THEOSOPHY (Gk. OcoavOla, theosophia, wis dom in divine things, knowledge concerning God, from OcocrOcpos, theosophos, wise concerning God, from 0e6s, theos, god + woods, sophos, wise). A term used to denote a system o• systems of phi losophy based on an inwardly revealed and mystic knowledge of God and the laws of the universe, giving a supersensual insight into their operations. The belief in revelations of this type is of course far anterior to the term theos ophy, which has been applied to cults of varying tenets and diverse uses of the concepts of divin ity at different periods. The ancient systems of belief falling under this head may be divided roughly into Oriental and Occidental, the former being the older. The earliest traces of theosophic thought are found in the Sanskrit Upanishads (q.v.), which represent a revulsion from the ritualism of the Vedas (q.v.) and the Brahmanas (q.v.) to mystic meditation on the nature of the All-Soul or Atmau. It is in a sense true that all subsequent Hindu philosophy is theosophic. From. India this mystical speculation spread to Persia, and from the Persians it was absorbed by the Arabs after their conquest of Iran. In a some what similar sense the and the King of China and the Egyptian Book of the Deod may be regarded as theosophic.
Among the Jews a theosophy whose origin was somewhat analogous to that of the Indian system arose about the beginning of the Christian Era, and attained wide currency in Europe between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. The teach ings of the Cabbala (q.v.) as represented in the writings of Simeon ben Jochai and Moses de Leon, however, are so widely different from the theosophy of India as to preclude any idea of Hindu influence. On the other hand, the Cab halistie doctrines were profoundly modified by what may be regarded as the typical Occidental theosophy, Neo-Platonism (q.v.), represented by Annuonius Saccas, Plot inus, Porphyries, and Pro clus, and by the Gnostics, represented by Valen tinus and Basilides. In the Middle Ages theos ophy was taught by Tallier, Eckhardt. Paraeel sus, Van Helmont, Robert Fludd. Thomas Vaughan, Heinrich Kunrath, Jakob Boehme, Jo hann Georg Giehtel, and later by Count Saint Martin. At different periods in history men appeared, teaching the immortality of the soul, and the existence of a vast cosmos, moved by occult forces, of which cosmos this earth is but an infinitesimal part. They showed the in
stability of material existence, the reality of an occult world which reaches everywhere into ours.
In modern times, the name theosophy has been given to a form of belief promulgated by a Rus sian, Madame Blavatsky (q.v.), who gave out such doctrines concerning cosmogony and an thropology, and who made such claims as to the source of her instructions, which, she said, were obtained from certain Masters. that 'theosophy' now connotes the cult established by her. The authoritative work on modern theosophy is her book, The Secret Doctrine, which states "the three fundamental propositions" as follows: (1) An omnipresent, eternal, boundless, and im mutable principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it transcends the power of human conception and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or similitude. (2) The eternity of the universe in toto as a boundless plane, periodically the playground of number less universes incessantly manifesting and dis appearing—the law of periodicity. (3) The fundamental identity of all souls with the uni versal Over-Soul, the latter being itself an aspect of the unknown Root; and the obligatory pilgrimage of every sonl—a part of the Over Soul—through thy cycle of incarnation in ac cordance with cyclic and karmic law, during the whole term. The esoteric philosophy admits of no privileges or special gifts in man save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long .cries of reincarnations.
According to theosophic teaching, God is said to be infinite and absolute. Therefore, no at tempt is made to qualify or describe the Great Unknown; but the manifested universe is traced back from the material world, through the powers of nature, to the Logos, from which all manifestation begins. Evolution is accepted, but as only half a law. The other half is involu tion. Spirit and matter are the two aspects of one root-nature. According to immutable law, the spirit involves into matter and matter evolves the spirit. Thus there is a circulation downward and upward. from spirit into matter and from matter to spirit.