Religion

Wisdom-Religion

Mme. Blavatsky postulated the existence of an esoteric "Wisdom-Religion", which was brought by the Lords of the Flame during the third Root-Race, and is in possession of the Masters of Wisdom:

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.

This Wisdom-Religion is the origin of all the modern religions, which were founded by different Masters of Wisdom. The differences in teachings among the religions is due to the emphasis on different aspects of the Truth that the founder of each religion chose to teach, to misunderstanding of the deep teachings, and to later manipulation by unenlightened human beings:

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.

Though the fundamental doctrines of Occultism and Esoteric philosophy are one and the same the world over, and that the secret meaning under the outward shell of every old religion—however much they may conflict in appearance—is the outcome of, and proceeds from, the universal WISDOM-RELIGION—the modes of thought and of its expression must necessarily differ.

One of the aims of the Theosophical Society is to reconcile the different religions, and the basis that they come from a common source:

THEOSOPHIST. One of the three objects of . . . the Theosophical Society [is] to reconcile all religions, sects and nations under a common system of ethics, based on eternal verities.

ENQUIRER. What have you to show that this is not an impossible dream; and that all the world's religions are based on the one and the same truth?

THEOSOPHIST. Their comparative study and analysis. The "Wisdom-religion" was one in antiquity; and the sameness of primitive religious philosophy is proven to us by the identical doctrines taught to the Initiates during the MYSTERIES, an institution once universally diffused.

We can show the line of descent of every Christian religion, as of every, even the smallest, sect. The latter are the minor twigs or shoots grown on the larger branches; but shoots and branches spring from the same trunk -- the WISDOM-RELIGION. To prove this was the aim of Ammonius, who endeavoured to induce Gentiles and Christians, Jews and Idolaters, to lay aside their contentions and strifes, remembering only that they were all in possession of the same truth under various vestments, and were all the children of a common mother. 4 This is the aim of Theosophy likewise.

Online resources

Articles

• The Brotherhood of Religions by Annie Besant
• The Emergence of a World Religion by Annie Besant
• The Place of Religion in National Life by Annie Besant
• A World Religion by Annie Besant
• Religion in the World Today by Robert Ellwood
• Points of Agreement in All Religions by William Q. Judge
• Religion and Reform from a Theosophical Viewpoint by William Q. Judge
• Pigrim, What Calls You? by Ravi Ravindra
• The Four Stages of Religious Development by James M. Somerville
• From Exclusivism to Convergence - Part 1 and Part 2 by James M. Somerville