Theosophy

Fragments of a Parent Doctrine have survived geological and political cataclysms to tell the story; and every survival shows evidence that the now Secret Wisdom was once the one fountain head, the ever-flowing perennial source, at which were fed all its streamlets - the later religions of all nations - from the first down to the last. This period, beginning with Buddha and Pythagoras at the one end and the Neo-Platonists and Gnostics at the other, is the only focus left in History wherein converge for the last time the bright rays of light streaming from the aeons of time gone by, unobscured by the hand of bigotry and fanaticism.

SD 1:xlv
 
A tribute issue of Theosophia, Winter 1974. dedicated to G. de Purucker; Leader of the Point Loma Theosophical Society 1929-1942

https://arhiv.nuk.uni-lj.si/wayback...fija.info/Theosophia/Theosophia_Vol30_No3.htm

The Path leading to the Mysteries

The aspirant or candidate for the Archaic Wisdom is always told: There is a way by which to gain truth. There is a way by which man may gain wisdom. Yet any knock except the right knock is unheard. In a paradoxical sense one must practice before one may receive the full light of knowledge. The knock itself is, first, living the life. One must come with peace in his heart, and with a yearning for light so strong that no impediments or obstacles will daunt the courageous soul. One must come to the outer portal ready to brave the scorn of the world - the blind, foolish, ignorant, world, which laughs and scorns because it knows not better, much as children laugh when they hear a truth which they do not understand. [The Esoteric Tradition, 1070.]​
 
Those who think that people will instinctively behave themselves without the support of any belief or faith, usually forget that we are (in a moral sense) living on our capital. Because our ancestors had convictions and faiths, therefore they built up standards of order and self-control whose effect is not yet exhausted. The very security which allows us to indulge these radical views is founded on the influence of the ideas and customs which we would upset. But it will not always be so: the capital, if not renewed, will be exhausted; and it will then become manifest that behavior, in the individual or society, cannot rest securely on a basis of automatism, but that there must be inspiration, faith, knowledge, behind it.

When the authority of a moral sanction, a certainty of knowledge, is withdrawn, human beings are abandoned to the mercy of impulse. There being no higher authority than desire, desire becomes exalted into their god; and, since pride prompts us to justify our actions, we accordingly devise a philosophy of desire, and call it by some grandiose name, such as the right of self-realization. But there can be no coherence in a society which is swayed by individual caprice, instead of controlled by impersonal principles and ideals. Nothing has recently happened which can change the eternal truth that Duty, Honor, Love, are the cement of society and the wings whereon man can soar from the depths into which his unruly desires would drag him.

Henry T. Edge
 
Theosophy and Christianity by H.T. Edge:

https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/gdpmanu/th-xity/th-xty1.htm

Introductory​

Theosophy is the essential truth underlying all religions and does not recognize any one religion as being supreme over the others or as the last word of truth. It is not hostile to Christianity, but finds itself obliged to combat many things which it considers alien to the genuine Christian gospel and which have gradually crept in since that gospel was originally proclaimed. Among these is the idea that Christianity is paramount among religions or that it is a final revelation of divine truth, superseding other faiths. This idea is contrary to the truth and is becoming more and more difficult to maintain.
 
Blavatsky Study Center has vast amounts of writings about people (other than HPB) who saw or met the Brothers or Adepts. Here are 17 cases out of many:

https://blavatskyarchives.com/mastersencounterswith.htm

"H.P. Blavatsky claimed personal contact with certain Adepts, Masters and Mahatmas living in Tibet, Ladakh, India, Sri Lanka and elsewhere. During her lifetime and since her death, there has been a great deal of controversy and skepticism concerning the existence of these Mahatmas. Almost all of H.P.B.'s critics have doubted the actual existence or reality of her Masters. Nevertheless, more than twenty five people testified to having seen and/or been in contact with the Mahatmas during Madame Blavatsky's life time. In the pages of this book, the reader will find the detailed accounts and testimonies of most of these witnesses in which they relate their sightings, encounters and meetings with H.P.B.'s Adept Teachers."
 
Damodar K. Mavalankar
June 23—July 1880
Ceylon and then on ship back to Bombay

In Ceylon [in a] particular village, HPB, Col. Olcott, and myself were the only three persons that stopped one night, the rest of our party having gone to a further place. We were all busy there initiating people and forming a branch of our [Theosophical] Society till about 12 in the night. HPB and Col. Olcott went to bed at about one. As we had to stay in the village only one night, we had got down in the Rest House where comfortable accommodation can be had only for two travelers. I had therefore to lie down in an armchair in the dining room. I had scarcely locked the door of the room from the inside and laid myself in the chair when I heard a faint knock at the door. It was repeated twice before I had time enough to reach the door. I opened it and what a great joy I felt when I saw [Mahatma Morya] again!

In a very low whisper he ordered me to dress myself and to follow him. At the back door of the Rest House is the sea. I followed him as he commanded me to do. We walked about three quarters of an hour by the seashore. Then we turned in the direction of the sea. All around there was water except the place we were walking upon which was quite dry!! He was walking in front and I was following him. We thus walked for about seven minutes when we came to a spot that looked like a small island. On the top of the building was a triangular light. From a distance, a person, standing on the seashore would think it to be an isolated spot which is covered all over by green bushes. There is only one entrance to go inside.

After we reached the island, we came in front of the actual building. There in a little garden in front, we found one of the Brothers sitting. I had seen him before, and it is to him that this place belongs. [Mahatma Morya] seated himself near him and I stood hefore them. We were there for about half an hour. I was shown a part of the place. How very pleasant it is! And inside this place he has a small room where the body remains when the spirit moves about. What a charming, delightful spot that is! What a nice smell of roses and various sorts of flowers! The half hour was finished and the time for our leaving the place was near. The master of the place, whose name I do not know, placed his blessing hand over my head, and [Mahatma Morya] and I marched off again. We came back near the door of the room wherein I was to sleep and he suddenly disappeared there on the spot.
 
On the mission of Theosophy; written in 1914:

https://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/theos/th-edge.htm

The duty of the Theosophical Society is to keep alive in man his spiritual intuition. -- H. P. Blavatsky

This quotation from H. P. Blavatsky is chosen for a starting-point because it so aptly sums up her conception of the purpose of the Society she founded. The welfare of man is dependent on his recognition of the Divinity of his essential nature; and when he forgets this, he lapses into materialism. The Theosophical Society was founded for the express purpose of preventing materialism from proceeding to such lengths as to destroy civilization. Such movements have been initiated, with the same object, many other times in human history.
 
Theosophical view of Christianity in HPB letter to Archbishop:

https://www.philaletheians.co.uk/st...en-letter-to-the-archbishop-of-canterbury.pdf

Excerpt:

Theosophy is not a religion, but a philosophy at once religious and scientific; and that the chief work, so far, of the Theosophical Society has been to revive in each religion its own animating spirit, by encouraging and helping enquiry into the true significance of its doctrines and observances. Theosophists know that the deeper one penetrates into the meaning of the dogmas and ceremonies of all religions, the greater becomes their apparent underlying similarity, until finally a perception of their fundamental unity is reached. This common ground is no other than Theosophy — the Secret Doctrine of the ages; which, diluted and disguised to suit the capacity of the multitude, and the requirements of the time, has formed the living kernel of all religions.
 
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Theosophical Light on Bible, by HT Edge:

https://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/world/christ/xt-edge.htm

Excerpt from chapter 3:

"If we study the writings of H. P. Blavatsky on this subject, we shall see that Theosophists are the true champions of the Bible and the only ones who can estimate it at its true value. For she tells us that it is one of the world's esoteric works, a version of the Archaic Wisdom, hidden behind many veils, and written in the ancient mystery-language. It is surely a remarkable fact, and one that should make us pause for thought that this book, along with the similar books belonging to other religions, should have been put together and preserved for so many ages intact, to wield so great an influence on mankind. Especially is this so when we consider that a great deal of it is not at all of a kind to appeal to the average devout Christian, to whom indeed such parts as we refer to must be incomprehensible. The explanation of this historical riddle however becomes simple when we bear in mind that the members of the great brotherhood of Masters of Wisdom have the duty of seeing to it that the sacred knowledge depart not from the earth; and so it is preserved in the form of the world's various scriptures, which have an exoteric meaning for the multitude and an esoteric meaning for those who have the keys to understand the symbolism."
 
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Inner Wisdom or Theosophia:

https://www.philaletheians.co.uk/major-works/theosophia-inner-wisdom.pdf

"The renaissance of ancient spiritualism.
Theosophy is Archaic Wisdom-Religion, as taught by Masters and Magi, Sages and Hierophants, Prophets and Philosophers, to the Elect — undisguised by symbols. It is Spiritual Knowledge, reasoned out and corroborated by personal experience.
Diogenes Laërtius traces Theosophy to an epoch antedating the dynasty of the Ptolemies. But, in fact, Theosophy is much older: It is the parent stem of Archaic Wisdom."
 
https://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/voice/VoiceoftheSilence_eBook.pdf

The Voice of the Silence being
CHOSEN FRAGMENTS from the
‘‘BOOK OF THE GOLDEN PRECEPTS.’’
FOR THE DAILY USE OF LANOOS (DISCIPLES).

Preface begins:
The following pages are derived from “The Book of the Golden Precepts,” one of the works put into the hands of mystic students in the East. The knowledge of them is obligatory in that school, the teachings of which are accepted by many Theosophists. Therefore, as I know many of these Precepts by heart, the work of translating has been relatively an easy task for me.
"H.P.B."
 
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