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  • Goetia and Witchcraft: Origin of the “Witch” and Magic

    The term “Witch” in old Anglo-Saxon glossaries is tied to wicce, meaning “pythoness, divinatricem.” As in this, and in early forms, it referred to specific kinds of magical craft. In the Laws of Ælfred (c.890), wicce is seen as the craft of women — “wise (skilled) women in the art of magic”; and in the old German, wiccan…

  • Alexander Wilder on Pagans and the Value of the Classical Religions

    Limited Knowledge of Religion in Antiquity The term Pagan, or paganus originally meant, an inhabitant of the village, or a peasant, but came to refer to perverted heretical and heterodox beliefs outside of the theology of the Catholic Church. Therefore, what is considered perverted must come from the devil, hence, idolatrous and pagan. The Jews, Christians,…

  • Gottfried De Purucker defines Religion in “Occult Glossary”

    What does it mean, when we use the broad term religion? Gottfried de Purucker† (1874-1942), who was head of the Pasadena Theosophical Society from 1929-1942, had a good definition in his Occult Glossary (1933). It follows on pages 148-9: “Religion. An operation of the human spiritual mind in its endeavor to understand not only the how and the why of…

  • Analysis of the ‘Würzburg Manuscript’ of The Secret Doctrine (1888)

    Officially published in 1888, The Secret Doctrine was a project began by HPB. From as early as 1885-86, we find a partial or portion of the manuscript when she stayed in Germany and Belgium this time, called the “Würzburg Manuscript.” In studying how The Secret Doctrine was written, we see the modern example of a work…

  • “Use the Eyes of the Spiritual Intelligence” | H.P. Blavatsky

    “First let the student clearly realize that he cannot see things spiritual with the eyes of the flesh, and that in studying, he must use the eyes of the Spiritual Intelligence, else will he fail and his study will be fruitless.” HELENA BLAVATSKY, COLLECTED WRITINGS, VOL. 12, P. 691

  • “The Religion of the Future”

    ‘No human-born doctrine, no creed, however sanctified by custom and antiquity, can compare in sacredness with the religion of Nature.’ (Helena P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine, Vol. 2, pg. 797) THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE Helena Blavatsky, The Theosophist, Vol. IV., No. 8, May, 1883. Occultism teaches us that ideas based upon fundamental truths move…

  • Geraldine Beskin: Manly P. Hall, The Murdered Mystic

    The Murdered Mystic Geraldine Beskin’s contribution and insightful lecture at a Theosophical Society in London, U.K. on the life and works of Manly Palmer Hall at the Theosophical Society in London.

  • Survival of Post-Christian Successors to the Mysteries

    “Thus it is not Judaism and Christianity that remodelled the ancient Pagan Wisdom, but rather the latter that put its heathen curb, quietly and insensibly, on the new faith; and this, moreover, was still further influenced by the Eclectic Theosophical system, the direct emanation of the Wisdom-Religion. All that is grand and noble in Christian…

  • The Seven Numerations of Nature in the Egyptian Hieroglyphs and Trans-Himalayan Occult Tenet

    The Secret Doctrine defends the doctrine on the Seven Numerations of Man and Nature, held by the Trans-Himalayan Occultists’ School taught in the Theosophical system. Helena Blavatsky did not invent Theosophy, nor this concept, but explains it in no way others have hitherto done. She further tied this to Greek Esotericism (Theosophy and Platonism: The Seven…

  • Remembrance of the Gods: What the Origin of the Term Soul in English Reveals

    Origin of Soul and Spirit in English In our English, the sawol (from saiwalō; Proto-Germanic origins) or soul meant life, animate existence, living being, or the spiritual and emotional part of a being. Around 971, this term also referred to the “spirit” of a deceased person. The terms “soul” and “spirit” became in the English confusedly synonymous and passed down…

  • The Context of Alfred P. Sinnett’s ‘Esoteric Buddhism’

    A.P. Sinnett’s Esoteric Budhism 1884 In learning about ‘Theosophy,’ it is still wise to return to the very first installments, expressing what it is, namely Alfred Percy Sinnett’s Esoteric Buddhism (online 1884 ed.), or rather Budhism. This 1884 work was the result or learning acquired from correspondences between A.P. Sinnett and the two gentlemen, Koot Hoomi…

  • The Different Aspects of Zeus in Greek Mythology: Is Zeus the Highest God?

    “These fairy tales are not senseless stories written for the amusement of the idle; they embody the profound religion of our forefathers(…)” (W.S.W. Anson, Asgard and the Gods: Tales and Traditions of our Northern Ancestors) “For a myth, in Greek [[mythos]], means oral tradition, passed from mouth to mouth from one generation to the other; and…