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Theosophy
A MODERN REVIVAL OF ANCIENT
WISDOM
by
Alvin Boyd Kuhn
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PREFACE
Since this work was designed to be one of a series of studies in American
religions, the treatment of the subject was consciously limited to those aspects
of Theosophy which are in some manner distinctively related to America. This
restriction has been difficult to enforce for the reason that, though officially
born here, Theosophy has never since its inception had its headquarters on this
continent. The springs of the movement have emanated from foreign sources and
influences. Its prime inspiration has come from ancient Oriental cultures.
America in this case has rather adopted an exotic cult than evolved it from the
conditions of her native milieu. The main events in American Theosophic history
have been mostly repercussions of events transpiring in English, Continental, or
Indian Theosophy. It was thus virtually impossible to segregate American
Theosophy from its connections with foreign leadership. But the attempt to do so
has made it necessary to give meagre treatment to some of the major currents of
world-wide Theosophic development. The book does not purport to be a complete
history of Theosophy, but it is an attempt to present a unified picture of the
movement in its larger aspects. No effort has been made to weigh the truth or
falsity of Theosophic principles, but an effort has been made to understand
their significance in relation to the historical situation and psychological
disposition of those who have adopted it.
The author wises to express his obligation to several persons without whose
assistance the enterprise would have been more onerous and less successful. His
thanks are due in largest measure to Professor Roy F. Mitchell of New York
University, and to Mrs. Mitchell, for placing at his disposal much of their time
and of their wide knowledge of Theosophical material; to Mr. L. W. Rogers,
President of the American Theosophical Society, Wheaton, Illinois, for cordial
co-operation in the matter of the questionnaire, and to the many members of the
Society who took pains to reply to the questions; to Mr. John Garrigues, of the
United Lodge of Theosophists, New York, for valuable data out of his great store
of Theosophic information, and to several of the ladies at the U.L.T. Reading
Room for library assistance; to Professor Louis H. Gray, of Columbia University,
for technical criticism in Sanskrit terminology; to Mr. Arthur E. Christy, of
Columbia University, for data showing Emerson's indebtedness to Oriental
philosophy; and to Professor Herbert W. Schneider, of Columbia University, for
his painstaking criticism of the study throughout.
A. B. K.
New York City
September, 1930
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THEOSOPHY, AN ANCIENT TRADITION……………………………………………………………………………………..4
II. THE AMERICAN BACKGROUND OF THEOSOPHY…………………………………………………………………..12
III. HELENA P. BLAVATSKY: HER LIFE AND PSYCHIC CAREER………………………………..25
IV. FROM SPIRITUALISM TO THEOSOPHY…………………………………………………………………………………..50
V. ISIS UNVEILED…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..65
VI. THE MAHATMAS AND THEIR LETTERS…………………………………………………………………………………..83
VII. STORM, WRECK, AND REBUILDING…………………………………………………………………………………..100
VIII. THE SECRET DOCTRINE………………………………………………………………………………………………………..110
IX. EVOLUTION, REBIRTH, AND KARMA…………………………………………………………………………………..131
X. ESOTERIC WISDOM AND PHYSICAL SCIENCE…………………………………………………………………..142
XI. THEOSOPHY IN ETHICAL PRACTICE…………………………………………………………………………………….149
XII. LATER THEOSOPHICAL HISTORY………………………………………………………………………………………..170
XIII. SOME FACTS AND FIGURES………………………………………………………………………………………………..190
FOOTNOTES…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….198
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….222
INDEX …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….237
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CHAPTER I THEOSOPHY
In the mind of the general public Theosophy is classed with Spiritualism, New
Thought, Unity and Christian Science, as one of the modern cults. It needs but a
slight acquaintance with the facts in the case to reveal that Theosophy is
amenable to this classification only in the most superficial sense. Though the
Theosophical Society is recent, theosophy, in the sense of an esoteric
philosophic mystic system of religious thought, must be ranked as one of the
most ancient traditions. It is not a mere cult, in the sense of being the
expression of a quite specialized form of devotion, practice, or theory,
propagated by a small group. It is a summation and synthesis of many cults of
all times. It is as broad and universal a motif, let us say, as mysticism. It is
one of the most permanent phases of religion, and as such it has welled up again
and again in the life of mankind. It is that "wisdom of the divine" which has
been in the world practically continuously since ancient times. The movement of
today is but another periodical recurrence of a phenomenon which has marked the
course of history from classical antiquity. Not always visible in outward
organization-indeed never formally organized as Theosophy under that name until
now-the thread of theosophic teaching and temperament can be traced in almost
unbroken course from ancient times to the present. It has often been
subterranean, inasmuch as esotericism and secrecy have been essential elements
of its very constitution. The modern presentation of theosophy differs from all
the past ones chiefly in that it has lifted the veil that cloaked its teachings
in mystery, and offered alleged secrets freely to the world. Theosophists tell
us that before the launching of the latest "drive" to promulgate Theosophy in
the world, the councils of the Great White Brotherhood of Adepts, or Mahatmas,
long debated whether the times were ripe for the free propagation of the secret
Gnosis; whether the modern world, with its Western dominance and with the
prevalence of materialistic standards, could appropriate the sacred knowledge
without the risk of serious misuse of high spiritual forces, which might be
diverted into selfish channels. We are told that in these councils it was the
majority opinion that broadcasting the Ancient Wisdom over the Occidental areas
would be a veritable casting of pearls before swine; yet two of the Mahatmas
settled the question by undertaking to assume all karmic debts for the move, to
take the responsibility for all possible disturbances and ill effects.
If we look at the matter through Theosophic eyes, we are led to believe that
when in the fall of 1875 Madame Blavatsky, Col. H. S. Olcott, and Mr. W. Q.
Judge took out the charter for the Theosophical Society in New York, the world
was witnessing a really major event in human history. Not only did it signify
that one more of the many recurrent waves of esoteric cultism was launched but
that this time practically the whole body of occult lore, which had been so
sedulously guarded in mystery schools, brotherhoods, secret societies, religious
orders, and other varieties of organization, was finally to be given to the
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world en pleine lumière! At last the lid of antiquity's treasure chest would be
lifted and the contents exposed to public gaze. There might even be found
therein the solution to the riddle of the Sphynx! The great Secret Doctrine was
to be taught openly; Isis was to be unveiled!
To understand the periodical recurrence of the theosophic tendency in history it
is necessary to note two cardinal features of the Theosophic theory of
development. The first is that progress in religion, philosophy, science, or art
is not a direct advance, but in advance in cyclical swirls. When you view
progress in small sections, it may appear to be a development in a straight
line; but if your gaze takes in the whole course of history, you will see the
outline of a quite different method of progress. You will not see uninterrupted
unfolding of human life, but advances and retreats, plunges and recessions.
Spring does not emerge from winter by a steady rise of temperature, but by
successive rushes of heat, each carrying the season a bit ahead. Movement in
nature is cyclical and periodic. History progresses through the rise and fall of
nations. The true symbol of progress is the helix, motion round and round, but
tending upward at each swirl. But we must have large perspectives if we are to
see the gyrations of the helix.
The application of this interpretation of progress to philosophy and religion is
this: the evolution of ideas apparently repeats itself at intervals time after
time, a closed circuit of theories running through the same succession at many
points in history. Scholars have discerned this fact in regard to the various
types of government: monarchy working over into oligarchy, which shifts to
democracy, out of which monarchy arises again. The round has also been observed
in the domain of philosophy, where development starts with revelation and
proceeds through rationalism to empiricism, and, in revulsion from that, swings
back to authority or mystic revelation once more. Hegel's theory that progress
was not in a straight line but in cycles formed by the manifestation of thesis,
antithesis, and then synthesis, which in turn becomes the ground of a new
thesis, is but a variation of this general theme.
Theosophists, then, regard their movement as but the renaissance of the esoteric
and occult aspect of human thought in this particular swing of the spiral.
The second aspect of the occult theory of development is a method of
interpretation which claims to furnish a key to the understanding of religious
history. Briefly, the theory is that religions never evolve; they always
degenerate. Contrary to the assumptions of comparative mythology, they do not
originate in crude primitive feelings or ideas, and then transform themselves
slowly into loftier and purer ones. They begin lofty and pure, and deteriorate
into crasser forms. They come forth in the glow of spirituality and living power
and later pass into empty forms and lifeless practices. From the might of the
spirit they contract into the materialism of the letter. No religion can rise
above its source, can surpass its founder; and the more exalted the founder and
his message, the more certainly is degeneration to be looked for. There is
always gradual change in the direction of obscuration and loss of primal vision,
initial force. Religions tend constantly to wane, and need repeated revivals and
reformations. Nowhere is it possible to discern anything remotely like steady
growth in spiritual unfolding.
It is the occult theory that what we find when we search the many religions of
the earth is but the fragments, the dissociated and distorted units of what were
once profound and coherent systems. It is difficult to trace in the isolated
remnants the contour of the original structure. But it is this completed system
which the Theosophist seeks to reconstruct from the scattered remnants.
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