Theosophy -
The Truth Revealed
-----------------------------
Based on a booklet compiled by the Merseyside Lodge of The Theosophical Society in England.
Introduction and editorial notes by G.A. Farthing
Helena Blavatsky (1831 - 1891)
There is no danger that dauntless courage cannot conquer; there is no trial that spotless purity cannot pass through; there is no difficulty that strong intellect cannot surmount.
There is a general ignorance of what Theosophy is. There are a number of reasons for this. When it first came to the notice of the public in 1875 it was associated with spiritualism, which was then much in vogue. Later some of H. P. Blavatsky's remarkable phenomena became known and these were inexplicable. This led to her becoming dubbed as a fraudulent medium and this view was upheld by the Society for Psychical Research in the content of a report by one of their members and particularly regarding the authorship of letters and other written material purporting to come from those she referred to as her Teachers or Masters of the Wisdom. Even though this report has been found defective by several independent investigators, its findings still remain to affect the views of academics and others who might otherwise have more regard for what Mme Blavatsky has written. Moreover, some of this was in a vein that offended orthodox churchmen.
These attitudes of the academic world and the church led to Blavatsky's writings being ignored by the seriously scholarly fraternity. The public in general, where they were at all interested, were interested in the sensationalism that surrounded her. They too were affected by the taint of alleged charlatanry and fraud. Nevertheless, all Mme Blavatsky's writings have been continuously in print since her death and she is still a figure of interest. Books and articles about her continue to appear. They are often derogatory, even scurrilous. Slowly, however, the more serious and definitive biographies of her are being noticed. Much of the unfounded and misinformed opinion of her is being refuted. Nevertheless, much remains, particularly in those of a satirical turn of mind who regard themselves as her equal or even her superior in knowledge and intellect. They have not, however, been able to appreciate the scope and depth of what she wrote.
Her complete vindication is in her writings, voluminous and of erudition second to none in the world. Against a background of modern scientific and religious orthodoxy their content is largely unacceptable. Given an open mind and some perseverance on the part of a more than superficial reader they are found to be of the greatest learning, making reference to all the recognized authorities of the past, and in themselves offering a profound and illuminating comprehensive philosophical-religious system which had never, in its entirety, been made public before.
This present work is an attempt to demonstrate in outline only something of what the original literature contains. It is a compilation of selected descriptive and definitive statements taken from the subject matter in the great works. All the quotations are verbatim from the original text, with references, so that they can be looked up and seen in context.
Taken together these extracts, while only touching on the massive amount of information contained in the works they are taken from, will at least give an idea of what the content of those works is all about. Its modern name is Theosophy.
Mme Blavatsky was at pains to say in many places what Theosophy is vis-à-vis the current scientific, religious and philosophical views of her time, and to show its relationship to the Theosophical Society which she and others had founded in New York in 1875. The Society among other thing~ (its three objects) was intended to promulgate a knowledge of Theosophy i.e., "to assist in showing to men that such a thing as Theosophy exists, and to help them to ascend towards it by studying and assimilating its eternal verities". [KEY, 57]
Theosophy, the Perennial Wisdom
Theosophy is not a revelation. It is knowledge, possessed by the Masters of the Arcane Sciences from time immemorial, of the nature and processes of Cosmos -all Nature herself, both objective and subjective, i.e., her formative powers, energies and forces.
It is sometimes referred to as the Ageless Wisdom.
Historically it appears in Egyptian, Greek, Roman and mediaeval times, hence the references to the philosophers and writers of those periods in the following extracts:
IT LIES AT THE ROOT OF EVERY MORAL PHILOSOPHY, RELIGION, AND SCIENCE.
How long, O radiant gods of truth, how long shall this terrible mental cecity [blindness] of the nineteenth century Philosophists last? How much longer are they to be told that Theosophy is no national property, no religion, but only the universal code of science and the most transcendental ethics that was ever known; that it lies at the root of every moral philosophy and religion; and that neither Theosophy per se, nor yet its humble unworthy vehicle, the Theosophical Society, has anything whatever to do with any personality or personalities. To identify it with these is to show oneself sadly defective in logic and even common sense. [CW XI, 437]
IT IS THE ARCHAIC WISDOM-RELIGION
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, Neitha, 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 that 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. [CW II, 88-90}
IT IS THE ACCUMULATED WISDOM OF THE AGES
The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system: e .g even in the exotericism of the Puranas. But such is the mysterious power of Occult symbolism, that the facts which have actually occupied countless generations of initiated seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain, in the bewildering series of evolutionary progress, are all recorded on a few pages of geometrical signs and glyphs. The flashing gaze of those seers has penetrated into the very kernel of matter, and recorded the soul of things there, where an ordinary profane however learned, would perceived but the external work of form … That it is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood Humanity. That for long ages the "Wise Men" of the Fifth Race, of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm and shifting continents, had passed their lives in learning, not teaching … by checking, testing, and verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts …No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the visions - so obtained as to stand as independent evidence - of other adepts, and by centuries of experience. [SD 1, 272-3]
ECLECTIC THEOSOPHY
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. [CW V, 88]
The central idea 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 that 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. [CW II, 90]
Theeosophy - The Truth Revealed
Originally Posted by Acts23
secret na sir.
Helena Blavatsky (1831 - 1891)
Posting Permissions
