Collected Writings Of H P Blavatsky Vol 4

The definitive edition of HPB's writings in 15 volumes. Volume 12 is from 1889 and 1890, and includes articles such as: 'Genius'; 'The Fall of Ideals'; 'Science and the Secret Doctrine'; 'Progress and Culture'; 'The Dual Aspect of Wisdom'; 'Psychic and Noetic Action'.

The definitive edition of HPB's writings in 15 volumes. Volume 4 is from 1882 to 1883, and includes articles such as: 'The Hermetic Brethren'; 'Reincarnations in Tibet'; 'Masons and Jesuits'; 'Death and Immortality'; 'Zoroastrianism in the Light of Occult Philosophy'.

This introduction to the Western esoteric traditions offers a concise overview of their historical development. The author explores these traditions, from their roots in Hermeticism, Neo-Platonism, and Gnosticism in the early Christian era up to their reverberations in modern day's scientific paradigms.

The Theosophical Society (est. 1875 in New York by H. P. Blavatsky, H. S. Olcott and others) is increasingly becoming recognized for its influential role in shaping the alternative new religious and cultural landscape of the late nineteenth and the twentieth century, especially as an early promoter of interest in Indian and Tibetan religions and philosophies. Despite this increasing awareness, many of the central questions relating to the early Theosophical Society and the East remain largely unexplored. This book is the first scholarly anthology dedicated to this topic. It offers many new details about the study of Theosophy in the history of modern religions and Western esotericism. The essays in Imagining the East explore how Theosophists during the formative period understood the East and those of its people with whom they came into contact. The authors examine the relationship of the theosophical approach with orientalism and aspects of the history of ideas, politics, and culture at large and discuss how these esoteric or theosophical representations mirrored conditions and values current in nineteenth-century mainstream intellectual culture. The essays also look at how the early Theosophical Society's imagining of the East differed from mainstream 'orientalism' and how the Theosophical Society's mission in India was distinct from that of British colonialism and Christian missionaries.

Spiritual Despots by historian of religion J. Barton Scott zeroes in on the quaint term "priestcraft" to track anticlerical polemics in Britain and South Asia during the colonial period. Scott's aim is to show how anticlerical rhetoric spread through the colonies alongside ideas about modern secular subjectivity. Through close readings of texts in English, Hindi, and Gujarati, he shows in compelling detail how the critique of priestly conspiracy gave rise to a new ideal of the self-disciplining subject and a vision of modern Hinduism that was based on unmediated personal experience and self-regulation rather than priestly tutelary power. Spiritual Despots offers a new perspective on what some scholars have called "Protestant Hinduism," and, more broadly, contributes to the emerging field of "post-secular" studies by shedding light on the colonial genealogy of secular subjectivity.

Karma and Rebirth: Post Classical Developments explains the religious concepts most central to Asian philosophy, religion, and society, presenting articles representative of contemporary understanding and practice. The contributors look not only at the understanding of karma and rebirth in modern India, but also in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia, Tibet, China, Japan, and the Western world. This broad treatment underscores the fact that karma and rebirth have become part of the religious history and cultural fabric of the Western world. The collection is divided into three sections. Part I deals with figures and movements of the Hindu renaissance in India in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Part II on Buddhism deals with Indian, Chinese, Tibetan, and Japanese treatments of karma. Part III is devoted to the influence of karma and rebirth in the Western world through theosophy, new religious movements, and recent developments in psychology.

Predicated on the immemorial core or "first" principles of the universal perennial philosophy, which finds expression from Lao Tzu to Ramana Maharshi in the East and from Pythagoras to René Guénon and Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in the West, The Higher Spiritual Path details how those on the higher spiritual path must address and master its requirements. This book is as practical as it is philosophical -- or theosophical -- since it is based on the specifics of “sacred science,” or spiritual science, an inextricable component of the perennial philosophy. Many of the requirements of the higher spiritual path are based on the truths of this ancient spiritual science, formulated over millennia by jivanmukti, or liberated beings, who serve as the teachers of those currently engaged in treading this hieratic path. The goals of ascending this path are the loftiest; the hierarchical order of its spiritual teachers is the holiest; and the totality of its evolutionary and compassionate purpose is the most sacred.

Many people in the ancient world saw human life as deeply connected with the great cycles of nature: the rising and setting of the sun, the changing of the seasons, the death and rebirth of vegetation. In the same way that other patterns in nature repeat at regular intervals, they believed that human history also goes through cycles in which significant events repeat, and are likely to happen again in the future at predictable times. A penetrating study into the history of astrology, ancient religion,secret societies and the evolution of consciousness, 2012 and the Shift of Ages: A Guide to the End of the World is sure to be an invaluable resource in navigating a time of difficult transitions. Table of Contents 1. The Hopi Way 2. Aztec Migration Path 3. Mayan Timekeeping 4. Cosmic Cycles 5. Universal Religion 6. The Path of the Sun 7. The Master of Animals 8. Egyptian Mysteries 9. Mesopotamia the Far-Away 10. The Divine Harmony 11. The Zoroastrian Dawn 12. Mithras the Rejuvenator Epilogue: The Return of the King