What do people think about Theosophy?

[butchersapron]

To the extent that they followed the elitist racial teachings of the Blavatsky cult then yes - and the latter of your trio later publicly rejected all that plagiarised filth.

 

[Sirena]

And you seek to dismiss, with one kneejerk line, their lives' achivements? But Theosophy was them too and they all stand, to this day, as major influences in the development of the modern worldview.

 

[butchersapron]

And you seek to dismiss, with one kneejerk line, their lives' achivements? But Theosophy was them too and they all stand, to this day, as major influences in the development of the modern worldview.

No, i seek to dismiss that part of their work that was influenced by or motivated by the elitist racial theories of a mad cult. I didn't mention anything whatsoever about their lifes achievments entire - very little of the useful parts actually depended on that cultic-racism as far as i can tell, but to the extent that it did, then yes, examples of nuttiness, and a nasty sort of nuttiness too.

 

[Sirena]

And, yet, one of the founding principles of Theosophy was “to form a nucleus of the Universal Brotherhood of Humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color”. Within her books, Blavatsky comes up with crazy notions to do with root-races but they were never part of the philosophy of the movement as a whole. Nowadays, Theosophy is a well-meaning rump, maintained by bequests, but, in its day, it was innovative, egalitarian, cross-cultural, revolutionary even. And this, at a time when the rest of the world was far from that.

I particularly like Anna Kingsford. Her work and, especially, her writings on on anti-vivisection (without anaesthesia) were completely outrageous to the medical world.

 

[butchersapron]

An example: The racist Viennesse and German Theosophist societies - open supporters of Guido List and his anti-semitic aryan fantasies, ardent advocates of Ariosophy/rabidly racist wotanism. Innovative? Sure, of a type - in that it plagiarised a whole host of sources then reconfigured them with and into modern myths. Egalitarian? Not a bloody chance. Racist? Undoubtdly.

 

[butchersapron]

And anyway, the root-race theory was not some minor part of her/their philosophy, it was a core component of the eternal cycle theory - absolutely fundamental, and esp at the time they came up with this madness. The idea that the aryan race represented a key movement of the cycle into an upwards phase, a move away from a degeneration of previous periods derived from race-mixing was totally central to their overall model, and fitted perfectly into the volkisch ideas that were becoming very popular across germany and austria.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

And this shit underpins Steiner's anthroposophy too, crucially. It's staggering really that schools whose teachers are taught about a hierarchy of races are allowed. The fuckers try to hide it, but it's all the way through Steiner's thinking, right up to his death.

 

[camouflage]

Are all the major religions linked?

Yes, in each case the human imagination played a major role.

 

[Sirena]

.

 

[deke t lefel]

the idea of seven planes of existence in theosophy spills over into the concept of seven root races, whereby human development is believed to progress from the material to the spiritual

theosophy had a major influence on the likes of the Thule Society who in turn influenced the Nazis

Teutonic was supposedly the fifth and latest sub-race of the fifth Aryan root race; unfortunately for the jews, the semitic people were considered part of a lower, spiritually degenerate, root race

 

[ItWillNeverWork]

I think she was a charlatan, meself.

Is that her at the front with the silly hair?

 

[Mrs Magpie]

Nah, this is her on the right, hiding her silly hair.