Theosophical Society
obrag
The Weirdest Building In Ocean Beach History? An Egyptian Revival Trolley Station Once Stood at Bacon and West Point Loma
In addition to these more common styles, there has been a long history of eccentric architecture in San Diego and its beach areas. Although many of the weirder buildings have been torn down, the bizarre onion-domed Theosophical Society Headquarters and the Parthenon-styled Greek Amphitheater at Point Loma Nazarene are still standing. You can also find cool examples of “Tiki Modern” architecture scattered around Shelter Island and other parts of the Poin
read more
newsin.asia
“We are not the terrorists”: Interview with Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thero
The Buddhism in Sri Lanka today is largely based on the Buddhist revival movement carried out by the Dutch colonisers who wanted to quell the rise of Catholicism propagated by the Portuguese colonisers. It was revived again, during British occupation, by foreign Buddhist enthusiasts such as Henry Olcott, an American military officer who was the first president of the Theosophical Society.
read more
randburgsun
Truthseekers meet to decrypt conspiracies
The Truthseekers are very closely affiliated with a fellow esoterical group, the Theosophical Society of South Africa that is based in Auckland Park.
read more
thehindu.
Indian Institute of World Culture turns 75
P Wadia joined the Bombay branch of the Theosophical Society in 1904, and shifted to its Madras branch in 1907. Wadia later worked in the Home Rule
read more
voiceofsandiego
Baseball's Greatest Myth Has Roots in Point Loma
At the center of it all was a man named Albert Goodwill Spalding, the early baseball player-turned-sporting goods king whose last name is emblazoned on countless baseballs, bats and gloves. He landed here around 1900 at the urging of his mistress-turned-wife, a follower of a pioneering New Age-adjacent religion known as Theosophy that had set up its fantastical “White City” headquarters along the shore.
read more
Adyar Theosophical Academy in Chennai imparts education with a difference
Adyar Theosophical Academy in Chennai imparts education with a difference
For the uninitiated, this is the Adyar Theosophical Academy (ATA) in Besant Nagar, which began its classes in June and is making waves since then. “We have had 31 admissions this year for pre-school, LKG, UKG, classes one and two,” said director of ATA, Sonal Murali, adding that the parents who were drawn to the school had a similar mindset.
read more
newstodaynet
New school opened at Theosophical Society
Chennai: Adyar Theosophical Academy (ATA) was formally opened on the campus of The Theosophical Society (TS) recently. A press release said, Vic Hao Chin, the chairman of Golden Link Foundation, Philippines, planted Mangolia Champaca sapling to mark the school’s birthday and was joined by K Jaikumar, the general manager of TS, guests, teachers and students, in putting soil and sprinkling water to symbolically nurture it collectively. ATA has classes from preschool to grade two. The opening program was attended by the parents of all students as well as members and friends of the TS.
read more
Other
hethepeople
Seven Inspiring Educators Who Worked Tirelessly For Women’s Education
Following the publication of Malviya’s plan, Besant met Malviya and in April 1911 they agreed to unite their forces to build the university in Varanasi. Today it has over 30,000 students residing in campus and possibly Asia’s largest residential university. She set up the Theosophical society in India but she was also a champion of gender rights and female education. To promote the university’s expansion, Malviya invited eminent guest speakers such as Mahatma Gandhi and even Annie Besant to deliver a series of what are now called The University Extension Lectures between 5–8 February 1916. Gandhi’s lecture on the occasion was his first public address in India.
read more
newindianexpress
It's all in the genes: Does DNA call bluff on Aryan Invasion Theory?
The great Aurobindo defined an ‘Aryan’ as not someone of a particular race, but a person who “accepted a particular type of self-culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration”. The Theosophical Society went beyond the premise and declared that the Aryans were the founders of European civilisation.
read more
thebetterindia
IIT-Madras@60: 3 Generations of Students Share How It Changed Their Lives Forever
“Life in the hostel was very much about socializing, hanging around in somebody else’s wing and listening to music, etc. There was no concept of relegating yourself to your room, sitting with your laptop or playing computer games. On weekends, we would cycle out to Mahabalipuram or the Theosophical Society. Hanging out in campus was itself a good enough past time. Academics was pretty much the same, although we had a lot more physical work than current batches because we had an entire week full of workshop sessions every alternate week. So, it was physically quite taxing,” he recalls.
read more
thewire
Remembering Rettamalai Srinivasan, the Lasting Emblem of Dalit Political Aspiration
He forged contacts with high ranking officials in the government and various other important individuals of the time. His brief relationship with Colonel Henry Olcot and Madamme Blavatsky, founders of the Theosophical Society, seems to have influenced him in the initial years. However, he had joined their Yoganubha Sangh and left it soon.
read more
latimes
Newsletter: The uniquely California rise of Marianne Williamson
In his indispensable 1946 volume “Southern California: An Island on the Land,” historian and social critic Carey McWilliams penned the ur-history of the region as world capital of woo woo, and dated the emergence of the phenomenon to roughly the turn of the last century, when Katherine Tingley, “the first major prophetess of the region” established a Theosophical community near San Diego in 1900. It’s not exactly a direct line from Tingley to Aimee Semple McPherson to Williamson, but the path is there.
read more
mit.edu
Writing the Future With Utopias
These clubs were only around for a few years, but they, and Bellamy’s book, were an important influence on the Theosophical movement, which went on to establish a dozen utopian communities in the United States. The impact on American writing was strong, too, with more than 150 books being written in response to “Looking Backward” — including exuberant sequels and several books opposed to the ideas of the original novel.
read more
stuff.
People with criminal pasts have every right to stand for offi
Another Palmerston North mayoralty candidate, Ross Barber, has been convicted multiple times for assaulting children. Barber, who is campaigning for mayor under the banner of "Team God, Theosophical Society", is a regular candidate in Manawatū politics
read more
japan-forward
Ekai Kawaguchi: First Japanese to Reach Tibet via British India and Nepal
Kawaguchi’s Interaction with Annie Besant... The account of his journey in Japanese was published in two volumes by 1904, followed by the English version titled Three Years in Tibet in 1909 by the Theosophist Office, Vasanta Press, Adyar (Madras), British India.
read more
thehindu
Spotting many butterflies in Chennai? The city's plants help!
double-branded crows, striped albatrosses and more have been observed in the usual city hotspots, including Theosophical Society, Semmozhi Poonga and
read more
caravanmagazine
Is intelligence a tool for propaganda or truth-seeking?: An excerpt from “The Intelligence Trap”
Consider how Conan Doyle was once infamously fooled by two schoolgirls. In 1917—a few years before he met Houdini—16-year-old Elsie Wright and nine-year-old Frances Griffith claimed to have photographed a population of fairies frolicking around a stream in Cottingley, West Yorkshire. Through a contact at the local Theosophical Society, the pictures eventually landed in Conan Doyle’s hands.
read more
jamaica-gleaner.
Religion & Culture | The dangers of spiritual healing - Healer and patient, beware!
n matters of spirituality and metaphysics, I defer to few, none more so than Helena Blavatsky, author of the classics, Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine. Fittingly, from her Collected Writings, Volume 4, p 380-386 [‘The Theosophist’], I share her counsel on spiritual healing:
read more
euroweeklynews
Reincarnation
Inspired by Helena Blavatsky‘s major works, astrologers in the early twentieth-century integrated the concepts of karma and reincarnation into the practice of Western astrology.
read more
cityandstateny
arianne Williamson’s philosophy is a New York phenomenon
his is the so-called “Law of Attraction,” a term coined by Helena Blavatsky in 1877, and still popular in New Age books today, such as “The Secret,” the mid-2000s self-help bestseller. Positive thoughts are said to attract positive outcomes, and vice versa.
read more
catholicherald
Heretic of the week: Ignatius Loyola Donnelly
His books inspired many later writers, including Immanuel Velikovsky, and caused him to be bracketed with the likes of Helena Blavatsky, Rudolf Steiner and Col James Churchward – hence the frequent dismissal of his works as “pseudoscience” and “pseudohistory”.
read more
thewire
In Trying To Defy Colonialism, Draft NEP Walks the Path of the Colonisers
Bradlaugh Hall was named for Charles Bradlaugh, the late-Victorian freethinker, who had addressed the Indian National Congress in 1889, when its aim was only to secure a greater share in governance, per Macaulay’s vision. His closest associate in England was Annie Besant—though her conversion to Theosophy right around then opened a rift between them
read more
theprint
Congress today doesn’t need a leader or an election win, it needs an ideology
A.O. Hume, the originator of the idea of Congress, was also a maverick of sorts. Though a Christian, he was a sort of skeptic. He believed more in Theosophy, and was a philosophical disciple of a Tibetan guru.
read more
resilience
Campesino Past, Biodynamic Future
I finally came to the books of the Austrian scientist-philosopher Rudolf Steiner, the founder of the biodynamic approach to agriculture. I read Theosophy first, then the farmers’ course and then the works continued to flow into my hands and I had no intention of letting that flow stop.
read more
khaleejtimes
City Times UAE-based designer Yeya on making a gown for JLo
This collection was inspired by the juxtaposition of light and dark called Chiaroscuro. I choose different colours that represent the different states of light reflected. This colour represented the fiery sun and its shine. I am fascinated by philosophy and the notion of light and dark has so many deeper meanings in theosophy.
read more
khaleejtimes
City Times UAE-based designer Yeya on making a gown for JLo
This collection was inspired by the juxtaposition of light and dark called Chiaroscuro. I choose different colours that represent the different states of light reflected. This colour represented the fiery sun and its shine. I am fascinated by philosophy and the notion of light and dark has so many deeper meanings in theosophy.
read more
scroll
On the anniversary of Vivekananda’s Chicago speeches, time to remember what he said – and didn’t
he Indian presence at Chicago was impressive. There were no less than a dozen delegates invited, though not all spoke. There were delegates representing Indian Buddhism, Jainism, Theosophy, the Brahmo Samaj and even Indian Islam and Christianity.
read more
fox5ny
The Second Coming of the New Age | Fox 5 Films
"It's a culmination of Pagan beliefs and practices that draws on things like Eastern Mysticism, The Occult, Theosophy, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc., and this really is a prominent type of spirituality in the West right now."
read more
Hollywoodreporter
'Midsommar' Filmmaker Ari Aster Details His Influences
There were a lot of artists who I was thinking about when we were working on the production design of this film, and many were theosophical artists, just because I saw a lot of ties between theosophy and the world we were building here. Frantisek Kupka was one.
read more
boingboing
The world's largest occult library has a public online archive
Amsterdam's Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica (AKA "The Ritman Library) houses more ths 25,000 occult texts, covering "Hermetics, Rosicrucians, Theosophy, alchemy, mysticism, Gnosis and Western Esotericism, Sufism, Kabbalah, Anthroposophy, Catharism, Freemasonry, Manichaeism, Judaica, the Grail, Esotericism, and comparative religion."
read more
Patheos
Is Marianne Williamson a New Ager?
Both of her parents were non-observant half-Jews. Her mother, Rose, involved herself in Theosophy, Christian Science, and then Unity School of Christianity. Nevertheless, young Helen was baptized as a Baptist at age twelve.
read more
Crikey
Greta Thunberg and the cult of rational thinking
In the years before WWI, the crisis of traditional Christianity prompted a search for… anything else. Into a mess of seances, callisthenics and theosophy emerged Krishnamurti, born in India in 1895, adopted by the Theosophists and presented as a “World Teacher
read more
Catholicherald
Heretic of the week: Charles Webster Leadbeater
He might have remained there indefinitely, but a short time after moving there, the young cleric discovered first spiritualism and then Theosophy, joining the
read more
False Allegations
patheos.
Some Hasty Notes on the Western Encounter with Buddhism & Specifically Zen in the West
By the end of the Nineteenth century the forming Theosophical society wound together elements of spiritualism and Buddhism, capturing many imaginations. In 1880 their founder Helena Blavatsky together with her principal disciple Col. Henry Steel Olcott received the five precepts as lay Buddhists. Perhaps, of course, her Theosophical or Esoteric Buddhism only touched upon the traditional religion here and there. Still, their public embrace startled the public imagination.
read more
jstor
Satan, the Radical
Four years later, Theosophical Society founder Helena Petrovna Blavatsky began publishing a different journal called Lucifer. Theosophist thought combined western occultism, Hindu cosmology, and modern science while aligning itself with women’s suffrage, anti-colonialism, and social reform. Blavatsky didn’t call for actual Satan worship. But she did use Lucifer as a symbol of rebellion that went beyond formal politics into territory that might be called spiritual.
read more
mid-day
Equating paganism with Hinduism
Glamorisation of paganism has become popular in the West as part of an anti-Church, anti-patriarchy and pro-nature movement. It is rooted in theosophy movements of the 19th century, as well as resurgence of Wicca and other New Age faiths that see themselves as more organic and feminine, fluid rather than rigid.
read more
standardmedia
Before you support or opt for cremation, think twic
The New Agers believe that the human being is possessed of untapped powers and wisdom that offers all answers and hope for mankind. Thus, science, philosophy, education, and modern-day cults have substituted the worship of God. This has given rise to such systems as Gnosticism, alchemy, mesmerism, freemasonry, mysticism, theosophy and spiritualism.
read more
Reason
The Growth of the "Cultic Milieu" and the Spread of Harmful Ideas
This is a kind of subterranean world or counterculture with a whole range of ideas that are strongly opposed to conventional beliefs and knowledge. These included highly heterodox and unusual religious systems (such as neo-paganism or Theosophy or Satanism), marginalised political ideologies… and theories that rejected central elements of orthodox science, such as rejection of vaccination….
read more
Patheos
Who Is Helping Christians Cope with Non-Christian Messages?
The theosophy in the movie lies in the supernatural beings. They are versions of theosophy’s “ascended masters.” The New Thought in the movie is the idea (often also embraced by theosophists) that mind can control matter and even space and time. The theme of the power of love is compatible with Christianity, but in the movie love and will are mixed together in a paganized way.
read more
Theosophy
deccanchronicle
Remembering Jiddu Krishnamurti in his 125th birth anniversary year
Born in Madanapalle in Chittoor district in later day Andhra Pradesh, a coveted find of the Theosophical Society with its international headquarters in old Madras, now Chennai, he travelled and spoke in many cities of the world until his endlessly questioning spirit left his physical frame admired for its Greek-like aesthetics in Ojai in California in February 1986; however, what strikes most is his oft-repeated Socratic poser at his talks, “Sir, are you listening?”
read more
Frieze
An Occult Art History of the American West
A new book charts Theosophy’s influence on Western modernism.
read more
Art
californiadesertart
Awakenings: An Untold Backstory of the Agnes Pelton Renaissance
Erika Doss, University of Notre Dame, wrote about the spiritual quest that drove the paintings and key women who shaped new thought beyond scientific materialism, such as Emma Curtis Hopkins, Helena Blavatsky, and Katherine Tingley:
read more
kcet
The Lost Colony of Sven-Ska: Christina Lillian and the Cathedral City Artists
The Sven-Ska women were fully immersed in small-town life — decorating tables for Women's Club luncheons, giving neighbors rides to the market — at the same time they were quietly probing philosophy, the occult, mysticism, Theosophy and how it all related to art.
read more
thecostaricanews
A Heartfelt Tribute to the Always Remembered Poet Rogelio Fernandez Güell
Rogelio Fernández Güell dictated several lectures on spiritualism and theosophy in Mexico City. He founded the newspaper “La Epoca” and the philosophical magazine “Helios”, of which he was a director in 1912.
read more
Lost Farm: The Rediscovered Homestead of Agnes Pelton
Lost Farm: The Rediscovered Homestead of Agnes Pelton
Agnes gave two acres of her land as a wedding gift to her friend Alice Geiger in 1907. (The Geiger name would pop up in the 1930s in Pasadena Theosophy circles, as Alice’s son, Henry, was a popular writer and lecturer on the topic.)
read more
Haaretz
Hilma af Klint: She Was Once Disregarded. Now Art Lovers Are Lining Up to See Her Work
Together with her artistic pursuits, she took an interest in séances from an early age, believed in supernatural forces and was a member of various spiritual groups. Anthroposophy and theosophy also attracted her.
read more
Washingtonpost
Artist Hyman Bloom’s body of work is revered. And the bodies are cadavers
As he moved away from practicing Judaism, she shared her interest in metaphysical literature. Bloom began to explore theosophy, Vedanta (one of the main branches of Hindu philosophy) and other forms of spiritualism. He remained a seeker all his life.
read more
artnet
We Decoded All the Ingenious Art-Historical References in the Horror Movie ‘Midsommar,’ From Hilma af Klint to Judy Chicago
So, what art did the director actually draw on to realize his vision? Particularly influential, Aster said, were artists associated with theosophy and occultism, such as Hilma af Klint, František Kupka, and Rudolf Steiner—figures whose work often features repeated symbols and colors that coincide with a certain spiritual lexicon.
read more
theage
Bauhaus Now celebrates the messy side of design's 100-year-old upstart
Dwyer’s ‘‘seance’’ channels the ‘‘less rational’’, forgotten Bauhauslers such as Johannes Itten and Lothar Schreyer, who were expelled during the movement’s first phase – its Weimar era – for their interest in theosophy, mysticism and the occult.
read more
Catholicherald.
The magical thinking of WB Yeats
Yeats, in another Victorian-like way, filled the gap in his early spiritual life with theosophy and then with a commitment to the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.
read more
Frieze
Wicked! Modern Art's Interest in the Occult
Movements that were founded in the 19th century, or which saw an upsurge in popularity, include Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Martinism, Freemasonry, ...
read more