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No, that’s not what ‘new age’ means.
Your beliefs fit under the umbrella of New Age beliefs and yet you haven’t bothered to learn what it is? That does not speak well of your knowledge about your own worldview.
Nonsense. I am a mystic and am perfectly familiar with all the esoteric nonsense that you try to denigrate with your pejorative use of the term "New Age." Many of those ancient speculations were insightful and are actually quite consistent with what we are learning about the actual nature of our Reality, no doubt due to the inspirations of God's consciousness. Fundamentalists have indoctrinated their followers to fear anything called "New Age" as demonic or satanic. Typical fear-mongering to protect their idiotic beliefs from revision or clarification. They maintain the carnal milk and vehemently reject the spiritual solid food Jesus withheld from our ancestors because they were not ready for it.
Since according to Jesus:
knowledge (education) about God only comes through Scripture (John 17:17) as religious truth,
then what is outside of Scripture can be blamed for the New Age movement.
Now this one sentence could be used in a class, "Biblical Misinterpretations through the Centuries 101".
Can anyone point it out? Class? Hands?
Referring to Verse 17: Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Next Semester - "Damage Biblical Misinterpretations Have Caused."
Although Divine Wisdom or Theo-sophia has been the heart of most spiritual paths for aeons, the modern presentation was given by Helena Blavatsky, W.Q Judge, Katherine Tingley and others.
Here is a small work surveying some of the main teachings:
I am thoroughly impressed by the quality of writing and editing in Theosophy, if not necessarily the ideas and traditions. I went back to Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled, with its curious treatment of Plato, to study her use of language and hope to make it the basis of my studies in critical thinking and logic. Thanks for the thread and its revival.
I am thoroughly impressed by the quality of writing and editing in Theosophy, if not necessarily the ideas and traditions. I went back to Blavatsky's Isis Unveiled, with its curious treatment of Plato, to study her use of language and hope to make it the basis of my studies in critical thinking and logic. Thanks for the thread and its revival.
Be aware that Isis was her first book and Olcott & others edited her English phrasing and even the sequence of passages etc. Even the first section, Before the Veil, was mostly written by Alexander Wilder, a friend of hers.
William Q. Judge wrote much on Theosophy, here is how he begins his entry in a popular reference work of his era:
Quote:
Theosophy Defined by William Q. Judge
[Reprinted from the Universal Cyclopedia and Atlas]
Theosophy (from Gr. theosophia knowledge of divine things,
deriv. of theosophos wise about God; theos God + sophos, wise)
is a name which, as specifying a religious philosophy, was
originated by Ammonius Saccas in the third century of our
era. The body of ethical, philosophic, and scientific
doctrines to which that title applies is, however, as old as
humanity itself, and contains everything that is true in all
other and later systems. Esoterically preserved and
transmitted in its entirety by adepts and initiates, from time
immemorial, their messengers --- known to the world as
"great teachers" and "saviours" --- have, at periodic
intervals determined by cyclic law, exoterically taught as
much of it as could safely be given out and which any
considerable portion of our race could at such times receive
and assimilate.
Theosophy teaches a knowledge of the laws governing the
evolution of the universe. It is not based upon assumed
divine revelation, but upon consciousness. It sees no
unsolvable mystery anywhere, throws the words
coincidence and chance out of its vocabulary, and affirms
the omnipresence and omnipotence of law and perfect justice.
Theosophy postulates an Eternal Principle, unknowable
except in its manifestations, which is in and is all things,
and which, periodically and eternally, manifests itself and
recedes from manifestation --- evolution and involution. Its
opposite poles in the manifested universe are spirit and
matter, which are coexistent and inseparable. In
manifesting itself the spirit-matter differentiates on seven
planes, which are of progressive density down to that
within our sensuous perception, the substance in all being
the same, but differing in the proportions of its two
compound elements.
From Theosophy: Divine Wisdom from Long-Sealed Ancient Fountains Edited by Daniel H. Caldwell
I kind of like this theosophy stuff. It aint bad, not bad at all.
The difficulty with it is separating, if possible, the best of its ideas from the worst of its claims. Judge doesn't give a source for the Ammonius Saccas origins and the "seven planes" of manifestation seems arbitrary. The "secrets" and other oddities are spread all through the literature. The flowery rhetoric does more to obscure those good ideas than to illuminate them. It would be nice to locate and reference an objective critique of theosophy and Theosophy that would aid that separation.
Last edited by highplainsrus; 12-16-2020 at 11:49 AM..
The difficulty with it is separating, if possible, the best of its ideas from the worst of its claims. Judge doesn't give a source for the Ammonius Saccas origins and the "seven planes" of manifestation seems arbitrary. The "secrets" and other oddities are spread all through the literature. The flowery rhetoric does more to obscure those good ideas than to illuminate them. It would be nice to locate and reference an objective critique of theosophy and Theosophy that would aid that separation.
You cannot judge for yourself by relying on "an objective critique" - even if you can find one.
Would you decide on the best vs the worst of any spiritual path by looking for some outside "objective" expert to tell you what to think?
Blavatsky's Key to Theosophy is not a huge book, why not study it? Here is a PDF version:
This is a short booklet by WQ Judge available online. Here are some excerpts:
Quote:
Theosophy, the Wisdom-Religion, has
existed from immemorial time. It offers
us a theory of nature and of life which
is founded upon knowledge acquired by the
Sages of the past, more especially those of the
East; and its higher students claim that this
knowledge is not imagined or inferred, but that
it is a knowledge of fads seen and known by
those who are willing to comply with the conditions
requisite for seeing and knowing.
Theosophy, meaning knowledge of or about
God, (not in the sense of a personal anthropomorphic
God, but in that of divine ''godly" wisdom)
and the term "God" being universally
accepted as including the whole of both the
known and the unknown, it follows that "Theosophy"
must imply wisdom respecting the absolute;
and, since the absolute is without beginning
and eternal, this wisdom must have existed
always. Hence Theosophy is sometimes
called the Wisdom-Religion, because from immemorial
time it has had knowledge of all the
laws governing the spiritual, the moral, and
the material.
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Hands?
Epitome of Theosophy
