-əfē, -fi noun
( -es )
Etymology: Medieval Latin theosophia, from Late Greek, from Greek the- + sophia wisdom — more at -sophy
1. : a body of doctrine relating to deity, cosmos, and self and held to rest on direct intuitions of supersensible reality by preternaturally perceptive individuals and to give a wisdom superior to that of historical religion or empirical philosophy or science by which the initiate can master nature and guide his destiny : a system of often occult and esoteric thought presented as a means of individual salvation and sometimes associated with mysticism, pantheism, or magic — compare boehmenism , gnosticism , neoplatonism , swedenborgianism
2. usually capitalized : a syncretistic system of theosophy following chiefly Hindu philosophies and associated with a movement originating in the United States in 1875, aiming to serve through its societies as the nucleus of a universal brotherhood of man and to guide the individual toward perfect wisdom through the study of world literature on the laws of the universe and through the development under the esoteric teachings of mahatmas of his latent inner senses responsive to the invisible cosmos, and teaching physical and spiritual evolution (as of the soul through reincarnations) ; also : the modern movement promulgating this theosophy