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- Blavatsky’s Theosophy<\/li>\n
- Adyar Theosophy<\/li>\n
- Alice Bailey’s “Arcane School”<\/li>\n
- Rudolph Steiner’s Anthroposophical Society<\/li>\n
- The Christian Theosophy Or “Niscience” Of Ann Ree Colton<\/li>\n
- Godfrey Ray King (Guy Ballard)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/figure>\n\n
Blavatsky’s Theosophy<\/h3>\n\n
The original Theosophy of Blavatsky, which she herself attributed to a\u00a0hierarchy of occult “Masters”\u00a0(I here defer the question of whether the letters attributed to the Masters really were written by Tibetan Adepts, or simply by Blavatsky herself, but it cannot be denied that their style is quite Victorian!) is strongly non-Christian, drawing instead from\u00a0Indian, Hellenistic,\u00a0Kabbalistic<\/a>\u00a0and contemporary (19th century) Occult and scientific sources, and also (this is little known) the “tradition” of\u00a0Theon.\u00a0 Metaphysically, it is based on concepts such as transcendent\u00a0monism\u00a0(the existence of one ultimate principle of being), the hierarchy of secret or occult Masters, cosmic demiurges (the\u00a0Elohim<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0dhyan-chohans<\/em>) rather than a Creator-God, planetary cycles (Rounds and Manvantaras; analogous to the Hindu Yugas and Kalpas), the concept of reincarnation and spiritual\u00a0 evolution towards ultimate divinity and perfection,\u00a0 the still only partially developed idea of seven cosmic planes and seven principles of selfhood (these two not being equivalent, as they were to be in later Theosophy), and an occult theory of human evolution (the so-called Root-Races).\u00a0 The latter also incorporates the idea of previous and now sunken or destroyed continents – Lemuria and Atlantis – where these previous races lived.\u00a0 In short,\u00a0 the whole scheme is dynamic and evolutionary, and still quite fluid.<\/p>\n\n
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\n More on Blavatsky<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n\n <\/figure>\n\nAdyar Theosophy<\/h3>\n\n
“Neo-Theosophy” or Adyar Theosophy stems from the writings of\u00a0C. W. Leadbeater, and\u00a0Annie Besant.\u00a0 Here the fluid cosmic evolutionary scheme of Blavatsky is replaced by a far more rigid system, in which the succession of Rounds,\u00a0Root-Races, and Subraces, assumes the mechanistic complexity of the old Ptolemaic idea of cycles, epicycles, and epicycles upon the epicycles, all working like clockwork.\u00a0 Thus the dynamic but often chaotic and incomprehensible, perspective of Blavatsky was replaced with an orderly, static system, rigid and compartmentalised.\u00a0 Yet this is not to deny that the “Neo-theosophists” also did not contribute much\u00a0 of great value and insight; their concept of thought-forms and of the astral plane for example is truely brilliant.<\/p>\n\n
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\n More on Adyar Theosophy<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/figure>\n\n