Essays on Theosophy

Spirituality and Spiritual Practice

Notes from Jayaram V

The Theosophical Society was officially founded in November 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others in New York City, United States,. Its first president was Olcott who remained president until his death in 1907. The Society was founded after Olcott and Judge realized earlier that Blavatasky had extraordinary occult powers and was no ordinary person. Its was founded with the main purpose of studying and understanding Occultism, Kabala, and related fields.

A few years later Olcott and Blavatsky felt that it would be in the best interest of the movement if they moved to India where most of the theosophical ideas rooted in the Eastern religions were born. Hence, they moved to India and opened the International Headquarters at Adyar, in Madras (Chennai). The movement believed in the existence of hidden masters and the coming of a world teacher. The following are few essays and works of renowned theosophical teachers of the last century.


Theosophical Works

The seven principles of man by Dr.Annie Besant Man according to the Theosophical teaching is a sevenfold being, or, in the usual phrase, has a septenary constitution. Putting it in another way, man’s nature has seven aspects, may be studied from seven different points of view, is composed of seven principles.

The Way of Peace by James Allen Spiritual meditation is the pathway to Divinity. It is the mystic ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, from error to Truth, from pain to peace. Every saint has climbed it; every sinner must sooner or later come to it, and every weary pilgrim that turns his back upon self and the world, and sets his face resolutely toward the Father's Home, must plant his feet upon its golden rounds.

The historical Christ By Annie Besant. There are two schools of thought at the present time, bitterly opposed to each other, who dispute over the story of the great Hebrew Teacher. According to one school there is nothing at all in the accounts of His life save myths and legends

An introduction to yoga By Annie Besant. These lectures are intended to give an outline of Yoga, in order to prepare the student to take up, for practical purposes, the Yoga sutras of Patanjali..

Thought forms: The Effects of Thought By Annie Besant. Each definite thought produces a double effect—a radiating vibration and a floating form. The thought itself appears first to clairvoyant sight as a vibration in the mental body, and this may be either simple or complex.

Mystic Christianity - the Holy Ghost To the average Christian the nature of the Holy Ghost--one of the beings of the Trinity--is veiled in obscurity, and is generally pronounced "not to be understood." A careful examination of the orthodox Christian writings will show the student that the Church is very much at sea regarding this subject.

The Days and Nights of Brahma This is the name given to the Periods called manvantara (Manuantara, or between the Manus) and pralaya (dissolution)..

Annie Besant on Atheism Beneath all diversity there is one ultimate substance which manifest as many. Everything else in the universe is its variation, modification, projection, presence, absence, effect or manifestation in different degrees. So is the case with the mind and its faculties such as memory, reason, perception and cognitions. They are products of the brain just as heat, sparks and fire are of coal.

The Seven Creations "There was neither day nor night, nor sky nor earth, nor darkness nor light, nor any other thing save only ONE, inapprehensible by intellect, or THAT which is Brahma and Pumis (Spirit) and Pradhana (crude matter)"

The Formation of Solar System The beginning of the universe (if ever it had a beginning) is beyond our ken. At the earliest point of history that we can reach, the two great opposites of spirit and matter, of life and form, are already in full activity.

Life After Death Death is the laying aside of the physical body; but it makes no more difference to the ego than does the laying aside of an overcoat to the physical man. Having put off his physical body, the ego continues to live in his astral body until the force has become

The Zodiac and Its Antiquity There are several such predetermined opinions among our learned Orientalists, yet few are more unjust or illogical than the general error with regard to the antiquity of the Zodiac.

Questions and Answers on Occult subjects The lesson will consist of answers to a number of questions, asked by various students of the courses in Yogi Philosophy coming from our pen.

The Hindu-Yogi Science Of Breath, by Yogi Ramacharaka A Complete Manual of THE ORIENTAL BREATHING PHILOSOPHY of Physical, Mental, Psychic and Spiritual Development. By YOGI RAMACHARAKA.

Gnani Yoga, The Law of Karma by Yogi Ramacharaka "Karma" is a Sanskrit term for that great Law known to Western thinkers as Spiritual Cause and Effect, or Causation. It relates to the complicated affinities for either good or evil that have been acquired by the soul throughout its many incarnations.

Suggestions for Further Reading

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