After reading Joe’s post ‘Traditional Theosophy Simplified,’ I decided to post one of my lectures about Theosophy here. This is only a partial version of my lecture (2011) which I have adapted to theos-net. The lecture is entitled ‘Theosophia Mystica’, which in English simply means 'Mystic Theosophy'. The reason I refer to the word ‘Theosophy’ as ‘Theosophia’ is because the latter how the word is pronounced in  Hellenic language.

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Definition of Theosophia and Mystica:

1. Theosophia (Theosophy) has two compounds Theos and Sophia, its literal translation is ‘God-Wisdom’. It is also often translated by Theosophists as ‘Divine Wisdom’.
   
2. Mystica (μυστική- mystic) - secret, hidden.
   
3. Theosophia Mystica - the secret (or hidden) wisdom of god, or the secret (hidden-concealed) divine wisdom. 
   
   

So Theosophia Mystica (Mystic Theosophy) means  the secret divine wisdom or the secret wisdom of God. Philosophically there is a large gap between the two translations. Divine Wisdom can be achieved by man, because it presupposes that divine wisdom is inherent to him. So he just should find ways to trigger or access it.  The secret wisdom of God  is that sort of wisdom which can be achieved only through man’s union with “God”. It is a conceded gift that presupposes wisdom is not inherent to man but dependent on God. This interpretation is prevalent in the current of Christian Mysticism.

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Image: Hermes Trismegistus from Maier - Symbola aurea mensae, Frankfurt, 1617.

The Corpus Hermeticum is a work attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. Hermes Trismegistus is a syncretic combination of the Hellenic god Hermes with the Egyptian god Thoth. Hermopolis, the ancient Egyptian city Khmun, used to be the main center of veneration to Thoth. The blending of the two Gods occurred during the Ptolemaic period (305 BC to 30 BC) [1]. The Corpus Hermeticum is composed of collations from several anonymous writers. According to the publisher Odisseas Xatzopoulos (Οδυσσέας Χατζόπουλος) the text "comprises the philosophical-theoretical side of the theosophical movement of Hermeticism." [2] It refers to the gnosis of the divine through theurgy and a particular conduct (way of life) which leads to Theosophia Mystica or to the secret divine wisdom.

In the Poimandres (the first chapter of Corpus Hemeticum), Hermes describes his mystical union with the divine nous (mind). In this instance he refers to God as nous. This mystical union gives to Hermes the access to the mystery of the beginning of the universe.[3] The first paragraph of Poimandres begins describing how his mystical union occurred (translation by G.R.S. Mead):

It chanced once on a time my mind was meditating on the things that are, my thought was raised to a great height, the senses of my body being held back—just as men are who are weighed down with sleep after a fill of food, or from fatigue of body.

Me thought a Being more than vast, in size beyond all bounds, called out my name and saith: What wouldst thou hear and see, and what hast thou in mind to learn and know?

 

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In neo-Platonism we find an analogous reference - as for example when Plotinus in his Enneads describes the following:

Many times it has happened: Lifted out of the body into myself; becoming external to all other things and self-centered; beholding a marvelous beauty; then, more than ever, assured of community with the loftiest order; enacting the noblest life, acquiring identity with the divine; stationing within It by having attained that activity; poised above whatsoever within the Intellectual is less than the Supreme: yet, there comes the moment of descent from intellection to reasoning, and after that sojourn in the divine…[4]   

Both descriptions depicts a state of deep meditation, concentration or ecstasy, which results with a mystical union. Through this mystical union (with the nous of the divine) Theosophia Mystica or the hidden divine wisdom is accessed. 

Eastern philosophy and mystics also describe an analogous state of “ecstasy” or deep meditation, which leads the mind into other realms. In Hinduism the consciousness of someone who reaches this mystical union with the divine is known as Samadhi. Samadhi is as a non-dual state in which the individual becomes one with the experienced object. Apparently the mind (nous) remains without movement, but the person who experiences it remains conscious.

(Image: Greeks meet the gymnosophists)

Regarding Hinduism, the neo-Platonist Porphyry (A.D. 234–c. 305.) mentioned the following:

In the land of Hindus, divided in many ethnicities exists the ilk of theosophos, and the Greeks are accustomed referring to them as gymnosophists ["naked philosophers”]. There are two sects of gymnosophists, one is headed by the Brahmans the others by the Shramana[5] (śramana). While Brahmans maintain the hereditary succession of Theosophia [Theosophy] - exactly as happens with priesthood - the Shramana comprises a social category composed by those who want to practice Theosophia [Theosophy]. [6]  

Porphyry

Porphyry uses the word theosophos (theosopher) referring to those who are  “wise on divine things,” and the noun theosophia (theosophy) as the knowledge of divine things. The earlier usage of the noun theosophia is also attributed to him.  In his work On Abstinence from Animal Food  he mentioned theosophia - at least three times- usually to refer to people with a conduct (way of life) leading to the gnosis or union with the divine:

And a divine person is the one who tries to be free from the passions of the soul, fasting from food that instigates passion, nourishes itself with theosophia and in this manner resembles to noble and right divine forms also officiating mental sacrifices. One who appears before god, with white garment, pure soul and imperturbability derived from improper chyme and soul passions  (44-σ. 141, βιβλίου ΙΙ, τ.).

According to Porphyry “Theosophos” (Theosopher) is the person who tries to conquer the passions of the soul, whose conduct is guided by ethics and respect to all forms of life with vegetarianism as sine qua non condition, not only because of the respect towards the animals, but also as a way self-cleansing or catharsis and prevention of whatever could strengthen pathos or desire. The usage of the word Theosophia by Porphyry could also be interpreted as intelligent wisdom, but many times he refers to theurgy as practical theosophia (theosophy).[7]

Julian the Apostate, famous for his rejection of Christianity in favor of Neo-Platonism and paganism, referred to Theosophia (Theosophy) in the following way:

“You are yourself an ardent admirer of Iamblichus for his philosophy and of his namesake for his Theosophia. And I too think, like Apollodorus, that the rest are not worth mentioning compared with those two.” Epistle 12, line 14.

“On this latter point we have an interesting note of time in Praep. Ev. 135 c 4 'many of the most highly inspired even of their chief hierophants, and theologians, and prophets, who were celebrated for this kind of theosophia, not only in former times but also recently in our own day, under cruel tortures (διὰ βασανων αικιας) before the Roman courts declared that the whole delusion was produced by human frauds.” Eusebius.

When Julian the Apostate refers to the Theosophia of Iamblichus, he uses the noun in the same way Thomas Vaughan did in a much later period, meaning the intelligent or inspired wisdom which leads someone into constructing or creating his own personal theory about divine things. In an article of H.P. Blavatstky entitled What is Theosophy? she explains the meaning of the word citing Thomas Vaughan:

“A Theosophist is one who gives you a theory of God or the works of God, which has not revelation, but an inspiration of his own for its basis”

In the Praeparatio evangelica - a work of Christian apologetics written by Eusebius - we find another quote attributed to Julian the Apostate, which also gives some understanding about what Theosophia Mystica:

 “In addition to this, you have heard the Theosophia Mystica, which led the wonderful sages of Egypt to worship wolves and dogs and lions: you have learnt also the miracle of the beetle, and the virtue of the hawk. Laugh not then in future at their gods, but pity the thrice wretched human race for their great folly and blindness.” (Theol. Et Scr. Eccl., Praeparatio evangelica, Book III, Chapter V, Section 4, line 2.)

Julian refers to Theosophia Mystica as the secret divine wisdom that influenced and led the Egyptians to create their religious system. On the other hand, Iamblichus uses the noun Theosophia when referring to divine inspiration and also claims that the Egyptian theosophists  had an ancient wisdom of theurgy.

We also meet the noun Theosophia in the Hellenic Magic Papyri (2 bc. and 5 ac). The Greek Magical Papyri are a collection of writings  in ancient Hellenic, Coptic and Egyptian languages. The papyri are important because they give us some knowledge about the magic-religious practices of the Greek and Roman world. The papyri contain quotes from spell books and secret ancient knowledge. Apparently they were compiled for the intellectual study of some form of magic, as well as a guide for magicians and charmers.

In the beginning of the 6^th century the mystic writings (Neo-platonic in nature) of Pseudo-Dionysius the Aeropagite, attempted to shed some light on Christian Theological and mystical ideas. On his work The Mystical Theology chapter What is Divine Darkness he refers to Theosophia in the following way:

Supernal Triad, Deity above all essence, knowledge and goodness; Guide of Christians to Theosophia; direct our path to the ultimate summit of your mystical knowledge, most incomprehensible, most luminous and most exalted, where the pure, absolute and immutable mysteries of theology are veiled in the dazzling obscurity of the secret Silence, outshining all brilliance with the intensity of their Darkness, and surcharging our blinded intellects with the utterly impalpable and invisible fairness of glories surpassing all beauty.    

 

Pseudo-Dionysius, created the bridge between neo-Platonism and Christian Theology and refers to Theosophia as Divine Wisdom inspired by God, which cannot be transmitted with words. With Aeropagite Theosophia and mysticism become blended. Wisdom cannot be attained by a person, but flows from divinity and such a wisdom, as an ultimate mystery, cannot be transmitted with words, because is unspeakable and intellect cannot play any role in this process. This is the kingdom of the Christian Neo-Platonism, the realm of Christian Theosophia Mystica (Secret Wisdom of God), which influenced deeply Behmenism. 

 

An interesting source shedding light on Theosophia is the book History of Philosophy written by the German historian Johann Jakob Brucker (1696-1770). There is an entire chapter dedicated to Theosophy - despite his critics - it contains a considerable amount of relevant information. He refers to theosophists as a class of philosophers who profess to derive their knowledge of nature from Divine revelation (apocalypse). [8]

According to him theosophists were not satisfied with the literal analyses and interpretation of scriptures and with human reason and he claims that:

They had access to an internal supernatural light, superior to any other form of illumination from which is derived a mysterious and divine philosophy, manifested only to the chosen favorites of heaven… Philosophers of this class have not a common system but everyone follows the impulse of his own imagination.[9] This last sentence reminds us a lot Vaughan’s point of view on Theosophia and also of Blavatsky position (as we will see towards the end speech).

Brucker describes as Theosophist the Germans Philosophers of Fire, Alchemists-Theosophists, Behmenism, and the entire Rosicrucian movement also Robert Fludd and so forth. According to him Theosophists sustain to have contact with celestial beings which have the role of mediation between man and god, and they acquire power by the aid of magic, astrology and other similar arts. He then refers to those he considered as Theosophists. One of the theosophists he mentions is  Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus known as Paracelsus - who according to Brucker -contacted all kinds of persons who professed knowledge on secret arts and some of his ideas have been borrowed from the Platonists and Cabbalists of Alexandria.  The other one is Jacob Boehme who - after seven days of silence - entered in ecstasy and was touched by the intuitional vision of god. John Baptista Van Helmont whose writings and theories unite Theosophical mysticism with scholastic studies, as well as his son Francis Helmut (Franciscus Mercurius) who incorporated Cabalism on his father’s system.

Brucker also refers to Peter Poiret (1646-1719) who converted himself to mysticism after meeting Madame Guyon, and become an enemy of Cartesian philosophy.

The entire society of Rosicrucian –which he affirms that are-  commonly referred as Theosophists (16^th century), because they sustain to have acquired their gift – to explain the most important secrets of nature - through divine revelation and also claim to possess the philosophical stone. Towards the end of the chapter Brucker mentioned the following:

Although the eccentricities of this sect (Theosophists) are too various to be deduced into a regular system, they are all to be traced back to one common source, the renunciation of human reason.” The whole dependence of these philosophers is upon human inspiration in which intellect remains passive and they wait in sacred stillness and silence of the soul for Divine Illumination.

 

Theosophia Mystica also influences Masonry. For instance the preparation of the nous (mind) which the neophyte should acquire a deeper philosophical and scientific knowledge to penetrate into the most occult realms of nature is imprinted in the ritual of initiation of the second degree. This degree is related to the Egyptian Goddess Nut, with the Devachan of the Hinduism, with the Eleusian fields of the Helens, with the mental plane of contemporary Theosophists, and with the middle chamber of Ezequeil (61:7). In this degree the neophyte symbolically prepares himself to 'die' and 'resurrect'. The third degree  symbolizes a mind which dies to darkness of ignorance and is reborn no more within the realm of ignorance, but illuminated by spiritual intelligence.  In other words, symbolized the rebirth of a nous where Theosophia Mystica  may flow.

With the foundation of the Theosophical Society in the 19^th century, the noun Theosophia became unclear, because many Theosophists of the 20 and 21^st century refer to the teachings of H.P.Blavatsky as Theosophia (theosophy). H.P.Blavatsky’s teachings maybe considered Theosophia if we analyze it under the light, that they are part of a tradition which sustains that the origin of Theosophia (Divine Wisdom) is derived from an unknown and mysterious source. So, when H.P.Blavatsky describes the way she acquired knowledge, she leads us into the realms of Theosophia Mystica:

 

Knowledge comes through visions, fist in dreams and after images which appears to my inner eye during meditation. In this way I learned all the system…. Never not even one word was given to me through a normal way…. I was never taught anything written, and the knowledge I have is so clear.

 

Another definition which H.P.Blavatsky gives to the noun Theosophia is the following:

 

… higher intuition acquired by Theosophia - or God knowledge, which carries the mind from the world of form into that of formless spirit, man has been sometimes enabled in every age, and in every country to perceive things in the interior or invisible world. Hence, the "Samadhi," or Dhyana Yoga Samadhi, of the Hindu ascetics; the "Daimonion-photi," or spiritual illumination, of the Neo-Platonists; the "Siderial confabulation of souls," of the Rosicrucians or Fire-philosophers; and, even the ecstatic trance of mystics and of the modem mesmerists and spiritualists, are identical in nature, though various as to manifestation. The search after man's diviner "self," so often and so erroneously interpreted as individual communion with a personal God, was the object of every mystic, and belief in its possibility seems to have been coeval with the genesis of humanity - each people giving it another name. (H.P.Blavatsky what is Theosophy”. The Theosophist, Volume 1, Number 1 (October 1879) and which is also contained within The Collected Writings Volume II, pp87 -97

 

The above description is in harmony with whatever we saw in relation to Theosophia Mystica, which in other words can be defined as the direct gnosis or empiric experience into the mysterious or secret realms of human mind.

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