page_title: Mirra Alfassa
section_title: Max Théon and Alma Théon
hierarchical_section_title: Mirra Alfassa / Early life / As an artist and traveller / Max Théon and Alma Théon
caption_attribution_description: English: The Mother in Theon`s house at Tlemcen, Algeria (1906 - 1907)
context_page_description: Mirra Alfassa, known to her followers as The Mother, was a spiritual guru, an occultist and a collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, who considered her to be of equal yogic stature to him and called her by the name "The Mother". She founded the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and established Auroville as a universal town; she was an influence and inspiration to many writers and spiritual personalities on the subject of Integral Yoga.
  Mirra Alfassa was born in Paris on 1878 to a bourgeois family. In her youth, she traveled to Algeria to practice occultism under Max Théon. After returning, while living in Paris, she guided a group of spiritual seekers. In 1914, she traveled to Pondicherry, India and met Sri Aurobindo and found in him "the dark Asiatic figure" of whom she had had visions in her childhood. During this first visit, she helped publish a French version of a periodical Arya which serialized most of Sri Aurobindo's post-political prose writings. During First World war she left Pondicherry along with her husband Paul Richard. After a 4-year stay in Japan, in 1920, she returned to Pondicherry for good.
context_section_description: During this time Mirra made the acquaintance of Louis Thémanlys who was the head of the Cosmic Movement, a group started by Max Théon. Through reading a copy of Cosmic Review, she attended Thémanlys's speeches and became active in the group. For the first time, on 14 July 1906, she journeyed alone to the Algerian city of Tlemcen to meet with Max Théon and his wife Alma Théon. She consequently travelled twice more, in 1906 and 1907, to their estate at Tlemcen and there practised and experimented with the teachings of Max Théon & Alma Théon. 
  Mirra Alfassa and Henri separated in 1908; she then moved to 49 Rue des Lévis, Paris, living alone in a small apartment and involving herself in discussions with Buddhists and Cosmic movement circles. During this time she also made the acquaintance of Madame David Néel. Mirra married Paul Richard in 1911 who after serving four years in the army had involved himself in philosophy & theology. He had come to know Mirra when he was in discussions with Max Théon. Vrekhem, a biographer of Mirra, informs that Richard was undergoing a legal problem in inheriting children from his first marriage to a Dutch woman, and had asked Mirra for help which she had accepted by marrying him.
caption: Mirra Alfassa in Theon's house at Tlemcen, Algeria (1906–1907)
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