Theosophy News Worldwide 1st Quarter 2023

This issue was published on 2023-04-29 or 11 months 2 weeks ago.

Editorial

Steven Otto

Dear friends of Theosophy,

I have already mentioned it once or twice, the first quarter of the year is usually the quietest in terms of Theosophy, while the last is usually the busiest.

So it is even more worthwhile to browse the blogs and many current magazines of the movement and also the news published outside the movement on the subject of Theosophy. Of particular note here is a series of articles by Shawn F. Higgins on Patheos.com, but there were also mentions of Theosophy f.e. at bbc.com (Five ways to be calm), hollywoodReporter.com (first biopic of the painter Hilma af Klint), LAtimes.com (art exhibition "The Transcendental Painting Group” recently opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art).

I use the time also to give in the topic of the quarter a review of the topics of the last 10 years, which are mostly characterized by the escapades (if not scandals) of TS Adyar. There were not many participants in the survey from the last issue topic of the quarter, but 60% consider the ecological pronouncements of TS Adyar regarding Damodar Garden Leasing with the Shiv Nadar Trust to be just marketing, none of which will ultimately come true, according to their view.

If you don't already receive this great time saver by email, check in now free of charge. And now I wish you an informative read and a peaceful spring (or autumn, as the case may be).

With kind regards from Germany

Steven Otto
Editor of Theosophy World News

PS: Feedback is welcome and please recommend the website Theosophy.news -- the must read quarterly -- according to your possibilities. Thank You for supporting this independent theosophical non-profit project.

Topic of the quarter

Review: 10 years theme of the quarter

In this issue you will find a review of the last 10 years theme of the quarter:

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Press outside the movement about Theosophy

THEOSOPHY

patheos.com

THE BENEDICK [PREFACE]: TALKS ON RELIGION
During the academic year of 1906-1907, Henry Bedinger Mitchell, president of the New York Branch (NYB) of the Griscom Theosophical Society (GTS,) hosted a series of monthly meetings in his rooms at The Benedick Apartments (80 Washington Square East, New York) read more

 

patheos.com

THE BENEDICK IX: THE THEOSOPHICAL MOVEMENT.
For us, who are growing old in harness, who have been working for twenty years and more for Theosophy and Theosophical principles, this accession of new recruits brings joy and reassurance
read more

 

patheos.com

SHADE OF SATTAY
The liberality of their thought led both the Joshees and Phule into membership in the Theosophical Society. Gopalrao joined in 1879, while Anandibai joined on March 11, 1883, just weeks before leaving for America.
read more

 

patheos.com

A SWASTIKA WITHIN A CIRCLE
In October 1888, the eminent Sanskritist, Max Müller told Olcott that the Theosophical Society risked sacrificing “all the good opinion which scholars have of […] legitimate work for Sanskrit revival”
read more

 

patheos.com

CHARLEY
The protagonist of our story, Charles Johnston, or “Charley” as he was known to friends, was born in Ballykilbeg, County Down, February 17, 1867.
read more

gambellamedia.com

Our society needs to re-establish a culture of caring

This first object means philanthropy. Each Theosophist should therefore not only continue his private or public acts of charity but also strive to so understand Theosophical philosophy as to be able to expound it in a practical and easily understood manner
read more

 

iflscience.com

The Bizarre Tale Of Lemuria: A Long-Lost Continent Inspired By Lemurs

In the 19th century, a rumor circulated in the scientific world that a "lost continent" was laying undiscovered at the bottom of the Indian Ocean. They named it Lemuria as their misguided efforts were driven by some very confusing lemurs.
read more

 

FALSE

aiptcomics.com

Reptilians: from sci-fi villains to conspiracy favorites
Published in 1888, Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophical book The Secret Doctrine contains tales of Lemuria and Atlantis, and discussed “dragon men.” These elements later inspired Robert E. Howard’s Weird Tales magazine story “The Shadow Kingdom,” which is considered to be the first pop culture reference to Reptilians. (More famously, Howard was also the author of the Conan the Barbarian series.)
read more

 

theportalist.com

The Lost World of Agartha and the History Behind the Myth
The members of the Thule Society were drawing heavily from prior occultists, such as Madame Blavatsky and her Theosophical Society, who had drawn on ideas about Shambhala and other Hollow Earth theories in their teachings.
read more

 

vcyamerica.org

UN Pushing New Age Spirituality on Schoolchildren
Bailey was a New Age occultist and theosophist who was a disciple of Russian mystic Helena Blavatsky and also the founder of the Lucifer Publishing Company.
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MISC

lankaweb.com

Gandhi’s influence on Sri Lanka’s non-violent Independence struggle
He was assisted by the founders of the Theosophical Society, Colonel Henry Steel Olcott, an American and Helena Blavatsky, a Russian. Their joint efforts resulted in the revival of nationalist sentiment. It called for both greater autonomy and independence from colonial rule.
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laprogressive.com

Slavophile Russian Cosmists: Reds, Scientists and Mystics
Many of you who have heard of Theosophy may dismiss it as the wild ravings of Madam Blavatsky about cycles of previous races and lost civilizations. In the Anglo-American world of transcendental spiritualism, Theosophy might seem to be the opposite of radical political activity.
read more

 

bbc.com

Five ways to be calm – and why it matters
Undeniably woo-woo though her vision was, her interest in metaphysics and theosophy was intricate, even semi-scientific, and with its own internal logic – she was drawn to both the spiritualist writings of the founder of the Theosophical Society, Madam Blavatsky, and the philosophical ideas of the Medieval mystic Christian Rosenkreuz.
read more

 

historytoday.com

Kalifornia Dreaming: Praying with Vivekananda.
Similarly, theosophy laid the groundwork for him by esteeming Hindu philosophy in American eyes
read more

 

wearesouthdevon.com

A Morbid Interlude: Occult Torquay in the 1920s
During the latter years of the nineteenth century Rosa’s focus changed. She began to attend and host Theosophical Society meetings and corresponded with occultists including HS Olcott and Madame Blavatsky.
read more

 

ojaivalleynews.com

Ravi Ravindra returns to Krotona Institute
A much-needed voice of wisdom, compassion, and hope in today’s world, Ravi Ravindra will be speaking on “The Necessary Journey of Self-Transformation” at the Krotona Institute of Theosophy
read more

 

scroll.in

After travelling the world, an artist couple’s existential search for truth ended in an Indian town
While Earl was studying at the School of Art in Cleveland, he came in contact with philosopher Jagadish Chatterji, who was delivering lectures on Theosophy in American cities.
read more

 

ART

hollywoodreporter.com

‘Hilma’ Review: Lasse Hallström’s Vivid Portrait of a Visionary Artist Captures the Agony and the Ecstasy
The Swedish filmmaker’s latest feature is the first biopic of the painter Hilma af Klint.
read more

 

latimes.com

Review: Transcendental Painting Group is one of Modern art’s best kept secrets.
It isn’t necessary to be deeply informed in the spiritual intricacies of theosophy or other early 20th century occult systems to be absorbed into the pleasures of transcendental painting. “Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group” recently opened at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
read more

 

loscerritosnews.net

Another World The Transcendental Painting Group’ at Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Although the term ‘spiritual’ is often a reference to the artists in the group, their spirituality would supersede associations with conventional religion, rather reaching into the realm of Theosophy and other esoteric teachings that bind over time the many multiple facets of the spiritual quest.
read more also

 

artandobject.com

Schiaparelli’s Surrealism Lives On in New Collection
In part, Schiaparelli moved to avoid an arranged marriage. While in London, Elsa, who had an interest for theosophy and the spiritual, attended a lecture by Count Wilhelm de Wendt de Kerlor. After only one day of knowing one another, de Kerlor and Schiaparelli became engaged, and in 1914 they married.
read more

 

artforum.com

Grant Wallace
The mesmerizing art of Grant Wallace (1868–1954), a phantasmagoric amalgamation of theosophical tract, circus flyer, and beauty advertisement—all of which is shot through with a generous dose of science fiction—defies tidy categorization.
read more

 

artlyst.com

Religion and Spirituality in Post Impressionism National Gallery – Revd Jonathan Evens
If we then skip to the end of the period documented by this exhibition, we find there a different kind of religious influence holding sway. Wassily Kandinsky and Piet Mondriaan, on their separate journeys to abstraction, were both deeply impacted by Theosophy, the religion principally established in the United States during the late 19th century by Helena Blavatsky.
read more

 

apollo-magazine.com

The cosmic visions of Hilma af Klint
Many pioneers of abstraction were devotees of one or other branch of spiritual thought. Mondrian was a life member of the Theosophical Society and kept a photograph of its charismatic founder Madame Blavatsky.
read more

 

christies.com

Piet Mondrian: 10 things to know about the pioneering modernist
Another influence on Mondrian at this time was theosophy, a belief system newly established by the Russian mystic Helena Blavatsky, according to which the material world is but a part of a higher spiritual cosmos. The artist joined the Theosophical Society in 1909.
read more

 

theage.com.au

‘Where rock’n’roll comes from’: Kim Salmon rises from the black lagoon
You’d need a pretty big canvas to map out exactly how 19th Century Theosophy links to the invention of grunge music.
read more

 

thecollector.com

Was Wassily Kandinsky influenced by hilma af klint
Soon Steiner and his followers formed the Anthroposophical society, the Christian alternative to Theosophy, which also focused on the quasi-scientific exploration of the world, overlapping with spiritual practices.
read more

 

artshub.com.au

Book review: The Other Side, Jennifer Higgie
These were both very much the domain of women from Theosophy’s colourful Madame Blavatsky to the Fox sisters who gave rise to modern Spiritualism and the many mediums who held home séances and communed regularly with the dead
read more

 

greenwichfreepress.com

Open Arts Alliance to Host Free Zoom Talk: “Broomsticks to Bubbles: Feminine Power in The Wizard of Oz”
“He (L. Frank Baum) supported women’s right to vote and joined the Victorian new age religion Theosophy, which had favorable views of female power—and took magical power very seriously.”
read more

 

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The “Wisdom religion” is the inheritance of all the nations, the world over.

HPB, SD:1:xviii (Itroductory)

Upcoming events

ITC-Board (ULT, TSPL, Adyar)

International Theosophy Conference 2022: Universal Symbolism of Theosophy - Unveiling the Language of Divine Thought

July 19 – July 23, 2023 online event
more information

 

European School of Theosophy (TS Adyar)

European School of Theosophy:THE VEIL OF ISIS
16 – 21 October 2023, Luxor, Egypt
more information

 

TS Adyar

12th World Congress of The Theosophical Society (Adyar)
23 – 29 July 2025, Vancouver, Canada
more information

 

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News from Theosophical Societies

TS Adyar HQ i. Chennai published RECORDINGS Wisdom for Living -series, Recent talks recorded and Pictures 147th International Convention, see full campagin archiv here.

Theosophical Order of Service (TOS) Elected New President, Kathy Gann

A note for our German readers: TS Point Loma - Covina e. V. published a newsletter on Artificial Intelligence.

TS (Adyar) in (North-)America published a lot of videos on it's YouTube Channel, see f.e. also the video-section. Also TS Adyar England, Theosophy Dehli, ULT Bethesda, Wellington Theosophical Society and TOS USA and EuST have active Youtube-Channels.

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To be true, religion and philosophy must offer the solution of every problem. That the world is in such a bad condition morally is a conclusive evidence that none of its religions and philosophies--those of the civilized races less than any other--have ever possessed the TRUTH. The right and logical explanations on the subject of the problems of the great dual principles, right and wrong, good and evil, liberty and despotism, pain and pleasure, egotism and altruism, are as impossible to them now as they were 1880 years ago. They are as far from the solution as they ever were, but. . . . "To these there must be somewhere a consistent solution, and if our doctrines will show their competence to offer it, then the world will be the first one to confess, that ours must be the true philosophy, the true religion, the true light, which gives truth and nothing but the TRUTH. . . .

From the article "The Theosophical Society: Its Mission and Its Future" by H. P. Blavatsky, published in Lucifer, August 1888 and especially this paragraph HPB has quoted from the so-called "Maha Cohan Letter".

Theosophical Magazines

The TS Point Loma Blavatskyhouse

Lucifer
Periodical magazine for seekers of truth
publisher, Independent search for Truth

 

The TS (Pasadena) Australasian Section

Theosophy Downunder
Newsletter of the Theosophical Society (Pasadena) Australasian Section
publisher, March 2023 (pdf)

 

TS (Adyar) in Australia

Theosophy in Australia Quarterly
Newsletter/Quarterly of the TS (Adyar) in Australia
publisher, March 2023 (pdf)

 

The Aquarian Theosophist

The Aquarian Theosophist
publisher, March 2023 (pdf), Feb. 2023 (pdf), Jan. 2023 (pdf)

 

United Lodge of Theosophists (ULT)

The Theosophical Movement Magazine
publisher, Jan. 2023 (pdf), Feb. 2023 (pdf), March 2023 (pdf)

 

The TS Adyar Indian Section

The Indian Theosophist
publisher, Indian Theosophist March 2023, Bombay Federation Bulletin – March 2023(pdf)

 

The TS Adyar HQ

The Theosophist / Adyar Newsletter
publisher, Theosophist March 23 (pdf), Jan 2023 (pdf), Feb 2023 (pdf), Adyar Newsletter - Q1-2023 (pdf)

 

The TS Pasadena American Section

The Spiral Path
publisher, 013 Spring Equinox 2023(pdf)

 

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Articles from Theosophical sites

Blavatsky News

Montreal Theosophy Project

Theos Talk

Theosophy Forward

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Nevertheless, personal immortality is conditional...

H. P. Blavatsky, Secret Doctrine Vol. III, p. 510, On Exoteric "Blinds" and "The Death of the Soul"

✴✴✴ The End  ✴✴✴

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