Theosophy

[aviatrix]

I have been trying to wrap my head around this and for some reason I keep getting conflicting ideas as to what this entails. I have been on the Helena Blavatsky site, looked it up on Wikipedia, and am ever so slowly reading through both sites and more. There is a lot of material! I actually came upon this site while looking for something entirely different. Until recently, and feel free to call me slow if you like, I had never heard of Theosophy. It seems as if I get to a point where I think I understand and suddenly I'm off looking up something it was explaining on some other site. Well, hopefully you get the idea. As with all things, we each have our own opinions, and rightly so, however I'm having a hard time grasping whether this is religion, science, philosophy, all of the afore mentioned and just how does it meld together into one specific category, or does it? That's kind of what I'm getting. :think:

[jufa]

"The highest to which a man is able to look up he calls the "Divine." And he has in some way or other to bring his highest destination into connection with this Divinity. For this reason the higher wisdom which reveals to him his own being, and with it his destination, may very well be called "Divine Wisdom," or theosophy"

[gosaidgo]

I read that Theosophy is "the synthesis of science and religion." I have Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine by H.P. Blavatsky, and they're pretty wild. I'm not sure how seriously/literally a lot of the content should be taken. I once asked a philosopher about the relevance of Theosophy and was told that it would be better to study Jungian psychology. Theosophy was "good for its time," but is outdated, according to this person. Does anyone else have anything to share on the subject?

PS - this is my first post, hi!

[aviatrix]

I read that Theosophy is "the synthesis of science and religion." I have Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine by H.P. Blavatsky, and they're pretty wild. I'm not sure how seriously/literally a lot of the content should be taken. I once asked a philosopher about the relevance of Theosophy and was told that it would be better to study Jungian psychology. Theosophy was "good for its time," but is outdated, according to this person. Does anyone else have anything to share on the subject?

PS - this is my first post, hi!

Hi gosaidgo!
Welcome and congratulations on your first post, you did well. Thank you for this information, I can even understand it! I ran across some sites that because they were explaining the negative, and according to some, evil aspects of Theosophy I could actually understand a little more about it because they went into great length to put it into laymens terms in the hopes of persuading people to turn their backs on it. Now I don't agree with the opinions of these naysayers however it's not unlike an ex father-in-law of mine who was a die hard atheist and explained the bible and religion better than any preacher I've ever listened to. I don't agree with him at all, and if I went on in this vein I'd have to finish it in Religion instead of Philosophy. I can say though, that it's facinating to me to listen to all sides of a story (for lack of a better word). Isn't it just amazing how we can learn something completely opposite to what a person is trying to teach us sometimes just by keeping an open mind and an open ear?;)

[Will]

Here is William Q Judge, a leading disciple of Blavatsky, giving an overall view of Theosophy:

http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/theos/th-wqjep.htm

[Will]

Blavatsky's own introduction to Theosophy, The Key to Theosophy is still in print and online:

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/key/key-hp.htm

[Orpheus]

You should look into Rudolf Steiner and Manly P. Hall. They were both part of the movement, and they are a wealth of information on the basic ideas. Manly P. Hall came out with a great book called "The Secret Teachings of All Ages". He also had a book to go with it called "Lectures on Ancient Philosophy". They shall give you an idea about it. Theosophy is basically inline with some of the Mystery Schools. They are more esoteric than exoteric. They are not for people that want it up front. Many of the ancient philosophers like Pythagoras and Democritus were trained in Mystery School teachings in Egypt. Pythagoras also went to India to study.

Manly P. Hall actually gave Jung many of the mythological books that Jung used to help develop his archetypes ideas, and you see the archetypes running through Hall's book on The Secret Teachings of All Ages. It is also very Platonic/Neo-Platonic. Theosophy is mostly about symbols, and symbols are everywhere in religious ideals and myths. They have meanings that only the "initiated" can understand.

I am currently a philosophy major at my state university, and taking part in World Philosophy. Our teacher is talking about the Aztecs right now, after we did Plato. He mentioned that the Aztecs used pictographs for their religious ideals and metaphysics. There was a certain way that you had to interpret them, and only a select few who were taught it knew it. Theosophy, supposedly, has some of the keys to it.

[Will]

G de Purucker is a noble thinker & writer; his books are inspiring treasures.

Here is one, for example:

http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/wind/ws-hp.htm

[melkor]

I live near the Theosophical Society and have a friend whose family have been insiders for a very long time , living on the property.

I personaly had a library card and have been to there shop many time for texts.


whats weird is it seems that everyone was into Crowley, now U can't even get more than one or 2 Crowley books in there bookstore odd. I am not of fan of there nonsense