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I'll give it a go. : angel
The word
Theosophy stems from the words
Theosophia (Wisdom of the gods) and
Theogonia (genealogy of the gods). It is
not “Wisdom of God” as erroneously translated by some, but
Divine Wisdom.
Alexandrian philosophers were called Philalethians, from “phil” (loving) and “alethia” (truth), therefore meaning lovers of truth. They believe the name
Theosophy dates back from the third century of our era, and began with
Ammonious Sakkas and his disciples who started the
Eclectic Theosophical system. Ammonious Sakkas taught theosophy in Alexandria, and among his students was the important Neo-Platonist
Plotinus, whose thinking, many believe,
is the purest expression of the ageless wisdom or theosophy that can be pointed out.
Though the Eclectic Theosophical system, is generally attributed to the third century, its origin is much earlier according to
Diogenes Laertius, who attributed the system to an Egyptian priest,
Pot-Amun, who lived in the early days of the Ptolemaic dynasty. Apparently the priest's name is Coptic, and signifies
one consecrated to Amun, the God of Wisdom.
Theosophy is, then, the archaic Wisdom-Religion, the esoteric doctrine once known in every ancient country having claims to civilization. This "Wisdom" all the old writings show us as an emanation of the divine Principle; and the clear comprehension of it is typified in such names as the Indian Buddh, the Babylonian Nebo, the Thoth of Memphis, the Hermes of Greece, in the appellations, also, of some goddesses -- Metis, Neitha, Athena, the Gnostic Sophia, and finally --the Vedas, from the word "to know." Under this designation, all the ancient philosophers of the East and West, the Hierophants of old Egypt, the Rishis of Aryavart, the Theodidaktoi of Greece, included all knowledge of things occult and essentially divine.
Divine Wisdom has always existed; from the most ancient of times writings and references can be found in their works. The starting point is always freedom for the individual to find his or her own special way to the inner source. Everywhere we find traces from the ageless wisdom, which makes its way up through time. From the earliest known periods until today -- it is possible to follow these illuminations and insights, a sparkling interconnected web of thoughts and beliefs.
In India this spritual knowledge is called
Brahma Vidya , in Greece, it was the desirable
Mystery Knowledge. In the Middle East it was called
Gnosis, and in the time of the birth of Christ it was also called
“the hermetic wisdom” or
“Theosophia”.
In Greece the Orphic mystery tradition lived side by side with the Platonic Academy and the Eleusinian mysteries. Pythagoras travelled to the South Italian island Crotana and founded his famous mystery school. The Persian insight was passed on by the late Mithraism, and in India the teaching was communicated at the teaching locations or ashrams of the great mahatmas. In Tibet the wisdom was taught in outlying monasteries, and in the Middle East it was among others the Essenes and the Neo-Platonists, who communicated the spiritual enlightenment to the courageous candidates.
In the Christian Era it was among the Gnostics, Kathars and the many mystics that the idea of
eternal wisdom thrived. St Clement of Alexandria and Origenes, Valentinus and Basilides are examples of Gnostics, who worked esoterically with the Christian impulse. There were also Jewish thinkers and mystics; Filon from Alexandria, a Gnostic who tried to unveil the hidden esoteric of the Old Testament.
In the next centuries, this stream of thinkers established brotherhoods and mystery societies. For example, the Neo-Platonic Academy in Florence, The Bohemian Brethren or Familia Caritas, or John Dee, Philip Sidney, Fulke Greville and Francis Bacon, who together with others established the Rosicrucians. Giordano Bruno, Baruch de Spinoza, William Blake and Paracelsus belonged to this group together with Cagliostro, Anton Mesmer, Jakob Boehme and Emanuel Swedenborg. They had followers and caused establishment of many more groups and societies that kept up the tradition, as was the case with the
Platonics of Cambridge in the Renaissance, and the German romantic philosophers and poets, as for instance Shelling, Fichte, Schiller, Goethe and Hegel.
Freethinkers like Robert Green Ingersoll, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Margaret Fuller -- were the initiators of the
American Transcendentalist Movement and the foundation of the Unitarian Church in the 18th century.
The Transcendentalists, like the Theosophists, also explored Eastern religions, such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism and integrated many of their concepts into their philosophy, including the idea that:
“In addition to the body of flesh there exists a spiritual body, which is variously named the oversoul, conscious, or inner light. It cannot be annihilated and continues to live after death, and, eventually, to reach its Source”.
There are also P. Parkhurst Quimby and several others who founded the New Thought Movement, Helena Blavatsky and the foundation of the Theosophical Society, Rudolf Steiner and the Anthroposophical Society, as well as Alice Ann Bailey and the Lucis Trust. Walt Whitman, was also a theosophist, even though his greatest poem, "Song of Myself," was published
twenty years before the Theosophical Society was founded in New York in 1875. The principles of Theosophy underlie all the central images and themes of the poem.
The foundation of the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875 became the activating impulse for the esoteric schools of our age and for the accessibility of the theosophy.
Aili
