Theosophy

Origin

The Theosophical Society was founded in New York at a meeting at Blavatsky's apartment on 7 September 1875, with the official inaugural address on 17 November of the same year. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a Russian aristocrat who claimed to have travelled extensively in India, Tibet, and the East, served as the principal occult exponent; Henry Steel Olcott, an American colonel and lawyer, served as administrative president; William Quan Judge, an Irish-American attorney, organised the American branch. The Society's declared three objects are to form a universal brotherhood of humanity, to encourage comparative study of religion and philosophy, and to investigate unexplained laws of nature and powers latent in humanity.

In 1878 Blavatsky and Olcott moved to India, settling at Adyar near Madras in 1882, where the international headquarters remains. Blavatsky's magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine, appeared in two volumes in 1888 and presented a vast cosmological synthesis drawn from claimed Tibetan sources, the Stanzas of Dzyan. After Blavatsky's death in 1891, leadership passed to Annie Besant (1847 to 1933) and Charles Webster Leadbeater (1854 to 1934), who developed Theosophy in new directions and prepared Jiddu Krishnamurti as a world teacher, an effort Krishnamurti himself dissolved in 1929. The movement split repeatedly, producing the Theosophical Society in America, the United Lodge of Theosophists, and various smaller branches.

Teachings and method

Theosophical cosmology, set out in The Secret Doctrine, describes a vast evolutionary scheme. The cosmos is structured in seven planes, from the densest physical to the most refined spiritual. Human existence proceeds through seven root races, each on a different continent of the planet, with the present humanity belonging to the fifth root race. Each root race contains seven sub-races. Beneath the surface of this controversial racial schema lies a deeper teaching: that consciousness evolves through countless rebirths, each life adding to a permanent record stored in the akashic chronicle. The doctrine of karma, drawn from Hinduism and Buddhism, governs the moral law of cause and effect across lifetimes.

The Theosophical doctrine of the human constitution divides the person into seven principles, sometimes grouped as three: the lower quaternary (physical body, etheric double, astral body, lower mind), the higher triad (higher mind, intuition or buddhi, atma or spiritual self), and the immortal individuality. Death involves the dissolution of the lower principles and the passage of the higher triad through devachan (a heaven-state) before reincarnation. The Masters of the Wisdom, also called the Mahatmas or Adepts, are advanced human beings who guide humanity's evolution; Blavatsky claimed direct contact with two of them, Koot Hoomi and Morya.

In practice

Theosophical practice combines study, meditation, ethical discipline, and service. The Theosophical Society maintains lodges in over 70 countries where members gather to study primary texts (Blavatsky's The Voice of the Silence, The Key to Theosophy, The Secret Doctrine; Besant's The Ancient Wisdom; Leadbeater's The Inner Life), to practise meditation, and to engage in comparative religion. The Society does not require members to accept any specific dogma, only to subscribe to the three objects. The international headquarters at Adyar holds one of the largest occult libraries in the world.

Theosophical ethics emphasises vegetarianism, non-violence, and selfless service. The doctrine of universal brotherhood applies to all sentient beings. Many Theosophists practise daily meditation following Blavatsky's instructions in The Voice of the Silence, a translation of fragments she attributed to the Book of the Golden Precepts. Combine Theosophical reading with alchemy, Anthroposophy (Rudolf Steiner's break-away movement), and Rosicrucianism for the wider Western esoteric context. Visit the full glossary for further reading.

Symbolic depth

Theosophy's enduring contribution is the East-West synthesis. Before Blavatsky, Eastern religious teachings reached Europe only through scholarly translation, often hostile or condescending. Blavatsky presented Buddhism, Hinduism, and the Hermetic-Kabbalistic tradition of the West as branches of a single ancient wisdom-religion, communicated by the Masters across the centuries. This vision shaped twentieth-century spirituality far beyond the Theosophical Society itself: the Russian painter Nicholas Roerich, the Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi (who read Blavatsky in London), the Irish poet W. B. Yeats, the American composer John Cage, and many others were directly influenced.

The doctrine of seven planes, seven principles, and seven root races has been criticised on scholarly grounds and on its racial elements. Modern Theosophical writers, beginning with Annie Besant herself, have substantially revised the racial elements of the original system. The deeper, more abstract teaching - the doctrine of universal evolution through reincarnation, the moral order of karma, and the brotherhood of all beings - remains the philosophical heart of Theosophy. Continue with Anthroposophy, Rosicrucianism, Gnosticism, and the wider oracle hub.

Also known as

• Theosophical Society
• Blavatsky Tradition
• Wisdom Religion
• Ancient Wisdom
• Divine Wisdom