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Libra Esoterica

Theosophy

religion and occult science

Also known as Theosophy, religion and occult science

by Henry Steel Olcott

  • First published:
  • 19th century
  • Language: English
  • Content type: Primary source
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Description

Description from OpenAlex (opens in a new tab)

The renowned lawyer and journalist Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907) published this work in 1885. In this work Olcott carefully lays out his arguments for the basis of theosophy, arguing for the truth of all religions because they share the same ancient roots or 'ur-religion'. As a founding member and the first president of the Theosophical Society, Olcott uses the work to set out the aims and objectives of the Society and attempts to reconcile his spiritual beliefs with science, reason and modernity. The work also includes accounts of his attempted empirical investigations into hypnotism, mesmerism and other spiritualist activities. The final chapters include discussions of India, Buddhism and Zoroastrian religion. The work was deeply influenced by Helena Blavatsky (1831–1891), then Olcott's close friend but later his opponent. It is a key text of the nineteenth-century theosophical movement and is an indispensable source for research into Victorian occult philosophy.

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Mesmerism, animal magnetism, and hypnosis, Occultism and esotericism, and Theosophy, Anthroposophy, and New Thought.

  • Occultism and esotericism

    Controlled discovery queries from openlibrary-historical matched “Occultism”. Retained metadata contains “occult” in the subtitle, “occult” in the alternative title, “occult” in the description, and 4 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Occultism”· via Open Library
    • “occult”· in subtitle
    • “occult”· in alternative title
    • “occult”· in description
    • “occult”· in subject
    • “Occultism”· in subject
  • Theosophy, Anthroposophy, and New Thought

    Controlled discovery queries from crossref, internet-archive, openalex, and openlibrary-historical matched “Theosophy”. Retained metadata contains “Theosophy” in the title, “Theosophy” in the alternative title, “theosophical” in the description, and 3 additional metadata match(es).

    • “Theosophy”· via Crossref
    • “Theosophy”· via Internet Archive
    • “Theosophy”· via OpenAlex
    • “Theosophy”· via Open Library
    • “Theosophy”· in title
    • “Theosophy”· in alternative title
  • Mesmerism, animal magnetism, and hypnosis

    Retained metadata contains “Hypnotism” in the description and “Mesmerism” in the description.

    • “Hypnotism”· in description
    • “Mesmerism”· in description

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

2 editions cataloged here.

Theosophy, Religion and Occult Science

Crossref publisher-supplied book record

2011-06-02Cambridge University Press; Cambridge University Press eBooksEnglish
  • 9780511974625
  • 9781108072649
Unknown

religion and occult science

Internet Archive institutional pre-1900 scan

1885[London : Redway?; G. Redway; Redway; Redway?English
  • 9780524019160
  • 9781564593900
  • 0524019169
  • 1564593908
Public

Subjects

16 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Cataloging notes

  • Contributing institution: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
  • Digitization sponsor: MSN
  • Discovery required Internet Archive search metadata to report a PDF format; the exact direct-file URL is added only after the item's file listing confirms an unrestricted PDF filename.
  • Internet Archive institutional collection: americana
  • Scanner: scribe1.nj.archive.org
Catalog id
openlibrary-work:OL2514305W
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved