Definition of "theosophy" [the•os•o•phy]

• Religious philosophy or speculation about the nature of the soul based on mystical insight into the nature of God. (noun)
• The system of beliefs and teachings of the Theosophical Society, founded in New York City in 1875, incorporating aspects of Buddhism and Brahmanism, especially the belief in reincarnation and spiritual evolution. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "So, on the one hand there is the system known as theosophy, which has centers and does good works all around the world, with its main center in Madras, and from there it goes all the way down to one English man writing under the name of Lobsang Rampa that Tibetans drill a hole in people's foreheads to open their third eye."
• "Much is said nowadays about theosophy, which is really but another name for mysticism."
• "But the majority of Gnostic undertakings may also be viewed as attempts to transform Christianity into a theosophy, that is, into a revealed metaphysic and philosophy of history, with a complete disregard of the Jewish Old Testament soil on which it originated, through the use of Pauline ideas, [306] and under the influence of the Platonic spirit."