THE UNIQUENESS OF THEOSOPHY

In these latter days Theosophy as such, that is, as given us by the Masters directly or through Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, is seldom seriously studied.  These original teachings have become ousted by, or confused with, later teachings, mostly personalised views but some claiming direct inspiration from a Master or Masters.  Those who subscribe to these later teachings are content that they have authentic material.  That there are radical differences between their views and Theosophy proper could for them be somewhat disquieting but for the most part they are ignorant of the differences.

So what does Theosophy have that the others have not?  First, we must understand it as a great outpouring at the end of the nineteenth century of some knowledge of true Occultism or aspects of the Wisdom Religion of which some parts had never before been made public in the history of the world.  The release of information was against the tenets and beliefs of established religious teachings, philosophies, even scientific writings, at that time.  The religious systems then existing included the great scriptures of India.  There had been traditional teaching by gurus in the Hindu, Buddhist, Sufi, Zoroastrian and Jain modes for centuries, if not millennia.  In one way or another, these scriptures and those of some other religions included ideas of a transcendental Deity, reincarnation, and Karma, particularly as it related to individual men.  The great world Teachers were true mystics, and in their schools and ashrams they brought many hundreds of aspirants up through various degrees of enlightenment up to even the highest.  It could be argued that these teachings are sufficient in themselves and that they are all we need to know of Theosophy.  But are they?  Against this historical background, let us see what happened at the end of the nineteenth century.  We know that at that time there was a considerable and widespread interest in spiritualism, of which there were various branches.  Some were concerned only with phenomena, others attempted to establish a kind of philosophical religious system which demonstrated survival after death.  These ideas were merged with those of the then traditional ideas of an anthropomorphic Deity, which was particularly prominent in the current ideas on heaven.  There were also some 'occult' or secret societies, all operating independently of one another and each with its characteristic literature, teachings and practices.

In amongst all this came the Theosophical Society and then slowly the introduction of the idea of the Masters of the Wisdom by way of letters and articles by H P Blavatsky.  1877 saw the publication of Isis Unveiled, a great work of two volumes of over 600 pages each.  These volumes comprised a series of articles of an esoteric flavour introducing ideas which had never before been publicly discussed.  Against a background of very extensive knowledge, these articles introduced the reader to some aspects of Occultism which applied to the then extant philosophies, science and religion.  They also added a new dimension to them.  After 1877 HPB wrote further articles and letters.  The articles have been collected together and published in a series called the Collected Writings edited by Boris de Zirkoff.  There are fourteen volumes and an index.  The content of these voluminous writings ranges over a whole variety of subjects in the literary, religious and scientific fields.  In particular there was much that was specific about Theosophy as such and its newly formed Society.  Some of the latter material is couched in very inspirational terms, as anyone familiar with the content of these writings will know.

Amongst other things HPB gave out an explanation of spiritualistic phenomena from an esoteric viewpoint, containing material never before made public.  This was supplemented by information on the hierarchies of beings and the planes of Nature.  The writings also contain guidance on the path to discipleship.  Some of the 'dark' sayings of Jesus, including his parables, are explained by Esotericism which sheds a completely new light on them.  The writings also discussed a number of the more obscure aspects of Christianity and other religions.  There are articles on the Kabala, Rosicrucianism, Masonry and other such topics, all against a background of an emerging occult view not included in traditional writings.

July 2001

Geoffrey Farthing was a former General Secretary of The Theosophical Society in England.  He joined in 1945 and wrote many books on core esoteric literature

To be continued