Theosophy

Theosophy derives from the Greek term θεοσοφία (theosophia), from θεός (theos), "god", "gods" or "divine", and σοφία (sophia), wisdom; variously translated as divine wisdom, the wisdom of God or the gods, or wisdom in things divine. The term is first found in writings of Porphyry (AD 234–c. 305), a well-known Alexandrian philosopher who belonged to the Neo-Platonic school. In the course of time, several people and movements spiritually inclined also adopted the denomination of "theosophers" or "theosophists" for themselves. That was the case of Meister Eckhart in the 14th century, a group of Renaissance philosophers such as Paracelsus in the 16th century, Robert Fludd, Thomas Vaughan, and Jacob Boehme in the 17th ; and Emanuel Swedenborg and Karl von Eckartshausen in the 18 th century, among others. Finally, the theosophical movement reappeared in the 19th century with the founding of the Theosophical Society in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky, H. S. Olcott, W. Q. Judge, and others.

H. P. Blavatsky, in The Theosophical Glossary, describes the term as follows:

Theosophia (Gr.). Wisdom-religion, or “Divine Wisdom”. The substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies, taught and practised by a few elect ever since man became a thinking being. In its practical bearing, Theosophy is purely divine ethics; the definitions in dictionaries are pure nonsense, based on religious prejudice and ignorance of the true spirit of the early Rosicrucians and mediæval philosophers who called themselves Theosophists.

Neo-Platonic theosophy

The origin of the term theosophia is unknown, but it is likely to have been coined by the Neo-Platonic (a philosophical school founded by Ammonius Saccas, who was born ca. 175). Based on the writings of the famous Platonist Prof. Alexander Wilder, H. P. Blavatsky suggests that the term was commonly used by all Neo-Platonists. However, researches made in the late 1980s by scholars James Santucci and Dr. Jean-Louis Siémons showed that it is only with the third-generation Neo-Platonist Porphyry (234–305) that we find the term in writing for the first time. In Porphyry’s view, the divine wisdom is a state of illumination that can be attained by self-exertion. The theosophos (Gr. θεόσοφος) tries “by himself, to elevate himself, alone to alone, to a communion with the divine.” With Iamblichus (250–325), the pure mystical meaning given to the term by Porphyry acquires a more occult or magical significance. He proposed that the theosophia can be attained through theurgy (Gr. θεουργία), a series of religious rituals and magic operations aimed at elevating consciousness. Proclus (412–485) uses the term in yet another way to denominate specific spiritual doctrines, making reference to a local ‘Hellenic theosophy’, but also to a foreign or barbarian (that is, non-Greek) theosophy, referring to Chaldean doctrines.

Christian theosophy

Many early Christians, including a number of Church Fathers, were students of Neo-Platonic teachers. They also adopted the term theosophia, but used it in a more Christian sense to mean “the Wisdom of God”. Clement of Alexandria (150–215) talks about a theosophos as one who writes “driven by divine inspiration,” and thus in time this term came to be used to refer to the prophets of old. An important difference between the Neo-Platonic and Christian concepts of theosophia, is that in the former view no one is a born theosophos—he becomes such by long exertion, application to philosophy, self-purification and contemplation of the divine. In the Christian view the divine wisdom is bestowed by God—as He chooses—upon the prophet, in the form of a revelation. After the Neo-Platonists disappeared in the 6th century, the term theosophia continued to be used in Christianity during the Middle Ages, but frequently in a lower sense as a synonym of theologia. In the 9th century, after the re-discovery of the works of Pseudo-Dionysius (a Christian Neo-Platonist that lived ca. 500) the term regained a lofty meaning among great mystics such as Meister Eckhart, J. Tauler, John of Ruysbroeck, and others. It was through their writings that 17th to 19th century European mystics such as Boehme, Saint-Martin, Swedenborg, and others, inherited the term theosophy and adopted it as their own. With these “theosophers” (as they came to be known) the term became popular, being on the title of a number of books during the 1700s. There continued to be publications on Christian theosophy until the middle of the 19th century.

Modern Theosophy

At the opening of the last quarter of the 19th century a committee formed by H. P. Blavatsky, H. S. Olcott, W. Q. Judge, and others, founded what they called the Theosophical Society. According to Col. Olcott, the choice of the name of the newly formed Society was subject of discussion in the committee, and several options were suggested, such as the Egyptological, the Hermetic, the Rosicrucian, etc. However, none of them seemed the right one. ‘At last,’ he recalls ‘in turning over the leaves of the Dictionary, one of us came across the word “Theosophy,” whereupon, after discussion, we unanimously agreed that that was the best of all.’ Olcott explained this name was appropriate because it expressed ‘the esoteric truth we wished to reach’ and covered the ground of ‘methods of occult scientific research.’ It does not seem likely that the name for the Society was chosen merely out of a dictionary search, since Madame Blavatsky had already connected her knowledge with the term theosophy a few months before, in a letter to Hiram Corson:

My belief is based on something older than the Rochester knockings [that began the Spiritualistic movement in 1848], and springs out from the same source of information that was used by Raymond Lully, Picus della Mirandola, Cornelius Agrippa, Robert Fludd, Henry More, et cetera, etc., all of whom have ever been searching for a system that should disclose to them the "deepest depths" of the Divine nature, and show them the real tie which binds all things together. I found at last, and many years ago, the cravings of my mind satisfied by this theosophy taught by the Angels and communicated by them that the protoplast might know it for the aid of the human destiny.

Uses of the term by H. P. Blavatsky

In her article "The Beacon of the Unknown" Mme. Blavatsky says there are two Theosophies: that of the true Theosophist and that of the regular fellow of the Theosophical Society. The first is the "true Theosophy, inner Theosophy, that of the soul" and it is connected with the use and development of the spiritual intuition. Here, the term Theosophy is used in its literal sense, as a state of divine wisdom that transcends the intellectual faculties.

A second meaning for the term H. P. Blavatsky is defined as follows: "Theosophy, as already said, is the WISDOM-RELIGION."

According to Annie Besant

Dr. Annie Besant talks about a primary and a secondary meaning for the word Theosophy. In her view the primary meaning has to do with the development of the ability to gain a "direct" personal knowledge of the divine. This aspect is present in the mysticism and esotericism of different religions:

Theosophy is this direct knowledge of God; the search after this is the Mysticism, or Esotericism, common to all religions, thrown by Theosophy into a scientific form, as in Hinduism, Buddhism, Roman Catholic Christianity, and Sufism. Like these, it teaches in a quite clear and definite way the methods of reaching firsthand knowledge by unfolding the spiritual consciousness, and by evolving the organs through which that consciousness can function on our earth –once more, the methods of meditation and of a discipline of life.

The secondary meaning lies at the level of the basic philosophical and moral teachings shared by different religions:

Theosophy, in a secondary sense–-the above being the primary-–is the body of doctrine, obtained by separating the beliefs common to all religions from the peculiarities, specialities, rites, ceremonies and customs which mark off one religion from another; it presents these common truths as a consensus of world-beliefs, forming, in their entirety, the Wisdom-religion, or the Universal Religion, the source from which all separate religions spring, the trunk of the Tree of Life from which they all branch forth.

Further reading

• Theosophy at Theosopedia