Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Theosophy |
TheosophyNoun1. Belief based on mystical insight into the nature of God and the soul. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "theosophy" was first used: 1650. (references) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Satire | THEOSOPHY, n. An ancient faith having all the certitude of religion and all the mystery of science. The modern Theosophist holds, with the Buddhists, that we live an incalculable number of times on this earth, in as many several bodies, because one life is not long enough for our complete spiritual development; that is, a single lifetime does not suffice for us to become as wise and good as we choose to wish to become. To be absolutely wise and good -- that is perfection; and the Theosophist is so keen-sighted as to have observed that everything desirous of improvement eventually attains perfection. Less competent observers are disposed to except cats, which seem neither wiser nor better than they were last year. The greatest and fattest of recent Theosophists was the late Madame Blavatsky, who had no cat. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Theosophy refers to a body of belief which holds that all religions are attempts by man to ascertain "the Divine," and as such each religion has a portion of the truth. Theosophy, as a coherent belief system, developed from the writings of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Together with Henry Steel Olcott, William Quan Judge and others she founded the Theosophical Society in 1875.
A stricter definition from the Concise Oxford Dictionary describes Theosophy as "any of various philosophies professing to achieve a knowledge of God by spiritual ecstasy, direct intuition, or special individual relations, esp. a modern movement following Hindu and Buddhist teachings and seeking universal brotherhood."
Adherents of Theosophy maintain that it is a "Body of Truth" that forms the basis of all religions. Theosophy represents a modern face of Sanatana Dharma, "the Eternal Truth", as religion of man.
According to Theosophy, nature does not operate by chance. Every event, past or present, happens because of laws which are part of a Universal Paradigm. Theosophists hold that everything, conscious or not, is "impregnated" with Consciousness. This paradigm has been called variously: God, Law, Heaven, the Great Architect, Evolution, and Logos. The term used in this article is "paradigm."
Theosophists believe that all human beings are immortal, but unconscious of their connection with "the Divine".
Like Hinduism from which much of Theosophists thought springs, it teaches that beings are reincarnated through many lives in different forms. However, theosophy differ in belief that regression is not possible, so human cannot reincarnate as animal or plant again.
Similaries to Hindu thought continue with the concept of Karma. Theosophy teaches that evil acts must be offset by acts of goodness, and that even acts of goodness must later be linked to the plan and purpose of the divine paradigm referred to above.
Theosophy teaches that, even though only humans have a soul, all living things are united in one brotherhood.
Theosophists believe that religion, philosophy, science, the arts, commerce, industry, and philanthropy, among other "virtues," lead humans ever closer to "the Divine." This, in Theosophy, is a continuation of the Divine purpose through evolution.Basic Theosophical Beliefs
That Consciousness is Universal and Individual
The Immortality of Man
Reincarnation
Karma
The Universal Brotherhood
God's Plan: Evolution
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Theosophy."
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Theology | Noun: theology (natural and revealed); theogony, theosophy; divinity; hagiology, hagiography; Caucasian mystery; monotheism; religion; religious persuasion, religious sect, religious denomination; creed; (belief); article of faith, declaration of faith, profession of faith, confession of faith. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Theosophy |
| English words defined with "theosophy": Behmen, Boehm, Boehme, Bohme ♦ Jakob Behmen, Jakob Boehm, Jakob Boehme, Jakob Bohme ♦ Neoplatonism ♦ Occultism ♦ theosophical, Theosophism, theosophist, Theosophistical, Theosophize. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "theosophy": theosophy. (references) |
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
| ||
Periodicals |
| ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| "Theosophy" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Theosophy" is used about 10 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 10 | 111,207 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
theosophy | 90 |
education theosophy | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "theosophy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | теософия. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | حکمت الهی (Theology), عرفان , خداشناسی (Theism, Theology). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | teosofia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Theosophie. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | θεοσοφία. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | teozófia. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | jeesonaght. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | eosophythay teozofie. (various references) теософия. (various references) teosofi. (various references) teosofi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Greek | 700 BCE-300 CE | theosophos. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Words rhyming with "theosophy" (pronounced 'The*os"o*phy'): Adenography, Aerography, Agrostography, Aluminography, Amorphy, Anaglyptography, Anemography, Angiography, Anthography, Anthropogeography, Anthropography, Anthroposophy, Archaeography, Arteriography, Arthrography, Astrography, Astrophotography, Aurigraphy, Autobiography, Autography, Autotypography, Balneography, Bibliography, Biogeography, Biography, Brachygraphy, Cacography, Calcography, Caligraphy, Calligraphy, Cardiography, Cartography, Celidography, Cerography, Chalcography, Cheirosophy, Chemigraphy, Chirography, Choregraphy, Chorography, Chromatography, Chromolithography, Chromophotography, Chronography, Chrysography, Climatography, Cometography, Cosmography, cryptography, Crystallography. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "e-h-h-o-o-p-s-t-y" | |
-1 letter: oophytes. | |
-2 letters: oophyte, toyshop, typhose. | |
-3 letters: hooeys, phooey, photos, soothe, tepoys, tophes. | |
-4 letters: estop, ethos, heths, hooey, hoops, hoots, hooty, hopes, hypes, hypos, pesto, pesty, photo, phots, poesy, poets, poohs, potsy, sepoy, shoot, shote, sooey, sooth, sooty, sophy, stoop, stope, tepoy, those, topes, tophe, tophs, topos, toyos, types, typos. | |
-5 letters: epos, espy, eths, hehs, hest. | |
| Words containing the letters "e-h-h-o-o-p-s-t-y" | |
+3 letters: phytochromes. | |
+4 letters: hypochlorites, hypothecators, phosphorylate, photosynthate, phytohormones, pyrophosphate. | |
+5 letters: heterophyllous, hypophysectomy, hypothecations, phosphorylated, phosphorylates, photochemistry, photosynthates, photosyntheses, photosynthesis, photosynthetic, phytopathogens, pyrophosphates, theosophically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)54 68 65 6F 73 6F 70 68 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
|
| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
|
| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
|
| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
|
Morse Code (1836) (references)- .... . --- ... --- .--. .... -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
|
Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010100 01101000 01100101 01101111 01110011 01101111 01110000 01101000 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)T h e o s o p h y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0054 0068 0065 006F 0073 006F 0070 0068 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
|
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)547471818581827491 |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Commercial 4. Usage Frequency | 5. Expressions: Internet 6. Translations: Modern 7. Translations: Ancient 8. Rhymes | 9. Anagrams 10. Orthography 11. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
