Work Classification Layer
Compare Works
Pick two or more works to set their attribute fingerprints, dimension-by-dimension passages, and shared school embodiments side by side. Especially useful for author-stage comparisons (Wittgenstein early vs late) and for setting a single tradition's foundational texts against each other.
The Key to Theosophy
Blavatsky's 1889 popular introduction to Theosophy
Attribute Fingerprint
Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.
| Attribute | The Key to Theosophy (Late) |
|---|---|
| Time · Extent | Infinite |
| Time · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Time · Grain | Continuous |
| Time · Freedom | Non-Deterministic |
| Time · Traversability | Linear |
| Time · Dimensionality | One |
| Time · Direction | Uni-directional |
| Space · Extent | Infinite |
| Space · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Space · Curvature | Flat |
| Space · Dimensionality | Three |
| Space · Locality | Local |
| Matter · Extent | Infinite |
| Matter · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Matter · Conservation | Conserved |
| Matter · Dimensionality | Three |
| Matter · Locality | Local |
| Observer · Time Instance | Single |
| Observer · Space Instance | Single |
| Observer · Knowledge Extent | Partial |
| Observer · Knowledge Retainment | Total |
| Observer · Physicality | Embodied |
| Observer · Agency | Active |
| Observer · Number | Plural |
| Observer · Metaphysical Agency | Impersonal |
| Observer · Moral Authority | Experience |
| Observer · Theological Method | — |
| Energy · Extent | Infinite |
| Energy · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Energy · Conservation | Conserved |
| Energy · Dispersibility | Reversible |
| Information · Ontological Status | Substantival |
| Information · Cosmic Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Personal Conservation | Conserved |
| Information · Granularity | Discrete |
Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence
What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.
Time
The Key to Theosophy
1889 publication, late Blavatsky; mid-Theosophical-Society institutional phase (Society founded 1875).
Space
The Key to Theosophy
London publication; transnational Anglo-American-Indian-European Theosophical movement; Adyar headquarters from 1882.
Matter
The Key to Theosophy
Theosophical doctrines: brotherhood, karma-reincarnation, the seven principles, the Masters, comparative-religious universality.
Observer
The Key to Theosophy
Late Blavatsky as Theosophical-Society-founder and primary doctrinal author, writing for a non-initiated general reader.
Energy
The Key to Theosophy
Popular-introductory, polemical-defensive (against Spiritualist, Christian, and materialist objections), universalist-religious energies.
Information
The Key to Theosophy
Question-and-answer dialogue form; chaptered doctrinal exposition; aimed at general audience rather than committed-occultist initiates.
Internal Tensions
Where each work's argument pulls against itself.
The Key to Theosophy has remained the popular Theosophical introduction across more than a century and shaped how the broader Anglophone esoteric and New-Age public encountered Theosophy. Mainstream historians of religion (Wouter Hanegraaff, Olav Hammer) treat the Theosophy of the Key as a major modern-esoteric synthesis; mainstream Indological scholarship has been more sceptical of Blavatsky's source-claims about Mahatmas, hidden Tibetan texts, and racial-spiritual-evolution doctrines.