The American Minervan

Category: Quotes

  • The Evolution of the God-Idea | H.P. Blavatsky on the Limits of the Greeks and Christians

    The Evolution of the God-Idea | H.P. Blavatsky on the Limits of the Greeks and Christians

    DIVINE THOUGHT, OR CINERITIOUS MATTER (The Secret Doctrine Vol. 1, Page 327): A section from the 1888 work of H.P. Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine (pp. 326-28: Divine Thought, or Cineritious Matter) discusses the evolution of the GOD-IDEA. This is the beginning of some far more dense commentary on occult physics that will be central to…

  • ‘The snub-nosed Saxons’ [Borderland Magazine, 1894]

    ‘The snub-nosed Saxons’ [Borderland Magazine, 1894]

    THE SNUB-NOSEDSAXONS Borderland Magazine, October 15th, 1894 tributehighlights influence of Blavatsky in the successful periodsof the theosophical movement on the cultural milieu.  “If everything be true that Dr. Hodgson and the Psychical Research Society say about her, it only heightens the mystery, and adds to the marvel of the influence which Madame Blavatsky undoubtedly has exercised,…

  • “Between these two conflicting Titans — Science and Theology — is a bewildered public”

    “Between these two conflicting Titans — Science and Theology — is a bewildered public”

    “Between these two conflicting Titans — Science and Theology — is a bewildered public” “IT is nineteen centuries since, as we are told, the night of Heathenism and Paganism was first dispelled by the divine light of Christianity; and two-and-a-half centuries since the bright lamp of Modern Science began to shine on the darkness of…

  • William Q. Judge on Patriotism and a Nation’s Death: ‘Patriots, in vain…’

    William Q. Judge on Patriotism and a Nation’s Death: ‘Patriots, in vain…’

    “But you know, as any man who has read history, that patriots may burst their hearts in vain if circumstances are against them. Sometimes it has happened that no human power, not even the force and fury of the loftiest patriotism, has been able to bend an iron destiny aside from its fixed course, and…

  • G. de Purucker’s Introduction to the Esoteric Tradition: The Word “Dogma”

    G. de Purucker’s Introduction to the Esoteric Tradition: The Word “Dogma”

    G. de Purucker in his introduction of the Esoteric Tradition (1940) explains the meaning of Theosophy being non-dogmatic.  DOGMA IN THE ESOTERIC TRADITION BY G. DE PURUCKER “The word dogma comes from the Greek verb dokein, “to seem to be,” “to appear to be.” A dogma, therefore, was something which appeared to be a truth: an…

  • “He Who Would Lift Up High the Banner of Mysticism”

    “He Who Would Lift Up High the Banner of Mysticism”

    The solitary ascetic, H.P. Blavatsky argues is the embodiment of cowardice and egotism. In context, she is alluding to Hatha-Yogis and Chrisitan mortification practice. She further explains that “a hermit who flees from his brothers instead of helping them to carry the burden of life, to work for others, and to put their shoulders to…

  • Blavatsky’s Russian Travel Writings on Racism and Colonialism in India, 3 of 3

    Blavatsky’s Russian Travel Writings on Racism and Colonialism in India, 3 of 3

    FROM THE DURBAR IN LAHORE, CHAPTER III Having described the English and the characteristics they have developed here, let us look at the natives and see how far they have deserved their harsh fate. Let me here express a thought which may seem paradoxical, though it is supported by irrefutable facts. The Hindus lack and are incapable of…

  • Blavatsky’s Russian Travel Writings on Racism and Colonialism in India, 2 of 3

    Blavatsky’s Russian Travel Writings on Racism and Colonialism in India, 2 of 3

    FROM THE DURBAR IN LAHORE, CHAPTER II H.P. Blavatsky calls the attitudes between the English and Indians, that of two blind men. “In India, wherever two Englishmen meet, complaints about the “fiendish ingratitude of the black devils” are soon heard and wherever two natives encounter each other, complaints about the “dark intentions of the white oppressors” will…

  • Blavatsky’s Russian Travel Writings on Racism and Colonialism in India, 1 of 3

    Blavatsky’s Russian Travel Writings on Racism and Colonialism in India, 1 of 3

    FROM THE DURBAR IN LAHORE, CHAPTER I H.P. Blavatsky gives her humane view of the realities of colonial India in The Durbar in Lahore. In Blavatsky’s Eloquent Anti Racist Colonialism Editorial 1/3, it says this editorial is from Chapter 3 of The Durbar in Lahore, which is planned for publication in the second volume of Blavatsky’s Russian Travel Writings by…

  • “I Believe in Philosophy” (script) scene from Hypatia

    “I Believe in Philosophy” (script) scene from Hypatia

    Heladius Dignitary: The majority of us here…have accepted Christ. Why not the rest of you? It’s only a matter of time and you know it.Hypatia: Really? It is just a matter of time?…As far as I am aware, your God has not yet proved himself to be more just or more merciful than his predecessors.…

  • Zisi: Virtue and Accountable Actions | Doctrine of the Mean

    Zisi: Virtue and Accountable Actions | Doctrine of the Mean

    Zisi speaks on being accountable for our actions, for abandoning the path of virtue, and causing suffering under heavens watch. “Some men who have not complied with virtue will yet not acknowledge their offences, and when Heaven has by evident tokens charged them to correct their conduct, they still say, “What are these things to…

  • The Difficult Jargon of Occultists and the Graeco-Latin Terminology of Scientists

    The Difficult Jargon of Occultists and the Graeco-Latin Terminology of Scientists

    “These sciences are, and have been for ages, hidden from the vulgar, for the very good reason that they would never be appreciated by the selfish educated classes, who would misuse them for their own profit, and thus turn the Divine science into black magic, nor by the uneducated, who would not understand them. It is often…