IS THEOSOPHY THE SECRET GNOSIS?
The Greek philosopher Plotinus frequently spoke of a "secret gnosis", or secret knowledge, that could be acquired by spiritual disciplines, and he equated it with " theosophia ", or Theosophy.In her essay on "What Is Theosophy?", and in her Theosophy books,H.P. Blavatsky explains what Plotinus meant from a standpoint that only an initiate into the Mysteries could fully understand: "The Alexandrian Theosophists were divided into neophytes, initiates, and masters, or hierophants; and their rules were copied from the ancient Mysteries of Orpheus, who, according to Herodotus, brought them from India. Ammonius obligated his disciples by oath not to divulge his higher doctrines, except to those who were proved thoroughly worthy and initiated, and who had learned to regard the gods, the angels, and the demons of other peoples, according to the esoteric hyponia, or under-meaning. "The gods exist, but they are not what the hoi polloi, the une