| Show THEOSOPHY AND the death of mme ame Bla hlavatsky Blavat eky in london on the ath dinst has brought into notice of a sect or school of thinkers which hitherto had been unknown to the average reader this lady was the founder of what is now styled modern theosophy and up to her death she had been its ito high priestess and prophet she spent a great portion of her life in oriental countries and penetrated into regions unexplored by any european even in thabet she became a member of some of the most exclusive of its systems of worship she 8 be made a special study aoudy of buddhism and claimed to have found through it the key to all physical and spiritual marvels mme ame helena P Blavat eky was a native of russia topographical nomenclature in that country is not the simplest kind of literature therefore the less of it the better the name of her native town however is Ekaterin osian in the province of erivan in abe caucasus she comes of distinguished parentage her grandmother was the princess CAW dol gorou kofl koff on her fathers side her ancestors can be traced back to the days of the crusades when a girl she married Nica pore hlavatsky Bla who was an old man but vice gov arnor of erivan either the old man died or she left him then she traveled in egypt india and other oriental countries in her travels she became intimate with members of those secret fraternities of which such marvelous marve stories have been told she was initialed in one the headquarters of which are in thabet but she could not got get beyond the primary stage of pupil or chela she tried to get the but could not after her long sojourn in the orient she came to england and then to the united states some american and english gentlemen took up her doctrines and espoused them and the result was the establishment of modern theosophy her most famous coworker co worker was col olcutt he wrote several works on theosophy he is now in india presiding over the indian branch mme ame Blava hlavatsky Bla taky is the author ot of a book entitled isis unveiled it is IL a voluminous production consisting of two volumes of pages each it was written in new york and published about eight years ago its object is to 91 show how the unity of the esoteric philosophy underlying various ancient religions and the peculiar value which pure buddhism has for the students of that philosophy it is said that much of the contents of this work was dictated to her through occult agency while quantities of actual manuscript in other handwritings than her were produced while she slept remarkable accounts have been pub dished of the womans comans power over occult forces acquired by virtue of her initiation in the mysteries of theo buddhism in india she was associated with the high caste brahmin row POW one of the greatest scholars of modern india he ass assisted listed her in diving into the literary treas frers of that country she came back to england once more and was well received she started lucifer a magazine of theosophy theoe ophy anu ana succeeded in bringing about her some well known persons and some of literary aud scientific pros nence there are now three lodges of I 1 this order in Ju ondon and there are a dozen in the provinces the word theosophy signifies literally divine wisdom but it has been employed to designate several systems differing widely from each other one of the chief sects of theosophy theoe ophy was known as the fire philosophers or its ito leader was horn in 1493 and died 1591 iv rb jb ert fludd became its ito greatest apostle in england he died in 1637 these claimed that god acts in the kingdom of grace just as he be does in the kingdom of nature they claimed by a miraculous intuition of the properties of the element of fire to see into all physical and Is spiritual pi ritual mysteries another form of theosophy wa s that expounded by jacob behmen the shoemaker of gorlitz this however was only a system of christian mysticism henry moore adopted it in england and later on william law the latest form of theosophy concerns itself with a search for divine knowledge the term divine applying to the divine nature of the abstract principle not to the quality of a personal god this to is the form practised practiced by madame Blava hlavatsky Bla taky it is not a philosophy because it ignores philom philosophical caz h cal methods it cannot well be called a religion though its followers are multiplying so fast at present that it may in future take a place in religious history it dif differs fiers however from both philosophy and theology even when these have the same object of investigation philosophy employs the me methods thodis and principles of natural reasoning in se seeking elting to learn the divine nature and attributes theology uses them these also adding to them certain principles derived from revelation theosophy on the other hand professes to exclude all reasoning processes as imperfect and to derive its knowledge from direct communication with GW god himself this modern theosophy has bas its orien in buddhism and bears the same relation to it that the roman religion of today bears to ane paganism of classic rome it to is AP apparently arike bently allied to spiritualism and like it anti blau several of the ibe leading london journals have stated that the occult phenomena produced by leading theosophist are nothing bore more than conjuring tricks col olcott who has been identified for a long time with mine Blava taky founded a branch of the theosophical The society in now new york in 1876 1875 the objects of the society moiety were threefold first to form the nucleus of a universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race creed or color second to promote the study of aryan and other eastern literature religions and sciences third to investigate unexplained laws of nature and the physical powers of man A message meas sige from madame hlavatsky BIa Bla was read at the meeting of the theo sophi oal society iu in boston about two weeks ago by mrs annie besant the message mci Bonge concludes with the following paragraph be theosophists work for theosophy theosophy is the religion which counteracts those forces now at work in society which have caused former civilizations to rot and break the war of race against race of nation against nation the clashing of claass and the rise of a selfish material materialism ham 11 the paragraphs lately written about the death of the madame and that she will rise again and so ao on are evidently based on a misconception of what modern mo lern rheo sophy is to understand this latter school one must know something of buddhism and also something of the greek and roman religions buddhism in sanskrit Sans crit means the same us its theosophy in english chatte that is speaking etymologically both mean knowledge of god or truth one of the cardinal doctrines duct rines of buddhism is the trans tranis migration of souls when a person dies he or she is born again and sent A reside in apiece of clay or I 1 in a the body of a god there are hells into one of which a bad person may be born again the shortest term in one of these hells is years in theosophy there is a 9 doctrine of being born agal again ag al 0 but not exactly of the buddhist kind it is said that a person has two bodies the astral and the mortal when the mortal dies the astral may take up its residence in some other human being and in him further the work he or she was engaged in in a former body it was in this way that the stories of mme ame resurrection arose or rather that to give practical proof of the truth of this doctrine she would feign death and after a time come before the world again there is no reason to believe that she would attempt to perpetrate such a clumsy humbug as that however it is settled that she is dead and that her mortal body has ben been cremated but whether her astral body may appear in the corpulent form of carter harrison of chicago or of jerry simpson of kansas no one hs yet can tell one of the latest and best known accessions ces to theosophy to is mrs anne besant she has been associate editor of the lucifer and in future will be its chief editor she is now in this country she came as the representative of hlavatsky Bla to attend the annual convention of the theosophical society in america held at boston on april 16 16 and 27 last at that convention 47 lodges were represented from different states and territories of this union it to is supposed that mrs besant will succeed as of the modern school of theosophy mrs besant came into notoriety in england in 1874 she was then president of the national secular society and closely associated with charles bradlaugh at that time she was re probated by the vast majority of the english people but latterly she seems to have become a power both in poll tica find anil in society lu in 1880 she matriculated in the Uni university venity of london and two years later obtained her degree in 1888 she was elected a member of the london school board and in that body is a recognized power As a public speaker she ranks first brat among english speake speaking rig women she is also a forcible and logical writer she has published several works she was deprived of the custody of her daughter in 1888 by sir george jowl jessel but the daughter came of age a short time agop ago and returned to her mother again voluntarily mm mft besant adopted Theos theosophy phy about two years ago since she has been one of its most enthusiastic and aggressive propagators she is now about forty five years of age she comes of parentage that alone ought to produce marked characteristics her father is said to have a been typical john bull phlegmatic conserva conservative tiye and obstinate her mother was a typical irishwoman fervent emotional and hotheaded while mrs besant herself was educated in germany from this combination of race and training it is little wonder that she has proved the irrepressible energetic tenacious and vehement creature that she is at the age of twenty she married a high church clergyman of england six years later they separated she became a pronounced radical she took to politics and theo theology lovy and soon became associated with bradlaugh Bradlau gb she was received with jeers by all except a little hand band of freethinkers from the first she advocated home rule for ireland better treatment for india and the cessation of ware war of conquest on helpless savages she held on to her own way of thinking and when charged conjointly with bradlaugh Bradlau Brad laub gb for publishing an objectionable book the judge offered to lot let them off provided they would promise to suspend the sale of the work annie would have rao no compromise either she was right or wrong guilty or not dot guilty and she told the judge so in england today she is the lecog nihed leader of the working classes in 1886 1885 the very populace who had jeered her almost stoned her ton ten years previously sly now dow followed at her heels looked to her as a messiah and since she has bus become a power in england she is delivering a course of lectures in this count country jy in addition to her labor as theodo theosophist t one of her best iva lectures is dangers 9 rs menacing society 11 the two other lectures she delivers are london its wealth and power and labor movements in the old world JUNTOS may 16 1891 |
