Theosophy

[Skull]

One of the Elder Brothers wrote this in an early letter that was first published in 1888:

Some Words on Daily Life

"It is divine philosophy alone, the spiritual and psychic blending of man with nature, which, by revealing the fundamental truths that lie hidden under the objects of sense and perception, can promote a spirit of unity and harmony in spite of the great diversities of conflicting creeds."

 

[Skull]

James Morgan Pryse recalls Helena Blavatsky:

https://universaltheosophy.com/jmp/memorabilia-of-hpb/

"As a personality “the Old Lady,” as we affectionately called her, was like a mother to me; but if my reminiscences were to be confined to that personality, dealing only with happenings and doings in the physical world, they would be of little interest and would convey an utterly false impression of the real H. P. B. with whom I was acquainted. So I must tell this tale of two worlds, however strange and incredible it may seem to many, if not most, theoretical Theosophists. It is a true narrative, but those who are unable to accept it as such are at perfect liberty to regard it as a romance or a fairy-tale, and let it go at that. Whether they believe it or not is no concern of mine. But there are some Theosophists who have passed beyond the stage of theoretical study, and my story is especially for them."

 

[Skull]

First published as series of pamphlets in 1895, now a book Studies in Occultism by H.P. Blavatsky:

Studies in Occultism by H. P. Blavatsky

 

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Even the little that is now given is better than complete silence upon these vital truths. The world of today, in its mad career towards the unknown - which it is too ready to confound with the unknowable, whenever the problem eludes the grasp of the physicist - is rapidly progressing on the reverse, material plane of spirituality. It has now become a vast arena - a true valley of discord and of eternal strife - a necropolis, wherein lie buried the highest and the most holy aspirations of our Spirit-Soul. That soul becomes with every new generation more paralyzed and atrophied.

Secret Doctrine 1:xxii

 

[Skull]

In 1931 or thereabouts G. de Purucker gave a talk titled The Exoteric and Esoteric H. P. B.. It was published in a 1944 book Wind of the Spirit, a collection of his talks. Some excerpts from it are given:

"Instead of talking to you about what our beloved H. P. B.'s work was, and what she has done, it might be interesting to try to give you a few important thoughts regarding H. P. B. herself: who she was, what she was, and why she came; and I shall try briefly to do this.

First, then, I shall talk to you on the exoteric H. P. B. There were two in one in that great woman - an outside which met the world and had to face the conditions of the world into which she came to work; and an inside, a living flame of love and intelligence, a flame of inspiration and holy light, and this latter was the esoteric side of H. P. B.

Behind these outer lineaments which some artists have actually called ugly, we see an ethereal beauty which no human words will easily describe, but which every human heart can sense, and which every human eye which is spiritually opened can also see. There is inspiration in that face which is beautiful to look upon; there is self-dedication; there are thoughts divine because there is truth, and truth is Nature's own divine heart; and it is these spiritual qualities which shine out of the face of our beloved H.P. B. when we look at her picture, and which proclaim to us that behind the outer person there was the inner living esoteric fire.

Does any Theosophist who has studied the wonderful Wisdom Religion of Antiquity imagine for a moment that H. P. B. came to the Occidental world by chance, outside of Nature's laws and rigid concatenation of cause and effect which produce everything in due order? Does anyone imagine therefore that whatever is, has not its ordered and concerted place in the cosmic harmony? Of course not. This therefore means that H.P. B. came in obedience to a law, one of Nature's laws about which the ignorant West knows all too little, and therefore doubts, and because of doubting is blind - for doubt always veils the inner vision."

 

[Skull]

WQ Judge's 1888 pamphlet Epitome of Theosophy is a valued survey:

"An Epitome of Theosophy" by William Q. Judge

"Theosophy, the Wisdom-Religion, has existed from immemorial time. It offers us a theory of nature and of life which is founded upon knowledge acquired by the Sages of the past, more especially those of the East; and its higher students claim that this knowledge is not imagined or inferred, but that it is a knowledge of facts seen and known by those who are willing to comply with the conditions requisite for seeing and knowing.

Theosophy, meaning knowledge of or about God (not in the sense of a personal anthropomorphic God, but in that of divine "godly" wisdom), and the term "God" being universally accepted as including the whole of both the known and the unknown, it follows that "Theosophy" must imply wisdom respecting the absolute; and, since the absolute is without beginning and eternal, this wisdom must have existed always. Hence Theosophy is sometimes called the Wisdom-Religion, because from immemorial time it has had knowledge of all the laws governing the spiritual, the moral, and the material."

See also his selected writings, Echoes of the Orient III:53-67.

 

[Skull]

The Theosophical Society was begun in USA & HPB kept America in mind, wherever she lived. Here are some excerpts from her 1888 letter to the TS Convention:

"It must be remembered that the Society was not founded as a nursery for forcing a supply of Occultists — as a factory for the manufactory of Adepts. It was intended to stem the current of materialism, and also that of spiritualistic phenomenalism and the worship of the Dead. It had to guide the spiritual awakening that has now begun, and not to pander to psychic cravings which are but another form of materialism.

For by "materialism" is meant not only an anti-philosophical negation of pure spirit, and, even more, materialism in conduct and action — brutality, hypocrisy, and, above all, selfishness — but also the fruits of a disbelief in all but material things, a disbelief which has increased enormously during the last century, and which has led many, after a denial of all existence other than that in matter, into a blind belief in the materialization of Spirit.

Men cannot all be Occultists, but they can all be Theosophists. Many who have never heard of the Society are Theosophists without knowing it themselves; for the essence of Theosophy is the perfect harmonizing of the divine with the human in man, the adjustment of his godlike qualities and aspirations, and their sway over the terrestrial or animal passions in him. Kindness, absence of every ill feeling or selfishness, charity, good-will to all beings, and perfect justice to others as to one’s self, are its chief features. He who teaches Theosophy preaches the gospel of good-will; and the converse of this is true also — he who preaches the gospel of good-will, teaches Theosophy."

 

[Skull]

Theosophy Wiki has much about William Q Judge's writings, plus his biography:

Judge writings - Theosophy Wiki

William Quan Judge - Theosophy Wiki

 

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https://universaltheosophy.com/wqj/


This site has most about or written by WQ Judge.

 

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Ocean of Theosophy by WQ Judge:

https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/ocean/Ocean-WQJ.pdf

 

[Skull]

From Judge's Ocean of Theosophy:

Quote:

That man possesses an immortal soul is the common belief of humanity; to this Theosophy adds that he is a soul; and further that all nature is sentient, that the vast array of objects and men are not mere collections of atoms fortuitously thrown together and thus without law evolving law, but down to the smallest atom all is soul and spirit ever evolving under the rule of law which is inherent in the whole. And just as the ancients taught, so does Theosophy; that the course of evolution is the drama of the soul and that nature exists for no other purpose than the soul’s experience.

 

[Skull]

Impression of WQ Judge on first meeting HPB:

It was her eye that attracted me, the eye of one whom I must have known in lives long passed away. She looked at me in recognition at that first hour, and never since has that look changed. Not as a questioner of philosophies did I come before her, not as one groping in the dark for lights that schools and fanciful theories had obscured, but as one who, wandering many periods through the corridors of life, was seeking the friends who could show where the designs for the work had been hidden. And true to the call she responded, revealing the plans once again, and speaking no words to explain, simply pointed them out and went on with the task. It was as if the evening before we had parted, leaving yet to be done some detail of a task taken up with one common end; it was teacher and pupil, elder brother and younger, both bent on the one single end, but she with the power and the knowledge that belong but to lions and sages. So, friends from the first, I felt safe.

 

[Skull]

In 1877 two volumes titled Isis Unveiled put Theosophy before the public. This edition has valuable extra material by HPB on the writing of it:

Isis Unveiled: Homepage

 

[Skull]

The aspirant or candidate for the Archaic Wisdom is always told: There is a way by which to gain truth. There is a way by which man may gain wisdom. Yet any knock except the right knock is unheard. In a paradoxical sense one must practice before one may receive the full light of knowledge. The knock itself is, first, living the life. One must come with peace in his heart, and with a yearning for light so strong that no impediments or obstacles will daunt the courageous soul. One must come to the outer portal ready to brave the scorn of the world - the blind, foolish, ignorant, world, which laughs and scorns because it knows not better, much as children laugh when they hear a truth which they do not understand.

G. de Purucker, The Esoteric Tradition, 1070.

 

[onefour1]

77.59% of the posts or 135 of 174 by Skull
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[Ringo]

"For centuries religion has fulfilled its role as a defusing agent of human emotion. For this purpose it has raised art and now it is dying from the competition of its own cub." (c) I. Ehrenburg

 

[Skull]

BP Wadia worked in the Annie Besant TS for 18 years, but resigned; here is his letter giving reasons:

https://www.philaletheians.co.uk/study-notes/theosophy-and-theosophists/wadia's-resignation-from-the-ts.pdf

 

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Those who think that people will instinctively behave themselves without the support of any belief or faith, usually forget that we are (in a moral sense) living on our capital. Because our ancestors had convictions and faiths, therefore they built up standards of order and self-control whose effect is not yet exhausted. The very security which allows us to indulge these radical views is founded on the influence of the ideas and customs which we would upset. But it will not always be so: the capital, if not renewed, will be exhausted; and it will then become manifest that behavior, in the individual or society, cannot rest securely on a basis of automatism, but that there must be inspiration, faith, knowledge, behind it.

When the authority of a moral sanction, a certainty of knowledge, is withdrawn, human beings are abandoned to the mercy of impulse. There being no higher authority than desire, desire becomes exalted into their god; and, since pride prompts us to justify our actions, we accordingly devise a philosophy of desire, and call it by some grandiose name, such as the right of self-realization. But there can be no coherence in a society which is swayed by individual caprice, instead of controlled by impersonal principles and ideals. Nothing has recently happened which can change the eternal truth that Duty, Honor, Love, are the cement of society and the wings whereon man can soar from the depths into which his unruly desires would drag him.

Henry T. Edge

 

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Theosophy and Christianity by H.T. Edge:

Theosophy and Christianity

Introductory​

Theosophy is the essential truth underlying all religions and does not recognize any one religion as being supreme over the others or as the last word of truth. It is not hostile to Christianity, but finds itself obliged to combat many things which it considers alien to the genuine Christian gospel and which have gradually crept in since that gospel was originally proclaimed. Among these is the idea that Christianity is paramount among religions or that it is a final revelation of divine truth, superseding other faiths. This idea is contrary to the truth and is becoming more and more difficult to maintain.

 

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HT Edge on the mission of Theosophy:

"H. P. Blavatsky on the Mission of Theosophy" by H. T. Edge

The duty of the Theosophical Society is to keep alive in man his spiritual intuition. -- H. P. Blavatsky This quotation from H. P. Blavatsky is chosen for a starting-point because it so aptly sums up her conception of the purpose of the Society she founded. The welfare of man is dependent on his recognition of the Divinity of his essential nature; and when he forgets this, he lapses into materialism. The Theosophical Society was founded for the express purpose of preventing materialism from proceeding to such lengths as to destroy civilization. Such movements have been initiated, with the same object, many other times in human history.