Theosophy

Theosophy derives from the Greek term θεοσοφία (theosophia), derived 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 her 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.