#Theosophists
In the 19th century there was a broad expanding of knowledge about the world. Trade routes to the East not only brought back fine silks and exotic spices, but new concepts in thought. These concepts were taking hold in everyday society bringing about an expansion of the Age of Reason (18th Century) and the world of philosophy was exploring a wide variety of new ideas.
While the roots of theosophy can be traced back to ancient Indian and Chinese writings, the Theosophical Society was founded in New York in November 1875. Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, a world traveler from the Ukraine who settled in New York in July of 1875 and became a founding member of the Theosophical Society. Her book magnum opus, The Secret Doctrine of 1888 are the basis for many of the beliefs, although they are the synthesis of science, religion and philosophy.
The three basic characteristics of theosophy are:
2. Primacy of the Mythic: The creative Imagination, an external world of symbols, glyphs, myths, synchronicities and the myriad, along with image, all as a universal reality for the interplay conjoined by creative mind.
3. Access to Supreme Worlds: The awakening within, inherently possessing the faculty to directly connect to the Divine world(s). The existence of a special human ability to create this connection. The ability to connect and explore all levels of reality; co-penetrate the human with the divine; to bond to all reality and experience a unique inner awakening.
Theosophy has given rise to, or influenced, the development of other mystical, philosophical, and religious movements up to the present day.