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Theosophy is an occult religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neoplatonism and Indian religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Although many adherents maintain that Theosophy is not a religion, it is variably categorized by religious scholars as both a new religious movement and a form of occultism from within Western esotericism.
As presented by Blavatsky, Theosophy teaches that there is an ancient and secretive brotherhood of spiritual known as the Masters, who are found around the world but primarily centered in Tibet. These Masters were alleged by Blavatsky to have cultivated great wisdom and supernatural powers, and Theosophists believe they initiated the modern Theosophical movement through disseminating their teachings via Blavatsky. Theosophists believe that these Masters are attempting to revive knowledge of an ancient religion once found around the world that will again come to eclipse existing world religions. Theosophy holds a Monism position that there exists a single divine Absolute and articulates an emanationism cosmology in which the universe is perceived as outward reflections from this Absolute. The purpose of human life is spiritual emancipation and the human soul undergoes reincarnation upon bodily death according to a process of karma. Universal brotherhood and social improvement are guiding principles, although there is no particular ethical framework.
Theosophy was established in New York City in 1875 with the founding of the Theosophical Society by Blavatsky and Americans Henry Olcott and William Quan Judge. In the early 1880s, Blavatsky and Olcott relocated to India, where they established the Society's headquarters at Adyar, Tamil Nadu. Blavatsky described her ideas in two books, Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, which became key texts within Theosophy. Following her death in 1891, there was a schism in the Society, with Judge leading the Theosophical Society in America (TSA) to split from the international organization. Under Judge's successor Katherine Tingley, a Theosophical community named Lomaland was established in San Diego, California. At its height in 1895, there were 102 American branches with nearly 6,000 members. The Adyar-based Society was later taken over by Annie Besant, under whom it grew to its largest extent during the late 1920s, before going into decline after the Great Depression. TSA has since been reincorporated as a national section of the global Theosophical Society, which has a global membership of roughly 26,606 across 70 countries, including over 3,550 in the United States.
Theosophy played a significant role in bringing knowledge of Eastern religions to the West and encouraging cultural pride in South Asia. Many prominent artists and writers have also been influenced by Theosophical teachings. Theosophy has an international following, and during the 20th century had tens of thousands of adherents. Theosophical ideas have also inspired over 100 esoteric movements and philosophies, among them Anthroposophy, the Church Universal and Triumphant, and the New Age.
Scholars of religion who have studied Theosophy have characterized it as a religion. In his history of the Theosophical movement, Bruce F. Campbell noted that Theosophy promoted "a religious world-view" using "explicitly religious terms" and that its central tenets are not unequivocal fact, but rather rely on belief. Olav Hammer and Mikael Rothstein termed it "one of the modern world's most important religious traditions". Various scholars have pointed to its eclectic nature; Joscelyn Godwin described it as a "universally eclectic religious movement", while scholar J. Jeffrey Franklin characterized Theosophy as a "hybrid religion" for its syncretic combination of elements from various other sources. More specifically, Theosophy has been categorized as a new religious movement.
Scholars have also classified Theosophy as a form of Western esotericism. Campbell for instance referred to it as "an esoteric religious tradition", while the historian Joy Dixon called it an "esoteric religion". More specifically, it is considered a form of occultism. Along with other groups such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society has been seen as part of an "occult revival" that took place in Western countries during the late 19th century. The historian of religion Wouter Hanegraaff noted that Theosophy helped to establish the "essential foundations for much of twentieth-century esotericism". Although Theosophy draws upon Indian religious beliefs, the sociologist of religion Christopher Partridge observed that "Theosophy is fundamentally Western. That is to say, Theosophy is not Eastern thought in the West, but Western thought with an Eastern flavour."
According to Maria Carlson, Theosophy is a "positivistic religion" "offering a seemingly logical theology based on pseudoscience."
The term was not new; originally it appeared in the works of early Church Fathers, as a synonym for theology. It derives from and ; thus meaning "god-wisdom", "divine wisdom", or "wisdom of God". Its esoteric meaning emerged during the Renaissance, possibly originating in the 1575 Arbatel De Magia Veterum, a Latin grimoire and the first work to draw a dualism between what it calls "anthroposophia" (human knowledge) and "theosophia" (divine knowledge). It had consequently been used in various esoterics contexts for example by the Philaletheians and by the Christian mystic Jakob Böhme. In her book The Key to Theosophy, Blavatsky claims that the term Theosophy had been coined by "the Alexandrian philosophers", especially Ammonius Saccas.
Blavatsky's Theosophy is not the only movement to use the term "theosophy" and this has resulted in scholarly attempts to differentiate the different currents. Godwin drew a division by referring to Blavatskian Theosophy with a capital letter and older, Boehmian theosophy with a lower-case letter. Alternately, the scholar of esotericism Wouter J. Hanegraaff distinguished the Blavatskian movement from its older namesake by terming it "modern Theosophy". Followers of Blavatsky's movement are known as Theosophists, while adherents of the older tradition are termed theosophers. Causing some confusion, a few Theosophists—such as C. C. Massey—were also theosophers. In the early years of Blavatsky's movement, some critics referred to it as "Neo-Theosophy" to differentiate it from the older Christian theosophy movement. The term "Neo-Theosophy" would later be adopted within the modern Theosophical movement itself, where it was used—largely pejoratively—to describe the teachings promoted by Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater by those who opposed their innovations.
According to the scholar of religion James A. Santucci, discerning what the term "Theosophy" meant to the early Theosophists is "not as obvious as one might think". As used by Olcott, the term "Theosophy" appeared to be applied to an approach that emphasized experimentation as a means of learning about the "Unseen Universe"; conversely, Blavatsky used the term in reference to gnosis regarding said information.
As noted by Santucci, Theosophy is "derived primarily from the writings" of Blavatsky, but revisions and innovations have also been produced by subsequent Theosophists such as Annie Besant and Charles Webster Leadbeater. Blavatsky said that these Theosophical doctrines were not her own invention but had been received from a brotherhood of secretive spiritual adepts whom she referred to as the "Masters" or "Mahatmas".
The Masters are believed to preserve the world's ancient spiritual knowledge, and to represent a Great White Brotherhood or White Lodge, which watches over humanity and guides its evolution. Among those whom the early Theosophists believed as Masters were Biblical figures such as Abraham, Moses, Solomon, and, in the Christian Bible, Jesus, as well as Asian religious figures such as Gautama Buddha, Confucius, and Laozi, and modern individuals such as Jakob Bohme, Alessandro Cagliostro, and Franz Mesmer. However, the most prominent Masters to appear in Theosophical literature are Koot Hoomi (sometimes spelled Kuthumi) and Morya, with whom Blavatsky declared to be in contact. According to Theosophical belief, the Masters approach those deemed worthy to embark on an apprenticeship or chelaship. The apprentice would then undergo several years of probation, during which they would live a life of physical purity, remaining chaste, abstinent, and indifferent to physical luxury. Blavatsky encouraged the production of images of the Masters. The most important portraits of the Masters to be produced were created in 1884 by Hermann Schmiechen. According to scholar of religion Massimo Introvigne, Schmiechen's images of Morya and Koot Humi gained "semi-canonical status" in the Theosophical community, being regarded as sacred objects rather than simply decorative images.
Campbell noted that for non-Theosophists, the hypotheses regarding the existence of the Masters are among the weakest made by the movement. Such statements can be examined and potentially refuted, challenging the existence of the Masters and thereby undermining Theosophical beliefs. The idea of a brotherhood of secret adepts had a long pedigree stretching back several centuries before the foundation of Theosophy; such ideas can be found in the work of the Rosicrucianism, and was popularized in the fictional literature of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. The idea of having messages conveyed to a medium through spiritually advanced entities had also been popularized at the time of Theosophy's foundation through the Spiritualist movement.
She stated that this ancient religion would be revived and spread throughout humanity in the future, replacing dominant world religions such as Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Theosophy emphasized the importance of ancient texts over the popular rituals and customs within various religious traditions. The Theosophical depiction of Buddhism and Hinduism, however, drew criticism both from practitioners of orthodox Buddhist and Hindu traditions, as well as from Western scholars of these traditions, such as Max Müller, who believed that Theosophists such as Blavatsky were misrepresenting the Asian traditions.
According to Blavatsky's teaching, every planetary system in the universe is the expression of what is termed a "Logos" or "Solar Deity". Below the solar deity are seven planetary spirits or ministers, with each of these celestial beings controlling the evolution on a specific planet. In The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky stated that each planet had a sevenfold constitution, known as the "Planetary Chains"; these consist not only of a physical globe but also of two astral bodies, two mental bodies, and two spiritual bodies, all overlapping in the same space. According to Blavatsky, evolution occurs in descending and ascending arcs, from the first spiritual globe to the first mental globe, then from the first astral globe to the first physical globe, and then on from there. She said there were different levels of evolution, from mineral to vegetable, animal, human, and then to superhuman or spiritual. Different levels of evolution occur in successive order on each planet; thus, when mineral evolution ends on the first planet, and it proceeds on to vegetable evolution, then mineral evolution begins on the second planet. Theosophy teaches that human evolution is tied to this planetary and wider cosmic evolution.
In The Secret Doctrine, Blavatsky advocated the idea of seven "", each of which was divided into seven "Sub-Races". In Blavatsky's cosmogony, the first Root Race was created from pure spirit and lived on a continent known as the "Imperishable Sacred Land". The second Root Race, known as the , were also formed from pure spirit and lived on a land near to the North Pole, which then had a mild climate. The third lived on the continent of Lemuria, which Blavatsky alleged survives today as Australia and Rapa Nui. Blavatsky alleged that during the fourth Round of the Earth, higher beings descended to the planet, with the beginnings of human physical bodies developing and the sexes separating. At this point, the fourth Root Race appeared, living on the continent of Atlantis; they had physical bodies but also psychic powers and advanced technology. She said that some Atlanteans were giants and built such ancient monuments as Stonehenge in southern England and that they also mated with "she-animals", resulting in the creation of gorillas and chimpanzees. The Atlanteans were decadent and abused their power and knowledge, so Atlantis sank into the sea, although various Atlanteans escaped and created new societies in Egypt and the Americas.
The fifth Root Race to emerge was the , which was found worldwide when she was writing. She believed that the fifth Race would come to be replaced by the sixth, which would be heralded by the arrival of Maitreya, a figure from Mahayana mythology. She further believed that humanity would eventually develop into the final, seventh Root Race. At this, she stated that humanity will have reached the end of its evolutionary cycle and that life will withdraw from the Earth. Lachman suggested that by reading Blavatsky's cosmogonical beliefs as a literal account of history, "we may be doing it a disservice." He instead suggested that it could be read as Blavatsky's attempt to formulate "a new myth for the modern age, or as a huge, fantastic science fiction story".
In The Voice of the Silence, Blavatsky said that within each human, there is an eternal, divine facet, which she referred to as "the Master," the "uncreate," the "inner God," and the "higher self." She promoted the idea that uniting with this "higher self" results in wisdom. In that same book, she compared the progress of the human soul to a transition through three halls; the first was that of ignorance, which is the state of the soul before it understands the need to unite with its higher self. The second is the Hall of Learning, in which the individual becomes aware of other facets of human life but is distracted by an interest in psychic powers. The third is the Hall of Wisdom, in which union with the higher self is made; the Vale of Bliss follows this. At this point, the human soul can merge into the One.
Blavatsky taught that on the death of the body, the astral body survives for a time in a state called kama-loka, which she compared to limbo, before also dying. According to this belief, the human then moves into its mental body in a realm called devachan, which she compared to Heaven or paradise. Blavatsky taught that the soul remained in devachan for 1000 to 1500 years, although the Theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater said that it was only 200.
Theosophy espouses the existence of karma as a system that regulates the cycle of reincarnation, ensuring that an individual's actions in one life affect the circumstances of the next one. This belief, therefore, seeks to explain why misery and suffering exist in the world, attributing any misfortune that someone suffers as punishment for misdeeds that they perpetrated in a prior life. In Blavatsky's words, karma and reincarnation were "inextricably interwoven". However, she did not believe that karma had always been the system that governed reincarnation; she believed that it came into being when humans developed egos and that one day will also no longer be required.
Besant and Leadbeater said they were able to investigate people's past lives through reading the akashic record, an etheric store of all the knowledge of the universe. They, for instance, stated to have attained knowledge of their own past lives as monkey-like creatures residing on the moon, where they served as pets to the "Moon-man" (a prior incarnation of the Master Morya), his wife (Koot Humi), and their child (the Lord Maitreya). When they were attacked by "savages" and animals "resembling furry lizards and crocodiles", Besant sacrificed herself to save Morya, and for that act made the karmic evolutionary leap to becoming a human in her next incarnation.
By 1911, the Theosophical Society was involved in projects connected to a range of progressivism political causes. In England, there were strong links between Theosophy and first-wave feminism. Based on a statistical analysis, Dixon noted that prominent English feminists of the period were several hundred times more likely to join the Theosophical Society than the average member of the country's population. Theosophical contingents took part in feminist marches of the period; for instance, a Theosophical group operating under the banner of Co-Freemasonry marched as part of the Women's Coronation Procession in 1911.
Prior to her arrival in the United States, Blavatsky had experience with esoteric currents such as Spiritualism. It was through Spiritualism that Blavatsky and Olcott met.
In 1884, Olcott established the first Scottish lodge, in Edinburgh.
In 1980, Campbell noted that Theosophical books were selling at record levels.
In the United States, Judge had been devoting himself to the promotion of Theosophy with little success.
Olcott then sent Besant to the United States to gain support for the Adyar-based Society. In this she was successful, gaining thousands of new members and establishing many new branches. Besant had developed a friendship with the Theosophist Charles Webster Leadbeater, and together they co-wrote a number of books. Leadbeater was controversial, and concerns were raised when he was found to have instructed two boys in masturbation. The American Section of the Theosophical Society raised internal charges against him, although Besant came to his defense. In a move probably designed to limit negative publicity for the Society, they accepted his resignation rather than expelling him.
On Olcott's death in 1907, he had nominated Besant to be his successor, and she was then elected to the position with a large majority in June. In her first years as the head of the Society, Besant oversaw a dramatic growth in its membership, raising it by 50%, to 23,000. She also oversaw an expansion of the Adyar property, from 27 to 253 acres. Besant was involved in various activist causes, promoting women's rights in India through the Women's Indian Association and helping to establish both the Central Hindu College and a Hindu girls' school. Besant also began a campaign for Indian Home Rule, founding a group called the Home Rule League. She established the New India newspaper, and after continuing to promote Indian independence in the paper's pages during the First World War she was interned for several months. This helped to boost her status within the independence movement, and at the age of 70 she was appointed President of the Indian National Congress, a largely honorary position.
In December 1908, Leadbeater was readmitted to the Society; this generated a wave of resignations, with the Sydney branch seceding to form the Independent Theosophical Society. Leadbeater traveled to Adyar, where he met a young boy living there, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and pronounced him to be the next incarnation of a figure called the World Teacher. He subsequently took control of the boy's instruction for two years. With Besant, Leadbeater established a group known as the Order of the Star in the East to promote the idea of Krishnamurti as World Teacher. Leadbeater also wanted more ritual within Theosophy, and to achieve this he and J. I. Wedgwood became bishops in the Old Catholic Church. They then split from that to form their own Liberal Catholic Church, which was independent from the Theosophical Society (Adyar) while retaining an affiliation with it. The Church drew most of its membership from the Society and heavily relied upon its resources. However, in 1919 the Church was marred by police investigations into allegations that six of its priests had engaged in acts of pedophilia and Wedgewood—who was implicated in the allegations—resigned from the organization.
In retaliation, a "Back to Blavatsky" movement emerged within the Society. Its members pejoratively referred to Besant and her followers as practitioners of "Neo-Theosophy", objecting to the Liberal Catholic Church's allegiance to the Pope, and to the prominence that they were according to Besant and Leadbeater's publications. The main benefactor of the disquiet within the Back to Blavatsky movement was a rival group called the United Lodge of Theosophists. One of the most prominent figures to switch allegiance was B. P. Wadia. The United Lodge of Theosophists had been established in Los Angeles in 1909, when it had split from Judge's Theosophical Society in America, seeking to minimize formal organization. It focused on publishing new editions of Blavatsky and Judge's writings, as well as other books, which were usually released anonymously so as to prevent any personality cults developing within the Theosophical movement.
The Adyar Society membership later peaked at 40,000 in the late 1920s. The Order of the Star had 30,000 members at its height. Krishnamurti himself repudiated these beliefs, insisting that he was not the World Teacher, and then resigned from the Society; the effect on the society was dramatic, as it lost a third of its membership over the coming few years. Besant died in 1933, when the Society was taken over by George Arundale, who led it until 1945; the group's activities were greatly curtailed by World War II.
Judge left no clear successor as leader of the Theosophical Society in America, but the position was taken by Katherine Tingley, who said that she remained in mediumistic contact with Judge's spirit. Tingley launched an international campaign to promote her Theosophical group, sending delegations to Europe, Egypt, and India. In the latter country they clashed with the Adyar-based Theosophical Society, and were unsuccessful in gaining converts. Her leadership would be challenged by Ernest T. Hargrove in 1898, and when he failed he split to form his own rival group. In 1897, Tingley had established a Theosophical community, Lomaland, at Point Loma in San Diego, California. Various Theosophical writers and artists congregated there, while horticultural development was also emphasized. In 1919, the community helped establish a Theosophical University. Longstanding financial problems coupled with an aging population resulted in the Society selling Lomaland in 1942. Meanwhile, Tingley's death in 1929 had resulted in the Theosophical Society in America being taken over by Gottfried de Purucker, who promoted rapprochement with other Theosophical groups in what came to be known as the Fraternisation movement.
Theosophical groups consist largely of individuals as opposed to family groups. Campbell noted that these members were alienated in ways from conventional social roles and practices.
As noted by Dixon, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Theosophical Society "appealed above all to an elite, educated, middle- and upper-middle-class constituency". It was, in her words, "a religion for the 'thinking classes'." Campbell stated that Theosophy attracted "unconventional, liberal-minded Westerners", and according to Dixon they were among those "who constituted themselves as the humanitarian conscience of the middle classes, a dissident minority who worked in a variety of parallel organizations to critique the dominant bourgeois values and culture."
Campbell also noted that Theosophy appealed to educated Asians, particularly Indians, because it identified Asia as central to a universal ancient religion and allowed Asians to retain traditional religious beliefs and practices within a modern framework.
In approaching Asian religion with respect and treating its religious beliefs seriously, Blavatsky and Olcott influenced South Asian society. In India, it played an important role in the Indian independence movement and in the Buddhist revival. The Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi developed much of his interest in Hindu culture after being given a copy of the Bhagavad Gita by two Theosophists. Alongside her support for Indian home rule, Besant had also supported home rule for Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Campbell suggested that Theosophy could be seen as a "grandfather" movement to this 20th century growth in Asian spirituality. Given the spread of such ideas in the West, some critics have perceived Theosophy's role as being largely obsolete.
Theosophy also exerted an influence on the arts, and was especially formative for many early pioneers of abstract art. Hilma af Klint's development of abstraction was directly tied to her work with the Theosophical Society, with the aim of presenting and preserving spiritual concepts visually.Bashkoff, T., ed., et al., Hilma Af Klint (New York: Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 2018). The same was true for the Russian expressionist and pioneering abstract painter Wassily Kandinsky, who was interested in Theosophy and Theosophical ideas about colour. The Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian was also influenced by Theosophical symbolism.
Theosophical ideas were also an influence on the Irish literary movement of the late 19th and early 20th century, with writers such as Charles Johnston, George Russell, John Eglinton, Charles Weeks, and William Butler Yeats having an interest in the movement. The American adventure fiction writer Talbot Mundy included Theosophical themes in many of his works. He had abandoned his previous allegiance to Christian Science to join the Theosophical faction led by Tingley, joining the Society in 1923 and settling at the Point Loma community.
The turn-of-the-20th century Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, whose metaphysical and mystical views greatly influenced his Tonality and compositional output,Maria Carlson. ' Fashionable Occultism:TheTheosophical World of Aleksandr Scriabin ', in Journal of the Scriabin Society of America, 12:1, Winter 2007-2008, pp. 54-62 became interested in Theosophy while living in Brussels from 1909–10. Other composers whose music was influenced by theosophical concerns include Gustav Holst, Luigi Russolo, Cyril Scott and Edmund Rubbra.Dr John Algeo. 'Theosophy and the Zeitgeist', from The American Theosophist (1987)Cradduck, Lucinda. Spiritual Dimensions in the Music of Edmund Rubbra (2023)
Mark Frost cites Theosophy as a direct influence in the writing and creation of the television series Twin Peaks, which itself includes a 'white lodge'. Higher peaks in view: The man who wrote Twin Peaks has plans to get weirder. Mark Frost talked to Kevin Jackson about Sherlock and warlocks (1992)
The character Obadiah Archer from the Valiant Comics universe series "Archer & Armstrong" draws his abilities from Theosophic belief, and the series makes multiple references to Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Völkisch movement and other esoteric schools of thought that believe in the Akashic Plane. The series also ties in the Fascist history of these groups, with a group of connected Nazis living in Tibet. Obadiah Archer is implied to be one of the ascended masters in the Theosophy tradition.
Another former Theosophist, the Austrian Rudolf Steiner, split from the Theosophical Society over the statements about Krishnamurti and then established his own Anthroposophical Society in 1913, which promoted Anthroposophy, a philosophy influenced by Theosophical ideas. Rudolf Steiner founded the Anthroposophical Society on 28 December 1912 and he was expelled from the Theosophical Society on 7 March 1913.Paull, John (2022). Rudolf Steiner: From Theosophy to Anthroposophy (1902–1913) , European Journal of Theology and Philosophy, 2 (5): 8-13 . Despite his departure from the Theosophists, Rudolf Steiner nevertheless maintained a keen interest in Theosophy for the rest of his life.Paull, John (2018) The Library of Rudolf Steiner: The Books in English , Journal of Social and Development Sciences. 9 (3): 21–46.
As Theosophy entered the Völkisch movement of late 19th century Austria and Germany, it syncretized to form an eclectic occult movement known as Ariosophy. The most prominent Ariosophist, the Austrian Guido von List, was influenced by Theosophical ideas in creating his own occult system.
In the United States during the 1930s, the I AM group was established by Guy Ballard and Edna Ballard; the group adopted the idea of the Ascended Masters from Theosophy. The idea of the Masters—and a belief in Morya and Kuthumi—have also been adopted into the belief system of the Church Universal and Triumphant. The Canadian mystic Manly P. Hall also cited Blavatsky's writings as a key influence on his ideas. Theosophical ideas, including on the evolution of the Earth, influenced the teachings of British conspiracist David Icke.
Hammer and Rothstein stated that Theosophy came to heavily influence "popular religiosity" and by the late twentieth and twenty-first centuries was "permeating just about every nook and cranny of contemporary "folk" religious culture" in Western countries. It was a major influence on the New Age milieu of the latter twentieth century. It played an important role in promoting belief in reincarnation among Westerners.
Many early scholars of religion dismissed Theosophy as being not worthy of study; Mircea Eliade for instance described Theosophy as a "detestable 'spiritual' hybridism". The academic study of the Theosophical current developed at the intersection of two scholarly sub-fields: the study of new religious movements, which emerged in the 1970s, and the study of Western esotericism. For example, Blavatsky Unveiled Volume 1 by theosophical scholar Moon Laramie provides a modern translation and dispassionate analysis of the first seven chapters of Isis Unveiled.
A significant proportion of the scholarship on Theosophy constitutes biographies of its leading members and discussions of events in the Society's history. In contrast to the significant amount of research focused on the first two generations of Theosophists, little has been produced on later figures. Hammer also lamented that while scholarship on Theosophy was developing, it had not focused on the reformulation of Theosophy by Leadbeater and Besant or with the developing ideas of post-Theosophical writers such as Steiner or Bailey. Hammer and Rothstein suggested that the "dearth of scholarly literature" on Theosophy was because "powerful individuals and institutions" in Europe and North America regarded the religion as "ludicrous", thus discouraging scholars from devoting their time to researching it.
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