Dear friends of Theosophy,
let's have a briefly overview what happened durng the last quarter of 2015. Beside the 140th anniversary of the founding of the Theosophical Society on Nov. 17 and other international events, f.e. the Parliament of the World's Religions, there was a terrible natural disaster in Chenai, India (see "Theme of the Quarter" below/, sadly enough currently only one of many disasters on this planet.
Of course many magazines and articles were published and also videos (f.e. of the 140th International Convention at Adyar or on the new Youtube Channel Theosophy Cardiff. As in allmost every issue we also have to deal with false allegations against Theosophy. Our "admirers" are busily trying to drag everything that has to do with Theosophy in the mud. And there are people, that let this false accusation not be unanswered by defending Theosophy, f.e. here, here, here and here, what we have to appreciate, because they do this in accordance with H.P.B. She answered to the questions, how can someone help the Society:
Fourthly, by defending the Society from the unjust aspersions cast upon it, by every legitimate device in their power. ("The Key to Theosophy" by H. P. Blavatsky, Section 12)
Outside the Movement I think the retrospective of the theosophical inspired painter Lawren Harris (1885-1970, a national icon in Canada, also a former member of the Theosophical Society Toronto) was the big issue. The well known actor Steve Martin was the guest curator at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles as part of the the exhibitin that's named: "The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris". It's taking place until Jan 24. Some Newspapers reported, f.e. the LA Times, more about in the section of non-theosophical sites.
And much more happened, so, I wish you an interesting reading and a peaceful winter (since yesterday we've the first snow here in bavaria).
With kind regards from Germany
Steven Otto
Editor of Theosophy World News
You will find the following sections below:
Topic of the quarter | Upcoming (int. or nationwide) events | News from Theosophical Societies | Articles from Theosophical sites | Theosophical Magazines | Press about Theosophy | Twitter | Facebook | Videos | New Books | Letter to the editor | Comments
The Chennai region was hit in December by a storm of the worst degree. In one night it rained, as elsewhere throughout the whole monsoon month of December. Almost 300 people died:
Information about the Flood:
Donations:
Still a month later there is more than enough to rebuild. And there was also a call for help for the victims of the earthquake in Nepal, see the Dec.-Issue of Theosophy Downunder, p. 18.
Some News and Articles more or less about Theosophy
Nehandaradio.com
Of all the lies and misrepresentations which abound regarding Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, one of the worst is the ridiculous insinuation that she was a racist and that after her death her writings and theories strongly influenced Adolf Hitler and Nazism.
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Nehandaradio.com
I am responding to the first part of your article “Beware of esoteric New Age mumbo jumbo”, where inferences are made at the person of Madame Blavatsky and the Theosophical philosophy in general.
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Business-standard.com
Screened at the 21st Kolkata International Film Festival, a documentary on the life and works of Wanda Dynowska, the Polish theosophist who made India her home, has lifted the veil of obscurity shrouding the social activist's contribution to fostering unity amid the debate over intolerance in India.
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DailyO
The Theosophists were one of the first and most influential spiritual groups to arise in the West that sought their inspiration from India.
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LA Times
Painter Lawren Harris (1885-1970) is a national icon in Canada, but not widely known outside his home country. At the UCLA Hammer Museum, a modest show of “greatest hits” from the dozen years when his wilderness landscape theme matured — and before he abandoned it for total abstraction — seeks to widen his appreciation in the United States.
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Torontoist.com
Born in Brantford in 1885, to the family who owned the Harris agricultural equipment empire, Lawren Harris first came to Toronto to study at St. Andrew’s College. When he enrolled at University of Toronto, his mathematics professor persuaded him to focus on painting.
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TheStar.com
Fresh air and lifelong beliefs in theosophy and mysticism were just the things Harris needed, and gradually he regained his strength.
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brantfordexpositor.ca
While studying in Germany, Harris became interested in theosophy, a mystical branch of religious philosophy that would inform his later paintings.
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TheGuardian.com
In Laren his studios were mostly wooden huts. One was so damp that his colours could not dry properly. But he resumed his interest in theosophy. He had first joined Amsterdam’s Theosophical Society in 1909.
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business-standard.com
Irish-born freedom fighter Annie Besant remains a key figure in history as a friend of India. A staunch critic of British rule, as well as the Church, Besant was the first woman chairperson of Indian National Congress.
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reason.com
A devotee of Theosophy and other building blocks of New Age thought, Wallace was the man who persuaded the president to add the eye-in-the-pyramid symbol to the country's currency, thus giving ammo to everyone out there who thinks the Illuminati control the money supply.
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TheNewOrleansAdvocate.com
East Bank Regional Library, 4747 W. Napoleon Ave. Scott Ramsey of The Theosophical Society in New Orleans leads a discussion on theosophy and self-transformation. Monthly discussions are held in the A/V conference room on the second floor of the library.
read more
TheHindu.com
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister of India. Nehru learnt his basics through tutors at home. His interest in Science and Theosophy was nurtured by a tutor called Ferdinand T Brooks.
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Island.lk
The founders of the T.S., Madame Blavatsky and Col. Olcott, had established contact with Sinhala Buddhist leaders from their New York headquarters, even before they set sail for India in late 1878.
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catchnews.com
At an early age, even as he was educated in Christian institutions, he found himself drawn towards Buddhism. This affinity to Buddhism was eventually cemented when Colonel Olcott and Madam Blavatsky, two of the founders of the Theosophical society in Britain began visiting Ceylon and declared themselves Buddhists.
read more
And some critical, false or unjustified News and Articles about Theosophy
Nehandaradio.com
Madame Blavatsky, founder of modern Theosophy was a worshipper of satan. That is very clear from her writings. She believed that “Satan is the god of our planet, and the only god.” She also thought that Lucifer is the Holy Ghost and satan “at one and the same time.”
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WestWord.com
Doreal’s writings about the Great White Lodge and the Ascended Masters will seem curiously similar, if not an outright rip-off. Theosophy was a common launching pad for the multitude of seers, clairvoyants, mediums, “white mahatmas,” yogis, gurus and swamis who advertised in newspapers and magazines across America in the early 1900s.
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DailyMail.co.uk
The house was built in 1928 by the Griscom family, a group of devout Theosophists, who reportedly hoped that when Jesus returned to Earth, he would rule from the Bronx mansion.
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noisey.vice.com
In 1875, a Russian immigrant in New York City named Helena Blavatsky formed the Theosophical Society with her friends. Blavatsky claimed to communicate with a host of spirits, including Jesus.
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newswithviews.com
A few years after Auguste Comte's secular humanist principles were published, Madame Helena Blavatsky founded the Theosophical Society on October 10, 1875. It was Luciferian, and Blavatsky...
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newswithviews.com
Madame Blavatsky, the occult teacher whose disciple Alice Bailey set up Lucifer Publishing on the grounds of the UN and trained world leaders in the ways of the occult, commented upon “the Giants of Old” and the advanced science and technology they used in her book, The Secret Doctrine....
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newswithviews.com
the spiritual agenda of the UN, you discover they are Satanic. The UN and the globalists are following “The Plan” outlined by the Russian occult teacher Madame Blavatsky, who wrote “Lucifer is the divine and terrestrial light, ‘The Holy Ghost’ and ‘Satan’ ...
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countercurrents.org
Author counterpoises theory of Aryan migration spreading into North west as against Theosophist theory propagated in India by Madame Helena Blavatsky that not only Aryans are indigenous but also were the fountainheads of world civilization and all human achievements have travelled from India!
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atlasobscura.com
An illustration from the 1897 book Hours with the Ghosts, or, Nineteenth Century Witchcraft: Illustrated Investigations into the Phenomena of Spiritualism and Theosophy, showing scientists investigating the claims of a spirit medium.
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If the ʺspirit,ʺ or the divine portion of the soul, is preëxistent as a distinct being from all eternity, as Origen, Synesius and other Christian fathers and philosophers taught, and if it is the same, and nothing more than the metaphysically‐objective soul, how can it be otherwise than eternal? And what matters it in such a case, whether man leads an animal or a pure life, if, do what he may, he can never lose his individuality? This doctrine is as pernicious in its consequences as that of vicarious atonement. Had the latter dogma, in company with the false idea that we are all immortal, been demonstrated to the world in its true light, humanity would have been bettered by its propagation.
Indo-Pacific Federation
ITC Inc.
TS Adyar
The TS (Adyar) Australasian Section
TS Point Loma - Blavatskyhouse The Hague
From January until May 2016 on every second Sunday of the month a series of public lectures in English will be started in the Blavatsky House in The Hague, The Netherlands.
read more
Northwest Branch of The TS (Pasadena) Washington
TS (Adyar) in America
Videos from the 140th International Convention Adyar watch on Youtube, The Passing of Yoy Mills and an update of the Flood in Chennai read more The Presidents Diary Oct./Nov. 2015 and Nov./Dez. 2015
TS (Adyar) India
The TS in Bolivia, with 113 members and 11 Lodges, became a Section this year after functioning as a Presidential Agency for 50 years read more, Exhibition in Adyar Museum: The Theosophical Influence on the paintings of Mrs Florence Fuller read more, Adyar Renovation Project: Future of the Adyar Estate read more, Rains hit Chennai worst in100 years: Donations for flood relief in Adyar, Chennai, India read more
Singapore Lodge TS (Adyar)
October Issue, November Issue, December Issue
TOS
December Issue of the TOS-Newsletter read more, Joy Mills, former international vice president of the Theosophical Society made her transition on the morning of December 29, 2015. Click here to enjoy a memoir video of Joy watch on youtube, Find Us on Facebook! TOS International has a Facebook Page! read more, Flood Efforst Are Underway at Adyar: Historic amounts of rain have produced disastrous flooding in Chennai, India, including flooding at Adyar, international headquarters of the Theosophical Society. read more
TOS USA
Flood Relief Efforts Underway at Adyar, War and the Soul , TOS Annual Appeal Letter
The TS (Adyar) in Australia
The Adyar Library Bulletin: Index of Brahmavidya read more
TS (Adyar) in New Zealand
Science Consciousness and The Ancient Wisdom read more
International Theosophy Conferences, Inc (ITC)
Some News from ITC read more
Devachan is the idealized continuation of the terrestrial life just left behind, a period of retributive adjustment, and a reward for unmerited wrongs and sufferings undergone in that special life.
The TS (Pasadena) Australasian Section
The TS Adyar Indian Section
United Lodge of Theosophists (ULT)
TheAquarianTheosophist.com
Helen Heines
FOTA
The featured article in this issue is the *Last Will of Annie Besant *commented by John Patrick Deveney. The article *HPB’s Memorabilia* discusses a photograph of HPB’s room; Kevin Tingay talks about *Theosophy and the Education of Children*; David and Nancy Reigle write about *Boris de...
read more (pdf)
Daves's Theosophy News Board
Daves's Theosophy News Board
Allegations of sexual abuse of young girls by an Adyar Theosophical Society Official But despite the evidence, International President, Tim Boyd Won’t Investigate
read more
Daves's Theosophy News Board
Below is a draft copy of a letter of October 5th 2015 sent by former Adyar Theosophical Society member and official, Mr S Ramu to the current International President, Tim Boyd outlining the disgraceful treatment of workers on the Adyar Estate, and urging him to take action.
read more
Daves's Theosophy News Board
Treatment of workers on the Adyar Estate has always been notoriously poor but things have clearly got much worse since Tim Boyd took over as International President.
read more
Daves's Theosophy News Board
Oppressive employment terms and conditions at the Adyar Theosophical Labour Camp
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
Blavatsky Theosophy UK
Nirmanakayas, FROM THE WRITINGS OF H.P. BLAVATSKY
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE BY H.P. BLAVATSKY
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
FROM THE ARTICLE “FRIENDS OR ENEMIES IN THE FUTURE” By William Q. Judge
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
Is Theosophy racist? Do the writings of H.P. Blavatsky truly contain racially prejudiced and insulting statements about Africans and other black people?
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
It would require a greater knowledge and more skill than the writer possesses, to portray truly the nature of the one who lived among us under the name of William Q. Judge.
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
The fundamentalist Christian website www.jesus-is-savior.com contains a particularly misleading, fallacious, and deliberately dishonest critique of H.P. Blavatsky, Theosophy, and the Theosophical Movement.
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
It is increasingly popular amongst today’s spiritual seekers to attempt to demonise the very fact and act of thought and thinking
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
The title of this article is certainly strongly worded and graphic. Those who will attentively read through to the end, however, will see that it is entirely warranted and necessarily honestly descriptive of the utter tragedy and disgraceful travesty that occurred within the Theosophical Movement in the first several decades of the 20th century.
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
The following are from a number of answers and replies sent to visitors to this website who had various questions and comments relating to Theosophy and the Theosophical perspective on different subjects.
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Blavatsky Theosophy UK
We have all seen fossils. Some of us have found them for ourselves and it is not particularly uncommon to do so.
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Theosophy Watch
Theosophy Watch
ONE of the best ways to describe what Theosophy is, as arts reporter Ali Snow said recently on a Utah Public Radio show, “is to think of it as a kind of fusion of religion and science.
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Theosophy Watch
MANY witnesses believe that crop circle formations are a modern spiritual mythology, embedding symbol-encoded occult messages.
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Theosophy Watch
WHAT is the winter solstice, and why do so many people around the world bother to celebrate it, as they do every year at this time?
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Theosophy Watch
WHEN our thick brains get all heated up worrying about life’s complexities, that’s often the best time to kick off our shoes, and give it a rest.
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Theosophy Watch
REINCARNATION is “one of the most important issues faced by philosophy, religion and science that have very significant implications to the understanding of human life,” says the website Reincarnation-Research.
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Theosophy Watch
THE most intelligent being in the universe, man, has never been without a friend, (wrote W. Q. Judge), “but has a line of elder brothers who continually watch over the progress of the less progressed.”
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Theosophy Watch
MORE than five-thousand years ago, Chinese doctors described hundreds of invisible energy meridians throughout the human body.
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Theosophy Watch
THIS is the incredible story of Daniel Tammet. A thirty-something with extraordinary mental abili
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Theosophy Watch
THEOSOPHY students of a certain agebridey_murphy_moviemight remember the famous and mysterious 1950’s reincarnation case of “Bridey Murphy.”
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Theosophy Watch
BUDDHA never had any intention of establishing a religion 2500 years ago, at least not our sectarian kind.
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Theosophy Watch
MANY of us are so preoccupied with future expectations, things like New Year’s resolutions, we often fail to see what’s right in front of us
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Theosophy Watch
BUDDHA said: All that ox_cart_riding1we are is the result of what we have thought: all that we are is founded on our thoughts and formed of our thoughts.
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Theosophy Watch
FOHAT is a term and concept which appears throughout “The Secret Doctrine” by H.P. Blavatsky – and especially in the first volume titled “Cosmogenesis.”
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Theosophy Forward
Theosophy Forward
This issue of Theosophy Forward is stacked with many articles of interest and especially the category GOOD NEWS has a great number of entries this time, go there and have a look around.
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Theosophy Forward
Michiel Haas, Colyn Boyce, Raphael Langerhorst , Linda Watts, Nano Leguay, Nathanya Wouden, Jan Maarten Braak,
Theosophy Forward
The term “brotherhood’ is often tripped off the tongue by Theosophists. “Brotherhood” is easy to talk about but – easy to say and so very hard to put into practice.
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Theosophy Forward
Custom and habit may lead us into patterns of thought and action which, by their very repetition, seem to be lacking in freshness and spontaneity.
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Theosophy Forward
We remember Einar Adalsteinsson, June 19, 1941 – July 9, 1998
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Theosophy Forward
Loving Kindness in Practice, Mystic Unification of Mind and Action, The Mystical Approach
Theosophy Forward
The building of the Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappij (Dutch Trade Company) (1919-1926) is a long-time favourite of mine. When I started my PhD research on Theosophy and Art in the Netherlands in 1987, I came across this building in the literature on Karel de Bazel (1869-1923, a Theosophical architect and designer whose most famous work is the subject of this article)
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Theosophy Forward
It is well known among students of Theosophy that renowned visual artists, poets, writers, composers, creative people of all sorts have made no secret of their interest in Theosophy.
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Theosophy Forward
from Adyar, 2014 – 2015 Accomplishments, from the School of the Wisdom, from the TS-Point Loma – Blavatskyhouse, from the International Theosophical Centre in Naarden, the Netherlands 1 , from the International Theosophical Centre in Naarden, the Netherlands 2 , from Brazil , Good News from International Theosophy Conferences Inc., from England , from New Zealand , from Reincarnation Research , from the TOS-Golden Link College , from Krotona , from Olcott in Wheaton , about an extraordinary Webinar, from Adyar cows and bulls
Book of Dzyan Research
The Book of Dzyan
An online webinar on the anthropogenesis stanzas from the Book of Dzyan found in The Secret Doctrine, vol. 2, will be starting on Jan. 11, 2016...
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The Book of Dzyan
The Voice of the Silence is said by H. P. Blavatsky to be chosen fragments translated by her from the “Book of the Golden Precepts.”...
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The function of Theosophists is to open men's hearts and understandings to charity, justice, and generosity, attributes which belong specifically to the human kingdom and are natural to man when he has developed the qualities of a human being. Theosophy teaches the animal-man to be a human-man; and when people have learnt to think and feel as truly human beings should feel and think, they will act humanely, and works of charity, justice, and generosity will be done spontaneously by all.
2015/10/11
Via e-mail from Nancy
Dear Steven,
Thank you for your very impressive and comprehensive publication. This is wonderful. I will forward it to friends as you suggest and advertise it.
Best wishes,
Nancy
2015/10/11
Via e-mail from Sampsa
Thank you again very much, Steven! A useful collection of news!
Smpsa
