What is Theosophy?
H P BlavatskyFrom The Theosophist, Vol 1, No 1 (October 1879); also in The Collected Writings Volume II, pp. 87 -97.
According to
lexicographers, the term theosophia is composed of two Greek words - theos,
"god”, and sophos, "wise.”
So far, correct. But the
explanations that follow are far from giving a clear idea of Theosophy. Webster defines it most originally as "a
supposed intercourse with God and superior spirits, and consequent attainment
of superhuman knowledge, by physical processes, as by the theurgic operations
of some ancient Platonists, or by the chemical processes of the German
fire-philosophers”.
This, to say the
least, is a poor and flippant explanation.
To attribute such ideas to men like Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus,
Iamblichus, Porphyry, Proclus - shows either intentional misrepresentation, or
Mr. Webster's ignorance of the philosophy and motives of the greatest geniuses
of the later Alexandrian School. To
impute to those whom their contemporaries as well as posterity styled "theodidaktoi”,
god-taught - a purpose to develop their psychological, spiritual perceptions by
"physical processes”, is to describe them as materialists. As to the concluding fling at the
fire-philosophers, it rebounds from them to fall home among our most eminent
modern men of science; those, in whose mouths the Rev. James Martineau places
the following boast: "matter is all we want; give us atoms alone, and we
will explain the universe."
Vaughan offers a far
better, more philosophical definition. "A
Theosophist" He says - "is one who gives you a theory of God, which
has not revelation, but an inspiration of his own for its basis.” In this view every great thinker and
philosopher, especially every founder of a new religion, school of philosophy,
or sect, is necessarily a Theosophist, Hence, Theosophy and Theosophists have
existed ever since the first glimmering of nascent thought made man seek
instinctively for the means of expressing his own independent opinions.
There were
Theosophists before the Christian era, notwithstanding that the Christian
writers ascribe the development of the Eclectic theosophical system to the
early part of the third century of their Era.
Diogenes Laertius traces Theosophy to an epoch antedating the dynasty of
the Ptolemies; and names as its founder an Egyptian Hierophant called Pot-Amun,
the name being Coptic and signifying a priest consecrated to Amun, the god of
Wisdom. But history shows it revived by
Ammonius Saccas, the founder of the Neo-Platonic School. He and his disciples called themselves
"Philalethians" - lovers of the truth; while others termed them the
"Analogists," on account of their method of interpreting all sacred
legends, symbolical myths and mysteries, by a rule of analogy or
correspondence, so that events which had occurred in the external world were
regarded as expressing operations and experiences of the human soul. It was the aim and purpose of Ammonius to
reconcile all sects, and nations under one common faith - a belief in one
supreme, Eternal, Unknown, and Un-named Power, governing the Universe by
immutable and eternal laws. His object
was to prove a primitive system of Theosophy, which at the beginning was
essentially alike in all countries; to induce all men to lay aside their
strifes and quarrels, and unite in purpose and thought as the children of one
common mother; to purify the ancient religions, by degrees corrupted and
obscured, from all dross of human element, by uniting and expounding them upon
pure philosophical principles.
Hence, the
Buddhistic, Vedantic and Magian, or Zoroastrian systems, were taught in the
Eclectic Theosophical School along with all the philosophies of Greece. Hence also, that pre-eminently Buddhistic and
Indian feature among the ancient Theosophists of Alexandria, of due reverence
for parents and aged persons; a fraternal affection for the whole human race;
and a compassionate feeling for even the dumb animals. While seeking to establish a system of moral
discipline which enforced upon people the duty to live according to the laws of
their respective countries; to exalt their minds by the research and
contemplation of the one Absolute Truth; his chief object in order, as he
believed, to achieve all others, was to extract from the various religious
teachings, as from a many-chorded instrument, one full and harmonious melody,
which would find response in every truth-loving heart.
Theosophy is, then
the archaic Wisdom-Religion, the esoteric doctrine once known in every
ancient country having claims to civilization.
This "Wisdom" all the old writings show us as an emanation of
the divine Principle; and the clear comprehension of it is typified in such
names as the Indian Buddha, the Babylonian Nebo, the Thoth of Memphis, the
Hermes of Greece; in the appellations, also, of some goddesses - Metis, Neith,
Athena, the Gnostic Sophia, and finally - the Vedas, from the word
"to know.” Under this designation,
all the ancient philosophers of the East and West, the Hierophants of old
Egypt, the Rishis of Aryavarta, the Theodidaktoi of Greece, included all
knowledge of things occult and essentially divine, The Mercavah of the
Hebrew Rabbis, the secular and popular series, were thus designated as only the
vehicle, the outward shell which contained the higher esoteric knowledge. The Magi of Zoroaster received instruction
and were initiated in the caves and secret lodges of Bactria; the Egyptian and
Grecian hierophants had their aporrheta, or secret discourses, during
which the Mystes became an Epoptes a Seer.
The central ideas of
the Eclectic Theosophy was that of a single Supreme Essence, Unknown and
Unknowable - for - "How could one know the knower?" as enquires Brihadaranyaka
Upanishad. Their system was
characterized by three distinct features: the theory of the above-named
Essence; the doctrine of the human soul - an emanation from the latter, hence
of the same nature; and its theurgy. It
is this last science which has led the Neo-Platonists to be so misrepresented
in our era of materialistic science. Theurgy
being essentially the art of applying the divine powers of man to the
subordination of the blind forces of nature, its votaries were first termed
magicians - a corruption of the word "Magh," signifying a wise, or
learned man, and - derided. Skeptics of
a century ago would have been as wide of the mark if they had laughed at the
idea of a phonograph or a telegraph. The
ridiculed and the "infidels" of one generation generally become the
wise men and saints of the next.
As regards the Divine
Essence and the nature of the soul and spirit, modern Theosophy believes now as
ancient Theosophy did. The popular Diu
of the Aryan nations was identical with the Iao of the Chaldeans, and
even with the Jupiter of the less learned and philosophical among the Romans;
and it was just as identical with the Jahve of the Samaritans, the Tiu
or "Tuisto" of the Northmen, the Duw of the Britons, and the Zeus
of the Thracians. As to the Absolute
Essence, the One and All - whether we accept the Greek Pythagorean, the
Chaldean Kabalistic, or the Aryan philosophy in regard to it, it will all lead
to one and the same result. The Primeval
Monad of the Pythagorean system, which retires into darkness and is itself
Darkness (for human intellect), was made the basis of all things; and we can
find the idea in all its integrity in the philosophical systems of Leibnitz and
Spinoza.
Theosophy shrinks
from brutal materialization; it prefers believing that, from eternity retired
within itself, the Spirit of Deity neither wills nor creates; but that, from
the infinite effulgency everywhere going forth from the Great Centre, that,
which produces all visible and invisible things, is but a Ray containing in
itself the generative and conceptive power, which, in its turn produces that
which the Greeks called Macrocosm, the Kabalists Tikkun or Adam
Kadmon - the archetypal man, and the Aryans Purusha, the manifested
Brahm, or the Divine Male. Theosophy believes also in the Anastasis or
continued existence, and in transmigration (evolution) or a series of changes
in the soul which can be defended and explained on strict philosophical
principles; and only by making a distinction between Paramatma
(transcendental, supreme soul!) and Jivatma (animal, or conscious soul)
of the vedantins.
To fully define
Theosophy, we must consider it under all its aspects. The interior world has not been hidden from
all by impenetrable darkness. By that
higher intuition acquired by Theosophia - or God knowledge, which
carries the mind from the world of form into that of formless spirit, man has
been sometimes enabled in every age, and in every country to perceive things in
the interior or invisible world. Hence,
the "Samadhi," or Dhyana Yoga Samadhi, of the Hindu ascetics;
the "Daimonion-photi," or spiritual illumination, of the
Neo-Platonists; the "Siderial confabulation of souls," of the
Rosicrucians or Fire-philosophers; and, even the ecstatic trance of mystics and
of the modem mesmerists and spiritualists, are identical in nature, though
various as to manifestation. The search
after man's diviner "self”, so often and so erroneously interpreted as
individual communion with a personal God, was the object of every mystic, and
belief in its possibility seems to have been coeval with the genesis of
humanity - each people giving it another name.
Thus Plato and
Plotinus call "Noetic work" that which the Yogis and the Srotriyas
term Vidya. "By reflection,
self knowledge and intellectual discipline, the soul can be raised to the
vision of eternal truth, goodness, and beauty - that is, to the Vision o/
God - this is the epopteia," said the Greeks. "To unite one's soul to the Universal
Soul," says Porphyry, "requires but a perfectly pure mind. Through self-contemplation, perfect chastity,
and purity of body, we may approach nearer to It, and receive, in that state,
true knowledge and wonderful insight."
The Alexandrian
Theosophists were divided into neophytes, initiates, and masters, or hierophants;
and their rules were copied from the ancient Mysteries of Orpheus, who,
according to Herodotus, brought them from India. Ammonius obligated his disciples by oath not
to divulge his higher doctrines, except to those who were proved thoroughly
worthy and initiated, and who had learned to regard the gods, the angels, and
the demons of other peoples, according to the esoteric hyponoia, or
under-meaning. "The gods exist, but
they are not what the hoi polloi, the uneducated multitude, suppose them
to be," says Epicurus. "He is
not an atheist who denies the existence of the gods whom the multitude worship,
but he is such who fastens on these gods the opinions of the multitude.” In his turn, Aristotle declares that of the
"Divine Essence pervading the whole world of nature, what are styled the
gods are simply the first principles”.
Plotinus, the pupil
of the "God-taught" Ammonius, tells us, that the secret gnosis
or the knowledge of Theosophy, has three degrees - opinion, science, and illumination. "The means or instrument of the first is
sense, or perception; of the second, dialectics; of the third, intuition. To the last, reason is subordinate; it is absolute
knowledge, founded on the identification of the mind with the object known.” Theosophy is the exact science of psychology,
so to say; it stands in relation to natural, uncultivated mediumship, as the
knowledge of a Tyndall stands to that of a school-boy in physics. It develops in man a direct beholding; that
which Schelling denominates "a realization of the identity of subject and
object in the individual"; so that under the influence and knowledge of hyponoia
man thinks divine thoughts, views all things as they really are, and, finally,
"becomes recipient of the Soul of the World," to use one of the finest
expressions of Emerson. "I, the
imperfect, adore my own Perfect" - he says in his superb Essay on The
Over-Soul. Besides this
psychological, or soul-state, Theosophy cultivated every branch of sciences and
arts. It was thoroughly familiar with
what is now commonly known as mesmerism.
Practical Theurgy or "ceremonial magic”, so often resorted to in
their exorcisms by the Roman Catholic clergy - was discarded by the
Theosophists. Alchemy, believed by so
many to have been a spiritual philosophy as well as a physical science,
belonged to the teachings of the theosophical school.
It is a noticeable
fact that neither Zoroaster, Buddha, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Confucius, Socrates,
nor Ammonius Saccas, committed anything to writing. The reason for it is obvious. Theosophy is a double-edged weapon and unfit
for the ignorant or the selfish. Like
every ancient philosophy it has its votaries among the modems; but, until late
in our own days, its disciples were few in numbers, and of the most various
sects and opinions. "Entirely
speculative, and founding no schools, they have still exercised a silent
influence upon philosophy; and, no doubt, when the time arrives, many ideas
thus silently propounded may yet give new directions to human thought" -
remarks Mr. Kenneth R. H. MacKenzie IX ... himself a mystic and a theosophist,
in his large and valuable work, The Royal Masonic Cyclopaedia. Since the days of the fire-philosophers, they
had never formed themselves into societies, for, tracked like wild beasts by
the Christian clergy, to be known as a Theosophist often amounted, hardly a
century ago, to a death warrant. The
statistics show that, during a period of 150 years, no less than 90,000 men and
women were burned in Europe for alleged witchcraft. In Great Britain only, from A.D. 1640 to
1660, but twenty years, 3,000 persons were put to death for compact with the
"Devil.” It was but late in the
present century - in 1875 - that some progressed mystics and spiritualists,
unsatisfied with the theories and explanations of Spiritualism, started by its
votaries, and finding that they were far from covering the whole ground of the
wide range of phenomena, formed at New York, America, an association which is
now widely known as the Theosophical Society.
From The Theosophist, Vol 1, No 1 (October 1879); also in The Collected Writings Volume II, pp. 87
-97.
