Tag: perennialism
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Chain of Transmission of Ancient Wisdom in the Writings of Helena Blavatsky
It was proposed in her earlier works like Isis Unveiled that the transmission of ancient wisdom or cultural influences originating in India passed through Egypt and/or Chaldea (ancient Babylonia in southern Mesopotamia), and then extending to ancient Greece and Jewish traditions. This was central in early Theosophical frameworks in books such as later in The…
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Guenon, Theosophy and Perennialism: Decline of Guidance and Wisdom
INTRODUCTION When I come across modern alternative spiritual teachers constructing new terminology, I am reminded that this has become customary in twentieth-century to present-day. The first generation of Theosophists were not constructing an extensive array of new terminology to baffle people. They were using terminology from schools, traditions and languages directly and then interpretating them…
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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…
The American Minervan 