Theosophical Society

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Symbol of the Theosophical Society

The Theosophical Society is an occult organization founded in New York City in 1875 that has had considerable influence on subsequent esoteric movements.

In terms of its claim to itself, it is part of a universal, spiritual, intellectual and ethical movement that has been active in all ages. The basis of this movement is a so-called "Universal Brotherhood". This is based on the fact that in a beginning and endless universe everything that exists, every being, is related in its fundamental essence to a cosmic consciousness and is animated and animated by it in all its parts . In this way, all living beings are connected to one another as an indissoluble Universal Brotherhood.

In the course of time there have been numerous splits and new founding of theosophical societies, some of which have distanced themselves further and further from the original objectives.

founding

Helena Blavatsky
Henry Steel Olcott
William Quan Judge

On November 17, 1875, the Theosophical Society (TG) inter alia. founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky , Henry Steel Olcott and William Quan Judge in New York. For this purpose, the spiritualistic circle Miracle Club founded a few weeks earlier , which had formed around the " medium " Blavatsky and whose objective was the scientific research of spiritualistic phenomena, was renamed TG. After initial stagnation, the organization was able to establish itself, create subsidiaries (lodges) and finally spread all over the world.

Research into Spiritual Phenomena ( Miracle Club )

Blavatsky and Olcott first met in October 1874 at the Eddy Brothers' home in Chittenden, Vermont , where they became interested in the haunted phenomena that occurred in their home. Thereupon they founded the Miracle Club in 1875 in order to devote themselves to the research of spiritualistic phenomena with like-minded people. The lawyer Judge joined this group. The member meetings were subject to confidentiality. At that time, spiritism fell into disrepute because of numerous cases of fraud. When the club member David Dana, the brother of the editor of the newspaper The Sun , asked for more money for his services, which Blavatsky strictly refused to do, the rumor mill began to simmer about her. Ultimately, the Miracle Club failed and Blavatsky and Olcott, the later founders of the TG, began to distance themselves from spiritualism and to set up other theories and explanations for spiritualistic occurrences.

Kick-off for founding

On September 7, 1875, the engineer stopped George Henry Felt in the New York apartment Blavatsky seventeen people a presentation on the lost canon of proportion of Egyptians, Greeks and Romans . Felt was convinced that he had discovered the key to the symbolic content of the geometric figures and to lost Egyptian wisdom, in which one suspected secret occult knowledge. He claimed to be able to summon elemental spirits by means of various aids and to project them in a materialized form. These ideas led Olcott to propose the creation of a follow-up society to the Miracle Club to research such things. Blavatsky and Jugde signaled their consent, whereupon the establishment of a society to investigate the secret, underlying laws of nature, which the Chaldeans and Egyptians were supposedly still familiar with, began.

The foundation

Founding protocol 1875

On September 8, 1875, they met again to decide to found a society for the study and explanation of occultism, Kabbalah, etc. Founding members included Blavatsky, Olcott, Judge, Felt, the Britten couple , Charles Sotheran , Charles E. Simmons, HD Monachesi, Charles Carleton Massey , William Livingston Alden , DE de Lara, Henry Jotham Newton , John Storer Cobb, James Hervey Hyslop and HM Stevens. Those present discussed the first details, including the direction of the company to be founded. The names Egyptological , Hermetic or Rosicrucian Society were available. Eventually they agreed on The Theosophical Society , as the term “theosophy” ( ancient Greek “divine wisdom”) was compatible with the search for esoteric truth and the pursuit of scientific research into the occult.

On October 30, 1875, the statutes were read out and accepted with the reservation that the preamble was to be revised by Olcott, Sotheran, and Cobb. The board and assessors were elected. Olcott was named president, Judge legal counsel, and Blavatsky named correspondent secretary.

On November 17, 1875, a ceremonial celebration of the founding of the TG was held at the Mott Memorial Hall on Madison Avenue , and Olcott lectured on the goals of the TG. In 1876 the TG declared itself a secret society .

Three goals

The members of the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875, who were initially interested in practical occultism , formulated three goals:

Rudolf Steiner - Until it is given

"1. to form the core of a universal brotherhood of mankind, regardless of origin, belief, gender or skin color;
 2. to encourage the study of comparative religious studies, philosophy and natural sciences;
 3. To explore unexplained natural laws and the forces hidden in humans. "

The postulate formulated in the preamble of the TG statutes read:

“Whatever the personal views of the members, our society has no general dogmas , no creeds that it intends to spread. It is not a schism of spiritism, nor an opponent or ally of any kind of sect-like or philosophical movement. Its only principle is the omnipotence of truth, its only creed is its discovery and dissemination. "

The German section of the TG, which was founded as an association in October 1902, adopted a statute a year later, the three goals of which were closely based on the templates of the parent company. In addition, a negative list was added in a fourth point:

"4. The Theosophical Society pursues neither political nor social interests. It is not a sect and does not require its members to believe in any dogma. "

While the distance from politics was maintained until the collapse of the empire , the belief in freedom from dogma and limitless tolerance collapsed after just a few years with the crisis caused by the consolidation of Rudolf Steiner's positions and the Leadbeater affair .

stagnation

The initially positive mood quickly turned into the opposite, in the following months only the library of the Theosophical Society grew and prospered in occult literature. Before the end of 1875, the first resignations took place, which continued in the following years, whereby the management was also subject to constant change. In the following years mainly Blavatsky, Olcott and Judge determined the development of the TG. Most of the other founding members had meanwhile turned their backs on the Theosophical Society and were largely forgotten.

A main reason for the stagnation was Felt, whose promise of a public demonstration of the magical powers had been the impetus for the establishment of the Theosophical Society. Despite repeated insistence by Olcott, Felt repeatedly postponed his demonstration and finally no longer took part in the theosophists' meetings, which were already quite irregular. This was a bitter disappointment for many members, as it was a clear failure of the first degree in occult science . The search for other occult "phenomena" also proved unsuccessful; only trifles could be brought to light. The practically complete absence of Blavatsky at the meetings of the TG made things even more difficult, all the more since she was considered a "curiosity" and always attracted a large number of curious people. In the meantime she had begun to write her first book Isis Unveiled and initiated a lively correspondence with interested parties and the press; thus she found no time for the theosophists. Judge was more interested in Blavatsky's doctrinal conversations, which took place in small groups, than in the TG itself. So there was only Olcott, who directed the fate of the organization during this time and saved it from completely sinking into insignificance and thus from collapse.

In 1876, Olcott hosted the first public cremation (of a member) in the United States, which drew national media coverage.

At the end of 1876, the TG had 85 registered members, including 17 women.

Isis unveiled

On September 29, 1877, Blavatsky's work Isis was unveiled . The book excited the minds on the one hand with enthusiastically approving, but also on the other hand with devastatingly negative criticism. As a result, the TG expanded. After unofficial lodges had already arisen in Liverpool and on Corfu , Charles Carleton Massey founded the London Lodge on June 27, 1878, an "official" branch of the Theosophical Society, authorized by a deed of foundation issued by Olcott in 1876. A lodge followed in 1879 in Mumbai, India, and the first lodge on American soil in Rochester in 1882 .

Approach to Neo-Induism and renaming

In the meantime, the TG sought proximity to Neo-Induism. For this purpose, Blavatsky and Olcott moved to India in 1878 to try to affiliate the TG with the Hindu reform movement Arya Samaj . The merger failed.

Program

In 1878 the TG was temporarily called Theosophical Society of the Arya Samaj . After this impulse had subsided, the theosophists sharpened their ideological profile. In May 1878 the preoccupation with oriental literature and philosophy turned into practice. Blavatsky and Olcott emigrated to India. In 1879 the magazine The Theosophist was founded. In 1880 they both converted to Buddhism. In 1882 the TG headquarters was built in Adyar, South India, near Madras . Now teachers with meditation knowledge were on the lookout. The acquisition of occult powers with Kundalini Yoga has been considered. Bengali theosophists dealt with tantrism . Others preferred raja yoga . Ultimately, the hope of encountering a guru culture in India turned out to be a mirage . European theosophists were ambivalent about this oriental search for meaning. When journalist Percy Sinnett published the book Esoteric Buddhism on the basis of letters from secret masters , the Mahatma letters , and insisted that it was the foundation of theosophy, there were massive arguments because all theosophists knew that he was, so to speak acted as the mouthpiece of Blavatsky.

Coulomb affair

In 1884, former employees of Blavatsky, the Coulombs, sparked the Coulomb affair when they claimed that Blavatsky had written the master craftsman's letters himself. Blavatsky, again exposed to the charge of spiritualistic fraud, could no longer be kept without power and influence in her own ranks and left India for good in the spring of 1885. Olcott remained as President in India and effectively ran the TG alone. In December 1885, the Hodgson Report appeared , which came to the conclusion that Blavatsky was a fraudster and forger, which triggered a decline in membership. The newly founded German section dissolved again and the TG was about to end ten years after it was founded.

The secret doctrine

Blavatsky left India and settled first in Würzburg , then in London . Here she wrote her two-volume work The Secret Doctrine, the Synthesis of Science, Religion and Philosophy (German: The Secret Doctrine The union of science, religion and philosophy. ). In the form of a commentary on the ancient Tibetan book of Dzyan , which several commentators consider to be a fiction by Blavatsky, she unfolded a large-scale cosmogony : The evolution of our solar system accordingly takes place in seven "world chains", in which the "waves of life" of move from one planet to another. On each planet, seven global rounds would be run through, which in turn were divided into seven root races that emerged one after the other and independently of one another . These are linked by the law of karma and a reincarnation mechanism. The course of humanity through these seven races is interpreted in neognostic terms as the fall of the divine Logos into matter and its gradual return to pure spirituality. According to Blavatsky, the humanity of her present lives in the fifth root race, the Aryans , who are already characterized by increasing spirituality; older root races are doomed to extinction. With this concept, Blavatsky turned against Christianity, whose idea of creation ex nihilo she resolutely rejected, and against materialism , which she criticized primarily in the theory of evolution and in monism . Charles Darwin's discovery of the ancestry of humans from ape-like animals turned them upside down, claiming that humans are the oldest form of life on earth; it already existed in its present form in the Cretaceous period . The apes are from the sexual union degenerated created human races with "female animal monsters".

Divisions

Scandals and swindles led to the division of the Theosophical Society into the Theosophical Society in America (TG-Pasadena), founded in 1895, and the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG), which underwent numerous changes in its doctrines. The respective valid goals of the Adyar-TG are planned and decided by a secret inner circle.

Disputes about the occupation of the offices to be awarded led to numerous further divisions and to the increasing number of new Theosophical Societies, which sometimes strayed further and further from the original objectives, but always claimed to represent the only correct and true theosophy.

The reasons for these splits are above all the Adyar-TG's turn to Hinduism under the new President Annie Besant since 1907 and especially the veneration of Jiddu Krishnamurti as the born again Christ and future world teacher in the Order of the Star in the East , which with his discovery by Charles W. Leadbeater began in 1909. Krishnamurti increasingly distanced himself from the authoritarian structure of the TG. On August 3, 1929, he announced his renunciation of the role of Messiah intended for him, separated from the TG and dissolved the Order of the Star .

First, however, the Asian TG faction prevailed after Anna Kingsford died in 1888, who had founded a hermetic lodge in London in 1884 for the care of European wisdom and pleaded for Christianity to be viewed as the pinnacle of religious history. During the First World War , Besant and Leadbeater instrumentalized the root race theory they had further developed and stylized the Central Powers as "powers of darkness" that had to be defeated by the "powers of light" (that is, the Entente ). Their victory is the prerequisite for the emergence of the new "world teacher". This departure from the program of the universal brotherhood of all human beings triggered off racist-cultural-imperialist counter-designs among the theosophists of Germany and Austria and deepened the division of the theosophical movement.

A split that is particularly effective in the USA is the Arkan School founded by Alice Bailey , which is still active today and whose aim is to identify the individual karma balance. In response to the disputes of the individual theosophical camps, Robert Crosby founded the United Lodge in 1919 .

Development of the German Theosophical Societies

The first Theosophical Society in Germany was founded by Wiesendanger in Hamburg in 1879 ( Loge Isis ). In 1884, Marie Gebhard and Wilhelm Hübbe-Schleiden founded the Germania Lodge in Elberfeld .

Franz Hartmann adhered to the basic program of the TG from 1875 and founded the Theosophical Society in Germany (TGD) in 1896 (as a branch of the TG-Pasadena (Tingley Group)). In 1896, Hartmann united eight theosophical lodges as president of the TGD. But after a short time there was a break due to personal and ideological struggles for direction within the international theosophical movement. Hartmann criticized the "orientalization" of Blavatsky's original teaching by Besant. For Blavatsky's theosophy, which Hartmann still represented in its original form, there was no longer any room in the teaching building of the Adyar-TG and its German branch. Hartmann also no longer accepted the humanitarian efforts of Katherine Tingley's American TG-Pasadena . So he caused another split and on September 3, 1897 founded the International Theosophical Fraternization (ITV). The ITV lodges moved their “headquarters” from Munich to Leipzig in 1898, where the “Theosophical Bookshop” was set up. The German section of the Theosophical Society , which was part of the Adyar-TG , was resigned in 1913 by its then secretary Rudolf Steiner with his numerous followers and founded the Anthroposophical Society .

Radicalization of the goals by the ITV

The ITV founded by Hartmann turned the original goals into the opposite. In the new statutes of 1919, the ITV distanced itself partly openly from theosophical internationalism. The first goal of fraternization without any difference in terms of race, nationality, faith, denomination, class and gender has now been deleted and only reappeared in the appendix. In the second goal, the study of Aryan ideas took precedence over the western and eastern ones. In 1933 the I. T. V. chairman Hermann Rudolph declared that National Socialism and Theosophy were essential and only differ in degree: while National Socialism, as an aid organization and preliminary stage of theosophy, aimed at the moral renewal of man, it was Theosophy aims at its spiritual rebirth. On August 20, 1933, in the first of the three goals or purposes, the reference to Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society founded in New York was deleted and replaced by the statement that "... the religious unification of the German people and humanity was to be served." The demand for fraternization for indifference in terms of race, nationality, faith, denomination, class and gender has now been completely deleted. There was also no reference to the philosophies and sciences of the East. On October 1, 1933, the three functionaries of the German Theosophical Association signed a position paper with radical völkisch positions, in which they described themselves as guides and collaborators of the National Socialist movement in the intellectual field: The new goal was "... The religious world broadcast of the German people and the religious unification of the Aryan peoples and all people through the theosophical fraternization ”.

Prohibited in 1937

In 1937 the theosophical societies of all directions and the corresponding literature were banned by the National Socialists in Germany.

seal

Esoteric TG seal from 1875
Esoteric seal Adyar, 1881

The two seals of the Theosophical Society were developed from the personal seal of Helena Blavatsky . They symbolize the common origin of all religions that are separated today, point to the original religion. By recognizing the common esoteric core of all exoteric religions, as well as the twin doctrine of karma (law of cause and effect) and reincarnation (law of rebirth), racial, class and class differences are relativized and overcome.

influence

Numerous well-known artists, writers and scientists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (including James Joyce and Louis Glass ) were associated with a TG or were members, so that the Theosophical Movement played a significant role in the development of the intellectual life of that time Time can be given.

Membership numbers

In addition to the TG spin-offs, there are numerous groupings in the area of ​​the TG, but they are of little importance. The current membership of the Adyar Direction is estimated at 40,000, that of the Tingley Direction at 2,000 and that of the United Lodge at 1,000.

reception

The TG is seen as a prototype of an occult society whose unfamiliar thought patterns are seen as an example of pseudo - intellectualism . The theosophical way of thinking of spreading innumerable non-rational, distorted theories about the universe, had met with great resonance, and the theosophical tenets, for example, were penetrated and adapted by Heinrich Himmler . The TG mixed Hinduism , Buddhism and Christianity with various of its own ideas into an eccentric potpourri, which led the religious scholar and historian Helmut Zander to state in his study of anthroposophy in Germany that theosophy is now hardly registered Epochal turning point: "It was probably the first non-Christian founding of a religion in Europe after antiquity."

literature

  • Bruce F. Campbell: Ancient wisdom revived, a history of the Theosophical movement. University of California Press, Berkeley 1980, ISBN 0-520-03968-8 .
  • Michael Gomes: The dawning of the theosophical movement. Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton 1987, ISBN 0-8356-0623-6 .
  • Henry Steel Olcott: Old Diary Leaves, Part 1. Kessinger, Whitefish 2003, ISBN 0-7661-3336-2 (original 1895).
  • Helena Petrovna Blavatsky: Key to Theosophy. Satteldorf 1995, ISBN 3-927837-51-2 .
  • Sylvia Cranston: HPB - life and work of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Satteldorf 1995, ISBN 3-927837-53-9 .

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Horst E. Miers : Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Original edition; and 3rd updated edition, both Goldmann, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 , p. 617.
  2. ↑ Harald Lamprecht : New Rosicrucians. A manual . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, p. 167.
  3. ↑ Ursula Keller, Natalja Sharandak: Madame Blavatsky. A biography. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, p. 117.
  4. ↑ Ursula Keller, Natalja Sharandak: Madame Blavatsky. A biography. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, p. 115, p. 117, p. 134–135, p. 137 f.
  5. ↑ Kocku von Stuckrad : What is esotericism? Beck, Munich 2004, p. 203.
  6. ↑ Ursula Keller, Natalja Sharandak: Madame Blavatsky. A biography. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, p. 156.
  7. ↑ a b Hans-Jürgen Ruppert : Theosophy - on the way to the occult superman (= series of apologetic topics ; 2). Friedrich Bahn, Konstanz 1993. pp. 93-94.
  8. ↑ Ursula Keller, Natalja Sharandak: Madame Blavatsky. A biography. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, pp. 136-137.
  9. ↑ Ursula Keller, Natalja Sharandak: Madame Blavatsky. A biography. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, p. 137 and p. 139.
  10. ↑ Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, pp. 167–168.
  11. ↑ Quoted from Daniel Caldwell: The Esoteric World of Madame Blavatsky. Tuscon Arizona 1991. Chapter 6. in: Ursula Keller, Natalja Sharandak: Madame Blavatsky. A biography. Insel Verlag, Berlin 2013, p. 138.
  12. ↑ Helmut Zander : Rudolf Steiner. The biography. Piper Verlag GmbH, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-492-05448-5 . Pp. 197-198.
  13. ↑ It was Joseph Henry Louis Charles Baron de Palm (born May 10, 1809 in Augsburg , † May 20, 1876 in New York ). The celebration on the occasion of the cremation attracted more than 2000 curious people; Over 7000 newspaper articles were published about this event in the USA.
  14. ↑ Julia Iwersen: Ways of Esotericism. Ideas and goals. Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 2003, ISBN 3-451-04940-6 . P. 100.
  15. ↑ Helmut Zander: Rudolf Steiner. The biography. Piper Verlag GmbH, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-492-05448-5 , pp. 134-136.
  16. ↑ Helmut Zander: Rudolf Steiner. The biography. Piper Verlag GmbH, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-492-05448-5 . Pp. 137-139.
  17. ↑ Ulrich Linse : Theosophy III. Theosophical Society (from 1875). In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 33 ISBN 978-3-11-017132-7 De Gruyter, Berlin 2002, pp. 404 ff. (Accessed via De Gruyter Online); James A. Santucci: The Notion of Race in Theosophy . In: Nova Religio. The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions , 11, Issue 3 (2008), pp. 41-50.
  18. ↑ Harald Lamprecht: New Rosicrucians. A manual . Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2010, p. 168.
  19. ↑ a b Horst E. Miers: Lexicon of Secret Knowledge (= Esoteric. Vol. 12179). Original edition; and 3rd updated edition, both Goldmann, Munich 1993, ISBN 3-442-12179-5 , pp. 617–619.
  20. ↑ Kocku von Stuckrad: What is esotericism? Beck, Munich 2004, p. 211 and p. 213.
  21. ↑ Helmut Zander: Rudolf Steiner. The biography. Piper Verlag GmbH, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-492-05448-5 . Pp. 136-137.
  22. ↑ Ulrich Linse: "Universal Brotherhood" or National Race War - the German theosophists in the First World War . In: Heinz-Gerhard Haupt and Dieter Langewiesche (eds.): Nation and religion in German history. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 2001, pp. 602–650.
  23. ↑ Kocku von Stuckrad: What is esotericism? Beck, Munich 2004, p. 211 and p. 213.
  24. ^ Karl RH Frick: Light and Darkness. Gnostic-theosophical and Masonic-occult secret societies up to the turn of the 20th century , Volume 2; Marix Verlag, Wiesbaden 2005; ISBN 3-86539-044-7 ; P. 307.
  25. ↑ Franz Wegener: The Atlantidische Weltbild. National Socialism and the New Right in search of the sunken Atlantis. Kulturförderverein Ruhrgebiet KFVR, Gladbeck 2nd edition 2003, p. 61; Series: Political Religion of National Socialism, Dept. 1: The water. Kulturförderverein Ruhrgebiet, 3rd strongly exp. Edition 2014 ISBN 1493668668 Available in online bookshops
  26. ^ Helmut Zander: Anthroposophy in Germany. Theosophical worldview and social practice 1884–1945 . Volume 1, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2007, pp. 307-312.
  27. ↑ Kocku von Stuckrad : What is esotericism? Beck, Munich 2004, p. 213.
  28. ↑ James Webb : The Flight from Reason: Politics, Culture, and Occultism in the Nineteenth Century. marixverlag GmbH, Wiesbaden 2009. P. 182 f.
  29. ↑ Sabine Doering-Manteuffel : The occult. A success story in the shadow of the Enlightenment. From Gutenberg to the World Wide Web . Siedler, Munich 2008. p. 194.