Theosophy

The term theosophy refers to doctrines which support that all the Religion S are projections and attempts of the Man to know “the Divine one”, and that, consequently, each religion has part of the Truth.

The theosophy ( theosophia - in Greek: theos , divine and sophia , wisdom) was rested by authors of the Antiquité. The origin of the term is among philosophers of Alexandria, the Philalèthes (in Greek: phil , which likes and aletheia , the truth). The term as a such date of the 3rd century of the Christian era and makes its appearance with Ammonios Saccas and its disciples, who founded the eclectic system theosophic. The method consists in, on the one hand, reasoning in term of analogies (one called the disciples of Ammonios Saccas the “Analogiste S” because of their practice to interpret the legends, myths and tales crowned according to a logic of analogy and correspondence) and on the other hand, knowing the experiment of divine by the spiritual extase and the direct intuition.

The term of “theosophy” also corresponds to a modern system of beliefs and was especially used by Helena Blavatsky to define its own doctrines thématiquement. With Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge, it founded the theosophic Société in 1875. This spiritualistic organization is connected with other initiatory movements of the same order, with which it maintained many bonds until today (Franc-Maçonnerie, Rosicrucian brotherhood, Martinisme).

It is about a modern rebirth of the old principle theosophic. It is founded on a Syncrétisme containing the traditions of the Hindouisme and the Bouddhisme, that the theosophists affirm to rest on a “Body of Truth” common to all the religions: the Paramount Tradition. The theosophy, affirm, represents a modern aspect of the Sanatana Dharma , “the Eternal Truth”, like religion in oneself.

Theoretical bases of the modern theosophy

Although the metaphysical construction of the modern theosophy consists of a relatively disparate assembly of elements of various origins (the step is, indeed, syncretic), one can identify some main roads of development which constitute recurring datum lines in the doctrines.

  • the Conscience is One and Universal

According to this postulate, Nature does not operate by the chance and the chance. Each event, passed or present, is the cause of laws which are part of the “Universal principle”. The theosophists support that any thing, alive or not, “is impregnated” by the Conscience. This Principle was called in a way varied in works of the Theosophy: God (not personnel), the Law, the Great architect, Evolution, and the Logos.

  • the Reincarnation is universal

With the image of the hindouism whose majority of the theosophic thoughts are inspired, the theosophy expresses the idea that the beings réincarnent themselves through many lives, in various forms. In this direction, all the beings would have reached the “human” state through a myriad of reincarnations, passing by the mineral kingdoms, plant then animal, since the birth of the life on the Earth. However, the theosophy differs in its design from the Réincarnation: she refutes the belief which a regression is possible; what means that, in its corpus, the human ones again cannot réincarner in animals or plants. In addition, the men are regarded only one stage of the evolution of the life on the Earth and not as the completion of the evolution, which continues through higher reigns, in the form of other entities such as “Dhyani Chohans” (correspondent with released spiritual entities of the material contingencies).

  • the immortal individuality of the Man

The theosophists believe that all the human beings comprise an immortal principle (Monade, it Oneself, their individuality) but that in their successive personalities (i.e. their incarnations), they are unconscious, most of the time, of the existing bond with their divine nature and die unless absolutely carrying out a union of their two principles (i.e. of their transpersonnelle individuality and their personality of incarnation).

  • Karma

Similar to the Hindu thought on the idea of the Karma, the specific design of the theosophists consists in preaching, for the human actions, that the bad acts must be replaced by acts of kindness and that these acts of kindness must be connected to the plan of the divine Principle. More generally, the Theosophy leaves the principle that the Good and the Evil are the result of the differentiation of the Spirit (divine) and the Matter in a cycle of evolution. There would initially exist a natural involution of the Spirit in the Matter which would be followed by an evolution of the Matter turning over to the Spirit.

  • Evolution

The goal of the Universe, manifestation of the “Universal principle”, would be that the Spirit (divine) appears with itself by seven increasingly opaque levels of differentiation of Matter in order to carry out the training of the “oneself-conscience”, i.e. sufficiently to be different in order to include/understand itself, through a return to itself in the cycle of evolution. The Man, like stage of the advance of the universal Conscience in the Matter, would take part in this intention of the Spirit (divine), through his actions, of his successive incarnations and his confrontation to the material contingency. The Religion, the Philosophy, the Science, the Art S, the Trade, the Humanism or the Philanthropy, inter alia fields, would be subjected to the laws of the evolution initiated by the Spirit, by knowing their own evolutions, but would be as many fields and of opportunities for the men of approaching more close to the conscience of their intrinsic bond with the Divine one and of taking part fully for the Spirit (divine).

  • universal Fraternity

If any thing of the Universe is connected to the single divine source (the Universal principle), each one has a form and a nature which is the expression of its current level of conscience. Nevertheless, in spite of the diversity of the forms, the idea is constant that, even if only the beings human have an individualized heart, all the alive things are plain in a principle of Fraternity by the bond common to the Universal principle.

  • Masters of Wisdom

According to the writings theosophic, there would exist human beings evolved/moved, parvenu to know the “Universal principle” and to free themselves from the condition of the ordinary man. These individuals, called Main of Wisdom and supposed to reside for the majority in India, are regarded as holders of a major and secret knowledge of the paramount Tradition , supposed to be the common base of all the religions. The theosophists affirm that these beings are the end of a continuous chain of all the individuals between them, which would make it possible esoteric knowledge to be exempted to the disciples ready to receive it (i.e. with any individual engaging in a spiritualistic step). It is of these Masters that in particular the reference book of the doctrines of the modern theosophy would emanate: Secret Doctrines of Helena Blavatsky.

  • Septenary the

    • to see the Septenary article (Theosophy)

Short history

The theosophists connect the origin of the theosophy to the efforts to reach the divinity which exist in all the old cultures. They support that one can find the step theosophic through an uninterrupted chain of transmission of lesson in India but which it existed in the ancient Greece in various writings like those of Plato (427-347 av. J. - C.), Plotin (204/5-270) and other neoplatonicians, until Jacob Boehme (1575 - 1624).

The esotericism of the modern theosophy, however, starts with Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831 - 1891), more known under the name of Mrs Blavatsky. This one was one of the founders of the theosophic Société (founded in 1875, with New York) with Henry Steel Olcott, which was lawyer and writer, and William Quan Judge. Mrs Blavatsky was adventurous who had travelled throughout the world, and which had settled in India where, again with Olcott, it establishes the general headquarter of the theosophic Société, close to Chennai. She asserted many psychic and mediumnic capacities, which she incorporated in the doctrines of the theosophic Société, through esoteric interpretations of the Eastern religions (hindouism and Buddhism). She affirmed indeed that the knowledge of certain lesson esoteric made it possible to develop latent capacities in the Man. These components became the basic pillars of the movement theosophic.

Although the theosophic Société exists still today, the modern theosophy knew its golden age between the end of the 19th century and the years 1920 when, as example, the American section counted more 7  000 members. It is as at this period as the theosophic Company knows many schisms and loses its influence gradually. These ruptures gave birth to movements and groupings various such as the Anthroposophie of Rudolf Steiner (approach wanting to be Christian “scientist” of the theosophy and centered on the Man), the Mystery École of Alice Bailey (which wants to be the direct continuation of the doctrines of Mrs. Blavatsky by incorporating a strongly Christian dimension in addition in it), the Agni Yoga Society of Helena and Nicholas Roerich or quite simply, more recently, the movement New Age , of which some of its actors claim lesson theosophic. Other more discussed actors also fit in this line such as the school known as of the Nouvelle Acropolis (still very powerful in South America and regarded as a sect in certain countries) or for example, within the movement New Age, in the years 1970, the movement Share International (in France: International division), rested by Benjamin Creme, a Scot claiming writings of Helena Blavatsky and more particularly of those of Alice Bailey.

Influences and personalities

The artists who were inspired by the doctrines of the theosophy are numerous. As example, one can quote at the musical level Crawford-Seeger the Ruth type-setters, Dane Rudhyar, Cyril Scott or, more famous, Alexandre Scriabine. But it is particularly in the field of pictorial arts and the literature that the theosophic theories knew much success, such as for example near James Ensor, Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kafka or William Butler Yeats. In addition, the theosophy touched in its London youth the exploring one and tibetologist Alexandra David-Néel and incited it to explore Asia. She even lived a certain time in a house with the international seat of the Société Théosophique in Adyar in India. Unfortunately, Mrs Blavatsky also had a direct and harmful influence on the personality of Adolf Hitler which made an erroneous interpretation of the concept of the race Aryenne and of her supremacy.

See too

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