Theosophy:

Religious and philosophical system of the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 by Madame Blavatsky. Its paranormal claims were controversially and damningly reported upon by the Society for Psychical Research in 1885.

(See also: Theosophy, Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Theosophy :

Theosophy

A compound Greek word: theos, a "divine being," a "god"; sophia, "wisdom"; hence divine wisdom. Theosophy is the majestic wisdom-religion of the archaic ages and is as old as thinking man. It was delivered to the first human protoplasts, the first thinking human beings on this earth, by highly intelligent spiritual entities from superior spheres. This ancient doctrine, this esoteric system, has been passed down from guardians to guardians to guardians through innumerable generations until our own time. Furthermore, portions of this original and majestic system have been given out at various periods of time to various races in various parts of the world by those guardians when humanity stood in need of such extension and elaboration of spiritual and intellectual thought.

Theosophy is not a syncretistic philosophy-religion-science, a system of thought or belief which has been put together piecemeal and consisting of parts or portions taken by some great mind from other various religions or philosophies. This idea is false. On the contrary, theosophy is that single system or systematic formulation of the facts of visible and invisible nature which, as expressed through the illuminated human mind, takes the apparently separate forms of science and of philosophy and of religion. We may likewise describe theosophy to be the formulation in human language of the nature, structure, origin, destiny, and operations of the kosmical universe and of the multitudes of beings which infill it.

It might be added that theosophy, in the language of H. P. Blavatsky (Theosophical Glossary, p. 328), is "the sub-stratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies, taught and practiced by a few elect ever since man became a thinking being. In its practical bearing, Theosophy is purely divine ethics; the definitions in dictionaries are pure nonsense, based on religious prejudice and ignorance." (See also Universal Brotherhood)

See also: Theosophy, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

THEOSOPHY

Society founded in 1875 by H.P. Blavatsky and Col. H.S. Olcott. Immediate divine illumination. Spiritual insight is superior to empirical knowledge. Specifically, Theosophy is the revelation of HPB that incorporates Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism, Platonism, Hinduism and Buddhism. Theosophy proposes "four bodies": the physical, the astral, the esthetic and the Self.

(See also: THEOSOPHY, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

THEOSOPHY:

 Any philosophy that teaches the achievement of knowledge of God (s) by spiritual ecstasy, direct intuition, or a special relationship to the deities.

 The modern traditions based on the teachings of the Theosophical Society which combined Western magickal systems and mysticism with Buddhist and Hindu teachings.

(See also: THEOSOPHY, Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Theosophy [from Greek theosophia from theos god, divinity + sophia wisdom]

Divine wisdom, the knowledge of things divine; often described as attainable by direct experience, by becoming conscious of the essential, divine part of our nature, self-identification with the inner god, leading to communion with other similar divine beings. Theosophy actually is the "substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies, taught and practised by a few elect ever since man became a thinking being" (TG 328). Also called by such names as the secret doctrine and the esoteric tradition, its teachings have been preserved, checked and rechecked with every new generation of its guardians and adepts.

The word became familiar to Greeks in the 3rd century with Ammonius Saccas and the Alexandrian Neoplatonists or Theurgists, who taught of divine emanations, whereby the entire universe as well as humans and all other beings are shown to be descendants of the highest gods. Theosophist is also applied to mystics in later times such as Eckhart, Boehme, and Paracelsus. It was adopted in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky and others associated with her at the founding of the Theosophical Society as the name for the modern form of the archaic wisdom-religion which she promulgated. This wisdom-religion "was ever one and being the last word of possible human knowledge, was, therefore, carefully preserved. It preceded by long ages the Alexandrian Theosophists, reached the modern, and will survive every other religion and philosophy" (Key 7-8).

"The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system: e.g., even in the exotericism of the Puranas. But such is the mysterious power of Occult symbolism, that the facts which have actually occupied countless generations of initiated seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain; in the bewildering series of evolutionary progress, are all recorded on a few pages of geometrical sign and glyphs. The flashing gaze of those seers has penetrated into the very kernel of matter, and recorded the soul of things there, where an ordinary profane, however learned, would have perceived but the external work of form. But modern science believes not in the 'soul of things,' and hence will reject the whole system of ancient cosmogony. It is useless to say that the system in question is no fancy of one or several isolated individuals. That it is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity. That for long ages, the 'Wise Men' of the Fifth Race, of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm and shifting of continents, had passed their lives in learning, not teaching. How did they do so? It is answered: by checking, testing, and verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who have developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the visions -- so obtained as to stand as independent evidence -- of other adepts, and by centuries of experiences" (SD 1:272-3).

G. de Purucker wrote: "There has existed in the world for almost innumerable ages, a completely coherent and fully comprehensive system of religious philosophy, or of philosophical, scientific religion, which from time to time has been given out to man when the world needed a fuller revealing of spiritual truth than it then at such time had. Further, this wonderful system has been for all those past ages in the safe guardianship of the relatively perfected men . . . [the mahatmas]; and, still further, the present Theosophical Movement is, in our age, one of such fuller revelations or renewals of that wonderful System" (ET 33-4).

One of the mahatmas referring to the guardianship of the divine wisdom, wrote: "For countless generations hath the adept builded a fane of imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower of Infinite Thought, wherein the Titan dwelt, and will yet, if need be, dwell alone, emerging from it but at the end of every cycle, to invite the elect of mankind to co-operate with him and help in his turn enlighten superstitious man. And we will go on in that periodical work of ours; we will not allow ourselves to be baffled in our philanthropic attempts until that day when the foundations of a new continent of thought are so firmly built that no amount of opposition and ignorant malice guided by the Brethren of the Shadow will be found to prevail" (ML 51).

See also THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

(See also: Theosophy, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

God-wisdom. See THEOSOPHY

(See also: God-wisdom, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

God-wisdom. See THEOSOPHY

(See also: God-sparks, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Theosophia.

See THEOSOPHY

(See also: Theosophia, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

Gupta-vidya (Sanskrit) (from gupta from the verbal root gup to conceal, preserve + vidya knowledge, wisdom)

Secret knowledge, secret wisdom; the source of all religions and philosophies known to the world: theosophy, the ancient wisdom-religion, the esoteric philosophy.

See also THEOSOPHY

(See also: Gupta-vidya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Jnana-vidya (Sanskrit) (from jnana knoweldge + vidya wisdom)

Equivalent to Brahma-vidya or theosophy, the wisdom-tradition or gnosis. (BCW 11:271)

(See also: Jnana-vidya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Gupta-vidya (Sanskrit) (from gupta from the verbal root gup to conceal, preserve + vidya knowledge, wisdom)

Secret knowledge, secret wisdom; the source of all religions and philosophies known to the world: theosophy, the ancient wisdom-religion, the esoteric philosophy.

See also THEOSOPHY

(See also: Gupta-maya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Angelus Rector (Latin) Ruling angel; according to Kepler, the angel or divine being who caused a planet to pursue its course around the sun; equivalent to the planetary rectors or spirits of theosophy (SD 1:479).

(See also: Angelus Rector, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Meta-spirit That which is beyond spirit; used in The Key to Theosophy to denote atman, or paramatman (Brahman) cosmically, the word spirit being reserved for emanated manifestations of this meta-spirit.

(See also: Meta-spirit, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Individuality (from Latin individuum undivided thing, unit)

In philosophy, as well as in theosophy, used for inherent selfhood: monad, ego, atom. Used in theosophy for the higher ego in man as contrasted with the lower ego or personality -- a distinction not made in ordinary parlance, where the two words may even be used in the opposite senses.

The individuality is the immortal spiritual ego or monad; whereas the personality, or lower quaternary of the septenary human constitution, is the mortal human ego which goes to pieces at death.

(See also: Individuality, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Heart Doctrine In Mahayana Buddhism, the hidden or esoteric teachings as opposed to the eye doctrine, the public or exoteric teachings. In theosophy, the heart doctrine is considered to contain the more profound and compassionate teachings which go beyond the literal interpretation of the publicly given doctrines.

(See also: Heart Doctrine, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Flagae Used by Paracelsus to denote an order of spiritual beings which correspond to the Christian guardian angels, or what would be called in theosophy the higher pitris or the sixfold dhyani-chohans -- that class of the dhyani-chohans in whom six of the seven constitutional principles of nature are more or less actively manifest.

(See also: Flagae, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Heart Doctrine In Mahayana Buddhism, the hidden or esoteric teachings as opposed to the eye doctrine, the public or exoteric teachings. In theosophy, the heart doctrine is considered to contain the more profound and compassionate teachings which go beyond the literal interpretation of the publicly given doctrines.

(See also: Heart, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Saha (Sanskrit) [from the verbal root sah to endure, suffer]

One of the loka-dhatus or divisions of the world in Buddhist philosophy: the world inhabited by men, or the earth -- Buddhists consider this earth a world of suffering. Adopted into theosophy to signify the earth and likewise any inhabited or manifested world or globe in the chiliocosm or sakvala.

Theosophy recognizes no hells in nature except those spheres of experience, evolutionary progress, and purgation through suffering which all the manifested globes of space are in almost infinitely varying degrees.

(See also: Saha, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Udbhijja (Sanskrit) [from ud-bhid to divide, break forth + ja born]

Born by fission, separation, or sprouting; theosophy teaches that the first root-race reproduced by fission or division of individuals into two or more parts, these parts called udbhijja.

(See also: Udbhijja, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)