Chaldeans

(Chaldaea). Theosophical literature frequently refers to a system of esoteric teaching in Chaldea, a land which lies in what is now southern Iraq. It is frequently mentioned in the Old Testament although it is sometimes called Babylonia. Its early history is obscure and the first clear reference to it is in the annals of Ashurnasirpal II who was king of Assyria from 884 to 859 BCE. So famous were the savants of Chaldea that “Chaldean” and “Babylonian” tended to become synonymous with astronomers, astrologers, priests learned in the Babylonian literature and magicians in ancient Rome and Greece.

Helena P. BLAVATSKY makes very frequent reference to Chaldea and the Chaldeans, both in her SD and other writings. She suggests that the Egyptians were taught by the Chaldeans and that the ancient Druids were akin to them in their beliefs. She maintained that the KABBALAH did not originate with the Jews, but with the Chaldeans and the Egyptians (SD II:240).

G. P. PURUCKER states that there were schools of Occultism in Chaldea and Babylonia which taught the Ancient Greeks and Romans the Occult Philosophy (Studies in Occult Philosophy, p. 538).