Theosophy

Overview

The Theosophical Society is an occult and esoteric movement founded in New York City in 1875 by the Russian émigré Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, the American lawyer Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge, drawing on a long theosophical tradition traced back to ancient Gnosticism and Neoplatonism. Blavatsky, its chief theoretician, taught that all world religions preserve fragments of a single ancient wisdom. The society's three declared objects are to form a nucleus of universal human brotherhood, encourage comparative study of religion, philosophy and science, and investigate the hidden powers latent in nature and humanity. Having relocated to India, where its international headquarters at Adyar remain today, the society proved small but highly influential, serving as a conduit for Hindu and Buddhist ideas into the West and inspiring more than a hundred later esoteric movements.^{[1, 3–4, 6–7]}

History

Blavatsky, Olcott and the society's founding 1875–1891

Blavatsky, after years of travel through Europe and the Middle East, met Olcott, a Spiritualist investigator, at gatherings in Chittenden, Vermont; the Theosophical Society grew directly out of further evening gatherings the two held in Blavatsky's New York apartment in 1875, with Judge serving as counsel. Blavatsky set out her cosmology in Isis Unveiled (1877) and, more fully, in the two-volume Secret Doctrine (1888). Olcott and Blavatsky then left for India, eventually settling at Adyar near Madras, still the society's international headquarters. In 1884–85 a Society for Psychical Research investigator concluded that Blavatsky had faked the phenomena accompanying her claimed messages from hidden spiritual Masters, a finding that damaged the society for the rest of her life, though a later re-examination called it biased.^{[2–3, 5, 8]}

Besant, Krishnamurti and the society's peak 1891–1929

After Blavatsky's death in 1891, the British activist Annie Besant, who had joined the society two years earlier, became its leading figure, succeeding Olcott as international president on his death in 1907 and winning the society its greatest following, partly through her support for Indian independence. A dispute over leadership of the esoteric section led Judge to take most American lodges out of the parent society in 1895, forming an independent body now headquartered in Pasadena, California. With her colleague Charles Webster Leadbeater, Besant promoted the young Jiddu Krishnamurti as the coming World Teacher, touring the world with him in the 1920s until he broke with the society in 1929, after which its membership never fully recovered.^[9–11]

Key moments

1. 1875 CEThe Theosophical Society · New York

Beliefs

Three Objects

The society asks only that members subscribe to its Three Objects: to form a nucleus of universal human brotherhood regardless of race, creed or sex; to encourage comparative study of religion, philosophy and science; and to investigate nature's unexplained laws and the latent powers of humanity.^[4]

People

Scripture

The Secret Doctrine

1888

Blavatsky's two-volume cosmological masterwork, presented as a commentary on an otherwise unknown set of ancient stanzas, remains theosophy's most comprehensive doctrinal exposition.^[2]

Places

Adyar, Chennai

IND

The Theosophical Society's international headquarters since the early 1880s, acquired after Blavatsky and Olcott relocated from New York to India.^[3]

New York City

USA

The Theosophical Society was founded here in 1875, growing out of evening gatherings in Blavatsky's apartment.^{[1, 8]}

Numbers

National censuses

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Census of Population and Housing 2021, 'Religious affiliation in Australia' (Table 4), CC BY 4.0.

How we know

The 1885 Hodgson Report

The society's early credibility rested partly on phenomena surrounding Blavatsky's claimed letters from hidden spiritual Masters; in 1885 Richard Hodgson of the Society for Psychical Research investigated and declared her an imposter, a finding a later re-examination by another SPR member called biased and based on misread handwriting evidence.^[5]

Common misconceptions

Glossary

Three Objects

The Theosophical Society's three stated goals: universal brotherhood, comparative study of religion and science, and investigation of nature's hidden laws.^[4]

Mahatma

A claimed advanced spiritual teacher or "Master," with whom Blavatsky said she was in contact and from whom some of her teachings purportedly came.^[5]

Adyar

The Chennai-area suburb that has served as the Theosophical Society's international headquarters since the early 1880s.^[3]

The Secret Doctrine

Blavatsky's 1888 two-volume cosmological work, theosophy's most comprehensive doctrinal exposition.^[2]

Esoteric Section

An inner teaching body within the Theosophical Society whose post-Blavatsky leadership dispute between Judge and Besant triggered the society's first major split in 1895.^[10]