Toronto
Free and open to all. Newcomers warmly welcome.