IS
THEOSOPHY
A
RELIGION ?
From the
writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the
founder
of modern Theosophy and co-founder of the
original
Theosophical Society in
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Cardiff
theosophycardiff@uwclub.net
____________________________
Cardiff
Theosophical Society
Mission
Statement
The dominant
and core activity of Cardiff Theosophical Society
is to
promote and assist the study of Theosophical Teachings
as
defined by the writings of Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky,
William Quan Judge, Alfred Percy Sinnett and
their lineage.
This
Mission Statement does not preclude non Theosophical
activities
but these must be of a spiritual nature
and/or
compatible with the Objects of the Society.
____________________________
Theosophy has no dogma, no priesthood
or diploma elite and recognizes no
spiritual head
All ideas presented at meetings are for consideration
Please click here for Current Theosophical Events in Cardiff
Helena Petrovna
Blavatsky
1831-1891
The
Founder of Modern Theosophy
Is Theosophy a Religion?
By
"Religion is the best armour that man can have,but it is the worst cloak." John Bunyan
IT is no
exaggeration to say that there never was--during the present century, at any
rate--a movement, social or religious, so terribly, nay, so absurdly
misunderstood, or more blundered about than THEOSOPHY--whether
regarded theoretically as a code of ethics, or practically, in its objective expression,
i.e., the Society known by that name.Year after year, and day after day had our
officers and members to interrupt people speaking of the theosophical movement
by putting in more or less emphatic protests against Theosophy being referred
to as a "religion," and the Theosophical Society as a kind of church
or religious body.
Still
worse, it is as often spoken of as a "new sect"! Is it a stubborn
prejudice, an error, or both? The latter, most likely. The most narrow-minded
and even notoriously unfair people are still in need of a plausible pretext, of
a peg on which to hang their little uncharitable remarks and innocently-uttered
slanders. And what peg is more solid for that purpose, more convenient than an
"ism" or a "sect." The great majority would be very sorry
to be disabused and finally forced to accept the fact that Theosophy is neither. The
name suits them, and they pretend to be unaware of its falseness. But there are
others, also, many more or less friendly people, who labour sincerely under the
same delusion. To these, we say: Surely the world has been hitherto
sufficiently cursed with the intellectual extinguishers known as dogmatic
creeds, without having inflicted upon it a new form of faith!
Too many
already wear their faith, truly, as Shakespeare puts it, "but as the
fashion of his hat," ever changing "with the next block." Moreover,
the very raison d'être of the Theosophical Society was, from its beginning, to
utter a loud protest and lead an open warfare against dogma or any belief based
upon blind faith.It may sound odd and paradoxical, but it is true to say that,
hitherto, the most apt workers in practical Theosophy, its most
devoted members were those recruited from the ranks of agnostics and even of
materialists. No genuine, no sincere searcher after truth can ever be found
among the blind believers in the "Divine Word," let the latter be
claimed to come from Allah, Brahma or Jehovah, or their respective Kuran,
Purana and Bible. For: Faith is not reason's labour, but repose.
He who
believes his own religion on faith, will regard that of every other man as a
lie, and hate it on that same faith. Moreover, unless it fetters reason and
entirely blinds our perceptions of anything outside our own particular faith,
the latter is no faith at all, but a temporary belief, the delusion we labour
under, at some particular time of life. Moreover, "faith without
principles is but a flattering phrase for willful positiveness or fanatical
bodily sensations," in Coleridge's clever definition. What, then, is Theosophy, and how may it
be defined in its latest presentation in this closing portion of the XIXth
century?
Theosophy, we say, is not
a Religion. Yet there are, as everyone knows, certain beliefs, philosophical,
religious and scientific, which have become so closely associated in recent
years with the word "Theosophy" that they
have come to be taken by the general public for Theosophy itself.
Moreover, we shall be told these beliefs have been put forward, explained and
defended by those very Founders who have declared that Theosophy is not a
Religion. What is then the explanation of this apparent contradiction? How can
a certain body of beliefs and teachings, an elaborate doctrine, in fact, be
labelled "Theosophy"
and be tacitly accepted as "Theosophical" by nine-tenths of the
members of the T.S., if Theosophy
is not a Religion?--we are asked. To explain this is the purpose of the present
protest.
It is
perhaps necessary, first of all, to say, that the assertion that "Theosophy is not a
Religion," by no means excludes the fact that "Theosophy is
Religion" itself. A Religion in the true and only correct sense, is a bond
uniting men together--not a particular set of dogmas and beliefs. Now Religion,
per se, in its widest meaning is that which binds not only all MEN, but also
all BEINGS and all things in the entire Universe into one grand whole. This is
our theosophical definition of religion; but the same definition changes again
with every creed and country, and no two Christians even regard it alike. We
find this in more than one eminent author. Thus Carlyle defined the Protestant
Religion in his day, with a remarkable prophetic eye to this ever-growing
feeling in our present day, as: For the most part a wise, prudential feeling,
grounded on mere calculation; a matter, as all others now are, of expediency
and utility; whereby some smaller quantum of earthly enjoyment may be exchanged
for a far larger quantum of celestial enjoyment.
Thus
religion, too, is profit, a working for wages; not reverence, but vulgar hope
or fear. In her turn Mrs. Stowe, whether consciously or otherwise, seemed to
have had Roman Catholicism rather than Protestantism in her mind, when saying
of her heroine that: Religion she looked upon in the light of a ticket (with
the correct number of indulgences bought and paid for), which, being once
purchased and snugly laid away in a pocket-book, is to be produced at the
celestial gate, and thus secure admission to heaven. . . .
But to
Theosophists (the genuine Theosophists are here meant) who accept no mediation
by proxy, no salvation through innocent bloodshed, nor would they think of
"working for wages" in the One Universal religion, the only
definition they could subscribe to and accept in full is one given by Miller.
How truly and theosophically he describes it, by showing that
. . . true
Religion
Is always
mild, propitious and humble;
Plays not
the tyrant, plants no faith in blood,
Nor bears
destruction on her chariot wheels;
But stoops
to polish, succour and redress,
And builds
her grandeur on the public good.
The above
is a correct definition of what true Theosophy is, or ought to
be. (Among the creeds Buddhism alone is such a true heart-binding and
men-binding philosophy, because it is not a dogmatic religion. ) In this
respect, as it is the duty and task of every genuine theosophist to accept and
carry out these principles, Theosophy is RELIGION, and
the Society its one Universal Church; the temple of Solomon's wisdom,* in
building which "there was neither hammer, nor axe, nor any tool of iron
heard in the house while it was building" (I Kings,vi.); for this
"temple" is made by no human hand, nor built in any locality on
earth--but, verily, is raised only in the inner sanctuary of man's heart
wherein reigns alone the awakened soul.
Thus Theosophy is not a
Religion, we say, but RELIGION itself, the one bond of unity, which is so
universal and all-embracing that no man, as no speck--from gods and mortals
down to animals, the blade of grass and atom--can be outside of its light.
Therefore, any organization or body of that name must necessarily be a
UNIVERSAL BROTHERHOOD. Were it otherwise, Theosophy would be but a
word added to hundreds other such words as high sounding as they are
pretentious and empty. Viewed as a philosophy, Theosophy in its practical
work is the alembic of the Mediæval alchemist. It transmutes the apparently
base metal of every ritualistic and dogmatic creed (Christianity included) into
the gold of fact and truth, and thus truly produces a universal panacea for the
ills of mankind. This is why, when applying for admission into the Theosophical
Society, no one is asked what religion he belongs to, nor what his deistic
views may be.
These
views are his own personal property and have nought to do with the Society.
Because Theosophy
can be practiced by Christian or Heathen, Jew or Gentile, by Agnostic or
Materialist, or even an Atheist, provided that none of these is a bigoted
fanatic, who refuses to recognize as his brother any man or woman outside his
own special creed or belief.
Count Leo
N. Tolstoy does not believe in the Bible, the Church, or the divinity of
Christ; and yet no Christian surpasses him in the practical bearing out of the
principles alleged to have been preached on the Mount. And these principles are
those of Theosophy;
not because they were uttered by the Christian Christ, but because they are
universal ethics, and were preached by Buddha and Confucius, Krishna, and all
the great Sages, thousands of years before the Sermon on the Mount was written.
Hence, once that we live up to such Theosophy, it becomes a
universal panacea indeed, for it heals the wounds inflicted by the gross
asperities of the Church "isms" on the sensitive soul of every
naturally religious man.
How many
of these, forcibly thrust out by the reactive impulse of disappointment from
the narrow area of blind belief into the ranks of arid disbelief, have been
brought back to hopeful aspiration by simply joining our Brotherhood--yea, imperfect
as it is. If, as an offset to this, we are reminded that several prominent
members have left the Society disappointed in Theosophy as they had been
in other associations, this cannot dismay us in the least. For with a very,
very few exceptions, in the early stage of the T.S.'s activities when some left
because they did not find mysticism practiced in the General Body as they
understood it, or because "the leaders lacked Spirituality," were
"untheosophical, hence, untrue to the rules," you see, the majority
left because most of them were either half-hearted or too self-opinionated--a
church and infallible dogma in themselves. Some broke away, again under very
shallow pretexts indeed, such, for instance, as "because Christianity (to
say Churchianity, or sham Christianity, would be more just) was too roughly
handled in our magazines"--just as if other fanatical religions were ever
treated any better or upheld! Thus, all those who left have done well to leave,
and have never been regretted. Furthermore, there is this also to be added: the
number of those who left can hardly be compared with the number of those who
found everything they had hoped for in Theosophy.
Its
doctrines, if seriously studied, call forth, by stimulating one's reasoning
powers and awakening the inner in the animal man, every hitherto dormant power
for good in us, and also the perception of the true and the real, as opposed to
the false and the unreal. Tearing off with no uncertain hand the thick veil of
dead-letter with which every old religious scriptures were cloaked, scientific Theosophy, learned in the
cunning symbolism of the ages, reveals to the scoffer at old wisdom the origin
of the world's faiths and sciences.
It opens
new vistas beyond the old horizons of crystallized, motionless and despotic
faiths; and turning blind belief into a reasoned knowledge founded on
mathematical laws--the only exact science--it demonstrates to him under
profounder and more philosophical aspects the existence of that which, repelled
by the grossness of its dead-letter form, he had long since abandoned as a
nursery tale. It gives a clear and well-defined object, an ideal to live for,
to every sincere man or woman belonging to whatever station in Society and of
whatever culture and degree of intellect.
Practical Theosophy is not one
Science, but embraces every science in life, moral and physical. It may, in
short, be justly regarded as the universal "coach," a tutor of
world-wide knowledge and experience, and of an erudition which not only assists
and guides his pupils toward a successful examination for every scientific or
moral service in earthly life, but fits them for the lives to come, if those
pupils will only study the universe and its mysteries within themselves,
instead of studying them through the spectacles of orthodox science and
religions. And let no reader misunderstand these statements.
It is Theosophy per se, not any
individual member of the Society or even Theosophist, on whose behalf such a
universal omniscience is claimed. The two--Theosophy and the Theosophical Society--as a vessel and the
olla podrida it contains, must not be confounded. One is, as an ideal, divine
Wisdom, perfection itself; the other a poor, imperfect thing, trying to run
under, if not within, its shadow on Earth. No man is perfect; why, then, should
any member of the T.S. be expected to be a paragon of every human virtue? And
why should the whole organization be criticized and blamed for the faults,
whether real or imaginary, of some of its "Fellows," or even its
Leaders? Never was the Society, as a concrete body, free from blame or sin--errare
humanum est--nor were any of its members. Hence, it is rather those members
most of whom will not be led by Theosophy, that ought to
be blamed.
Theosophy is the soul of
its Society; the latter the gross and imperfect body of the former. Hence,
those modern Solomons who will sit in the Judgment Seat and talk of that they
know nothing about, are invited before they slander Theosophy or any
theosophists to first get acquainted with both, instead of ignorantly calling
one a "farrago of insane beliefs" and the other a "sect of
impostors and lunatics." Regardless of this, Theosophy is spoken of by
friends and foes as a religion when not a sect. Let us see how the special
beliefs which have become associated with the word have come to stand in that
position, and how it is that they have so good a right to it that none of the
leaders of the Society have ever thought of disavowing their doctrines.
We have
said that we believed in the absolute unity of nature. Unity implies the
possibility for a unit on one plane, to come into contact with another unit on
or from another plane. We believe in it. The just published "Secret
Doctrine" will show what were the ideas of all antiquity with regard to
the primeval instructors of primitive man and his three earlier races.
The
genesis of that WISDOM-RELIGION in which all theosophists believe, dates from
that period. So-called "Occultism," or rather Esoteric Science, has
to be traced in its origin to those Beings who, led by Karma, have incarnated
in our humanity, and thus struck the key-note of that secret Science which
countless generations of subsequent adepts have expanded since then in every
age, while they checked its doctrines by personal observation and experience.
The bulk of this knowledge--which no man is able to possess in its
fullness--constitutes that which we now call Theosophy or "divine
knowledge." Beings from other and higher worlds may have it entire; we can
have it only approximately.
Thus, unity
of everything in the universe implies and justifies our belief in the existence
of a knowledge at once scientific, philosophical and religious, showing the
necessity and actuality of the connection of man and all things in the universe
with each other; which knowledge, therefore, becomes essentially RELIGION, and
must be called in its integrity and universality by the distinctive name of
WISDOM-RELIGION. It is from this WISDOM-RELIGION that all the various
individual "Religions" (erroneously so called) have sprung, forming
in their turn offshoots and branches, and also all the minor creeds, based upon
and always originated through some personal experience in psychology. Every
such religion, or religious offshoot, be it considered orthodox or heretical, wise
or foolish, started originally as a clear and unadulterated stream from the
Mother-Source. The fact that each became in time polluted with purely human
speculations and even inventions, due to interested motives, does not prevent
any from having been pure in its early beginnings.
There are
those creeds --we shall not call them religions--which have now been overlaid
with the human element out of all recognition; others just showing signs of
early decay; not one that escaped the hand of time. But each and all are of
divine, because natural and true origin; aye-- Mazdeism, Brahmanism, Buddhism
as much as Christianity. It is the dogmas and human element in the latter which
led directly to modern Spiritualism. Of course, there will be an outcry from
both sides, if we say that modern Spiritualism per se, cleansed of the
unhealthy speculations which were based on the dicta of two little girls and
their very unreliable "Spirits"--is, nevertheless, far more true and
philosophical than any church dogma. Carnalised Spiritualism is now reaping its
Karma. Its primitive innovators, the said "two little girls" from
Rochester, the Mecca of modern Spiritualism, have grown up and turned into old
women since the first raps produced by them have opened wide ajar the gates
between this and the other world. It is on their "innocent" testimony
that the elaborate scheme of a sidereal Summer-land, with its active astral
population of "Spirits," ever on the wing between their "
They expose
and denounce practical Spiritualism as the humbug of the ages.
Spiritualists--(save a handful of fair exceptions)--have rejoiced and sided
with our enemies and slanderers, when these, who had never been Theosophists,
played us false and showed the cloven foot denouncing the Founders of the
Theosophical Society as frauds and impostors. Shall the Theosophists laugh in
their turn now that the original "revealers" of Spiritualism have
become its "revilers"? Never! for the phenomena of Spiritualism are
facts, and the treachery of the "Fox girls" only makes us feel new
pity for all mediums, and confirms, before the whole world, our constant
declaration that no medium can be relied upon. No true theosophist will ever
laugh, or far less rejoice, at the discomfiture even of an opponent. The reason
for it is simple:-- Because we know that beings from other, higher worlds do
confabulate with some elect mortals now as ever; though now far more rarely
than in the days of old, as mankind becomes with every civilized generation
worse in every respect.
Theosophy--owing, in
truth, to the levée in arms of all the Spiritualists of Europeand America at
the first words uttered against the idea that every communicating intelligence
is necessarily the Spirit of some ex-mortal from this earth--has not said its
last word about Spiritualism and "Spirits." It may one day.
Meanwhile, an humble servant of Theosophy, the Editor,
declares once more her belief in Beings, grander, wiser, nobler than any
personal God, who are beyond any "Spirits of the dead," Saints, or
winged Angels, who, nevertheless, do condescend in all and every age to
occasionally overshadow rare sensitives--often entirely unconnected with
Church, Spiritualism or even Theosophy. And believing
in high and holy Spiritual Beings, she must also believe in the existence of
their opposites--lower "spirits," good, bad and indifferent.
Therefore does she believe in spiritualism and its phenomena, some of which are
so repugnant to her. This, as a casual remark and a digression, just to show
that Theosophy
includes Spiritualism--as it should be, not as it is--among its sciences, based
on knowledge and the experience of countless ages. There is not a religion
worthy of the name which has been started otherwise than in consequence of such
visits from Beings on the higher planes.
Thus were
born all prehistoric, as well as all the historic religions, Mazdeism and
Brahmanism, Buddhism and Christianity, Judaism, Gnosticism and Mahomedanism; in
short every more or less successful "ism." All are true at the
bottom, and all are false on their surface. The Revealer, the artist who
impressed a portion of the Truth on the brain of the Seer, was in every
instance a true artist, who gave out genuine truths; but the instrument proved
also, in every instance, to be only a man. Invite Rubenstein and ask him to
play a sonata of Beethoven on a piano left to self-tuning, one-half of the keys
of which are in chronic paralysis, while the wires hang loose; then see
whether, the genius of the artist notwithstanding, you will be able to
recognize the sonata.
The moral
of the fabula is that a man--let him be the greatest of mediums or natural
Seers--is but a man; and man left to his own devices and speculations must be
out of tune with absolute truth, while even picking up some of its crumbs. For
Man is but a fallen Angel, a god within, but having an animal brain in his
head, more subject to cold and wine fumes while in company with other men on
Earth, than to the faultless reception of divine revelations. Hence the
multi-coloured dogmas of the churches. Hence also the thousand and one
"philosophies" so-called (some contradictory, theosophical theories
included); and the variegated "Sciences" and schemes, Spiritual,
Mental, Christian and Secular; Sectarianism and bigotry, and especially the
personal vanity and self-opinionatedness of almost every "Innovator"
since the mediæval ages. These have all darkened and hidden the very existence
of TRUTH--the common root of all.
Will our
critics imagine that we exclude theosophical teachings from this nomenclature?
Not at all. And though the esoteric doctrines which our Society has been and is
expounding, are not mental or spiritual impressions from some "unknown,
from above," but the fruit of teachings given to us by living men, still,
except that which was dictated and written out by those Masters of Wisdom
themselves, these doctrines may be in many cases as incomplete and faulty as
any of our foes would desire it. The "Secret Doctrine"--a work which
gives out all that can be given out during this century, is an attempt to lay
bare in part the common foundation and inheritance of all--great and small
religious and philosophical schemes. It was found indispensable to tear away
all this mass of concreted misconceptions and prejudice which now hides the
parent trunk of
(a) all the
great world-religions;
(b) of the
smaller sects;
(c) of Theosophy as it stands
now--however veiled the great Truth, by ourselves and our limited knowledge.
The crust of error is thick, laid on by whatever hand; and because we
personally have tried to remove some of it, the effort became the standing
reproach against all theosophical writers and even the Society.
Few among
our friends and readers have failed to characterize our attempt to expose error
in the Theosophist and Lucifer as "very uncharitable attacks on
Christianity," "untheosophical assaults," etc., etc. Yet these
are necessary, nay, indispensable, if we wish to plough up at least approximate
truths. We have to lay things bare, and are ready to suffer for it--as usual.
It is vain to promise to give truth, and then leave it mingled with error out
of mere faint-heartedness.
That the
result of such policy could only muddy the stream of facts is shown plainly.
After twelve years of incessant labour and struggle with enemies from the four
quarters of the globe, notwithstanding our four Theosophical monthly journals--the
Theosophist, Path, Lucifer, and the French Lotus--our wish-washy, tame protests
in them, our timid declarations, our "masterly policy of inactivity,"
and playing at hide-and-seek in the shadow of dreary metaphysics, have only led
to Theosophy
being seriously regarded as a religious SECT. For the hundredth time we are
told--"What good is Theosophy doing?" and
"See what good the Churches are doing!" Nevertheless, it is an
averred fact that mankind is not a whit better in morality, and in some
respects ten times worse now, than it ever was in the days of Paganism.
Moreover,
for the last half century, from that period when Freethought and Science got
the best of the Churches--Christianity is yearly losing far more adherents
among the cultured classes than it gains proselytes in the lower strata, the
scum of Heathendom. On the other hand, Theosophy has brought back
from Materialism and blank despair to belief (based on logic and evidence) in
man's divine Self, and the immortality of the latter, more than one of those
whom the Church has lost through dogma, exaction of faith and tyranny. And, if
it is proven that Theosophy
saves one man only in a thousand of those the Church has lost, is not the
former a far higher factor for good than all the missionaries put together?
Theosophy, as repeatedly
declared in print and viva voce by its members and officers, proceeds on
diametrically opposite lines to those which are trodden by the Church; and Theosophy rejects the
methods of Science, since her inductive methods can only lead to crass
materialism. Yet, de facto, Theosophy claims to be
both "RELIGION" and "SCIENCE," for Theosophy is the essence
of both. It is for the sake and love of the two divine abstractions--i.e.,
theosophical religion and science, that its Society has become the volunteer
scavenger of both orthodox religion and modern science; as also the relentless
Nemesis of
those who
have degraded the two noble truths to their own ends and purposes, and then
divorced each violently from the other, though the two are and must be one.
To prove
this is also one of our objects in the present paper. The modern Materialist
insists on an impassable chasm between the two, pointing out that the
"Conflict between Religion and Science" has ended in the triumph of the
latter and the defeat of the first. The modern Theosophist refuses to see, on
the contrary, any such chasm at all. If it is claimed by both Church and
Science that each of them pursues the truth and nothing but the truth, then
either one of them is mistaken, and accepts falsehood for truth, or both. Any
other impediment to their reconciliation must be set down as purely fictitious.
Truth is one, even if sought for or pursued at two different ends. Therefore, Theosophy claims to
reconcile the two foes.
It
premises by saying that the true spiritual and primitive Christian religion is,
as much as the other great and still older philosophies that preceded it--the
light of Truth--"the life and the light of men." But so is the true
light of Science. Therefore, darkened as the former is now by dogmas examined
through glasses smoked with the superstitions artificially produced by the
Churches, this light can hardly penetrate and meet its sister ray in a science,
equally as cobwebbed by paradoxes and the materialistic sophistries of the age.
The teachings of the two are incompatible, and cannot agree so long as both
Religious philosophy and the Science of physical and external (in philosophy,
false) nature, insist upon the infallibility of their respective
"will-o'-the wisps." The two lights, having their beams of equal
length in the matter of false deductions, can but extinguish each other and
produce still worse darkness.
Yet, they
can be reconciled on the condition that both shall clean their houses, one from
the human dross of the ages, the other from the hideous excrescence of modern
materialism and atheism. And as both decline, the most meritorious and best
thing to do is precisely what Theosophy alone can and
will do: i.e., point out to the innocents caught by the glue of the two
waylayers--verily two dragons of old, one devouring the intellects, the other
the souls of men--that their supposed chasm is but an optical delusion; that,
far from being one, it is but an immense garbage mound respectively erected by
the two foes, as a fortification against mutual attacks.
Thus, if Theosophy does no more
than point out and seriously draw the attention of the world to the fact that
the supposed disagreement between religion and science is conditioned, on the
one hand by the intelligent materialists rightly kicking against absurd human
dogmas, and on the other by blind fanatics and interested churchmen who,
instead of defending the souls of mankind, fight simply tooth and nail for
their personal bread and butter and authority--why, even then, Theosophy will prove
itself the saviour of mankind.
And now we
have shown, it is hoped, what real Theosophy is, and what are
its adherents. One is divine Science and a code of Ethics so sublime that no
theosophist is capable of doing it justice; the others weak but sincere men.
Why, then, should Theosophy
ever be judged by the personal shortcomings of any leader or member of our 150
branches? One may work for it to the best of his ability, yet never raise
himself to the height of his call and aspiration. This is his or her
misfortune, never the fault of Theosophy, or even of the
body at large. Its Founders claim no other merit than that of having set the
first theosophical wheel rolling. If judged at all they must be judged by the
work they have done, not by what friends may think or enemies say of them.
There is
no room for personalities in a work like ours; and all must be ready, as the
Founders are, if needs be, for the car of Jaggennath to crush them individually
for the good of all. It is only in the days of the dim Future, when death
will have laid his cold hand on the luckless Founders and stopped thereby their
activity, that their respective merits and demerits, their good and bad acts and
deeds, and their theosophical work will have to be weighed on the Balance of
Posterity. Then only, after the two scales with their contrasted loads have
been brought to an equipoise, and the character of the net result left over has
become evident to all in its full and intrinsic value, then only shall the
nature of the verdict passed be determined with anything like justice.
At
present, except in
First
Published November 1888
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Bangor*Basingstoke*Billericay*Birmingham*Blackburn*Bolton*Bournemouth
Bradford*Bristol*Camberley*Cardiff*Chester*Conwy*Coventry*Dundee*Edinburgh
Folkstone*Glasgow*Grimsby*Inverness*Isle
of Man*Lancaster*Leeds*Leicester
Letchworth*London*Manchester*Merseyside*Middlesborough*Newcastle
upon Tyne
North
Devon*Northampton*Northern Ireland*Norwich*Nottingham
Perth*Republic of
Ireland*Sidmouth*Southport*Sussex*Swansea*Torbay
Tunbridge
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One Liners & Quick Explanations
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links on this
site is that they are have some
relationship
(however tenuous) to Theosophy
and are
lightweight, amusing or entertaining.
Topics include
Quantum Theory and Socks,
Dick Dastardly
and Legendary Blues Singers.
No
Aardvarks were harmed in the
Includes
stuff about Marlon Brando, Old cars,
Odeon
Cinema Burnley, Heavy Metal, Wales,
Cups of
Tea, Mrs Trellis of North Wales.
Cardiff
Theosophical Order of Service
General pages about Wales, Welsh History
and The History of Theosophy in Wales
Her Teachers Morya & Koot Hoomi
The Most
Basic Theosophy Website in the Universe
If
you run a Theosophy Group you can use
this
as an introductory handout
Biography of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Lentil burgers, a
thousand press ups before breakfast and
the daily 25 mile
run may put it off for a while but death
seems to get most
of us in the end. We are pleased to
present for your
consideration, a definitive work on the
subject by a
Student of Katherine Tingley entitled
For everyone
everywhere, not just in Wales
Theosophy and the Number Seven
A selection of articles relating to the
esoteric
significance of the Number 7 in Theosophy
2014 Presidential Election Updates
The Spiritual Home of Urban Theosophy
The Earth Base for Evolutionary Theosophy
Quick Explanations with Links to More Detailed Info
What is Theosophy ? Theosophy Defined (More Detail)
Three Fundamental Propositions Key Concepts of Theosophy
Cosmogenesis Anthropogenesis Root Races
Ascended Masters After Death States
The Seven Principles of Man Karma
Reincarnation Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Colonel Henry Steel Olcott William Quan Judge
The Start of the Theosophical
Society
History of the Theosophical
Society
Theosophical Society Presidents
History of the Theosophical
Society in Wales
The Three Objectives of the
Theosophical Society
Explanation of the Theosophical
Society Emblem
The Theosophical Order of
Service (TOS)
Glossaries of Theosophical Terms
by
Annie
Besant
THE PHYSICAL PLANE THE ASTRAL PLANE
KÂMALOKA
THE MENTAL PLANE DEVACHAN
THE BUDDHIC AND NIRVANIC PLANES
THE THREE KINDS OF KARMA COLLECTIVE KARMA
THE LAW OF SACRIFICE MAN'S
ASCENT
______________________
Annie Besant Visits Cardiff 1924
An Outline of Theosophy
Charles Webster Leadbeater
Theosophy - What it is How is it Known?
The Method of Observation General Principles
Advantage Gained from this
Knowledge
The Deity The Divine Scheme The Constitution of Man
The True Man Reincarnation The Wider Outlook
Death Man’s Past and Future Cause and Effect
Reincarnation
This
guide has been included in response
to the
number of enquiries we receive on this
subject
at Cardiff
Theosophical Society
From A Textbook
of Theosophy By C W Leadbeater
How We Remember our Past Lives
Life after Death & Reincarnation
The
Slaughter of the
a
great demand by the public for lectures on Reincarnation
Classic Introductory Theosophy Text
A Text Book of Theosophy By C
What Theosophy Is From the Absolute to Man
The Formation of a Solar System The Evolution of Life
The Constitution of Man After Death
Reincarnation
The Purpose of Life The Planetary Chains
The Result of Theosophical Study
The Occult
World
By
Alfred Percy
Sinnett
The
Occult World is an treatise on the
Occult
and Occult Phenomena, presented
in readable style, by an early giant of
the
Theosophical Movement.
Preface to the American Edition Introduction
Occultism and its Adepts The Theosophical Society
First Occult Experiences Teachings of Occult Philosophy
Later Occult Phenomena Appendix
Theosophy has no dogma, no priesthood
or diploma elite and recognizes no
spiritual head
All ideas presented at meetings are
for consideration
Please click here for Current Theosophical Events in Cardiff
The
Seven Principles of Man
By
Annie
Besant
A Student of Katherine Tingley
Katherine Tingley (1847 -1929)Was the founder &
President
of the Point Loma Theosophical Society 1896 -1929
She and her students produced a series of informative
Theosophical works in the early years of the 20th century
Elementary Theosophy Who is the Man?
Body and Soul
Body, Soul and Spirit Reincarnation
Karma The Seven in Man and Nature
Helena
Petrovna Blavatsky 1831 – 1891
The
Founder of Modern Theosophy
Index of
Articles by
By
H P
Blavatsky
Is the Desire to Live Selfish?
Ancient Magic in Modern Science
Precepts Compiled by H P Blavatsky
Obras
Por H P Blavatsky
En
Espanol
Articles
about the Life of H P Blavatsky
Writings of Ernest Egerton Wood
Theosophy and the Number Seven
A selection of articles relating to the
esoteric
significance of the Number 7 in Theosophy
Index of
Searchable
Full
Text Versions of
Definitive
Theosophical
Works
H P Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine
Isis Unveiled by H P Blavatsky
H P Blavatsky’s Esoteric Glossary
Mahatma Letters to A P Sinnett 1 - 25
A Modern Revival of Ancient Wisdom
(Selection of Articles by H P Blavatsky)
The Secret Doctrine – Volume 3
A compilation of H P Blavatsky’s
writings published after her death
Esoteric Christianity or the Lesser Mysteries
The Early Teachings of The
Masters
A Collection of Fugitive Fragments
Fundamentals of the Esoteric Philosophy
Mystical,
Philosophical, Theosophical, Historical
and Scientific
Essays Selected from "The Theosophist"
Edited by George
Robert Stow Mead
From Talks on the Path of Occultism - Vol. II
In the Twilight”
Series of Articles
The In the Twilight”
series appeared during
1898 in The
Theosophical Review and
from 1909-1913 in The Theosophist.
compiled from
information supplied by
her relatives and friends and edited by A P Sinnett
Letters and
Talks on Theosophy and the Theosophical Life
Obras
Teosoficas En Espanol
Theosophische
Schriften Auf Deutsch
Karma Fundamental Principles Laws: Natural and Man-Made
The Law of Laws
The Eternal Now
Succession
Causation
The Laws of Nature A Lesson of The Law Karma Does Not Crush
Apply This Law
Man in The Three Worlds Understand The Truth
Man and His Surroundings The Three Fates
The Pair of Triplets
Thought, The Builder Practical Meditation Will and Desire
The Mastery of Desire Two Other Points The Third Thread
Perfect Justice
Our Environment
Our Kith and Kin Our Nation
The Light for a Good Man Knowledge of Law The Opposing Schools
The More Modern View Self-Examination Out of the Past
Old Friendships
We Grow By Giving Collective Karma Family Karma
National Karma India’s Karma National
Disasters
Annotated Edition Published
1885
Preface to the Annotated Edition Preface to the Original Edition
Esoteric Teachers The Constitution of Man The Planetary Chain
The World Periods Devachan
Kama Loca
The Human Tide-Wave The Progress of Humanity
Buddha Nirvana The Universe
The Doctrine Reviewed
Try these if you are looking for a
local Theosophy Group or Centre
UK Listing of Theosophical Groups
Worldwide Directory of Theosophical Links
General pages
about Wales, Welsh History
and The History
of Theosophy in Wales
Wales is a Principality within the United
Kingdom
and has an eastern border with England. The
land
area is just over 8,000 square miles.
Snowdon in
North Wales is the highest mountain at
3,650 feet.
The coastline is almost 750 miles long. The
population
of Wales as at the 2001 census is
2,946,200.
All Wales
Guide to Theosophy Instant Guide to Theosophy
Theosophy
Wales Hornet Theosophy Wales Now
Cardiff
Theosophical Archive Elementary Theosophy
Basic
Theosophy Theosophy in Cardiff Theosophy
in Wales
Hey Look!
Theosophy in Cardiff Streetwise
Theosophy
Grand
Tour Theosophy Aardvark Theosophy Starts Here
Theosophy 206 Biography of William Q Judge
Theosophy Cardiff’s Face Book of Great Theosophists
Please click here for Current Theosophical Events in Cardiff
Theosophy has no dogma, no priesthood
or diploma elite and recognizes no
spiritual head
All ideas presented at meetings are
for consideration
/another-family-job-at-adyar.htm
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President of
Nothing Ballast Open Election?
Adyar Adyar’s Slightly
International Convention
Will there be an
Adyar Free Future? An Extra Box on
the Ballot Paper A Society
Without Members
Is the 2014
Adyar Presidential Election Invalid?
Radha Burnier
Employment Services
Don’t Just Do
Nothing Stand There Adyar, the Sole Purpose
of Adyar Western
President
Save Radha’s
House Ignore the
Voters What an Insult
to Members International
Election Protocol
The Secrecy
Banging the Drum
for Theosophy Burnier Town
Hall The Great Election
Rip-Off
Keeping the
International Headquarters at Adyar ABOLISHThe
International President Bold Initiative
What is Behind
the Attitude of the Theosophical
Elite? Towards a New
Model for Theosophy
Choose a Stooge
SHUT UP &
VOTE Members No
Longer Members A Manifesto
Anybody There?
Now Here’s
Something Worth Keeping Quiet
About Is There Hidden Bad News?
Something Wrong?
Control Adyar or You Control
Nothing Elected
Representation Not Representing
Publicly
Denounced
Make Way for the
Messiahs Does Silence
Mean Game Over
Accountable
Leadership Urgently Required
Can’t Change Won’t Change Beggars at the
Door From The Top
Down Who Owns Adyar?
New Committee?
The Royal Court
of Radha Burnier General Council
Meeting 2013 Minutes Adyar Theosophical
Society International
Rules
Disgraceful
Treatment of an Adyar Employee The Preethi
Muthiah Letters Concerns Raised General Council 2012 Meeting
Minutes
Adyar Internal
Problems Is Adyar Still
The Headquarters? Creep On! General Council
Good Campaign
Pitch, Mr Singhal
Adyar Prepares
for the Break-Up Profile of Adyar
Adyar Family
Appointment Another Family
Power Appointment
Triumph of the
Weak Adyar Job News
No Stand For
Democracy Bent election?
A Society
Without Leadership
Who will Believe
It? Supporting Adyar?
Long Tradition
of Bullying at Adyar
Summary
Dismissal Trouble at
t’Mill
True Purpose of
the 2014 Election
What Makes this
Election Invalid? Trouble Was Your Vote
Counted?
Not Being at
Adyar Democracy in the
Adyar Theosophical Society R.I.P. 11,432 Votes
No Right To
Complain
President’s
Inauguration Pray Silence
It’s Silence as
Usual Who Can Support The Leadership
Now? Shut Up &
Pay Up
President? Really? Adyar & the
US each have Half a President The White Lotus
Hi-Jack Don’t Anybody Ask Me Anything
Is this the Great Wheaton
Rip-Off? Master of the
Small Event The Adyar
Payments Scam CVK Maithreya
Deserved Better Treatment
Staff Treatment
At Adyar Is Wheaton Set
To Support Adyar? CVK Maithreya is
Presidential
Why was
Campaigning Banned
Adyar
Allegations Climate of Fear
Police Action
Threatened QUICK
The Prisoner of
Adyartraz Preethi’s
Allegations 2014 Election
One Man, One
Vote Poor Adyar
Future CVK Maithreya For
Vice-President The General
Council Should Allow Visiting Adyar
D V
Subramaniam’s Posthumous Letter of
Complaint The Amnesty
International Paradox Did you get an
Invite?
Serious Concerns
Raised 2014 Election
Result? The Sundaram Nomination Sham Call for
Emergency Meeting
The Inauguration That Never Was Serious Concerns
Election
Committee Ignores Misconduct Bent Election
Result
Suspend Call for Action Raise the White
Flag Staff Bullying Why Did The 2014
Election Go Ahead?
Tim Boyd
A Leadership at
War Ignore the
Bullying General Council
Ignores Calls