Theosophical Society

Helena P. Blavatsky

Henry Steel Olcott

Theosophy (literally, “divine wisdom”) was a spiritual doctrine developed by Helena P. Blavatsky in the 1870s. In 1875, Kuthumi (K.H.) and El Morya (the Master M.) founded the Theosophical Society through Blavatsky, commissioning her to write Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. The purpose of this activity was to reacquaint mankind with the wisdom of the ages that underlies all of the world’s religions.

Origins

1875 was a pivotal year of astrology and of the opening of the way for the twentieth century. In the East, El Morya and the Master Kuthumi were working to found the Theosophical movement. In the West, it was a time when studies in metaphysics, homeopathy, experiments of Mesmer, and many similar movements were becoming popular. 1875 was also the year when Mary Baker Eddy released Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Among the earliest letters from the adepts and masters to the founders of the Theosophical Society were those of Serapis Bey and the Brotherhood of Luxor. It was the intention of Serapis that the Theosophical movement should, as its initial work, engage itself in an explanation of the ancient truths to be gleaned from the then popular spiritualist movement in Europe and America.

Spiritualism is not considered by the Brotherhood today as a valid avenue for the dispensation of their teachings. But at that time it was for some the hope and reminder that life after death is continuous. The dispensation was misused and became unfortunately subject to psychicism and all kinds of phoniness and fraud, and so it lost its purpose. But the ascended masters went on. Serapis took personal charge of the direction and chelaship of the amanuensis Helena Blavatsky and of Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, who was the co-founder and the president of the Theosophical Society.

So in that auspicious year of 1875, El Morya and Kuthumi, working closely with Djwal Kul, Saint Germain, and Serapis Bey, founded the Theosophical Society through Helena Blavatsky in New York City. Theosophy became a worldwide movement that had a profound influence on Western thinking.

Aims

Madame Blavatsky stated that the most important goal of the Theosophical Society was to revive the work of Ammonius Saccas. He is the reputed founder of the Neoplatonic School 1700 years ago. The work of that school, she said, was “to reconcile all religions, sects and nations under a common system of ethics, based on eternal verities.”

The sense of the continuity of religion and of the real inner mysteries of God was bestowed on Blavatsky by the masters who sponsored her. They sought to bring forth the teaching of ancient Atlantis and Lemuria to the present century, that we might have the benefit of carrying the torch of this eternal teaching into the next age.

Blavatsky wrote that the aim of Ammonius Saccas was “to induce Gentiles and Christians, Jews and Idolators to lay aside their contentions and strifes, remembering only that they were all in possession of the same truth under various vestments.”

This has been the theme, the desire, the great love, the vision of El Morya forever. And so he and the other masters who joined him determined to revive this spirit. It is interesting to note that many scholars believe that Origen of Alexandria (an embodiment of Lanello) attended the lectures of Ammonius Saccas.

Influence

Writing in 1925, Theosophical writer C. W. Leadbeater reflected on the influence of Theosophy in the world at that time:

As I write, the Society has completed its fiftieth year of service to humanity, and it is impossible to estimate the vast amount of good it has done in every department of human life. Its influence cannot in the least be measured by the number of its members or branches, although that is by no means insignificant, since it extends to every part of the civilized globe. But in each field of human endeavour it has sounded its characteristic note, the reverberations of which multiply around us in the words and work of statesmen and scientists, literary men and artists, and many others, of whom, great numbers perhaps have never even heard the word Theosophy. It has drawn attention to the realities of the invisible world and the power of mind. It has voiced the claims in outward life of the organization for mutual support of widely different individuals, each of whom shall be strong in his special type, and all of whom shall be bound together by the indissoluble bond of respect for the man who is different from oneself. It has brought together East and West as never before; it has demanded fair play in the comparison of religions, and revealed with unmistakable clearness their essential unity of teaching and their common source. And it has brought thousands. to the feet of the Masters to serve them with all their power and with all their hearts for the good of mankind for all time to come.

Professor Carl Jackson writes that the Theosophical Society “in the United States has influenced a whole series of religious movements. In the estimation of some scholars, no other single organization has done more to popularize Asian religions and philosophical ideas in the West.”

One of the key concepts that Theosophy resurrected is reincarnation. The concept of reincarnation had been practically unknown in the West since the time of the crusade against the Gnostic Cathari in the thirteenth century. Largely through the work of the Theosophical Society, reincarnation was to become a household word in the West.

Reincarnation also attracted renewed interest in the East. This was part of a revival of ancient Eastern wisdom that was pushed forward by Theosophy. Some scholars credit Theosophy with revitalizing belief in reincarnation “at a time when the survival of reincarnation philosophy was in serious jeopardy in much of the East.”

Theosophy inspired many in the East to pursue a new understanding and appreciation of their own religious heritage. Mohandas Gandhi called Theosophy “Hinduism at its best.” The eminent Zen Buddhist scholar and teacher D. T. Suzuki called Theosophy “the real Mahayana Buddhism.” Both India and Sri Lanka issued commemorative stamps in appreciation of the important contributions that Theosophy had made in their countries.

Two days after Blavatsky’s death in 1891, the New York Herald published this editorial about her work.

No one in the present generation has done more toward reopening the long sealed treasures of Eastern thought, wisdom and philosophy. No one certainly has done so much toward elucidating that profound wisdom-religion wrought by the Orient, and bringing into the light those ancient literary works whose scope and depth have so astonished the Western world. Careful observers of the time long since discerned that the tone of current thought in many directions was being affected by the work of Madame Blavatsky.

A broader humanity, a more liberal speculation, a disposition to investigate ancient philosophies from a higher point of view have no indirect association with the teachings of the Theosophical Society. Thus Madame Blavatsky has made her mark upon the time.

Thus, El Morya, through Madame Blavatsky, has made his mark upon the time.

For more information

For an in-depth study of the path of initiation and the master-disciple relationship as it was revealed in Theosophical teachings, see the series Darshan with the Messenger Elizabeth Clare Prophet, which includes teachings from The Masters and the Path, by C.W.Leadbeater and teachings from The K.H.Letters to C.W. Leadbeater.

See also

Helena P. Blavatsky

Sources

Pearls of Wisdom, vol. 33, no. 43, November 4, 1990.

Lectures by Elizabeth Clare Prophet, August 10, 1979; August 6, 1985; March 13, 1993; August 6, 1995; February 12, 1997.