Theosophy

List of Connection Frameworks

Arica School, Baha'i, Buddhism, Eupsychian Theory, Gnosticism, Holistic Nursing, Jainism, Karma Yoga, LP Connection Framework, League For Spiritual Discovery, Monastic Christianity, Neo-Hinduism, Sanatana Dharma, Shattari, Sufism, Taoism, The Lightning Path, Theosophy, Transpersonal Psychology, Wicca, Yoga, Zen

Theosophy Terms

Atlantis, Deep Self, Divine Ego, Divine Fire, Divine Messengers, False Personality, Father in Heaven, Henry Steel Olcott, Neshamah, Real Ego, Root Races, Supreme Self, Universal Deity, Will-Prayer

Notes

Origins: "From its very beginning, the TS was an international movement. Its founders were an American lawyer and journalist, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), an Irish-American lawyer, William Quan Judge (1851-1896), and a Russian occultist writer and adventurer, Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891). Following its founding in New York in 1875, the TS soon became a worldwide organization. In 1879, its headquarters moved to India, first to Bomaby, and later to Adyar, Madras."

Purports to be universalistic. "The first objective of the Society (as formulated in 1896) was “to form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color,” and it was open to members of diverse religious, national, and ethnic backgrounds."

Major impact on "areas as diverse as the arts, literature, and poetry, scholarship, modern interpretations of Judaism and of Kabbalah, Orientalism, and politics, especially nationalism."

Deity/Fabric of Consciousness: " Our DEITY is neither in a paradise, nor in a particular tree, building, or mountain: it is everywhere, in every atom of the visible as of the invisible Cosmos, in, over, and around every invisible atom and divisible molecule; for IT is the mysterious power of evolution and involution, the omnipresent, omnipotent, and even omniscient creative potentiality."

"...our Deity is the eternal, incessantly evolving, not creating, builder of the universe; that universe itself unfolding out of its own essence, not being made. It is a sphere, without circumference, in its symbolism, which has but one ever-acting attribute embracing all other existing or thinkable attributes -- ITSELF. It is the one law, giving the impulse to manifested, eternal, and immutable laws, within that never-manifesting, because absolute LAW, which in its manifesting periods is The ever-Becoming."

"A God" is not the universal deity, but only a spark from the one ocean of Divine Fire. Our God within us, or "our Father in Secret" is what we call the "HIGHER SELF," Atma. Our incarnating Ego was a God in its origin, as were all the primeval emanations of the One Unknown Principle.But since its "fall into Matter," having to incarnate throughout the cycle, in succession, from first to last, it is no longer a free and happy god, but a poor pilgrim on his way to regain that which he has lost. ""

Intent//Will-Prayer/Theosophy: "Will-Power becomes a living power. But woe unto those Occultists and Theosophists, who, instead of crushing out the desires of the lower personal ego or physical man, and saying, addressing their Higher Spiritual EGO immersed in Atma-Buddhic light, "Thy will be done, not mine," etc., send up waves of will-power for selfish or unholy purposes! For this is black magic, abomination, and spiritual sorcery. Unfortunately, all this is the favourite occupation of our Christian statesmen and generals, especially when the latter are sending two armies to murder each other. Both indulge before action in a bit of such sorcery, by offering respectively prayers to the same God of Hosts, each entreating his help to cut its enemies' throats."

Is classically neo-liberal in its view of human nature. When speaking of prayer, Blavatsky notes that prayer "(a) kills in man self-reliance; (b) It develops in him a still more ferocious selfishness and egotism than he is already endowed with by nature"

Is hierarchical, arguing for "classes" of "higher" spirits.

Cosmology/Mythology

A descent from Light

Believe in the pre-existence of a "far more spiritual race than the one to which we now belong..." but that the universe goes through cycles of ascent and descent

Good versus Evil

" ...the Christian Cabalist believes like the Jewish, in Asmodeus, the Ever-accursed One, or our good friend the orthodox Satan. Asmodeus, or Asmodi, is the chief of the elementary goblins."

Eternal Evil a term used in the article "A Few Questions..."

Only the Chosen

Represents the masses of humanity as unable to handle/understand the truth, because it might "blind them," so a special elite must keep the secrets.

Fool in School

Believes that in order to become a "genuine spiritual entity one must "thoroughly eliminate from his mind and spirit, not only the dominating influence of selfishness and other impurity, but also the infection of superstition and prejudice."

Extreme Elitism

Blavatsky compares the members of mass society to servile Simia. "Society in its servile condition suggests to the intelligent observer of its mimicry a kinship between the Simia and human beings even more striking than is exhibited in the external marks pointed out by the great anthropologist."

Further Reading

Chajes, Julie, and Boaz Huss, eds. Theosophical Appropriations: Esotericism, Kabbalah, and the Transformation of Traditions. Israel: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev Press, 2016.

Footnotes

References