Anu (Chald.). One of the highest of Babylonian deities, "King of Angels and Spirits, Lord of the city of Erech". He is the Ruler and God of Heaven and Earth.

His symbol is a star and a kind of Maltese cross - emblems of divinity and sovereignty. He is an abstract divinity supposed to inform the whole expense of ethereal space or heaven, while his "wife" informs the more material planes. Both are the types of the Ouranos and Gaia of Hesiod.

They sprang from the original Chaos. All his titles and attributes are grapfiic and indicate health, purity physical and moral, antiquity and holiness.

Anu was the earliest god of the city of Erech. One of his sons was Bil orVil-Kan, the god of fire, of various metals, and of weapons. George Smith very pertinently sees in this deity a close connection with a kind of cross breed between "the biblical Tubal Cain and the classical Vulcan" . .who is considered to be moreover "the most potent deity in relation to witchcraft and spells generally".

(See also: Anu , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Anu (Chaldean) Supreme god of the Babylonian pantheon, king of angels and spirits, ruler of destiny, lord of the city of Erech or Uruk -- later Ur. One of the loftiest of Babylonian divinities, part of a trinity with Enlil and Ea, he was especially the god of heaven, creator of star spirits and of the demons of cold, rain, and darkness.

His consort Antum or Anatum was mother of the gods. Anu was the concealed deity; in the Chaldean account of Genesis, he is the passive deity, however, "the primordial chaos, the god time and world at once, chronos, and kosmos, the uncreated matter issued from the one and fundamental principle of all things" (IU 2:423).

In later Babylonian history, one of the trinity Anu, Bel, and Ea, associated with the three divisions of the universe: heaven, earth, and the spatial or watery deep. In another aspect, Anu is identical with Sin (the moon). "And the Moon in the Hebrew Kabala is the Argha of the seed of all material life, and is still more closely connected, kabalistically, with Jehovah, who is double-sexed as Anu is. They are both represented in Esotericism and viewed from a dual aspect: male or spiritual, female or material, or Spirit and Matter, the two antagonistic principles" (SD 2:62). In the astrological theology of Babylonia and Assyria, Anu, Bel, and Ea became the northern, middle, and southern zones of the ecliptic respectively.

There seems little doubt that the Chaldean Anu and the Sanskrit anu (atom) are identic in origin. Anu is a title of the formative Brahma who philosophically is often envisaged as the cosmic atom or infinite universe. The mystical significance is the ever-invisible, unreachable divine center -- whether of a being or universe -- which is the divine-spiritual focus of essential consciousness, from which flow forth all the streams of consciousness in its multiform varieties.

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

anu: (Sanskrit) A common prefix conveying the meanings: "after, near to, under, secondary or subordinate to."

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

Anu (Sanskrit) As a noun, an atom of matter; as an adjective, atomic, fine, minute. A title of Brahma, conceived as both infinitesimal and universal, thus pointing to the pantheistic character of divinity. Hence, every anu is "a centre of potential vitality, with latent intelligence in it" (SD 1:567; cf FSO 273-5, 431). In the Bhagavad-Gita (8:9) Arjuna is enjoined to meditate on the "seer," i.e., the enlightened, omniscient One, who is "more atomic than the atom" (anor aniyamsam) and yet "the supporter of all" (cf VP 1:2, 5:1; ChU 3:14, 3-4, Katha 2:20, MU 3:1, 7).

In Jainism the soul is represented as being like an anu, atomic in size, and seated within the heart, while the jiva (life-monad) is the quickening element that pervades the whole.

Besides meaning a particle of substance, anu also means an atom of time, being equivalent to the 54,675,000th part of a muhurta (48 minutes).

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

Anu (Sanskrit). An "atom", a title of Brahma, who is said to be an atom just as is the infinite universe. A hint at the pantheistic nature of the god.

(See also: Anu , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Anu-padartha - infinitesimal object.

(See also: Anu-padartha , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Aniyamsam Aniyasam (Sanskrit) (from anu atom, minuteness; aniyamsam, accusative of aniyas, comparative of adjective anu + aniyasam genitive plural of anu)

Philosophically, atomic of the atomic; otherwise the smallest of the small. A phrase lifted from one of the Hindu scriptures (cf VP 1:15n), without changing the first word to its nominative case. It is applied to the universal divinity whose vital intelligent essence is everywhere, to the absolutely spiritual atom which is the divine monad of every entity, great and small, in the cosmos.

In Vedantic philosophy, often used as a name of Brahman, conceived as being smaller than the smallest atom and equivalently as greater than the greatest sphere or universe. The conception applies equally well to paramatman. This universality whether in infinitesimals or in cosmic reaches is expressed in the almost equivalent phrase anor aniyamsam (smaller than an atom) (BG 8:9); likewise, anor aniyan (smaller than the small) in combination with mahato mahiyan (greater than the great) in the Upanishads (Katha 1:2, 20; Svetasvatara 3:21).

(See also: Aniyamsam Aniyasam , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Anatum or Antum (Chaldean) Consort of the god of heaven, Anu, supreme god of the Assyro-Babylonian pantheon. Whereas Anu represented heaven and height, Anatum represented the earth and depth.

She was regarded as the mother of the gods, as well as being the mother of the god Ea or Hea. "Astronomically she is Ishtar, Venus, the Ashtoreth of the Jews" (TG 21). Anu and Anatum correspond to Ouranos and Gaia in Hesiod, and therefore in one of her mystical significances Anatum corresponds with the Hindu prakriti.

(See also: Anatum, Antum , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Bel (Greek, Latin) Ba`al (Chaldean) (from Semitic ba`al chief, lord)

Lord, chief; one of the supreme gods of the Chaldeo- or Assyro-Babylonian pantheon: the second of the triad composed of Anu, Bel, and Ea. Assyriologists have assumed that Bel was simply the title of a deity, which they have designated as En-lil (the mighty lord). In the division of the universe into heaven, earth, and water, Bel was considered as the lord of the land, and his temple at Nippur was called E-kur (the mountain house), just as Ea's was the watery house.

There have been many Bels, which may be one of the reasons that in The Secret Doctrine Bel is made equivalent to the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, and Mercury. As Bel or Ba`al means Lord, the title becomes applicable to any of the important celestial bodies.

According to one account, the creation of the world and especially of mankind is ascribed to Bel. He is also called father of the gods; and his consort, Belit, is called mother of the gods. His eldest son in Sin, god of the Moon. Bel also brings about the deluge which destroys humanity, showing his dual aspect of evolver and destroyer.

Bel has been associated with the Phoenician Baal, the supreme god of the Canaanites, conceived also as the protective power of generation and fertility, connected with the moon. His female counterpart, Ashtoreth (Astarte, Ishtar) was considered as the receptive goddess, also a lunar divinity. In later times the rites connected with these deities became degraded into licentious orgies; sacrifices were made, apparently even human sacrifices, but at one time Ba`al was worshiped as a sun god.

His various names in the Old and New Testaments demonstrate the various aspects in which he was regarded. Thus in Exodus he was named Ba`al-Tsephon, the god of the crypt. He was likewise named Seth or Sheth, signifying a pillar (phallus); and it was owing to these associations that he was considered a hid god, similar to Ammon of Egypt. Among the Ammonites, a people of East Palestine, he was known as Moloch (the king); at Tyre he was called Melcarth. The worship of Ba`al was introduced into Israel under Ahab, his wife being a Phoenician princess.

"Typhon, called Set, who was a great god in Egypt during the early dynasties, is an aspect of Baal and Ammon as also of Siva, Jehovah and other gods. Baal is the all-devouring Sun, in one sense, the fiery Moloch" (TG 47). As to the leaping of the prophets of Ba`al, mentioned in the Bible (1 Kings 18:26), Blavatsky writes: "It was simply a characteristic of the Sabean worship, for it denoted the motion of the planets round the sun. That the dance was a Bacchic frenzy is apparent. Sistra were used on the occasion" (IU 2:45).

Bel is also the name for the sun with the Gauls.

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

Baddha-jiva - the conditioned soul who is bound by matter. With regard to the origin of the baddha-jiva this passage states that Bhagavan’s eternal associates in the spiritual world do not have any contact with and are completely unaffected by the material energy. Only some of the jivas that emanate from Maha-Visnu come into the material world. The original Bengali is as follows:

goloka-vrndavanastha evam paravyoma-stha baladeva o sankarsanaprakatita nitya-parsada jiva-sakala ananta; tanhara upasya-sevaya rasika; sarvada svarupartha-visista; upasya-sukhanvesi upasyera prati sarvada unmukha jiva saktite cit-saktite bala labha kariya tanhara sarvada balavan; mayara sahita tahandera kona sambandha nai; mayasakti baliya kona sakti achena, tahao tanhara avagata nana; ye hetu tanhara cit-mansala-madhyavarti evam maya tanhadera nikata haite aneka dure; tanhara sarvadai upasya-seva-sukhe magna; dukha, jasa-sukha o nija-sukha ity adi kakhani janena na. tanhara nitya-mukta premai tanhadera jivana; soka, marana au bhaya ye ki vastu, taha tanhara janena na.

karanabdha-sayi-maha-visnura mayara prati iksana-rupa kiranagata anu-caitanya-gana o ananta; tanhara maya-parsva-sthita baliya mayara vicitrata tanhadera darsana-patharusa-purve ye jivasadharanera laksana baliyachi, se samasta laksana tanhadera ache, tathapi atyanta anu-svabhava-prayukta sarvada tatastha-bhave citjagatera dike evam maya-jagatera dike drstipata karite thakena. e avasthaya jiva atyanta durbala, kenana, - justa va sevye-vastura krpalabha karatah cid-bala labha karena nai. inhadera madhye ye saba jiva maya-bhoga vasana karena, tanhara mayika-visaye abhinivista haiya mayate nitya-baddha. yanhara sevya-vastur cidanusilana karena, tanhara sevya-tattvena krpara sahita cid-bala labha karatah cid-dhame nita hana; baba! amara durbhaga, krsnera nityadasya bhuliya mayabhinivesa dvara mayabadha achi; ataeva svarupartha-hina haiyai amadera e durdasa.

(See also: Baddha-jiva , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Anumati (Sanskrit) (from anu-man to approve, grant)

Assent, permission, approbation; personified frequently as a goddess. The fifteenth day of the moon's age "when one digit is deficient" (VP 2:8), a time said to be propitious for the offering of oblations to devas and pitris.

It is therefore the moon at full: "when from a god -- Soma -- she becomes a goddess" (TG 25). Mythologically the first fortnight of the moon or waxing period is often regarded as being masculine, and its second fortnight or waning period as feminine. The moon in some cultures is looked upon as masculine, in others as feminine. In Latin the moon was both lunus (masculine) and luna (feminine), but in most other languages the moon is almost consistently either masculine or feminine.

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

Anugraha, Anugrahana (Sanskrit) (from anu-grah to support, uphold, foster, treat kindly)

Favor, kindness, promoting or favoring a good object. In the Vishnu-Purana (1:5) applied to the eighth creation (in the Matsya and other Puranas to the fifth creation), the period of formative development "which possesses both the qualities of goodness and darkness." In Sankhya philosophy anugraha-sarga is the creation or formation of "the feelings or mental conditions."

Blavatsky calls the anugraha creation a blind, "for it refers to a purely mental process: the cognition of the 'ninth' creation, which, in its turn, is an effect, manifesting in the secondary of that which was a 'Creation' in the Primary (Prakrita) Creation. The Eighth, then, called Anugraha (the Pratyayasarga or the intellectual creation of the Sankhyas . . .), is 'that creation of which we have a perception' -- in its esoteric aspect -- and 'to which we give intellectual assent (Anugraha) in contradistinction to organic creation.' It is the correct perception of our relations to the whole range of 'gods' and especially of those we bear to the Kumaras -- the so-called 'Ninth Creation' -- which is in reality an aspect of or reflection of the sixth in our manvantara (the Vaivasvata)" (SD 1:456).

All theses various "creations" mentioned in the Puranas represent stages of evolutionary production, following each other in regular serial order, and thus unfolding into manifestation what lay originally latent in the seed out of which these various stages arise. Thus the reference in the Vishnu-Purana, for example, by analogical reasoning can apply either to a universe, solar system, planetary chain, or to the developmental history of earth and its inhabitants.

(See also: Anugraha, Anugrahana , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Animan (Sanskrit) (from anu atom)

Minuteness, fineness, thinness; the condition of the infinitesimal or atomic, often used in the nominative form anima. The first of the eight mahasiddhis (great powers): that of making oneself infinitesimal, or as minute as an atom in size.

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

Ea or Hea (Akkadian, Chaldean) (from house + water)

One of the three chief gods of the Chaldaeo- or Assyro-Babylonian celestial triad of Anu, Bel, and Ea. In the division of the universe into heaven, earth, and water, Ea is king of the watery deeps (Shar Apsi); also Lord of that which is below (En-Ki).

Ea is figured as a man covered with the body of a fish, thus resembling Oannes and Dagon. Marodach and Marduk are also aspects of this same deity. His consort is Damkina (lady of that which is below) or Damgal-nunna (great lady of the waters). Ea is called the god of wisdom, and one of his titles, the Sublime Fish, points directly to his cosmic aspect as the ever-living spirit of and bearer of consciousness in the spatial deeps.

"The waters are a symbol of wisdom and of occult learning. Hermes represented the sacred Science under the symbol of fire; the Northern Initiates, under that of water" (SD 2:495n).

(See also: Ea, Hea , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Ishtar (Chaldean) Ancient Babylonian deity, eldest of heaven and earth, daughter of Anu (the lord of the heavens). Her worship was fervently pursued by the multitude both in Babylonia and Assyria, although she was known under various names in different localities -- Anunit, Nina, Nanna, Innanna, Atar -- even when represented as the consort of Marduk (Babylonia) and of Assur (Assyria).

In popular conception, she was the bounteous nature goddess, queen of beauty and joyousness, equivalent to Aphrodite or Venus, however, rather than Ceres, although synthesizing certain attributes of both these goddesses. Her other aspect is as the grim, stern harvester, withdrawing the life-forces so that everything during this period shall have sleep and rest. This aspect was stressed by the warlike Assyrians, who represented her as armed with bow and arrows, and hence she becomes their chief goddess of battles; whereas the Babylonians stressed the mother and child idea. Her symbol was an eight-rayed star.

Ishtar, with Shamash and Sin (the life-force, the sun, and the moon), formed an important triad of divinities. In astronomy Ishtar was a name of the planet Venus -- the double aspect of the goddess being made to correspond to the morning and evening star.

Ishtar likewise is mystically the theogonic representation of the earth itself in its productive and fecund aspects as the mother of all, and hence essentially to be considered as prakriti emanating from mulaprakriti.

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

Bel (Chald.). The oldest and mightiest god of Babylonia, one of the earliest trinities, - Anu (q.v.) ; Bel, "Lord of the World", father of the gods, Creator, and "Lord of the City of Nipur’; and Hea, maker of fate, Lord of the Deep, God of Wisdom and esoteric Knowledge, and "Lord of the city of Eridu".

The wife of Bel, or his female aspect (Sakti), was Belat, or Beltis, "the mother of the great gods", and the "Lady of the city of Nipur".

The original Bel was also called Enu, Elu and Kaptu (see Chaldean account of Genesis, by G. Smith). His eldest son was the Moon God Sin (whose names were also Ur, Agu and Itu), who was the presiding deity of the city of Ur, called in his honour by one of his names. Now Ur was the place of nativity of Abram (see "Astrology").

In the early Babylonian religion the Moon was, like Soma in India, a male, and the Sun a female deity. And this led almost every nation to great fratricidal wars between the lunar and the solar worshippers - e.g., the contests between the Lunar and the Solar Dynasties, the Chandra and Suryavansa in ancient Aryavarta. Thus we find the same on a smaller scale between the Semitic tribes. Abram and his father Terah are shown migrating from Ur and carrying their lunar god (or its scion) with them ; for Jehovah Elohim or El - another form of Elu - has ever been connected with the moon.

It is the Jewish lunar chronology which has led the European "civilized" nations into the greatest blunders and mistakes. Merodach, the son of Hea, became the later Bel and was worshipped at Babylon. His other title, Belas, has a number of symbolical meanings.

(See also: Bel , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Ishtar (Chald.). The Babylonian Venus, called "the eldest of heaven and earth", and daughter of Anu, the god of heaven. She is the goddess of love and beauty. The planet Venus, as the evening star, is identified with Ishtar, and as the morning star with Anunit, the goddess of the Akkads. There exists a most remarkable story of her descent into Hades, on the sixth and seventh Assyrian tiles or tablets deciphered by the late G. Smith. Any Occultist who reads of her love for Tammuz, his assassination by Izdubar, the despair of the goddess and her descent in search of her beloved through the seven gates of Hades, and finally her liberation from the dark realm, will recognise the beautiful allegory of the soul in search of the Spirit.

(See also: Ishtar , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Ea (Chald.) also Hea. The second god of the original Babylonian trinity composed of Anu, Hea and Bel. Hea was the "Maker of Fate", "Lord of the Deep", "God of Wisdom and Knowledge", and "Lord of the City of Eridu".

(See also: Ea , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Vaisvanara, Vaisvana (Sanskrit) [from visva all + nara man]

Relating to or belonging to all men; omnipresent, universal. In Hindu philosophy, it represents one of the four states of Brahma, and hence is a manifestation of Brahma in and through prakriti. Cosmically it is the astral light, or "in another sense, the living magnetic fire that pervades the manifested solar system. It is the most objective . . . and ever present aspect of the One Life, for it is the Vital Principle" (SD 2:311).

In the human being it is represented in the Anu-gita as a sevenfold fire which blazes up in the midst of the five pranas (life-streams) which circulate in the body, and a commentary on this work says that Vaisvanara is often used to denote the self. Blavatsky remarks: "In the astronomical and cosmical key, Vaisvanara is Agni, son of the Sun, or Viswanaras, but in the psycho-metaphysical symbolism it is the Self, in the sense of non-separateness, i.e., both divine and human" (SD 2:568n).

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

Vul (Chaldean) The god of the atmosphere, equivalent to the Hindu Indra. He was superseded in later times by Anu, the god of heaven, who with Bel and Ea formed the great Babylonian triad.

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