Showing results by narrator "Sandra Brautigam" in All Categories

Notable theosophical author Mohini Chatterji offers enlightenment to the listener in this essay, intended for students who are interested in advancing to a higher level and desiring a push beyond rudimentary theosophical philosophy.

The Lives of Adam and Eve belongs to a class of Apocrypha that could be described as books written, or claimed to have been written, before the time of Christ, as part of the Old Testament, and which frequently contain prophecies. Jewish legends about Adam were numerous and very old, and the Jewish literary custom of writing ethical works in the form of a survey of history was well established.

Published in 1892, in this piece Mead explains that anyone can be a Theosophist, but in order to be considered an Occultist, the individual must be an agent of practice, not theory, and must have the wisdom to differentiate good from evil. Simply claiming to be an occultist and having basic knowledge on general subjects is not enough to truly be considered one. One of the great, underrated writers of Esoterica.

Unlike the First Gospel of the Infancy of Jesus Christ, the events here deal primarily with the birth of the Virgin Mary herself and her own life during pregnancy and up to the birth of Jesus.

The Apocrypha are a loosely knit series of books, written by early vanguards of Christianity, a large majority of which were removed from the Bible by Emperor Constantine, following the meeting of the Council of Nicaea, in AD 325. The Gospel of the Nativity of Mary, however, dates to the seventh century, and is part of a genre of biblical writings known as the Infancy Gospels.

Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa was a writer, philosopher, Freemason, and prominent Theosophist of his day. In this particular piece, a lecture given in 1911 for the 36th annual convention of the Theosophical Society, the author speaks on reincarnation, consciousness, and the soul.

Originally published in 1887, writer Charles Johnston, a Theosophist and Sanskrit translator, decides to wax philosophically on the nature of man and religion in a poetically non-specific, meandering, transcendental, and existential sort of way.

Annie Besant was a writer, lecturer, prominent Theosophist and women's rights activist of her time. She was a frequent contributor to various Theosophical publications of her day. Here she writes about the qualifications of being a disciple, what an aspirant can expect, and what types of behavior their teacher may expect of them, as well as why we shouldn't judge other aspirants as not being worthy of having a teacher and what is to be gained by the whole process.

Annie Besant was a writer, lecturer, prominent Theosophist, and women's rights activist of her time. She was a frequent contributor to various Theosophical publications of her day. This piece by her is a short, basic introduction to occultism through the eyes of Theosophy as well as the differences between the Occultist and the Mystic.

Mead notices that modern students often shrug off or dismiss the mysteries and wisdom of the ages, as unimportant. He argues that spirit is entirely absent from the religion of today, because it has been divorced from science. And, what was once considered religion to the primitive man is very different than what is considered religion now. Psychology, what he called the science of antiquity, is what is needed for the student of the mysteries to regain their foothold in the world.

A prolific and influential writer of his day, George Robert Stowe Mead was heavily involved in Hermetic and Gnostic scholarship of the time. Mead states that Theosophic faith is the precursor to Gnosis, and such is his approach to an introduction on the subject. He writes of the death of conventional knowledge and the birth of Theosophy and discusses his personal realizations and self-awakenings that led to his involvement with the Theosophical Society.

C. Jinarajadasa was a writer, philosopher, prominent Theosophist of his day, as well as a Freemason. In this particular piece (originally published in 1915), the author takes a scholarly examination and ritual dissection of the Catholic Mass. Among the many topics that he discusses are: the creed, the altar, the vestments, the collect and epistle, commemoration of the dead, Prajapati, and more.

C Jinarajadasa was a writer, philosopher, Freemason and prominent theosophist of his day. This particular piece is a lecture he gave in 1905, and he discusses consciousness, the inseparable duality of love and beauty, Plato's world of ideas, the divine mind and other related topics.

Blavatsky engages in a spirited debate on spiritualism, defending an article entitled "Fragments of Occult Truth" by another writer, though one she had published in her own periodical, The Theosophist. The article had come under attack by a rival magazine of the time, and Blavatsky comes to the rescue.

Annie Besant was a writer, lecturer, prominent Theosophist and women's rights activist of her time. She was a frequent contributor to various Theosophical publications of her day. This particular piece dates to 1910, and she takes a philosophical examination of the mysteries of evil, as she puts it. She explains that there is a necessity for evil to exist, that it serves certain purposes, which she goes into detail about.

Annie Besant was a writer, lecturer, prominent Theosophist and women's rights activist of her time. She was a frequent contributor to various Theosophical publications of her day. This is a lecture of hers from 1913, where she speaks about universal consciousness, spiritual unfolding and personal psychic progress.

More than 40 years prior to Bill Wilson creating the organization known as Alcoholics Anonymous, in 1892 noted spiritual author Annie Besant gave a lecture on the subject of alcoholism (published later that same year) and referred to drinking alcohol as "the alcoholic disease"! She, of course, approached the subject from a theosophical and thus spiritual standpoint. She briefly described her own history with alcohol as well as the physical and spiritual effects it has on the individual.

The philosophy behind the Law of Attraction is all about taking personal responsibility. When you take responsibility for the state of your life and for your decisions, you see that you have essentially created your past and your present life with your thoughts and actions. Part of you already knows your own power to manifest anything you could ever imagine, and 30 Days of Thanks is your guide for bringing that power into the forefront of your conscious mind.

One of the great tragedies of our time is that we have the tools and technologies available to us to free up our time and open up our lives to learning, creating, relaxing, and building. And yet...we are so attached to being busy that we spend most of our time looking forward, looking backward, and missing those things that are right in front of us.

Annie Besant was a writer, lecturer, prominent theosophist, and women's rights activist of her time. She was a frequent contributor to various theosophical publications of her day. This piece by her, from 1912, is a short, basic introduction to mysticism through the eyes of theosophy. She writes about mysticism within Christianity and the Western Mystery Tradition in general. It's also interesting to note that she mentions the Illuminati in this piece, but in a philosophical rather than historical context, which is unusual for the time period.