Introduction and links to related topics Pisces - (Also see FISH.) The dual sign of Past and Future, Flood followed by resurgence. The ending precessional Age that began with the invitation to join Christ and leave the Arietian Age behind ("Come, I will make you fishers of men...") Pisces is the sign of suffering, governing the 12th house of incarcerations, restrictions and bondage -- hospitals, nunneries, prisons, etc. It is ruled by Neptune, poisons, liquids and narcotics. Pisces always, in some way, manages to hobble the native so that his progress is crippled either by external or internal conditions.
Some well known Pisceans include: Ernest Renan, Frederic Chopin, Elizabeth Taylor, George Washington, Patty Hearst, Schopenhauer, Giuleta Masina, Meher Baba, Anthony Burgess, Jack Kerouac, B.F. Skinner, Ibsen, Nijinski, Einstein, Ravel, Elizabeth Barret Browning, Jean Harlow, Queen Mary I, Cyrano de Bergerac, Claire Trevor, L. Ron Hubbard.
Vacuum - "As for ''something from nothing'' -- there''s no physical objection or limitation to the size or complexity of a virtual particle arising from zero-point fluctuation of the Quantum Vacuum. Eleven dimensions are a cinch. As long as net energy is zero, relative potentials can be arbitrarily large. 0 = (+1) + (-1) = (+4) + (-1) + (-3) = ...! Great Cthulhu could materialize, eat your head, then vanish as long as this represented a zero net energy exchange. Extremely unlikely, but it doesn''t violate the basic equations. This result of his theories always disturbed Einstein." -- Druid Spechtold.
Space-time - Space-time A concept taken over by Einstein from Minkowski, in which time (considered as a vector) is no longer regarded as independent of spatial extension, but is made a fourth coordinate in determining the position of an event.
Our ordinary threefold spatial extension is a concept due to our physical experience, so that there is no reason why we cannot adopt a concept of another order if we find it suits our purposes better. We can view the universe under the form of a threefold spatial extension and an independent time, or we can view it under the form of a four-dimensional continuum, wherein a coordinate representing position in time takes its place along with three others representing position in space. The points of light form distant stars which we view in the sky are separated from each other not only by spatial distances but also by distances in time, owing to the time taken by light to travel. Space-time is a mathematical conception, useful in certain measurements demanded by modern science, but not answering to anything of which we can form a clear mental image. It is difficult to picture a line drawn from the American President in Washington to Cicero in the Roman Forum; or vice versa, but such a line in either direction would according to modern mathematical theory traverse space-time.
Three-dimensional - Three-dimensional The physical plane of objectivity is often spoken of as the three-dimensional world, because in our space considered as a system of points, three rectilinear coordinates are necessary to determine the position of a point. When one of these three dimensions becomes zero, the volume of the body also becomes zero, and it vanishes from the physical planes. Mathematics speaks of n-dimensions, but some of these dimensions may be vectors, such as force or velocity, so that it is necessary to avoid drawing false analogies.
Dimension or dimensional is a word which when strictly used refers to measuring in one or another direction. Now the intuition which has led many modern scientists and philosophers to speak of more than three dimensions of space is a true one, but a more correct way of phrasing these suppositions dimensions would be to speak of the philosophical qualities or attributes of space. Thus, time in the Relativity Theory of Einstein may logically enough be considered a dimension, because it is a quality or mode of measuring space from event to event, so that by such mensuration the mind can picture to itself not only the continuous present, but likewise the past and future. Furthermore, any entity possessing the commonly accepted three dimensions could not exist or be, unless the time element entered into the equation; in other words, unless a being or thing exists in time it obviously cannot exist at all, and thus it is that time logically and correctly can be called a dimension of space. As long as matter or physical space exists, however, there will be for such physical space three dimensions and no more, to which it is likewise philosophically accurate enough to add the fourth dimension modernly called time; but theosophy is not satisfied with restricting itself to these four ways of measuring the attributes or qualities of space, but adds others, one of the most important being consciousness, which is such an attribute of abstract space as time is, or as our length, breadth, and thickness.
The objection to the terms dimensions and dimensional arises merely because they apply with strict accuracy only to the three standard manners of measuring physical objects, and likewise to the time element or points of duration; but when applied to the higher modes or qualities of the cosmic continuum, these words can be strictly used only by distorting the idea of mensuration they involve. We cannot easily say that consciousness is capable of mensuration in the manner in which we mensurate off particles or bodies of physical substance, for such mensuration does not apply. But to speak of space as containing in itself a quality which we humans cognize as intelligence, consciousness, love, or hate is to speak with accuracy, for all these qualities exist.
God - Anything from a psychic projection to a full macrocosmic individual. Einstein, shunning Judeo-Xtian pleadings, defined God as the ultimate natural order. Deus est homo. Man is God. Indeed all beings are Gods or immortal entities. The Gods, as such, however, inhabit various levels of substantiality and, as superior entities, exist independently in their own right. And this is not just because strong personalities (as well as human society in general) create and batten projections and archetypes, but because semi-being actually wills itself to be born into that state between Matter and the Void. the Gods are being itself, rather than any particular substance. That is, they are pure substance or the conscious potentiality behind substance. Every mortal, Theosophy has pointed out, has his divine counterpart, his celestial doppelganger or heavenly prototype. It is this personal archetype that we call The Father (or Guardian Angel). Theophany is the rare union (in adepts) of the heavenly counterpart with its earth shadow-self. The divine archetypes are not confined to ordinary human beings, moreover, but ascend to ever more infinite celestial monads themselves. When we speak of The Gods or the God beyond the Gods, such as Allfather Odin or Zeus, Father of the Gods we refer to just these higher monads.
It is difficult to remember that all seemingly separate things -- all individuals -- created themselves out of the Original Void and go on forever creating themselves. Thus, spirit manifests itself through matter; we never cease to embody and demonstrate divinity -- sometimes wisely, more often not. It is the gravest error to reproduce and propagate life indiscriminately. Such attempts to reincarnate oneself on the merely material plane, to maintain the same identity perptually through the generation of progeny -- this form of lust vitiates the Spirit and greedily confines matter disproportionately to a single, inferior and separationist aim. That in turn results in premature entropy and the abortion of Cosmic Purpose.
We should distinguish between various divine synonyms. Daimon, for instance, did not, amongst the Greeks, have our sense of demon, but was rather a spirit or higher self. Socrates spoke often of his daimon who conversed with him. The Sanskrit deva, although translated god, amongst the Hindus means any God, but in the Zend Avesta it is always a malevolent spirit. In Buddhism deva refers to almost anything from a legendary hero to a hobgoblin, but pure Buddhism attaches no importance to Gods of any kind. It considers them to be illusions, like everything else.
Whether reflective of reality or not, it is easy enough to plot an origin for God in the singular, but whence the proliferation of multi-deities? In Egypt they were seen simply as the natures of things (neteru). Iamblichus asks of the Egyptians, however, what the cause of the distinction between them is and whether it is from their energies, or their passive motions, or from things that are consequent, or from their different arrangement with respect to bodies. By the latter, he goes on to say that he means, for example, that Gods inhabit the ethereal, that demons inhabit the air and that souls inhabit terrestrial bodies.
Of course, it is differentiation that being comes to be in the first place. Before differentiation there is nothing but tohu-bohu -- indeed between the Void and confusion (or chaos), there is little difference. With the utterance of the command Be! the zero is annihilated.
Relativity - Relativity Associated with Einsteinian physics; the first postulate of the theory of relativity is the relativity of all motion, a return to the idea of Newton, which holds that there is no stationary ether or any fixed system of coordinates in space, with regard to which motion can be measured.
The second postulate states that the velocity of light in free space appears the same to all observers regardless of the relative motion of the source of light and of the observer. A well-known feature of the theory is that by which space and time are no longer treated as independent, but as component elements of a four-dimensional continuum, space-time, and in which the objects whose position and motion are measured are called events. This is a movement in the direction of simplification, since it economizes the number of separate data which we must assume in order to build up our system of interpretation. Einstein also postulates the relativity of the force concept, thus obviating the objection that the Ptolemaic system is dynamically inadequate as compared with the Copernican.
Apart from this scientific use of relativity, its wider meaning is of prime importance in theosophy. Though we may say, in a general way, that all things are relative to each other, yet for purposes of reasoning or calculation it is necessary to assume certain things as constant; as for instance, in measuring velocities on the earth, we may assume that the earth is motionless; though when we enter the field of astronomy, we regard the earth as in motion with regard to the sun, and again may regard the sun as in motion relatively to some other position assumed as at rest. By applying this principle we arrive at the conclusion that nothing in the universe, whether physical, astral, mental, or spiritual, is completely specified to our human mind except by its relations to other things. This principle is expressed by such sayings as that all objects are manifestations of a universal principle or that there are no absolutes.
Thus the word immortality, for example, does not refer to a particular state of existence for the liberated soul, for the various elements of our complex nature have varying degrees of immortality. Each has its own cycle of existence, longer or shorter; and "absolute immortality" can apply only to the ultimate essence of man. In the same way good and bad are regarded as relative terms. This does not mean, however, that good and bad differ from each other solely in being relative to each other; but that what is {get rest of entry}.
Energy -
1. eternal delight (William Blake)
2. life force, cosmic ether, healing medium, vitalizing force, primal juice, cosmic electricity.
3. mc?: mass times the square of the speed of light (Einstein).
4. that which is always conserved.
5. vim, vigor, health, growth.
6. quality that can take a great variety of forms and constitutes a measure of the capacity to overcome inertia.
7 electromagnetic fields consisting of positive, negative and neutral charges which build and sustain the human body and all other matter. (NAD)
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