Theosophy and Theosophists

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky · Theosophy and Theosophists Series · 26 pages

Twenty-six pages carrying the essay that *gives this whole section its name, first published in The Theosophist volume I number 1 in October 1879 — the very first issue — and republished in the Collected Writings* volume II. The frontispiece is the Ashvattha Tree of Life and Being, from the Planetary Rounds series on this site, with illustrations by Michael Cheval. If a reader is to open one file in this section first, it should be this one.

She states plainly why it had to be written: the question has been so often asked, and misconception so widely prevails, that the editors of a journal devoted to expounding the world's theosophy would be remiss if the first number were issued without coming to a full understanding with their readers. Three questions are then set out and answered in turn — what theosophy is, what the Theosophical Society is, and what theosophists are. The etymology comes first and is granted: theosophia is composed of two Greek words, theos, god, and sophos, wise. So far, she says, correct — but the explanations that follow in the dictionaries are far from giving a clear idea of the thing. Webster is quoted at length and then dismembered: his definition, a supposed intercourse with God and superior spirits and the consequent attainment of superhuman knowledge by physical processes, whether by the theurgic operations of some ancient Platonists or the chemical processes of the German fire-philosophers, is called poor and flippant. To attribute such ideas to men like Ammonius Saccas, Plotinus, Iamblichus, Porphyry and Proclus shows, she says, either intentional misrepresentation or plain ignorance of their philosophy and motives. The running heading gives the definition she offers in its place — that theosophy is the republic of conscience.

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