What is Theosophy?
A new importance of these teachings in modern thought is due to the school of Modern theosophy dating from the foundation of the Theosophical Society in New York City by Madame Blavatsky in 1875.
"In of a Christian ethical phraseology, theosophy in reality is a form of pantheism, and denies a personal God and personal immortality. Its appeal to the spiritual in man, and its striving after union with the Divine are based upon a contradictory metaphysic, an imaginary psychology, a system of ethics which recognizes no free-will, but only the absolute necessity of Karma. No evidence or proof is given for its teaching except the simple statements of its leaders. The denial of a personal God nullifies its claim to be a spiritualistic philosophy. Judging it as presented by its own exponents, it appears to be a strange mixture of mysticism, charlatanism, and thaumaturgic pretension combined with an eager effort to express its teaching in words which reflect the atmosphere of Christian ethics and modern scientific truths." - Catholic Encyclopedia
Theosophy grows out of Russian Orthodox Church's history of the peasant mystic. Infamous Rasputin is the poster boy for a mystic gone bad. George Gurdjieff is another. Aristocrats flocked to them for instruction. Olgaviana Wright was a disciple. She snagged Frank Lloyd Wright, raised a Unitarian, and together they founded The Taliesen Institute. A semi school, farm, cultural center where you paid tuition to the "master" & worked for him for the pleasure & privalege of just being there. My brief and long ago experience with the Theosophical Society was that they were an aged, wealthy group who held their beliefs tight. They seemed sweet and harmless but in a way just like the coven in Rosemary's Baby. The underlying creepiness made me stay away. Interesting topic Terry, from a distance. They all claim "secret knowledge" that only the select can know.
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