A Theosophical View of the First World War

Cousins - War, a Theosophical View

The First World War elicited reactions and interpretations from a bewildering array of intellectual positions. Anarchists, avant-garde artists, theologians, biologists, pacifists, feminists and mystics (to signal but a few groups) all mobilized their intellectual resources to try to make sense of the unprecedented destruction enveloping the world.

Amongst these diverse interpretations, we find many that one could call ‘mystical’ to some degree. Broadly characterised, a mystical interpretation of the war would be one which sees it not as a man-made, political, or social phenomenon, but rather as the physical manifestation of some hidden cosmic drama, as a metaphysical battle between supernatural forces, or even as a divine trial of mankind.

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