Category:The Theosophical Review

Title: The Theosophical Review (1887-1909)

Editor: George Robert Stowe Mead

Publisher: Women’s Printing Society Limited

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, a new religious movement named theosophy was born. Originally led by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, these thinkers rejected absolutist religious claims, rather arguing that all religions were attempts by a “Spiritual Hierarchy” to help humans gain more truth and greater perfection.^[1] The name “theosophy,” according to Blavatsky, “comes to us from the Alexandrian philosophers, called lovers of truth, Philaletheians, from phil ‘loving,’ and aletheia ‘truth.’”^[2] Main components of their beliefs included the idea of a higher moral self, reincarnation, the universality of consciousness, and, especially, the evolution of race. Though many did not take the movement seriously—James Joyce often mocks theosophy in his Ulysses—it garnered a respectable following on both sides of the Atlantic.

Under her direction, the Philosophical Society was founded in 1875 in New York, and quickly spread into Europe. In 1887, Blavatsky started a London-based periodical titled Lucifer^[3] designed to be a vehicle for the society’s thought, though it ended up most frequently just being a vehicle for her thought.^[4] After Blavatsky’s death in 1891, Annie Besant continued to run the journal until 1895 when George Robert Stowe Mead became a co-editor. A couple years after Mead’s arrival, the periodical was renamed The Theosophical Review. Mead continued work on the journal until 1909, when it was discontinued.^[5]

The journal was printed monthly by the Women’s Printing Society Limited. It had a wide variety of contributors, equally balanced between males and females. Its contents included short fiction, theological essays, correspondence, book reviews, and summaries of various mystical publications.^[6]

Notes

1. ↑ Michael Gomes, The Dawning of the Theosophical Movement, Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House, 1987, 1-10, Print.
2. ↑ H. P. Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy; Being a Clear Exposition, in the Form of Question and Answer, of the Ethics, Science, and Philosophy, for the Study of Which the Theosophical Society has been Founded, London: The Theosophical Publishing Society, 1893, 1, Print.
3. ↑ The title page for the magazine gave this explanation for the name: "The light-bearer is the Morning Star or Lucifer; and Lucifer is no profane or satanic title. It is the Latin Luciferus, the Light bringer, the Morning Star, equivalent to the Greek. . .the name of the pure herald of day light."
4. ↑ Bruce F. Campbell, Ancient Wisdom Revived: A History of the Theosophical Movement, Berkeley: U of California P, 1980, 107-120, Print.
5. ↑ David L. Miller, G. H. Mead: Self, Language and the World, Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1973, 223-30, Print.
6. ↑ WD.

Submitted by: Park, Benjamin: section 1, Winter 2009