By Lewis Loflin
Also see Cultic Studies Journal: Madame Blavatsky's Baboon and New Age Religion
Before discussing these issues, we must define what we’re debating and agree on terms. Too often, people blur facts, hijack ideas out of context, or falsely claim historical figures’ authority to bolster their positions. Let’s consult the Catholic Encyclopedia and other sources:
Syncretism—the attempt to reconcile disparate, even opposing, beliefs and meld practices from various schools of thought. It’s especially tied to merging discrete religious traditions in theology and mythology, asserting an underlying unity. Syncretism was essential to Greek paganism.
Christianity and gnostic heresies emerged from syncretism, blending Greek philosophy with older systems like Judaism. Though these faiths claim new "revelations," they often resemble existing beliefs with tweaks or reinterpretations. Revelation is possible but unreliable.
Allegory, a syncretic tool, drives Christianity’s reinterpretation of the Old Testament—more complex than simple allegory. Paul and other evangelists flipped Jewish scriptures to promote their faith. Christianity was to Judaism what Theosophy is to Christianity today. This process persists as New Age religion and political activism infiltrate churches and synagogues.
Modern and ancient Theosophy uses syncretism, combining myths, traditions, and philosophies into a new system. Like a virus, it invades and destroys its host from within.
Theology: "Knowledge of God obtained by revelation."
Philosophy: "Knowledge of divine things acquired by human reasoning." Expanded: "An academic discipline seeking truth through reasoning, not empiricism."
Doctrine: "A belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school."
Empiricism: "The doctrine that knowledge derives from experience; the application of empirical methods in any art or science; or negatively, quackery—medical practice based on observation and experience, ignoring scientific findings."
Theosophy: "Knowledge of God supposed to be obtained by direct intuition of the Divine essence." From Greek "theos" (divine being or god) and "sophia" (wisdom)—divine wisdom. Beware: "wisdom" here isn’t standard; it aligns with Jewish "Wisdom," Greek "Logos," and Christian "Word," meaning something like the mind of God.
Plato (c. 427-347 BCE), neo-Platonists like Plotinus (205-270), and Church Fathers like St. Augustine—himself shaped by Manichean gnosticism—expanded this mystical outlook. From the Catholic Encyclopedia:
"St. Augustine studied more closely this analogy between the Divine Word and human speech (see especially On the Holy Trinity IX.7.12 sq. and XV.10.17 sq.), and drew from it teachings long accepted in Catholic theology. He compares the Word of God, not to the word spoken by the lips, but to the interior speech of the soul, whereby we may in some measure grasp the Divine mystery; engendered by the mind it remains therein, is equal thereto, is the source of its operations..."
Sure, if they say so. The Church curbed some of this speculative nonsense, but it erupted in the 19th century with German Idealism fused with Eastern philosophy. This followed the Enlightenment’s atheistic assault, which damaged Christianity and left a void.
What filled this void after the French Enlightenment attacked Christianity and Western culture? Pagan Greek philosophy and Eastern religion, spread through elite universities across the Atlantic. That’s why traditional Christianity faces hostility on campuses.
The "Logos" concept, invented by Heraclitus (c. 535-475 BCE) and dubbed "a Christian before Christ" by St. Justin, sparked violent early Church debates over the Trinity, nearly destroying it.
A broader definition: "Religious philosophy or speculation about the soul based on mystical insight into God’s nature; often the system of beliefs of the Theosophical Society, founded in New York City in 1875, incorporating Buddhism and Brahmanism, especially reincarnation and spiritual evolution." There’s more to it.
The Theosophical Society, founded by Helena Petrovna "Madame" Blavatsky (1831-1891), Henry Steel Olcott (1832-1907), and William Quan Judge (1851-1896), hinges on this from Blavatsky:
"We assert that the divine spark in man being one and identical in its essence with the Universal Spirit, our 'spiritual Self' is practically omniscient, but that it cannot manifest its knowledge owing to the impediments of matter. Now the more these impediments are removed, in other words, the more the physical body is paralyzed, as to its own independent activity and consciousness, as in deep sleep or deep trance, or, again, in illness, the more fully can the inner Self manifest on this plane..."
It’s modern gnosticism. Blavatsky claimed "knowledge" from dreams and revelations, meeting her "master" at 20 in London’s Hyde Park, and traveling to Tibet, India, and Egypt for "secrets" from Adepts.
Like New Age and neo-Pagan "ancient knowledge," Theosophy collects, alters, and claims exclusivity over material unearthed by 19th-century archaeology and secular research.
Theosophy embraces pantheism—nature, God, and all are one—borrowing spiritual evolution from Darwin and espousing relativism, with hostility toward Christianity and Judaism. Their "science" claims human civilizations cycle through seven stages:
Blavatsky posited humanity evolves through seven "Root Races." First age: pure spirits; second: sexless beings on lost Hyperborea; third: giant Lemurians gained consciousness and sex; fourth: modern humans on Atlantis, the cycle’s nadir. The fifth age reawakens psychic gifts. She claimed intuition and telepathy align with hearing and touch on this "ascending arc."
Blavatsky saw most current humans as the fifth root race, Aryans, from Atlantis, with older races dying out and the sixth race emerging on a reemerging Lemurian continent. She wrote: "The occult doctrine admits of no such divisions as the Aryan and the Semite... The Semites, especially the Arabs, are later Aryans—degenerate in spirituality and perfected in materiality." Her followers deny racism, citing the Society’s aim: "To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste, or color."
(Note: Original Aryans were Indo-Europeans who invaded India, unrelated to Blavatsky’s or Nazi myths. Guido von List and others mixed her ideas with nationalism, birthing Ariosophy and influencing the Thule Society, a precursor to Nazi ideology—per Wikipedia.)
Blavatsky merges Darwinism and nature worship into gnosticism:
"We assert that the divine spark in man being one and identical in its essence with the Universal Spirit, our 'spiritual Self' is practically omniscient, but that it cannot manifest its knowledge owing to the impediments of matter." — The Key to Theosophy, 1889
"Theosophy is that ocean of knowledge which spreads from shore to shore of the evolution of sentient beings; unfathomable in its deepest parts, it gives the greatest minds their fullest scope, yet, shallow enough at its shores, it will not overwhelm the understanding of a child." — The Ocean of Theosophy, William Q. Judge, 1893
"Theosophy is the shoreless ocean of universal truth, love, and wisdom, reflecting its radiance on the earth... Theosophy is divine nature, visible and invisible..." — The Key to Theosophy, 1889
"Theosophy, in its abstract meaning, is Divine Wisdom, or the aggregate of the knowledge and wisdom that underlie the Universe..." — The Key to Theosophy, 1889
"Theosophia: Wisdom-religion, or 'Divine Wisdom'... the substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies..." — The Theosophical Glossary, 1892
"To fully define Theosophy we must consider it under all its aspects... By that higher intuition acquired by Theosophia... man has been sometimes enabled in every age and every country to perceive things in the interior or invisible world." — "What Is Theosophy?", 1879
"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..." — "What Are The Theosophists?", 1879
"Theosophy believes in no miracle... recognizes nothing as supernatural; believes only in facts and Science; studies the laws of Nature, both Occult and patent..." — "Occult Phenomenon", 1880
"A true Theosophist must put in practice the loftiest moral ideal, must strive to realize his unity with the whole of humanity..." — The Key to Theosophy, 1889
"THEOSOPHY... has existed eternally throughout the endless cycles upon cycles of the Past, so it will ever exist throughout the infinitudes of the Future..." — The Key to Theosophy, 1889
Three chief objects:
"Theosophy is wisdom about God... and wisdom about nature. Embracing both the scientific and the religious, Theosophy is a scientific religion and a religious science." — The Ocean of Theosophy, 1893
"Theosophy is not a belief or dogma formulated or invented by man, but is a knowledge of the laws which govern the evolution of the physical, astral, psychical, and intellectual constituents of nature and of man." — The Ocean of Theosophy, 1893
"The teachings of Theosophy deal chiefly with our earth, although its purview extends to all the worlds..." — The Ocean of Theosophy, 1893
"Religious doctrine gives a theory which conflicts with reason and fact, while science can give for the facts no reason which is in any way noble or elevating. Theosophy alone... gives the key, the plan, the doctrine, the truth." — The Ocean of Theosophy, 1893
"Theosophy asks every one to reflect whether to give way to the animal below or look up to and be governed by the God within." — The Ocean of Theosophy, 1893
"Theosophy applies to the self—the thinker—the same laws which are seen everywhere in operation throughout nature..." — The Ocean of Theosophy, 1893
"Theosophy views the Universe as an intelligent whole, hence every motion in the Universe is an action of that whole leading to results..." — The Ocean of Theosophy, 1893
"The strength of Theosophy lies in the fact that it is not to be defined... Were we to make and declare a definition of Theosophy it would be only the words of those who participated in drawing it up..." — Forum Answers, William Q. Judge, 1896
Note the "not to be defined" dodge—phony Deists often refuse to pin down beliefs, drifting into New Age pantheism. Blavatsky would approve.
"Behold, O happy Pilgrim! The portal that faceth thee is high and wide, seems easy of access..." — The Voice of the Silence, 1889
"Before the soul can comprehend and may remember, she must unto the Silent Speaker be united..." — The Voice of the Silence, 1889
"Let thy Soul lend its ear to every cry of pain like as the lotus bares its heart to drink the morning sun..." — The Voice of the Silence, 1889
"The seeds of Wisdom cannot sprout and grow in airless space. To live and reap experience the mind needs breadth and depth..." — The Voice of the Silence, 1889 (hogwash)
"Dogma? Faith? These are the right and left pillars of every soul-crushing Theology. Theosophists have no dogmas, exact no blind faith..." — "A Society Without Dogma", 1877 (relativism and hogwash)
If New Age religion, including its varied forms, claims 25% of the U.S. population, it’s the second-largest belief system here. Post-Marxism—a pseudo-religion itself—syncretism has surged. Environmentalism, blending New Age, earth worship, and socialism, now looms as the biggest threat to God, liberty, and America. That’s my opinion.
Acknowledgment: I’d like to thank Grok, an AI by xAI, for helping me format and refine this article. The content and perspective are my own, Lewis Loflin.
