Theosophy is a body of ideas which holds that all religions are attempts by man to ascertain "the Divine," and as such each religion has a portion of the truth. Theosophy, as a coherent system of thought, developed from the writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (also Hélène). Together with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge, and others she founded the Theosophical Society in 1875.

A more formal definition from the Concise Oxford Dictionary describes Theosophy as "any of various philosophies professing to achieve a knowledge of God by spiritual ecstasy, direct intuition, or special individual relations, esp. a modern movement following Hindu and Buddhist teachings and seeking universal brotherhood." Christian Theosophy is a branch that strives for the knowledge of God and Jesus obtained by the direct intuition of the Divine essence.

Adherents of Theosophy maintain that it is a "body of truth" that forms the basis of all religions. Theosophy, they claim, represents a modern face of Sanatana Dharma, "the Eternal Truth," as the proper religion.

The five prominent symbols visible in the seal of the Theosophical Society are the Star of David, the Ankh, the Swastika, the Ouroboros, and above the seal is the Aum. Around the seal are written the words: There is no religion higher than truth.

The three objects

There are three objects to which one must assent in order to join the Theosophical Society. They are:

• To form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color.
• To encourage the comparative study of religion, philosophy and science.
• To investigate the unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in humanity.

Basic Theosophical beliefs

Consciousness is universal and individual

According to Theosophy, nature does not operate by chance. Every event, past or present, happens because of laws which are part of a Universal Paradigm. Theosophists hold that everything, living or not, is "impregnated" with Consciousness. This paradigm has been called variously God (nonpersonal), Law, Heaven, the Great Architect, Evolution, and Logos. The term used in this article is "paradigm."

Man is "provisionally" immortal

Theosophists believe that all human beings in their "Higher Selves" are immortal, but their personalities are unconscious of the link with their Divine Nature and will perish unless they strive to effect a union of the two.

Reincarnation is universal

Like esoteric Buddhism, from which much of Theosophical thought springs, Theosophy teaches that beings have attained the human state through myriad reincarnations, passing through the mineral, plant and animal stages since the birth of life on earth. However, Theosophy differs from the exoteric belief that regression is possible. Humans cannot reincarnate as animals or plants again except in the rare cases of disintegrating "lost souls". Conversely, humans are considered only the epitome of physical life on Earth and not the end stage of evolution, which continues for three further stages

Karma

Theosophy is similar to the beliefs of the Hindu Arya Samaj sect concerning Karma, Dharma, and Cosmogony. Theosophy teaches that evil and good are the result of differentiation of spirit/matter in a cycle of becoming. There is a natural involution of spirit into matter followed by an evolution of matter back into spirit. The purpose of the Universe is for spirit to manifest itself self-consciously through seven stages.

Universal brotherhood

Theosophy teaches that every thing of whatever kind is from one divine source. All things are "monads" in reality. All monads potentially possess the same principles and their forms and natures are an expression of their present consciousness level.

Evolution

Theosophists believe that religion, philosophy, science, the arts, commerce, industry, and philanthropy, among other "virtues," lead humans ever closer to "the Divine." This, in Theosophy, is a continuation of the Divine purpose through evolution.

Theosophists also believe that human civilization is measured in a seven age cycle of incarnation and spiritual evolution. Thus, in the first age, humans were pure spirit; in the second age, they are known as Hyperboreans; in the third as Lemurians; and in the fourth, Atlanteans. Since Atlantis was the of the cycle, the present fifth age is a time of reawakening humanity's psychic gifts.

The Septenary

Theosophy, as well as many other esoteric groups and occult societies, claim that the universe is ordered by the number seven. The monad possess seven bodies:

• The first body is called sthula-sarira (Sanskrit, from sthula meaning coarse, gross, not refined, heavy, bulky, fat in the sense of bigness, conditioned and differentiated matter + sarira to molder, waste away). A gross body, impermanent because of its wholly compounded character. The physical body is usually considered as the lowest substance-principle. The physical form is the result of the harmonious coworking on the physical plane of forces and faculties streaming through their astral vehicle or linga-sarira, the pattern or model of the physical body.
• The second body is called Linga-Sarira, (Sanskrit, from linga meaning characteristic mark, model, pattern + sarira, from the verbal root sri to moulder, waste away). A pattern or model that is impermanent; the model-body or astral body, only slightly more ethereal than the physical body. It is the astral model around which the physical body is built, and from which the physical body flows or develops as growth proceeds.
• The third body is prana (Sanskrit, from pra before + the verbal root an to breathe, to live). In theosophy, the breath of life. This life or prana works on, in, and around us, pulsating unceasingly during the term of physical existence. Prana is "the radiating force or Energy of Atma -- as the Universal Life and the One Self, -- its lower or rather (in its effects) more physical, because manifesting, aspect. Prana or Life permeates the whole being of the objective Universe; and is called a 'principle' only because it is an indispensable factor and the deus ex machina of the living man.
• The fourth principle is kama (Sanskrit, from the verbal root kam meaning to desire). Desire; the desire principle is the driving, impelling force. Born from the interaction of atman, buddhi, and manas, kama per se is a colorless force, good or bad according to the way the mind and soul use it. It is the seat of the living electric impulses, desires, aspirations, considered in their energic aspect.
• The fifth
  
  
  
  principle is manas (Sanskrit, from the verbal root man meaning to think). The seat of mentation and egoic consciousness; in humanity Manas is the human person, the reincarnating ego, immortal in essence, enduring in its higher aspects through the entire manvantara. When imbodied, manas is dual, gravitating toward buddhi in its higher aspects and in its lower aspects toward kama. The first is intuitive mind, the second the animal, ratiocinative consciousness, the lower mentality and passions of the personality.
• The sixth principle or vehicle is Buddhi (Sanskrit, from the verbal root budh to awaken, enlighten, know). The vehicle of pure, universal spirit, hence an inseparable garment or vehicle of atman. In its essence of the highest plane of akasa or alaya. In man buddhi is the spiritual soul, the faculty of discriminating, the channel through which streams divine inspiration from the atman to the ego, and therefore that faculty which enables us to discern between good and evil -- spiritual conscience. The qualities of the buddhic principle when awakened are higher judgment, instant understanding, discrimination, intuition, love that has no bounds, and consequent universal forgiveness.
• The seventh is called Atman (Sanskrit). Self; pure consciousness, that cosmic self which is the same in every dweller on this globe and on every one of the planetary or stellar bodies in space. It is the feeling and knowledge of "I am," pure cognition, the abstract idea of self. It does not differ at all throughout the cosmos except in degree of self-recognition. It may also be considered as the First Logos in the human microcosm. During incarnation the lowest aspects of atman take on attributes, because it is linked with buddhi, as the buddhi is linked with manas, as the manas is linked with kama, etc.

See: Encyclopedic Theosophic Glossary

A brief history of Theosophy

Theosophists trace the origin of Theosophy to the universal striving for divinity that existed in all ancient cultures. It is found in an unbroken chain in India but existed in ancient Greece and also in the writings of Plato (427-347 BCE), Plotinus (204-270) and other neo-Platonists, as well as Jakob Boehme (1575-1624). Some relevant quotes:

..we are imprisoned in the body, like an oyster in his shell.

— The Socrates of Plato, Phaedrus

To the philosopher, the body is "a disturbing element, hindering the soul from the acquisition of knowledge.."

..what is purification but..the release of the soul from the chains of the body?

— The Socrates of Plato, Phaedo

Modern Theosophical esotericism, however, begins with Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) usually known as Madame Blavatsky. In 1875 she founded the Theosophical Society in New York City together with Henry Steel Olcott, who was a government investigator, lawyer and writer. Madame Blavatsky was a world traveller who eventually settled in India where, with Olcott, she established the headquarters of the Society. She claimed numerous psychic and spiritualist powers and incorporated them in a blend of Eastern religions including Buddhism and Hinduism. These became the basic pillars of the Theosophical movement.

Upon Blavatsky's death in 1891, several Theosophical societies emerged following a schism in 1895. Annie Besant became leader of the society based in Adyar India, while William Quan Judge split off the American Section of the Theosophical Society in New York which later moved to Point Loma, Covina, and Pasadena, California under a series of leaders: Katherine Tingley, Godfrey de Puruker, Colonel Conger, James A. Long, and Grace F. Knoche. The great pulp fiction writer Talbot Mundy was a member of the Point Loma group, and wrote many articles for its newsletter.

In Germany, Rudolf Steiner created a successful branch. He became even more famous for his ideas about education, resulting in an international network of "Steiner Schools." After the death of William Quan Judge, another society, the United Lodge of Theosophists, emerged, recognizing no leader after Judge; it is now based in Los Angeles, California.

At its strongest in membership and intensity during the 1920s there were around 7,000 adherents in the United States.

Artists who investigated Theosophy, aside from the musicians listed below, include Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Franz Kafka, W. B. Yeats, and T. S. Eliot, in Europe, and Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Wallace Stevens, and James Jones¹ in America.

Music

Composers such as Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Dane Rudhyar, and most famously Alexander Scriabin, were Theosophists whose beliefs influenced their music, especially by providing a justification or rationale for their dissonant counterpoint. According to Rudhyar, Scriabin was "the one great pioneer of the new music of a reborn Western civilization, the father of the future musician." (Rudhyar 1926b, 899) and an antidote to "the Latin reactionaries and their apostle, Stravinsky" and the "rule-ordained" music of "Schoenberg's group." (Ibid., 900-901) Scriabin devised a quartal synthetic chord, often called his "mystic" chord, and before his death Scriabin planned a multimedia work, to be performed in the Himalayas, that would bring about the armageddon, "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world." (AMG ). This piece, Mysterium, was never realized.

Early 20th-century literary references to Theosophy

In the play Juno and the Paycock (1924) by Sean O'Casey, which is set in pre-independence Dublin, one of the secondary characters is a Theosophist. This character is quite shallow and through him O'Casey parodies theosophy as an intellectual fad.

Theosophy is mentioned several times in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft.

References

• Blavatsky, Helena: The Key to Theosophy, ISBN 0911500073
• René Guénon. Theosophy: History of a Pseudo-Religion (2004), Sophia Perennis. ISBN 0-900-58879-9
• Washington, Peter Madame Blavatsky's Baboon: Theosophy and the Emergence of the Western Guru (1993), London: Secker & Warburg. ISBN 0-436-56418-1

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