Deist Usually a believer in natural religion, who admits the existence of deity, but denies that the latter has revealed himself through the usual religious channels. Particularly identified with the 18th century, it is a type of rationalism and reaction against dogmatic theology in favor of the free use of the intellect.

(See also: Deist , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Freemasonry

Fraternal and occult movement originating in England, 18th century

(See also: Freemasonry , Body Mind and Soul)

Deism: A doctrine which believes in the existence of God based on purely rational grounds; a particular faith prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries adhered to by several founding fathers of the United States, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. It holds that God created the world and its natural laws but is not involved in its functioning.

(See also: Deism , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Beorc: The 18th rune of the Elder Futhark, representing the letter b.

This is a fertility rune--a rune of birth and of the family.

Also See: Berkana

(See also: Beorc , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

LABYRINTH - maze, archetype of the circuitous quest for wisdom; the five great ones in antiquity were Crossus and Gortyna Crete; Lemos, Greece; Clusium, Etrusca; and lake Moerus, Egypt. Labyrinths have also been depicted on pillar scratches at Pompeii in floor tiles of Toussaints Abbey in France, 18th c. Rajasthani manuscripts, in traditional Zuni sand drawings, the notebook of Paul klee and among Chiriqui rock drawing in Panama, adj. labyrinthine (from Latin via Greek) (NAD)

(See also: LABYRINTH , Wiccan Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Banga

Banga is another name for ancient Bengal (West Bengal).

It is a historic region in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent, generally corresponding to the area inhabited by speakers of the Bengali language and now divided between the Indian state of West Bengal and the People's Republic of Bangladesh. Bengal formed part of most of the early empires that controlled northern India.

From the 8th to the 12th century, Bengal was under the Buddhist Pala dynasty, based in neighbouring Bihar. After about 1200 it was governed by semi-independent Muslim rulers, and from 1576 it belonged to the Mughal empire. When Mughal power declined in the 18th century, a separate dynasty emerged in Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa. Its rulers, known as the nawabs of Bengal, soon came into conflict with the British, who had established themselves at Calcutta in western Bengal (1690) and who took possession of the nawabs' realm in 1757-64. Bengal was thenceforth the base for British expansion in India. From 1773 its governor-general was the chief executive of British India; from 1834 he bore the title "governor-general of India." Assam was joined to Bengal from 1838 to 1874. In 1854 the government of India was separated from that of Bengal, though Calcutta remained India's capital until 1912. With the end of British rule in 1947, West Bengal, Bihar, and Orissa became part of the Republic of India. East Bengal went to Pakistan, but in 1971 it became the independent state of Bangladesh.€€€

(See also: Banga , Hinduism, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Pharoah

(Egyptian- great house, house of Ra)) One of the kings of ancient Egypt. Its popular use stems from the Bible, but its use as a term for the king of Egypt begins during the 18th Dynasty. Egyptian priests made lists of their pharaohs and noted the most important events of their reigns. About 280 BC one of these priests, Manetho, grouped the pharaohs into 30 dynasties (a dynasty is a succession of rulers of the same line of descent).

(See also: Pharoah , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Aten (Egyptian) The disk of the sun and its vivifying, light-giving beams. Extended during the 18th dynasty to become the basis of a new religion under Amenhetep III and his son Amenhetep IV.

They endeavored to arouse a more devotional feeling in the life of the Egyptians in opposition to the rigorous formalistic worship prescribed by the priests of the time, with its animal sacrifices and rigid ceremonialism, stressing the most material aspect of the gods as represented in the popular mythology.

 Incense and flowers decked altars, instead of blood sacrifices; joyousness pervaded the new capital city, while architects and painters created new ideas in their works. However, his successor Tut-ankh-Amen, reinstated the worship of Amen-Ra under the direction of the priests.

The worship of Amen or Ammon was an idea in conception far older than and philosophically and mystically superior to the conceptions which clustered about the newer worship of Aten. This newer worship, with the ideas woven into its meaning by the monarch and his wife, was not only a reform when contrasted with the rigid ritualism into which the worship of Amen had degenerated, but actually was an attempt to infill the minds of the Egyptian people with the joyousness of the solar orb itself as the vehicle of the recondite, secret, and highly mystical Amen, abstract and highly philosophical.

This illustrates how a noble worship can become ritualistic and empty, and how a more sensuous but more joyous worship can be used in a revivalistic sense to awaken a new religious devotion in the hearts of the multitude.

(See also: Aten , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Malvin Artley gives an exciting mythological background to Venus in connection to the forthcoming Venus Transits of 2004 and 2012. A must read if you are interested in the significance of the Venus Transit.

Read more here: » Venus Transit: The Venus Conjunction June 8 2004

Ur: The 18th letter of the Ogham tree alphabet, representing the letter U and meaning "heather."

Red heather is a sign of passion, while white heather acts as a protection against acts of passion.... Ur is an indication that you should find a "magnificent obsession" for yourself, something big, imaginatve, and a true test of your abilities.

Also See: Uir

(See also: Ur , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Purvashadha purvasadha (Sanskrit) The 18th or 20th lunar asterism.

(See also: Purvashadha, purvasadha , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Thyagaraja:

Thyagaraja (Thyaagaraaja). 18th and 19th century mystic singer/ composer. Leader in Karnatak tradition of classical Indian music. Born in Thanjavur District of south India.

(See also: Thyagaraja , Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Homeopathy: This practice, established in the late 18th century, is based on the idea that one’s body contains its own healing power. Practitioners introduce diluted remedies that match the body’s symptoms in order to stimulate a natural healing response. Homeopathy is often best used in treating chronic illness and in cases where conventional medicine has failed.

(See also: Homeopathy , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Edda(s) (Icelandic) (from edda great grandmother)

Matrix of the mythic wisdom of the ancient Norse peoples, the Edda consists of two main parts: the poetic or Elder Edda, which was written down by Saemund the Wise in Iceland after the ancient oral traditions of the skalds, about 1000 AD, a version known as the Codex Regius.

Saemund was a learned man who, after studying in Paris, founded a school at Oddi in Iceland. Scholars have speculated on the possibility that the manuscript of Saemund may have been called The Book of Oddi, which became linguistically Edda.

In 1643 Bishop Brynjolf Sveinsson of Skalholt discovered Saemund's manuscript. He had copies made and sent the original with Thormod Torfaeus to King Frederik III of Denmark as a gift in l662. After three hundred years it was returned to Iceland.

The Younger Edda, in which the verses are rendered in prose form by Snorri Sturlusson, a pupil of Saemund's grandson in the school at Oddi, contains some material which has been omitted or lost from the poetic version. A large part of Snorri's Edda is devoted to Skaldskaparmal, a treatise on the rules of alliteration and meter that apply in the creation of poetry, and the uses of kenningar -- a type of word play giving suggestive descriptions instead of the words commonly used to designate people, gods, and things. As examples of kennings the Tree of Life is called variously the soil mulcher, the shade giver, and Odin is named allfather, the thinker, the disguised, etc. The other two sections of Snorri's Edda are named Hattatal (rules or conventions), and Gylfaginning (the mocking of Gylfe). This can also mean the "apotheosis of Gylfe" which, in the context of a Mystery teaching presents interesting possibilities.

One 18th century author, Johan Goransson, believes that the Eddas were copied from old Runobocker (books of runes) and that when Christianity first spread its influence in Sweden about two hundred years after Saemund, these ancient writings were systematically destroyed (Sviogota ok Nordmanna Edda xxxi).

The manuscripts containing the collection of lays and stories known as Edda are: Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus, and Codex Upsaliensis. The last-named and also the Arnamagnaean Vellum No. 748, which contains a portion of the text, are clearly written by Snorri.

The Eddas have given rise to a great many fairy tales, mythic and heroic stories, and humorous anecdotes, but the keys to decipher their esoteric meaning have been largely lost.

(See also: Edda , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Theophilanthropists Love of God and man, or of God through man; a modern sect headed by Revelliere-Lepeaux, a member of the French Directory (1795-99) and a bitter opponent of ecclesiastical religion (especially Roman Catholicism), who seized a moment of attraction towards the Revolutionary ideas to forward his new religion and turn churches into Theophilanthropic temples.

It was a species of deism, believing in God but not in a special revelation or any of the church doctrines; and seems to have been one form of the generally vague quasi-religious, quasi-philosophical ideas which were current in the latter part of the 18th century in France and ran like wildfire over the whole country.

(See also: Theophilanthropists , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

MAGIC WORD

The root of all Magic is The Word. Ho Logos . In every culture, the shaman is the person with the largest vocabulary (although, ironically, he may express himself clumsily). He is also the one who sees beyond a person's words to what that person really means. For the magician, as for the poet, words are fluid and changing. Puns, paradoxes and triple/quadruple meanings come and go with varying degrees of exactitude or "correctness". Magical meanings derive from context or intention. Etymology is always strictly, historically, accurate, but usually beyond the safe and unimaginative academic frontiers into the realm of historical intuition. Where history and genuine insight leave off and illusion begins it is sometimes difficult to say.

The Egyptian God of magic, Thoth (or Tahuti, "The Speaker") is self-created and dwells in chaos. As he speaks, each word becomes a created thing (as in Greek a "poem" means anything that has been made). Hunchback: Is Chaos the Void or is it merely the pre-linguistic, Briatic world?

In our time when the television commercial has raped and perverted language for the sake of profit, when words have little more value than the squawking of parrots, it is difficult to imagine that there was once a mighty and living oral tradition. The true magician has not forgotten.

Therefore the adept must be adept with words. The unitiatated believe that Magic is entirely the result of uttering certain catchwords or phrases: "Hocus-Pocus-Dominocus!" or "Hey Presto! Hi Jingo, begone!" Oddly enough, this bit of folk wisdom is not as far off the mark as it might seem. Words do have power. Spells can be evoked. PKD once said that for every individual in the world there exists a special word or phrase, for him alone, which upon his hearing, would result in his death. There is also another word that would heal him of anything. Most of us, however, go through our whole lives without hearing either of these vital words or phrases.

The words used by magicians, when they are not the nonsense syllables of charlatans, tend to be words from archaic languages. Today these are primarily Latin or Greek (in our culture), whereas in the 18th and 19th Century, ritual words were usually taken from Hebrew. Hebrew magic itself borrowed from the earlier Chaldaeans, Babylonians and Assyrians. Finally, there is Buddhism and Yoga from Sanskrit, Tantrism from Tibetan, Taoism from Chinese and Sufism from Arabic.

Says Her Bak , "Do not be negligent in finding and using the right word. Thoth never replies to inexact medus."

(See also: MAGIC WORD , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Rosicrucians [from Latin rosa rose + crux cross]

Rosy cross or rose cross, referring to the cross of the rose, the general medieval idea of the rose being an emblem of divine love, and the cross of renunciation and self-conquest. A medieval European mystical and quasi-occult fraternity, probably dating from about the mid-15th century. It represented one of the many cyclic attempts to reintroduce and keep alive the ancient wisdom, and its history is typical of most such enterprises.

The name was first given to the disciples of a learned adept, Christian Rosenkreuz, the alleged surname itself being a German translation of rose-cross, leaving open whether Rosenkreuz was actually a family name or a surname mystically adopted to designate a particular body of mystical thought; the name Christian may be another such mystical name-adoption. At any rate, Rosenkreuz returned form a journey in Asia and founded a mystical order in Europe. He and his disciples encountered the determined opposition of the Christian Church which then held sway over so much of Europe.

He dressed up his teachings in a Christian garb, using such names as Jehovah as screens for the real meaning, and communicating to his disciples the keys for an interpretation of his doctrines. He founded no formal association and built no colleges, for the utmost secrecy was necessary to escape persecution and even death. It is for these reasons that the true history of the Rosicrucians is so difficult to trace. The original Rosicrucians were fire-philosophers, successors of the theurgists and the Magi.

The symbol of a cross within a circle, supposed to represent a rose with a cross in it, is really a perversion by Western Christian Qabbalists, who call it the great mystery of occult generation, whereas the true symbol of the reawakening of the universe is a circle with a point in it, and the circle with a cross is the true mundane cross.

The real symbol of the Rosicrucians is that of a pelican tearing open its breast to feed its seven little ones -- the symbol of the 18th degree of the order. The rosy cross is the cube unfolded (cf SD 2:19, 80, 601). Many associations, since the disappearance of the medieval Rosicrucians, have existed and still exist, who have borrowed the name and apparently as much of the Rosicrucians' teachings as they could understand. Blavatsky mentions Paracelsus as having been a true Rosicrucian, and Eliphas Levi as having had access to Rosicrucian manuscripts.

(See also: Rosicrucians , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Cheth: The eighth letter of the Hebrew alphabet, Ch or H. Represents the number 8. The fourth of the twelve "single letters." A Hebrew word meaning "fence" or "enclosure." Corresponds to Cancer, the 18th Path (between Binah and Geburah), and Tarot trump VII The Chariot.

(See also: Cheth , Magic, Shamanism, Paganism, Wicca)

Mesmerism

An 18th century movement begun in France by the Austrian doctor Franz Anton Mesmer, who believed that astrological influence on humans was conveyed through a force or substance similar to magnetism.

He first began treating patients with magnets or charged fluids but quickly modified his position, theorizing that cures were actually coming from an energy or mysterious Òmagnetic fluidÓ coming from the hands, voice, or nervous system of the practitioner.

This invisible substance or magnetism was thought to be similar to electro-magnetism and was dubbed ÒAnimal Magnetism. Ó Mesmer's pupils were later able to induce a Òmagnetic sleepÓ (trance state or hypnotic condition) in their patients. The term Mesmerism eventually became analogous with hypnosis .

(See also: Mesmerism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Universalism

1)    The doctrine that all people will eventually receive salvation and eternal life. Many different groups hold to universalism from various perspectives and for diverse (and sometimes opposing) reasons. This doctrine is prevalent in liberal Christianity (among both Protestants and Roman Catholics), as well as in the New Age movement and in most non-Jude0-Christian religions.

2)    A movement dating from the late 18th century that originally affirmed universalism on the basis that Jesus' redemptive death paid for the sins of all people. As universalism developed it came to affirm that people are acceptable as they are and that no atonement or redemption from sin is needed or provided.

(See also: Universalism , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

In Kant and the Platypus , Umberto Eco squares his shoulders and takes on the problem of pure being. For pure being is not just a problem, it is the problem in philosophy in that it underlies everything, including problems, philosophers and platypuses. Or should it be platypi? Even the question mark to a dubious lingual entity which does not really 'exist' has to have being, even if it is in the form of a being which we call 'non-existence'.

(See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Life and Death: The Problem of Being