"All original thinkers and investigators of the hidden side of nature were and are properly, Theosophists ... Be what he may, once that a student abandons the old and trodden highway of routine, and enters upon the solitary path of independent Thought – Godward – he is a Theosophist; an original thinker, a seeker after the eternal truth with 'an inspiration of his own' to solve the universal problems." 
-Helena Blavatsky (1831-91) 

 

WHAT IS THEOSOPHY AND WHO ARE THE THEOSOPHISTS
By W. Emmett Small
 
All words are, of course, labels, conveying relative sense and enlightenment to the mind that hears or reads them. And so "theosophy" is a label, a name – though a noble one. But one must get behind the word to what it represents. That is what people want – meaning. They want the universe to make sense – to them and about them. And so we say, getting as far away from labels as we can, that Theosophy is a representation, report or statement of the truths of Being. It is the way the universe is , or behaves or works or operates. It is also a description of the intricate (and, may we say, infinite?) being that man is – who, what and why he is. It also tells the story of evolution, not an end-on Darwinian product, not a God–made–out–of–nothing "creation", but a beginingless and endless unfolding from the Divine of that very divine which is inherent in every particle of space.
 
From this great store of wisdom each takes what he can, depending on his own essential self, his own awakening; and it will be colored by the individual's way of viewing life, either through the flow of religion, or philosophy, or science, or a combination of all three. And, let us say in passing, essentially religion is no better – or worse – than science, and science or philosophy than religion: they are all ways towards an "end". Where they meet, their apex, that is the real thing, for which we can give no exact name other than being or law or truth. It is the search for that, the study of that, that is Theosophy.

And that is what we would have the world respect and understand as Theosophy, not psychic extravaganzas, mostly fantasy with perhaps a modicum of truth; not individual pet theories, no matter how sincere their proponents; but that which can be tested by the strength and quality of its very universality.

Helena Blavatsky stated in "what are the theosophists":

..."all original thinkers and investigators of the hidden side of nature, were and are, properly, theosophists ... be what he may, once that a student abandons the old and trodden highway of routine, and enters upon the solitary path of independent thought –godward– he is a theosophist; an original thinker, a seeker after the eternal truth with 'an inspiration of his own' to solve the universal problems."

Those quoted words, 'an inspiration of his own,' refer to a definition of a Thesophist given by the English medieval philosopher and true Rosicrucian, Henry Vaughan. "a theosophist," he says, "is one who gives you a theory of god or the works of god, which has not revelation, but an inspiration of his own for its basis." And in the article "What is Theosophy?", Blavatsky declares: "in this view every great thinker and philosopher, especially every founder of a new religion, school or philosophy, or sect, is necessarily a theosophist ..." "with every man (she says in "What are the Theosophists?" ) "that is searching in his own way after a knowledge of the Divine Principle, of man's relations to it, and nature's manifestations of it, Theosophy is allied. It is likewise the ally of honest science... And it is also the ally of every honest religion ..."

Let this broad statement encourage in us a truer global view... Let us take heart that, as in the past so today, there are those that form this wider brotherhood, who labor in their own fields inspired by thier own inner vision. And let us remind ourselves that their thought, when lifted to and so to say drawn from that plane of Ideation which is the storehouse of Great ideas, filters through for the general benefit of humankind. ...

(extracts from article in The Eclectic Theosophist, Winter 1995 issue.)