Esoteric School of Theosophy

The Esoteric School of Theosophy (abbreviated E.S. or E.S.T.) was founded in London in 1888 by H. P. Blavatsky as a separate body alongside and nominally independent of the Theosophical Society for a select circle of esoteric students. After Blavatsky's death on 8 May 1891, the direction of the school passed to William Quan Judge and Annie Besant on 27 May 1891.

From 1904 Rudolf Steiner established an Esoteric School (ES) in Germany for a close circle of students, which was initially still affiliated to the Esoteric School of Theosophy. In 1907, at the Munich Congress of the Thesosophical Society, this attachment to the London School was severed amicably and with the full agreement of Annie Besant. With the outbreak of World War I, Steiner dissolved this school; a reconstitution did not take place until the Christmas Conference of 1923/24 in the form of the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science.