Introduction and links to related topics Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.
Adept - Adept (Latin). Adeptus, "He who has obtained." In Occultism one who has reached the stage of Initiation, and become a Master in the science of Esoteric philosophy.
Adept - An esoteric master. An individual highly experienced and skilled in occult wisdom or magickal craft, as a result of the study of various mystical techniques and philosophies. An initiate that has willfully achieved the highest attainment in the mastery of the occult sciences and powers. Adepts often take on students or chelas, in which case, the adept is known as a masters.
The chela must first accomplish self-denial and self-development in order to become worthy to become a chela. . The activities of adepts are diverse, being concern with the direction and guidance of the activities of the rest of mankind.
According to Theosophy, their knowledge, like their powers, far surpasses that of man, and they can control forces both in the spiritual and physical dominion, and are said to be able to prolong their lives for centuries. In alchemical lore there are always eleven adepts. The term adept was also employed by medieval magicians and alchemists to denote a master of their sciences. See Mahatma.
Adept - An individual who through serious study and accomplishments is considered highly proficient in a particular magickal system. A person can be an adept at Egyptian magickal practices, but a total failure at practical kitchen magick.
Althotas - Althotas First teacher of Cagliostro, "a great Hermetic Eastern Sage" or adept said to have given Cagliostro his symbolic name (BCW 12:79-80). Althotas is "a curious word containing the Arabic definite article ''the,'' suffixed with a common Greek ending ''as,'' and containing the Egyptian word Thoth, who was the Greek Hermes -- the Initiator!" (SOPh 30)
Ambrosia - Ambrosia (Greek) (from ambrotos immortal from a not + mortos or brotos mortal; cf Sanskrit amrita from a not + the verbal root mri to die; Latin immortalus from in not + mors death)
In Classical myths variously the food, drink, or unguent of the gods or divine wisdom, connected with nectar; anything that confers or promotes immortality. Equivalent to the Sanskrit amrita and soma and the northern European mead. In a Chinese allegory, the flying Dragon drinks of ambrosia and falls to earth with his host.
The laws of evolution entail a so-called curse or fall upon virtually all the hosts of monads frequently called angels, whereby they are cast down to the nether pole and undergo peregrinations in the realms of matter; in the case of many such "fallen angels," this involves imbodiment or incarnation on earth. Man himself at a stage of his evolution experiences a similar "descent" and speeding-up, due to the impulses of the immortal urge within his breast to grow, progress, evolve, and become cognizant of larger reaches of truth. This is evident in the highly mystical Hebrew story of the forbidden Tree and in the various legends pertaining to soma in Hindu literature.
Yet on the upward arc of an evolutionary cycle, partaking of this sacred ambrosial food signifies initiation, the partaking by the initiant in the Mysteries of the "drink" of spiritual immortality. This drink is symbolized by the cup and its contained liquid, but actually is the receiving into the consciousness from the inner nature of the life-giving streams, the draught of everlasting life, or the elixir of life.
After partaking of this ambrosial elixir, brought about by lives of selflessness and by final initiation, the adept learns to live in the minor and intermediate spheres of the solar system as a fully self-conscious co-laborer with the gods in their cosmic work. Such are the higher nirmanakayas, true buddhas, etc.
Anointed - Anointed (from Latin translation of Greek christos anointed)
Smeared with sacred unguent, having oil or unguent poured on the head; a ceremony originally symbolically denoting a high degree of initiation, but later borrowed for minor purposes by the Christian churches in consecrations and coronations. A true anointed or christos is one who has achieved the great victory over self in initiation and therefore in life, and thus has become a full or complete adept or mahatma.
Apollonius Of Tyana - Apollonius of Tyana First-century neo-Pythagorean, known for his ascetic life, moral teachings, and occult powers. His biography is a Hermetic allegory, though based on facts. A theurgist and adept of high powers, he studied Phoenician sciences as well as Pythagorean philosophy.
He traveled widely, journeying to Babylon and India where he associated with the Chaldeans, Magi, Brahmans, and Buddhists. His life was spent preaching noble ethics, prophesying, healing, and performing many well-attested phenomena or "miracles." Before his death he opened an esoteric school at Ephesus. Blavatsky holds that he was a nirmanakaya rather than an avatara. (BCW; TG; SD).
Apostolic Succession - Apostolic Succession The doctrine held in various branches of the Christian Church that the episcopal power necessary for the valid administration of the sacraments, for the transmission of orders, etc., has been handed down in unbroken succession from Saint Peter, to whom it was said to have been entrusted by Jesus.
One of the ideas which early Christianity took over from the esoteric teaching of the Mediterranean peoples, the apostolic succession was originally derived from the passing on of light from one adept to another at initiation, thus constituting what is called the guruparampara or the succession of teacher following teacher in regular serial order. A similar institution existed in the Eleusinian Mysteries, whose hierophants were drawn from one family, the Eumolpidae, as well as in many other parts of the world.
Arhat - (Sanskrit) An adept in Theravada Buddhism
Arian - Arian. A follower of Arius, a presbyter of the Church in Alexandria in the fourth century. One who holds that Christ is a created and human being, inferior to God the Father, though a grand and noble man, a true adept versed in all the divine mysteries.
Astral Plane - A mental world shared by dreamers, OOBE travelers, perichoretic visitants, newly dead, beings/spirits from other worlds who have lived lives on other planets and so on. Here are also the formidable, native "Kamadevas" and finally the lower devic orders, including the Elementals and those who provide us with the spirit of a place (genius loci). Alchemical "elementals" also exist here, as do all the undispatched, artificial creations of magicians (Tibetan magi, for instance, are adept at creating thought-creatures known as tulpas). Many of the astral creations become powerful symbols or Jungian archetypes - collectively created.
We already exist on the Astral Plane as we exist on the physical plane. We have but to experience it consciously. Marc Edmund Jones says that it is the level of experience for simple individuality or is our "first transcendency of physical cause and effect". The Astral Plane is constructed by the mental imagery of those who travel there. (Xtians think themselves in heaven, others imagine they are wherever their fancy takes them). Astral is the first type of matter, much more subtle than our present version, of course. As far as we''re concerned, on the astral plane, there is no "material reality, even though everything vaguely resembles our world. Things behave like the material world, except that the character of things is worn on the outside, rather than hidden inside as on earth. This is because the Astral lies midway between material earth and the spirit worlds, qabalistically on the Yesodic level. Classically, it is characterized (for the newly dead) by a central courtyard or "receiving field" receding into "the hills beyond" - beyond which lies the capital city: Sahasra Dalkenwal. This "courtyard", plaza, precinct, garden or whatever is generally considered to be merely a way-station or transfer point.
Most authorities are agreed that the first experience after death is total and absolute darkness, often accompanied by panic. As in every manifested thing, positive or negative, the mirroring of similarities takes place - so death, being similar to sleep, begins with darkness. Finally, again as in waking, appears a light as the world left behind begins to remember itself. One now enters the "desire world" or Kamaloka. It is in Kamaloka that the spirit creates the idealized world described above. Sooner or later we realize that eating, drinking, sleeping, making love are merely phantom acts because we have no physical body. At this moment comes a second surrender and we recapitulate our lives backward from death to birth, suffering or enjoying the effects of our actions while we lived in the world. So we experience for ourselves, first-hand, the harm we have done and recognize how we must compensate for it. Animals, of course, never get this far, but quickly lose their individuality, such as it is. Family pets may last a big longer because they have been so strongly individualized.
At any rate, we are now ready to present this refined and reformed earth-life personality to our higher self (Atma-Buddha-Manas). A separation of "I" and astral body is the Second Death. The self, rid of ego and earth-impedimenta can now ascend to the spirit world, as Osiris. The lower self is cast to the serpent, Urekh, to be consumed, while the spirit enters the clear sky of Sekten. The cast-off, ego-shorn astral husk, still contaminated by desire may hang around the borderland where it masquerades as some famous spirit or makes itself available to mediums and such.
Devachan is a mental plane in a world considerably higher than the astral, where the "I" then proceeds after its "second death."
At the apogee from earth the soul fills with desire (Trisha) for a personality. So we plummet down again through the seven levels. The Dhyan-Choans decide where the wheel of reincarnation will stop - but thereafter it''s up to the individual. Gradually, as one falls into materialization, one forgets his old experiences and focuses on the life to come. At this point we call karma voluntarily to help us redress the past imbalances. Passing over into the conditional sphere of Space/Time (Samsara), we reincarnate over and over (Samtana) until ultimate deliverance (Moksha). Life is thus a system of checks and balances between Activity (Pravritti) and Renunciation (Nirvitti).
There is a parallel Battle of Armageddon now taking place on the Astral Plane that is experienced only in shadow on earth - resulting in our breakdown of civilization and planet wide pollution. Eventually, as the war breeches the spirit membrane separating our world from the Astral, the celestial war will break out on earth as well.
A rather interesting analog of the Astral Plane is given by C.S. Lewis in his "Pilgrim''s Regress". Another, more satisfying version, is recounted by Tolkien in his story, "Leaf by Niggle". There are also Franz Werfel''s "Star of the Unborn" and Sacheverell Sitwell''s "Journey to the Ends of Time". Finally, it must be pointed out that there are many planes, of which the astral is only the first. The magician "rises through the planes", the astral, the magician''s plane, the alchemist''s plane, the Aethyrs, the God-planes, to the highest and innermost dimensions. (See DEVACHAN).
Avicenna - Avicenna. The latinized name of Abu-Ali al Hoseen ben Abdallah Ibn Sina; a Persian philosopher, born 980 AD)., though generally referred to as an Arabian doctor. On account of his surprising learning he was called "the Famous", and was the author of the best and the first alchemical works known in Europe. All the Spirits of the Elements were subject to him, so says the legend, and it further tells us that owing to his knowledge of the Elixir of Life, he still lives, as an adept who will disclose himself to the profane at the end of a certain cycle.
Barelitae - Barelitae (Gnostic) A name used by the Valentinian Gnostics for their highest degree of initiation, "in which the Adept became a perfect Pneumatic, or Illuminatus, a son of Immortality" (BCW 13:25); the Proarchos of the Barlelitae is mentioned by Irenaeus {BCW 13:45}.
Bono - Bono, Peter. A Lombardian; a great adept in the Hermetic Science, who travelled to Persia to study Alchemy. Returning from his voyage he settled in Istria in 1330, and became famous as a Rosicrucian. A Calabrian monk named Lacinius is credited with having published in 1702 a condensed version of Bono’s works on the transmutation of metals. There is, however, more of Lacinius than of Bono in the work. Bono was a genuine adept and an Initiate ; and such do not leave their secrets behind them in MSS.
Busardier - Busardier. A Hermetic philosopher born in Bohemia who is credited with having made a genuine powder of projection. He left the bulk of his red powder to a friend named Richthausen, an adept and alchemist of Vienna.
Some years after Busardier’s death, in 1637, Richthausen introduced himself to the Emperor Ferdinand III, who is known to have been ardently devoted to alchemy, and together they are said to have converted three pounds of mercury into the finest gold with one single grain of Busardier’s powder.
In 1658 the Elector of Mayence also was permitted to test the powder, and the gold produced with it was declared by the Master of the Mint to be such, that he had never seen finer. Such are the claims vouchsafed by the city records and chronicles.
Chang-chub - Chang-chub byang chub (jang-chub, chang-chub) (Tibetan) Also Byang-tzyoobs, Tchang-chub.
Translation for Sanskrit bodhi (enlightenment, awakening). Byang chub sems dpa'' (jang-chub-sem-pa) translates the Sanskrit bodhisattva, one who has attained a high degree of spiritual knowledge and mystic power; "An adept who has, by the power of his knowledge and soul enlightenment, become exempt from the curse of UNCONSCIOUS transmigration -- may, at his will and desire, and instead of reincarnating himself only after bodily death, do so, and repeatedly -- during his life if he chooses.
He holds the power of choosing for himself new bodies whether on this or any other planet -- while in possession of his old form, that he generally preserves for purposes of his own" (ML 285).
Chela - (Sanskrit) A student (of a guru) An apprentice to an Adept. One who earnestly desires to work for the betterment of humankind. The Adept imparts teaching and wisdom otherwise unattainable, and helps the Chela by communion and inspiration.
Chela - Chela (Sanskrit) A disciple, the pupil of a Guru or Sage, the follower of some adept of a school of philosophy (lit., child).
Chhinnamasta Tantrika - Chhinnamasta Tantrika Chinnamasta tantrika (Sanskrit) (from chhinna severed + masta head)
Buddhist tantric sect named for the goddess Chhinnamasta, represented with a decapitated head. In their highest initiation, the adept "must ''cut off his own head with the right hand, holding it in the left.'' Three streams of blood gush out from the headless trunk.
One of these is directed into the mouth of the decapitated head . . .; the other is directed toward the earth as an offering of the pure, sinless blood to mother Earth; and the third gushes toward heaven, as a witness for the sacrifice of ''self-immolation.'' Now, this had a profound Occult significance which is known only to the initiated . . ." (BCW 4:266).
Count Saint-germain - Count Saint-Germain
"Referred to as an enigmatical personage by modern writers. Frederic II., King of Prussia, used to say of him that he was a man whom no one had ever been able to make out. Many are his ''biographies,'' and each is wilder than the other. By some he was regarded as an incarnate god, by others as a clever Alsatian Jew. One thing is certain, Count de St. Germain -- whatever his real patronymic may have been -- had a right to his name and title, for he had bought a property called San Germano, in the Italian Tyrol, and paid the Pope for the title.
He was uncommonly handsome, and his enormous erudition and linguistic capacities are undeniable, for he spoke English, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Russian, Swedish, Danish, and many Slavonian and Oriental languages, with equal facility with a native. He was extremely wealthy, never received a sou from anyone -- in fact never accepted a glass of water or broke bread with anyone -- but made most extravagant presents of superb jewellery to all his friends, even to the royal families of Europe. His proficiency in music was marvellous; he played on every instrument, the violin being his favourite. ''St. Germain rivalled Paganinni himself,'' was said of him by an octogenarian Belgian in 1835, after hearing the ''Genoses maestro.'' ''It is St. Germain resurrected who plays the violin in the body of an Italian Skeleton,'' exclaimed a Lithuanian baron who had heard both.
"He never laid claim to spiritual powers, but proved to have a right to such claim. He used to pass into a dead trance from thirty-seven to forty-nine hours without awakening, and then knew all he had to know, and demonstrated the fact by prophesying futurity and never making a mistake. It is he who prophesied before the Kings Louis XV. and XVI., and the unfortunate Marie Antoinette. Many were the still-living witnesses in the first quarter of this century who testified to his marvellous memory; he could read a paper in the morning and, though hardly glancing at it, could repeat its contents without missing one word days afterwards; he could write with two hands at once, the right hand writing a piece of poetry, the left a diplomatic paper of the greatest importance. He read sealed letters without touching them, while still in the hand of those who brought them to him. He was the greatest adept in transmuting metals, making gold and the most marvellous diamonds, an art, he said, he had learned from certain Brahmans in India, who taught him the artificial crystallisation (''quickening'') of pure carbon. As our Brother Kenneth Mackenzie has it: -- ''In 1780, when on a visit to the French Ambassador to the Hague, he broke to pieces with a hammer a superb diamond of his own manufacture, the counterpart of which, also manufactured by himself, he had just before sold to a jeweller for 5500 louis d''or.''
He was the friend and confidant of Count Orloff in 1772 at Vienna, whom he had helped and saved in St. Petersburg in 1762, when concerned in the famous political conspiracies of that time; he also became intimate with Frederick the Great of Prussia. As a matter of course, he had numerous enemies, and therefore it is not to be wondered at if all the gossip invented about him is now attributed to his own confessions: e.g., that he was over five hundred years old; also, that he claimed personal intimacy ''with the Saviour and his twelve Apostles, and that he had reproved Peter for his bad temper'' -- the latter clashing somewhat in point of time with the former, if he had really claimed to be only five hundred years old. If he said that ''he had been born in Chaldea and professed to possess the secrets of the Egyptian magicians and sage,'' he may have spoken truth without making any miraculous claim. There are Initiates, and not the highest either, who are placed in a condition to remember more than one of their past lives. But we have good reason to know that St. Germain could never have claimed ''personal intimacy'' with the Saviour. However that may be, Count St. Germain was certainly the greatest Oriental Adept Europe has seen during the last centuries. But Europe knew him not. Perchance some may recognise him at the next Terreur, which will affect all Europe when it comes, and not one country alone" (TG 308-9).
"Saint Germain recorded the good doctrine in figures and his only cyphered MS. remained with his staunch friend and patron the benevolent German prince from whose house and in whose presence he made his last exit -- Home" (ML 280).
Cremer - Cremer, John. An eminent scholar who for over thirty years studied Hermetic philosophy in pursuance of its practical secrets, while he was at the same time Abbot of Westminster While on a voyage to Italy, he met the famous Raymond Lully whom he induced to return with him to England.
Lully divulged to Cremer the secrets of the stone, for which service the monastery offered daily prayers for him. Cremer, says the Royal Masonic Cyclopedia, "having obtained a profound knowledge of the secrets of Alchemy, became a most celebrated and learned adept in occult philosophy . . . lived to a good old age, and died in the reign of King Edward III."
Dedication - The process where an individual accepts the Craft as their path and vows to study and learn all that is necessary to reach adept ship. It is a conscious preparation to accept something new into your life and stick with it, regardless of the highs and lows that may follow.
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