Theosophy
Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Indian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism.
As presented by Blavatsky, Theosophy teaches that there is an ancient and secretive brotherhood of spiritual adepts known as the Masters, who are found around the world but primarily centered in Tibet.
[16] Along with other groups such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society has been seen as part of an "occult revival" that took place in Western countries during the late 19th century.
"[20] At a meeting of the Miracle Club in New York City on 7 September 1875, Blavatsky, Olcott, and Judge agreed to establish an organisation, with Charles Sotheran suggesting that they call it the Theosophical Society.
[30] The term "Neo-Theosophy" would later be adopted within the modern Theosophical movement itself, where it was used—largely pejoratively—to describe the teachings promoted by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater by those who opposed their innovations.
[33] The Society stated that the only tenet to which all members should subscribe was a commitment "to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color".
[6] As noted by Santucci, Theosophy is "derived primarily from the writings" of Blavatsky,[35] but revisions and innovations have also been produced by subsequent Theosophists such as Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater.
[39] They are said to have achieved extra-long life spans,[39] and to have gained supernatural powers, including clairvoyance and the ability to instantly project their soul out of their body to any other location.
[40] However, the most prominent Masters to appear in Theosophical literature are Koot Hoomi (sometimes spelled Kuthumi) and Morya, with whom Blavatsky declared to be in contact.
[49] She argued that ancient societies demonstrated a unity of science and religion that humanity has since lost, with their achievements and knowledge far exceeding what modern scholars believe about them.
[50] Blavatsky also taught that a secret brotherhood had conserved this ancient wisdom religion throughout the centuries and that members of this fraternity hold the key to understanding miracles, the afterlife, and psychic phenomena and that moreover, these adepts themselves have paranormal powers.
[62] Blavatsky alleged that during the fourth Round of the Earth,[definition needed] higher beings descended to the planet, with the beginnings of human physical bodies developing and the sexes separating.
[63] At this point, the fourth Root Race appeared, living on the continent of Atlantis; they had physical bodies but also psychic powers and advanced technology.
[64] She said that some Atlanteans were giants and built such ancient monuments as Stonehenge in southern England and that they also mated with "she-animals", resulting in the creation of gorillas and chimpanzees.
"[63] He instead suggested that it could be read as Blavatsky's attempt to formulate "a new myth for the modern age, or as a huge, fantastic science fiction story".
[77] Theosophy espouses the existence of karma as a system that regulates the cycle of reincarnation, ensuring that an individual's actions in one life affect the circumstances of the next one.
[81] They, for instance, stated to have attained knowledge of their own past lives as monkey-like creatures residing on the moon, where they served as pets to the "Moon-man" (a prior incarnation of the Master Morya), his wife (Koot Humi), and their child (the Lord Maitreya).
When they were attacked by "savages" and animals "resembling furry lizards and crocodiles", Besant sacrificed herself to save Morya, and for that act made the karmic evolutionary leap to becoming a human in her next incarnation.
[86] Based on a statistical analysis, Dixon noted that prominent English feminists of the period were several hundred times more likely to join the Theosophical Society than the average member of the country's population.
Leadbeater traveled to Adyar, where he met a young boy living there, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and pronounced him to be the next incarnation of a figure called the World Teacher.
[124] The United Lodge of Theosophists had been established in Los Angeles in 1909, when it had split from Judge's Theosophical Society in America, seeking to minimize formal organization.
[124] It focused on publishing new editions of Blavatsky and Judge's writings, as well as other books, which were usually released anonymously so as to prevent any personality cults developing within the Theosophical movement.
[66] As noted by Dixon, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Theosophical Society "appealed above all to an elite, educated, middle- and upper-middle-class constituency".
"[17] Campbell stated that Theosophy attracted "unconventional, liberal-minded Westerners",[143] and according to Dixon they were among those "who constituted themselves as the humanitarian conscience of the middle classes, a dissident minority who worked in a variety of parallel organizations to critique the dominant bourgeois values and culture.
[147] Prominent scientists who had belonged to the Theosophical Society included the inventor Thomas Edison, the biologist Alfred Russel Wallace, and the chemist William Crookes.
[154] Hilma af Klint's development of abstraction was directly tied to her work with the Theosophical Society, with the aim of presenting and preserving spiritual concepts visually.
[160] The turn-of-the-20th century Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, whose metaphysical and mystical views greatly influenced his tonal system and compositional output,[161] became interested in Theosophy while living in Brussels from 1909–10.
[citation needed] Other composers whose music was influenced by theosophical concerns include Gustav Holst, Luigi Russolo, Cyril Scott and Edmund Rubbra.
Terms and ideas created or mediated by spokespersons of the Theosophical Society have over time become household words, and the advent of Theosophy thus marked a fundamental change in the religious lives of countless individuals.
[176] Hammer and Rothstein stated that Theosophy came to heavily influence "popular religiosity" and by the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries was "permeating just about every nook and cranny of contemporary "folk" religious culture" in Western countries.
