Theosophy

Theosophy is a modern spiritual movement founded in the nineteenth century that combines esoteric teachings with ideas drawn from Asian religions. Its adherents seek spiritual knowledge through study, ethical development, and claims about humanity’s hidden history.

Helena Blavatsky: A Russian-born occultist who co-founded the Theosophical Society and wrote its foundational works. Her teachings and writings established the movement’s distinctive cosmology.
Esotericism: The pursuit or teaching of knowledge understood as hidden, restricted, or accessible through special initiation or insight. Theosophy belongs to modern esotericism and presents teachings as concealed wisdom.
The Secret Doctrine: Helena Blavatsky’s 1888 work presenting a Theosophical cosmology and a speculative history of humanity. It sets out the movement’s most influential account of cosmic and human evolution.
Alice Bailey: An English-American esoteric teacher whose writings developed a spiritual system influenced by Theosophy. Her movement carried Theosophical themes into twentieth-century New Age spirituality.
Anthroposophy: A spiritual movement founded by Rudolf Steiner that emphasizes spiritual science and human development. Steiner founded it after separating from the Theosophical Society over leadership and teachings.
The Theosophical Society: An organization founded in 1875 to promote spiritual inquiry, universal brotherhood, and comparative study of religion. It gave Theosophy an enduring institutional home.
Karma: A principle in several Indian religious traditions linking intentional actions with consequences across time and rebirth. Theosophical accounts of moral causation draw on and reinterpret karma.
Theosophical cosmology: A system describing cyclic universes, spiritual hierarchies, and stages of human development in Theosophical teaching. Its layered cosmos connects human spiritual growth to vast cycles of evolution.
Jiddu Krishnamurti: An Indian philosopher who was promoted by Theosophists as a spiritual teacher before rejecting that role and organized authority. His break with the Theosophical-sponsored Order of the Star challenged expectations of a coming world teacher.
Theosophical Society Point Loma: A Theosophical organization led by Katherine Tingley and based at Point Loma, California, from the late nineteenth century. It represents a distinct institutional branch with its own leadership and educational community.

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