1. What’s your name, where are you from and how long have you been a member of the TS?
Rozi Ulics from Alexandria, VA USA and I’ve been a member for over 15 years now.
2.How long have you been a member of your Section’s Board?
5 years.
3. How did you first learn about Theosophy or come in contact with the Society?
I heard about the Society “accidentally.” I was at a wedding and a young woman told me she had written her dissertation about a Society founded by “a woman and two men at the turn of the century that brought occultism to the West.” I remember being befuddled because I had never heard of these people or such a society. The young woman never told me the name, but just 6 months later I happened to attend my first meeting in Washington, DC and found myself immediately hooked. It wasn’t until some time later that I realized this was the Society I had heard about from that young woman the year before. In fact, that must have happened during the weekend of the U.S. Summer National Convention. So I like to think at such gatherings we send out some kind of collective beacon for those who are meant to find us and help with the work.
4. What does Theosophy mean to you?
Theosophy is the underlying reality of Life to me, in all its different forms - happy, sad, hopeful, tragic etc. It is my bedrock personally and gives me peace, purpose and hope, especially when things seem rather hopeless. So if we consider ourselves to be students of Theosophy, then we are really students of Life and everything it has to teach us.
5. This year, 2025, the Theosophical Society celebrates its 150th anniversary. What in your opinion is the biggest challenge the TS is facing and what is to be done in order to maintain the Society’s relevance in the years to come?
The Society’s biggest challenge is probably the same thing the Mahatmas pointed out when we were first founded - Brotherhood (or Siblinghood.) Feeling real Siblinghood is not easy. It’s not something you can just adopt - you have to recognize its importance and then work at it. It’s also not a particularly popular notion in our society these days, so it’s a struggle against the constant pressure from our surroundings. Also we humans don’t learn very fast. So it is slow going. That said, the members of the Society are some of the kindest, most self-aware and well-meaning people I’ve ever met and when we gather together, you can tell there is something very special about us as a group. So we are making progress. And the world so desperately needs our example. When we get it right, we will be unstoppable.
Another challenge is, how much do we value Theosophy? Do we realize the precious gift we have with this world view and its teachings? It’s something very special to be part of an organization that is 150 years old and stands for something so noble. I think if we really did realize it, we would know what we have to do and how to go about doing it. Then, we would have little problem attracting lots of people to us, especially because Theosophy is not our exclusive property - it’s for every person in the world, whatever stage they are at.
But what’s especially good about forums like this is that it gives people a chance to think up their own answers to these questions. If you’re reading this, then that must mean the Society is somehow important to you. You may have your own ideas about what is most challenging to the Society or how it can be more relevant. So if you see something that you think should be different, then perhaps that’s where you personally have a constructive contribution to make. If we all approached the Society from this perspective, thinking for ourselves about these questions, not criticizing, but seeing deficiencies as our personal invitation to help, then maybe we wouldn’t have to worry about the Society or its relevance in the future.
From the editor:
Opinions and ideas expressed in the mini-interviews are exclusively of those who are being interviewed. They don’t necessarily represent the ideas and opinions of the compilers of Theosophy Forward. The responses of the interviewees are not edited for content. Some contributors give short answers to the questions while others touch upon the subject more elaborately.