Theos-Talk Archives (July 2005 Message tt00194)

Big "T" and little "t" 
COPYRIGHT: 1998 Alexis Dolgorukii 

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"THEOSOPHY" vis a vis "theosophy"; an essay. 

"THEOSOPHY" and "theosophy" would seem to be the same thing, after all the word is exactly the same except for capitalization and therefore emphasis. But, they are anything but the same, they are not even dichotomous, for rather than being mutually contradictory the two versions of one word have evolved to the point whereat they have no relationship to one another at all. 

When it is spelled in lower case letters, "theosophy" is both an attitude towards philosophy and a process, or methodology to be utilized in the course of studying metaphysics. When it is capitalized, and it doesn't matter whether the first letter is capitalized or the whole word, it is a religion, "THEOSOPHY", with all the trappings and all the failures of religion, hierarchy, doctrine and dogmatism. It also claims authority and seeks power, which is common to all religions and absolutely antithetic to philosophy. 

I strongly support and strongly approve of "theosophy". I very strongly disapprove of "THEOSOPHY", as in fact I equally disapprove of all religions and cults. Let us see why this is so. 

Let us start with history. There is no question that "theosophy" has a long, indeed very long, and distinguished history, for there is also no question that its lineage traces directly back through Ammoninus Saccus to Plato, and from Plato to Thales of Miletus, who has been called "The Father of Greek Philosophy". Now that is an illustrious intellectual pedigree of some 2500 years duration. 

"THEOSOPHY" on the other hand, is no more than the history of the various "Theosophical Societies" which began, as a history, not with the foundation of the original Theosophical Society in 1875, but in actuality 1878 when Blavatsky and Olcott removed themselves to India and completely abandoned the original programme of the Society in favor of the furthering of Indian Nationalism and the dissolution of the "English Raj". The separation widened between original goals and eventual reality when Blavatsky was sent away from India, and in revenge wrote the Secret Doctrine and founded the "Esoteric Section of the Theosophical Society". And then on May 8th she died, and unfortunately, the Theosophical Society did NOT die with her. 

On May 8th 1891 Countess Yelena Blavatskaya died, and the movement she started began to die. On February 17th, 1907 her associate Colonel Henry Steele Olcott died, and Mrs. Annie Besant succeeded in her manipulative drive to become the supreme leader of THE THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY (ADYAR). On that day the theosophical movement went into eclipse and slowly but irretrievably died. The various Theosophical Societies have been vampires battening off it's corpse. 

The Theosophical Society became the center for the dispersion and promotion of the child molester Charles Webster Leadbeater's pathological delusions, and the vehicle for Annie Besant's personal ambitions. The Theosophical Society (Adyar) accompanied by it's schismatic namesakes, the United Lodge of Theosophists, and the Point Loma Theosophical Society (now the Theosophical Society, Pasadena), commenced a process wherein the speculative philosophy presented by Mme. Blavatskaya were permutated into "revealed truth" and from that fateful step the process of turning into a "Revealed Religion" commenced it's long slow progression. But the theosophical movement which she had hoped to found began to "die on the vine", as it were. 

There have been those in the intervening years who have tried desperately to get the movement on a track "back to Blavatsky" but it has never really seemed to work. One of the reasons is that most of these people were totally dedicated to the Blavatsky represented by the "Secret Doctrine" rather than the Blavatsky represented by Isis Unveiled". The question one should now ask is this: "What's the difference?" 

The answer to that question is that anything which was published after Yelena Blavatskaya's death cannot be assumed to have issued from her mind and pen. Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater were the theosophical equivalents of Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea, they were forgers and thieves of history! As far as Blavatskaya's writings are concerned, "Isis Unveiled" (in the 1877 facsimile edition published by the Theosophy Company ULT) is her work, and it is just possible that most of the Secret Doctrine, but ONLY in the 1888 edition which is published in a facsimile of the original by the Theosophy Company ULT ). The so-called Third Volume of the Secret Doctrine must be assumed to be entirely invalid and a totally revisionist thing. BUT, the motivations behind her writing of the Secret Doctrine are highly questionable. It is my own impression that they were written as a "false trail" or "blind" to undo the damage she had done by pre-emptoraly and precipitously revealing the existence of
the "Association of Adepts" entirely contrary to the expressed desires of a majority of that group. Her actions, well-meaning as they may have been did an enormous amount of damage to the Association and Blavatskaya was, by this point in time, absolutely willing to do anything necessary to undo the damage. Even if it meant writing reams of egregious nonsense. 

By the way the writer is NOT a member of the ULT, but is (until his dues run out) a Fellow of The Theosophical Society in America, and is the fourth Cousin of Yelena Blavatskaya. 

Now, I am quite certain that most of Mme. Blavatskaya's magazine articles written and published either in her homeland or in her magazine "Lucifer" are not tampered with (unless in a reissued, and therefor probably revised form). But we may be sure that anything which was purported to be by Mme. Blavatskaya which was issued by the Theosophical society (Adyar), went through the hands of people like Charles Leadbeater and George Arundale and James Wedgewood, by whom they were "revised and improved". 

But there's another question too. And that question is far more important than the many questions concerning Besant, Leadbeater and company, and they are so because they concern Yelena Blavatskaya herself. The Yelena Blavatskaya that founded the theosophical movement in New York City in 1875 was a very different person than the H.P.B. who left New York for India in 1878 almost immediately after becoming an American Citizen. 

Why was she "different" or rather how did that "difference" manifest itself? 

To answer that question we must look at Yelena as she was prior to 1878. Countess or not, highborn aristocrat or not, Yelena Blavatskaya had been a rebellious and revolutionary iconoclast all of her life. She was for most of her life (prior to 1875) an really "up-front" lesbian, but more important than that she was an anti-Christian, pro-Democratic revolutionary. "Isis Unveiled" is an entirely and openly anti-Christian tract! 

She was closely associated with revolutionary movements that were largely directed against the British Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. She left Russia and somehow made it into Tibet by way of it's Northern Border which was within a Russian sphere of influence, what happened there, and where she went from there we'll never really know because events in her life known to the public are entirely sporadic. But she made her way to Paris, and the to Egypt, mostly living and dressing as a male, she survived several murder attempts (damages from these attempts shortened her life) and in Egypt she was involved with various Western Occult societies and then went to Italy where she was closely associated with Garibaldi, Mazzini, and Cavour. She fought in the Battle of Mentana as a junior officer of Dragoons (male), then spent more time in Paris. 

Then in the years just before 1875 she turned up in America, playing no small role in the spiritualist movement, which really fit in to her religious iconoclasm. Then she founded the T.S. This is the Blavatsky I love and admire. The in the three years between 1875 and 1878 she suddenly became a doctrinaire Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist. I do believe we'll never know how this totally agnostic person suddenly became a Guru of the Tibetan Mahayana Buddhist-Adwaitee Brahmin sect, but she did. 

I am devoted to the theosophical movement as it was founded in 1875 and as it was derived from Yelena's entire life style and experience before that time. It was an iconoclastic agnostics dream, a way to expand your mind, your intelligence and your awareness and grow. Then suddenly the inexorable slide into religion began and it has now reached its culmination in "Core Doctrinal Theosophy". 






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