Theosophy - a synthesis of science, religion and philosophy

A brief history of Theosophy                                                                                                                      Theosophy as known to the modern world was founded by the Russian initiate Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in New York in 1875 as an attempt to spread divine truth to the intellectually advanced part of humanity. However, "the Ancient Wisdom" has always existed in the world, either openly as Theosophy is taught today, or in the past, in Egypt, Greece and Atlantis where there were great temples and initiation schools run by the Earth's Hierarchy, or hidden, as in the Middle Ages amongst the alchemists, Rosicrucians and Freemasoners, who were persecuted by both the clergy and the secular powers who (rightly) felt their power threatened by the truths which these hidden societies represented.

What is Theosophy?                                                                                                                                     Theosophy is "A synthesis of science, religion and philosophy", and its motto is: "There is no religion higher than Truth". Practically, Theosophy presents itself today as a vast spiritual and cosmological system which seeks to investigate and explain Cosmos and man's role herein, both on the basis of occult research (research based on extrasensory perception, be it clairvoyance, clairvoyance, visions, telepathically received messages or memories or visions retrieved through hypnotic regression, i.e. from higher states of consciousness) which is taught by a number of Theosophical groups (see the links list:click here) around the world.

Leading figures in Theosophy                                                                                                                             Some of the most important figures of Theosophy in this and the former century have been: H. P. Blavatsky, Annie Besant, Helena Roerich, Charles. W. Leadbeater, Geoffrey Hodson, Alice A. Bailey, Corine Heline and Dion Fortune, and currently operating we have teachers and writers such as Torkom Saraydarian, Benjamin Creme, Michael Robbins and Asger Lorentsen. (See the literature list: click here).

Theosophical teachings                                                                                                                                         While Theosophy is an ever-expanding science, a dynamic living teaching, which originates in the cosmic mind or the being which we call God, represented by myriads of beings on many different planes of existence and levels of consciousness and development, most Theosophical groups today base their understanding on the teachings which were given through Alice A. Bailey in the 1930's and 1940's from her Tibetan teacher, Dhjwal Khul. These books present a spiritual cosmology which describes the universe as a vast, living being, containing myriads of other living beings within it, all evolving towards higher and higher states of consciousness and experience.

The Great Plan                                                                                                                                                      Theosophy explains how evolution on the planet Earth follows a certain scheme, the Great Plan, which is laid out from higher planes of consciousness. The Great Plan for this Earth is part of the plan for the evolution of the solar system, and so it continues upwards, plans within plans and cycles within cycles. On this Earth, the Great Plan is implemented by the Earth's Spiritual Hierarchy, also called the Great White Brotherhood, and it was the Hierarchy that founded the Theosophical Society through Helena Blavatsky and began releasing Theosophy to the public in 1875 as a part of their work for the enlightenment of humanity.

The Hierarchy                                                                                                                                                               The Hierarchy consists of perfected men and women who have finished the cycles of reincarnation on this planet or another, and have learnt to master their human and spiritual nature and the forces of the three lower worlds - the physical, the emotional and the mental. They express perfected love and wisdom (seen with human eyes, for there is always a higher standard of perfection which can be attained), and have chosen to remain here on the Earth to serve humanity's and the Earth's growth. Some of the Hierarchy's Masters are known from their earlier incarnations: The Master Jesus from his incarnation in Palestine where he helped to anchor a vast impulse of love and founded the Christian religion, and from his later incarnation as Appolonia of Tyana. Buddha is known from his incarnation as Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism; Kuthumi from his earlier incarnations as Pythagoras, one of the great teachers of Ancient Greece, and as Francis of Assisi, one of the greatest saints of the Catholic Church, and Mary is known from her incarnation as Mary, the mother of Jesus.
The work of individual members of the Hierarchy is described in many books, for instance:: C. W. Leadbeater: "The Masters and the Path"; Alice A. Bailey: "The Externalisation of the Hierarchy" and Asger Lorentsen: "Man's Inner Structure". Other well-known Masters of the Hierarchy are HIlarion (known from his incarnatoin as St. Paul, who helped to spread Christianity in Asia Minor), Sct. Germain (known from his incarnation as the Count of Sct. Germain in the 18th century and the inspirator behind most of the Freemason and occult lodges in Europe), Morya (who was the inspirator,   together with Kuthumi and Dhjwal Khul, behind the foundation of the Theosophical Society) and finally Maitreya, known from his earlier incarnation as Krishna, and as the real inspirator behind Christianoity, since it was him who overshadowed Jesus during the last three years of his life in Palestine. Maitreya is known as Maitreya Buddha in the East, and as Christ in the West, and he is the leader of the Earth's spiritual Hierarchy and embodies the heart centre of this planet.

                                                            The Earth's Spiritual Hierarchy:

Cosmic laws: The Law of reincarnation, the law of evolution and the law of karma                              Apart from the teachings about the structure of the universe and the function of the Earth's Hierarchy, Theosophy describes in great detail a number of universal laws which govern our lives, as well as the lives of lesser and great beings. One of them is the law of reincarnation which simply says that human beings (as well as many other life forms) go through many cycles of physical incarnations in order to evolve, gain experience and grow, until a state of perfection is achieved. When we have learnt all there is to learn in the physical realm, we become a Master of wisdom and graduate from the Earth school, free to continue our service and evolution here or at another place in the universe. Connected with the law of reincarnation is the law of evolution, a basic universal law,  which describes how every unit of consciousness evolves towards and strives for higher states of being, experience and self-expression. These two link with the law of Karma (or the law of cause of effect) which states that whatever any life unit sends out through its actions and thoughts, it will receive again - "as you sow you shall reap". These laws govern our personal lives as well as the life of cosmic, together with other cosmic laws such as the law of love, the law of mercy, the law of periodicity and the law of contrasts

The Seven Rays                                                                                                                                                   Another important part of theosophical teachings is the teaching about the seven rays. The Seven rays are divine intelligences or energies which permeate this solar system, emanating from the seven stars of Usa Major (the Great Bear) and going to the seven stars in the Pleiades (the Seven Sisters). It is said that all living beings within this solar system is characterised by one or several of these rays and their qualities, for instance this solar system is a 2nd ray system (the second ray expresses the qualities of love and wisdom), while the planet Earth is a 3rd ray planet (active intelligence).  Any person will have his personality on one of these 7 rays, and the personality again is a mixture of physical/etheric body, astral body and mental body, each of which has its own rays. Much can be said about a person's character, potentials and development problems from his rays, and therefore, the science of the 7 rays will form an important part of the psychology of the New Age. Within this field, a pioneer work has been done by Michael Robbins with his book "The Tapestry of the Gods", and also by Benjamin Creme who lists the ray structures of many famous people in the end of his books (Maitreya's Mission I - III).
                                                             The 7 Rays coming to the Earth

The Rays and their qualities                                                                                                                                      As we have seen, each of the seven rays is a divine energy or quality:                                                                   1st ray: expresses will or power                                                                                                                                   2nd ray: expresses love and wisdom                                                                                                                        3rd ray: expresses active intelligence                                                                                                                        4th ray: expresses beauty or harmony through conflict                                                                                       5th ray: expresses concrete intelligence or science                                                                                             6th ray: expresses idealism or devotion                                                                                                                    7th ray: expresses order or ceremonial magic

All beings in the solar system "belong" to one or several of the seven rays - each individual has a personality ray, a ray of the physical body, a ray of the emotional body, a ray of the mental body, a soul ray and a monadic ray, and thus his spiritual structure is really a mixture of different ray qualities, expressing themselves through his various bodies or vehicles.

As perfected beings, we will express the qualities of one of the seven rays primarily. For instance, Hilarion is the Chohan (Master) of the 5th ray which gives him a major responsibility with inspiring scientific work on this planet, while Morya is the 1st ray Chohan, and has the task of inspiring and guiding leaders, politicians and statesmen to see and follow the right visions and make the right decisions in accordance with the Great Plan for the Earth. Maitreya and Kuthumi work on the 2nd ray - the ray of the teacher - of love and wisdom, and therefore with religion and education. The Christ spirit is the essence of all true religions on this planet.

Religions are guidelines for evolving humanity                                                                                                
Theosophy sees itself as a synthesis of science, religion and philosophy, and seeks to show the similarities in the world's religions, knowing that all religions are given from the Hierarchy as a teaching to humanity, adapted to humanity's culture and stage of development at any given time. The religions express the same divine truths in their core - as much as humanity is ready to assimilate at that moment. For instance, Gautama Buddha showed humanity how to gain freedom from desire by transmuting it to aspiration and desire for wisdom and understanding, while Christ taught us about the importance of love, forgiveness and compassion as a means to achieve peace in the world and to reach the Kingdom of God, i.e. the state of consciousness of an inititiate, the NIrvana of Buddhism. In modern time this is being realized more and more, and There is a strong tendency towards the common understanding, that the God of all religions is the same, and the goal of all religions also the same, namely to establish love, brotherhood and right human relations on this planet, and this shows the great progress which humanity has made in the past centuries, the strong effects of the sufferings of the past 2,000 years and the strong, spiritual energies which are now flowing to the planet.

The law of cycles - transition to a New Age                                                                                                          The law of cycles, another important universal law, tells us that things evolve in cycles, smaller cycles within larger cycles. In physical life, the small day cycle - day and night - mirrors the longer cycle of summer and winter, and the larger cycle of incarnation - discarnation, birth and death. Similarly, planets themselves alternate between being in incarnation (a planetary manvantara) or out of incarnation (a planetary pralaya), and the same is goes for solar systems, galaxies and even larger units. Many cycles have a specific meaning in connection with the human kingdom, for instance the cycle of the root races. All people on this planet now belong to the fifth root race, the primary focus of which is the development of the concrete mind (the 5th principle), but to different subraces. For instance, the white/Kaukasian race is the 5th subrace, the asian the 4th and the black/African the 3rd, and the new 6th subrace which is now slowly coming into incarnation will have a better ability for intuitive thinking and help to overcome the current divisions within humanity, in science, religion and philosophy on the basis of universal, intuitive and holistic thinking and understanding.
Another important cycle for humanity is the precession of the equinoxes. At spring equinox, the sun will be seen from the Earth within one of the12 signs of the zodiac, and this position changes very slowly, so that it moves through the whole of the zodiac in 26,000 years. It stays for about 2167 years in each astrological sign, and In each of these periods, human culture is influenced by the spiritual energies of that particular astrological sign.

Cyclic changes in human culture
The transition to a New Age, of which so many people speak, is illustrated symbolically by this movement of the sun. For about the last 2,000 years, the sun has been in Pisces, and the planetary civilisation has been strongly influenced by the energies of Pisces and of the 6th ray of devotion or idealism. The positive qualities of this ray can be seen in many of the world's religions - in the intense devotion and mysticism of Christianity in the Middle Ages of Europe and in the lives of many great mystics and saints, and strong adherence of humanity to certain religions or ideologies. The 6th ray influence expresses itself in its higher aspects as intense devotion and love for an ideal or an object. The lower aspects (i.e. when people express the 6th ray energy in a distorted way) are fanaticism, self-righteousness and emotional "clinging" to an object , and these qualities have also been prevalent in the many religious and ideological conflicts of the last 2,000 years.
Since 1675, the 7th ray of order or ceremonial magic is slowly coming into manifestation in the planetary culture, and the strong shift of energies in the late1960's was the first time when the incoming 7th ray was stronger than the outgoing 6th ray. The years after this have been full of conflicts, but the new rhythm will gradually and inevitably take over as the years pass by.
Whenever a new ray comes in and an old one goes out, the same pattern repeats: The structures and the civilisation which was built on and vitalised by the old energy begin to lose vitality and crystallize, as the ensouling energy goes out (in the same way that people may crystallize and stagnate in old age if they don't have a vital inner, spiritual life), and the new incoming energy inspires visionaries and reformers who fight to establish its new rhythm. This creates a conflict between the old, well-known, established and crystallized structures and powers, and the new germinating impulses which contains the seeds of the new life.
In out age, the conflict takes place between the old structures of the 6th ray (expressed for instance in parts of the traditional religions and in politics and the educational system when it is based on competition and seperatism) and the new impulses of the 7th ray which tend to understand things holistically in interconnected systems, and to approach religion through understanding and investigation rather than through mere faith and devotion. When society has been organised along the patterns of the incoming 7th ray (the energy of freedom is one of the basic qualities of the 7th ray), there will be a better organisation and distribution of the world's goods and raw materials, and humanity will have a more universal and holistic outlook on the world and humanity's place in cosmos. Gradually, the Earth will open for contact with other planetary civilisations, and a transfer of knowledge and information will take place which will enable us to solve the present ecological, economical and political problems which are largely a result of egotism and a much too short and harrow perspective in our planning of things.

The Age of Aquarius

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