Description
Book SynopsisUkrainian-born Madame Helena Blavatsky (1831â1891) was a powerful and controversial member of the spiritualist world and for a time famous for her powers as a medium. She was a co-founder of the theosophy movement in the United States, which she later extended to Europe and India, drawing from her extensive global travels and her familiarity with a broad range of belief systems, from Asian religions to New Orleans voodoo, as well as secret societies such as the Freemasons. Drawing from Hinduism and Buddhism, theosophy aimed to understand the mystic powers of the universe and promote the study of other religions. The first two volumes of The Secret Doctrine were published in 1888, but this third volume was published in 1897 by spiritualist Annie Besant from Blavatsky's notes. It looks at some ancient spiritual teachings and mysteries, and the development of the practice of magic.
Table of ContentsPreface Annie Besant; Introductory; 1. Preliminary survey; 2. Modern criticism and the ancients; 3. The origin of magic; 4. The secresy of the initiates; 5. Some reasons for secresy; 6. The dangers of practical magic; 7. Old wine in new bottles; 8. The 'Book of Enoch' the origin and foundation of Christianity; 9. Hermetic and kabalistic doctrines; 10. Various occult systems of interpretations of alphabets and numerals; 11. The hexagon with the central point, or the seventh key; 12. The duty of the true occultist towards religion; 13. Post-Christian adepts and their doctrines; 14. Simon and his biography Hippolytus; 15. St. Paul the real founder of present Christianity; 16. Peter a Jewish kabalist, not an initiate; 17. Apollonius of Tyana; 18. Facts underlying adept biographies; 19. St. Cyprian of Antioch; 20. The eastern Gupta Vidya and the Kabalah; 21. Hebrew allegories; 22. The 'Zohar' on creation and the elohim; 23. What the occultists and kabalists have to say; 24. Modern kabalists in science and occult astronomy; 25. Eastern and western occultism; 26. The idols and the teraphim; 27. Egyptian magic; 28. The origin of the mysteries; 29. The trial of the sun initiate; 30. The mystery 'sun of initiation'; 31. The object of the mysteries; 32. Traces of the mysteries; 33. The last of the mysteries in Europe; 34. The post-Christian successors to the mysteries; 35. Symbolism of sun and stars; 36. Pagan sidereal worship or astronomy; 37. The souls of the stars – universal heliolatry; 38. Astrology and astrolatry; 39. Cycles and avatâras; 40. Secret cycles; 41. The doctrine of the avatâras; 42. The seven principles; 43. The mystery of Buddha; 44. 'Reincarnations' of Buddha; 45. An unpublished discourse of Buddha; 46. Nirvana-Moksha; 47. The secret books of 'Lam-Rin' and Dzyan; 48. Amita Buddha Kwan-Shai-yin, and Kwan-yin; 49. Tsong-Khapa; 50. A few more misconceptions corrected; 51. The 'Doctrine of the eye' and the 'Doctrine of the heart', or the 'heart's seal'; Some papers on the bearing of occult philosophy on life.
