Aspect Dictionary

Vishnu: (Sanskrit) "The All-Pervasive." Supreme Deity of

the Vaishnavite religion. God as personal Lord and

Creator, the All-Loving Divine Personality, who

periodically incarnates and lives a fully human life to reestablish dharma whenever necessary. In Saivism,

Vishnu is Siva's aspect as Preserver.

See: Vaishnavism.

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

Purusha (Sanskrit). "Man", heavenly man. Spirit, the same as Narayana in another aspect.

"The Spiritual Self."

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

Avalokitesvara (Sanskrit) (from ava down, away from + the verbal root lok to look at, contemplate + isvara lord)

The lord who is perceived; the divinity or lord seen or contemplated in its inferior or "downward-seen" aspect. The essential meaning in theosophy is the Logos, whether considered in its kosmic aspect or in its function in an entity dwelling in such kosmos. "Simultaneously with the evolution of the Universal Mind, the concealed Wisdom of Adi-Buddha -- the One Supreme and eternal -- manifests itself as Avalokiteshwara (or manifested Iswara), which is the Osiris of the Egyptians, the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Heavenly Man of the Hermetic philosopher, the Logos of the Platonists, and the Atman of the Vedantins" (SD 1:110).

Avakokitesvara is the seventh principle in the microcosm, and therefore the atman or atma-buddhi; and analogically the seventh or highest principle in the universe, and hence the kosmic Logos in its macrocosmic position. There are in consequence two Avalokitesvaras: the First and Second Logos whether of the macrocosm or of the microcosm, because the First Logos reflects itself in the Second Logos, in the macrocosm, just as atman reflects itself in and works through its mirroring veil buddhi.

There is an analogy with parabrahman and mulaprakriti, but Avalokitesvara is essentially the kosmic monad or First Logos on the one hand, and the human-divine monad or human logos, atma-buddhi, on the other hand. Avalokitesvara thus opens manifestation or differentiation in either case.

See also Chenrezi; Kwan-shai-yin; Logos

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

MOTHER: one of the aspects of the Triple Goddess, in this aspect She rules from Beltane to Lughnasadh.

(See also: MOTHER , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

ASPECTS: qualities or characteristics of something or Diety, etc. Ex.: Luna is an aspect of the Moon Goddess. Orion is an aspect of the antlered or Horned God.

(See also: ASPECTS , Witchcraft, Wicca, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs are always fascinating, sometimes lovable, mostly dangerous, and they are alive only in our imaginations. Consider all of the details of the dream and try to tie these ideas to some aspect of your life. The dinosaur, whether you have given it a positive or negative connotation, represents something from your past or an aspect of your personality that you have altered over time. Dinosaurs may represent old issues that have not been properly addressed and that continue to have the power to effect your life in the present.

Source: Dream Lover Incorporated, http://www.dreamloverinc.com

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Dinosaurs , Meaning of Dreams about Dinosaurs , Dream Interpretation Dinosaurs )

Brahma-prakriti (Sanskrit) (from brahman cosmic spirit + prakriti nature)

The material or vehicular aspect of Brahma's nature in contradistinction to Brahma-Purusha, his spiritual aspect.

(See also: Brahma-prakriti , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Gayatri or Savitri (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root ga to sing)

A verse of the Rig-Veda (III, 62, 10): Tat savitur varenyam bhargo devasya dhimahi dhiyo yo nah prachodayat, "Let us meditate on that excellent splendor of the divine sun; may it illumine (inspire) our hearts (minds)."

Every orthodox Brahmin is supposed to repeat this archaic hymn, at least mentally, at both his morning and evening religious devotions. An explanatory paraphrase, giving the inner meaning of the Gayatri is: O thou golden sun of most excellent splendor, illumine our hearts and fill our minds, so that we, recognizing our oneness with the divinity which is the heart of the universe, may see the pathway before our feet, and tread it to those distant goals of perfection stimulated by thine own radiant light.

"First it (the light of the Logos) is the life, or the Mahachaitanyam of the cosmos; that is one aspect of it; secondly, it is force, and in this aspect it is the Fohat of the Buddhist philosophy; lastly, it is wisdom, in the sense that it is the Chichakti (Chichchakti)

of the Hindu philosophers. All these three aspects are . . . combined in our conception of the Gayatri" (N on BG 90).

(See also: Gayatri, Savitri , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Aesir (Icelandic) (from ass the ridgepole supporting a roof) plural ases; feminine asynja, feminine plural asynjor.

Creative gods of the Norse Eddas, inhabiting Asgard (gard, yard or estate), where they retire to feast on the "mead" of experience gained in spheres of life. The twelve deities who build their mansions on various "shelves" of our universe are: Odin Allfather, who occurs on every level of life and is inherent in every living thing; his consort, Frigga; Thor, the power of life and electromagnetism, who corresponds to the Tibetan fohat and in one aspect corresponds to Jove; Balder, the sun god; Njord, the Norse Saturn; Tyr, the Norse Mars; Frey, the deity of planet Earth; Freya, of Venus; Hermod (an aspect of Odin), of Mercury. Heimdall, "the whitest Ase," is the watcher on the rainbow bridge who sounds the gjallarhorn (loud horn) at Ragnarok when a world ends. Brage is poetic inspiration. The most mysterious and lofty ase is Ull, a cold, wintry (unmanifest) world. Paradoxically, "blessed is he who first touches the fire" of that sphere. Forsete is the god of justice who corresponds to the lipikas, agents of karma.

In the Eddas the aesir are in perpetual opposition to the jotunn (giants; Icelandic jotnar), as energy is opposed to inertia. When the gods withdraw at Ragnarok, the universe ceases to be. The aesir's reign or life was preceded by a period of quiescence, during which nothing existed. This was Ymir, the frostgiant, the transformed Bargalmer (Icelandic Bergelmir), fruitage of a previous cycle of universal life, who was "saved on a boatkeel" or "ground on the mill" to furnish substance for the succeeding world. This was to be created by All-father Odin and his two brothers, Vile and Vi (or Ve). The frost giant is killed -- transformed -- by the three gods, and from his substance (Orgalmer) the worlds are created. They are sustained by Trudgalmer until the gods again withdraw. In his capacity of creator Odin is named Ofner (opener), energic counterpart of Orgalmer, while at the end of a cosmic life he becomes Svafner (closer) and paired with Bargalmer.

The aesir are not the highest gods, even though cosmic Odin in his capacity of Allfather is the father of gods and men by virtue of being descended from a previous era of evolution. "All the creative gods, or personal Deities, begin at the secondary stage of Cosmic evolution" (SD 1:427). The aesir were ousted from Asgard by the vaner, superior gods who remain in their high realms while the aesir dwell in living spheres. Nevertheless even the aesir receive a "hostage" (in one interpretation an avatara) from the vaner and in exchange furnish the mind and matter which enable these exalted beings to evolve.

"The brew of the as," "Odin's brew," or the "bardic mead" is inspired poetry, the runes of ancient wisdom sought by Odin in the giant worlds. The "driving of the as" or Tordon (Thor's din) is thunder.

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

Taurus The bull; second sign of the zodiac, a constellation containing the Pleiades. In astrology a fixed earthy sign, the night house of Venus, corresponding to the throat, neck, and base of the brain. It is the bull among the four sacred animals who are the Maharajas of the four quarters, and presides over the south. Called in Sanskrit Rishabha, dedicated to Yama, the god of the Underworld, it stands in Hindu reckoning for Pranava or Aum (12 Signs of the Zodiac). Frequently it is connected with Logos, Verbum, Vach -- for it is another form or aspect of the Third Logos.

Taurus stands for both sun and moon gods, its symbol being sometimes a bull and sometimes a cow, the Third Logos mystically being considered androgyne, differentiation into the two opposites not yet having supervened. Thus Taurus was usually connected with sun gods, such as Osiris; and at others connected with moon goddesses -- Isis, Diana, Cybele, etc. -- with the moon, and with the far higher Magna Mater (great mother), source of Taurus as the Second Logos, a distinctly feminine aspect.

Its symbol represents the cow horns which are also a symbol of the moon and lunar goddesses. "Ancient mystics saw the ansated cross, in the horns of Taurus (the upper portion of the Hebrew Aleph) pushing away the Dragon, and Christians connected the sign and constellation with Christ. St. Augustine calls it 'the great City of God,' and the Egyptians called it the 'interpreter of the divine voice,' the Apis-Pacis of Hermonthis" (TG 323).

Designated by the first letter of the alphabet, Taurus is described in many ancient systems as being number one among the signs, because this ascription took place and became static at a time in past history when Taurus opened the spring, and hence was reckoned as the first. Blavatsky suggests that the constellation Taurus was in the first sign of the zodiac at the beginning of kali yuga (3102 BC.), and consequently the equinoctial point fell therein (TG 387).

Associating the Hebrew patriarchs with the signs of the zodiac, Cain presides over Taurus (IU 2:465).

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

Sarasvati, Saraswati (Sanskrit) The ethereal, the elegant one; the divine consort or wife of Brahma, his feminine alter ego, a later form or aspect of Vach (voice or the Word), a title of the Third Logos in Greece as well as in India.

This parallels the Bath Qol (daughter of the voice, daughter of the Word) of mystical Hebrew thought, which can be taken either as the feminine aspect of the Logos itself, or as its daughter -- the inspiration flowing forth from, or the feminine or vehicular side of, the Logos. The goddess of hidden learning and esoteric wisdom, Sarasvati is usually shown riding on a peacock with its tail spread. She is similar to the Gnostic Sophia, to the Sephirah of the Hebrew Qabbalah, and to the Holy Ghost of the Christians.

Sarasvati is also a sacred river spoken of in the Vedas, and as a river goddess she was often invoked to bestow vitality, renown, and riches; elsewhere she is described as moving along a golden path and as destroying the monster-demon Vritra.

(See also: Sarasvati, Saraswati , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Silenus (Latin) Seilenos (Greek) The more elderly satyrs were called sileni, and their chief was Silenus, represented as a drunken pot-bellied old man with a wineskin, depicted as riding on an ass and the constant companion of Dionysos or Bacchus; sometimes also associated with Pan.

These nature gods had a higher and a lower aspect and are most familiar to us in the lower, because of the common reference to them in popular mythology. Hence we find Silenus with all the marks of roistering jollity, but gifted, like Pan and the other satyrs, with the power of prophecy.

Esoterically, Silenus is represented as the chief of these lower productive powers of nature, usually connected with the fertilizing effect of water, which connects them immediately with the generative powers of the moon. Bacchus or Dionysos, on the other hand, in his higher aspect is representative of the spiritual fructifying and stimulating powers of the solar energies.

(See also: Silenus, Seilenos , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Moon

• To dream of seeing the moon with the aspect of the heavens remaining normal, prognosticates success in love and business affairs.
• A weird and uncanny moon, denotes unpropitious lovemaking, domestic infelicities and disappointing enterprises of a business character.
• The moon in eclipse, denotes that contagion will ravage your community.
• To see the new moon, denotes an increase in wealth and congenial partners in marriage.
• For a young woman to dream that she appeals to the moon to know her fate, denotes that she will soon be rewarded with marriage to the one of her choice. If she sees two moons, she will lose her lover by being mercenary. If she sees the moon grow dim, she will let the supreme happiness of her life slip for want of womanly tact.
• To see a blood red moon, indicates war and strife, and she will see her lover march away in defence of his country.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Moon , Meaning of Dreams about Moon , Dream Interpretation Moon )

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)

CHINESE ENERGETIC HEALING

Is yet another aspect of the comprehensive approach that Ancient China developed thousands of years ago. This aspect has its roots in Qi Gong (Chi Kung). It develops the life force energy to such a high degree, that it raise the vibration of the practitioner to such a level that the recipient is influenced to do likewise, in their own self-healing.

This requires no touch and reaches beyond space and time. In this way the practitioner is not limited in the application, and a recipient can receive the benefits remotely, anywhere. By working with and on the level of Universal Life Force, what may be perceived as miracles, occur with regularity.

(See also: CHINESE ENERGETIC HEALING , Alternative Health, Holistic Health, Body Mind and Soul)

Transmigration The belief that human souls after death pass into other bodies either human or animal, and mistakenly given as a synonym for reincarnation, metempsychosis, etc. Transmigration in general means the passing of an entity from one imbodiment to another, without regard to the status of the entity or the form of the imbodiments, so that it includes various specific meanings denoted by other terms.

Actually the word refers to the transmigration of life-atoms, especially those of the human vehicles after dissolution. According to their own affinities and degree of development, these life-atoms which have composed the lower human principles transmigrate to other physical psychomental bodies, there to pursue each its own further specific evolution, unretarded by the temporary association with its former body. Eventually, when the proper cyclic time arrives, they are all again attracted back to the reincarnating human entity to which they formerly belonged. The teaching as to the transmigration of the life-atoms is very important in elucidation of the unity of all life, the interaction of all nature, and the working of karma.

The meanings of transmigration, metempsychosis, metensomatosis, the Hebrew gilgulim, etc., are not synonymous. Each one of these words has its own particular significance, although many of these different words overlap to a certain extent. Thus a being who reincarnates on earth -- takes up a body of flesh -- likewise transmigrates in the sense of passing over from one condition of life to another, followed by a third and yet others; and that during this process there is a certain change of the condition of the soul or migrating entity which is the particular meaning of metempsychosis; and furthermore, the assumption of a new physical body which is part of the meaning of reincarnation appears in the specific term metensomatosis, and yet again the phase of rebirth is likewise involved. Each one of these different terms, and others, sets forth one particular aspect of the destiny and adventures of the peregrinating entity.

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

PHASE - aspect of the Moon, Mercury or Venus. (NAD)

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

Thunderbolt Now usually, a discharge of lightning, but it implies a missile. The thunderbolts of Jove are well known, and the Lord God thunders from heaven, considered in both cases a sign of wrath. Jupiter Tonans (Jupiter, the thunderer) was one aspect of the Roman Lord of Heaven; Indra, in India, was wielder of the thunderbolt. Atmospheric thunder is a manifestation of electricity, heat, light, and sound; and must have its correspondences on higher cosmic planes. A deeper knowledge of nature would unfold to us the connection between outward events and those inner events of which the former are the manifestation. The arts of ancient augurs and diviners were based on such knowledge, but in the accounts about this we may certainly find much which is mere superstition.

A certain aspect of the ancient view regarded the crash of lightning and its destructive effect as due to a bolt or missile, nor need we imagine, as exotericists of all ages have, that a god hurls his missile upon earth or the heads of his rebellious human children. Nature, being a hierarchy composed of almost innumerable subordinate entities, is under the strict governance or law of divine intelligences, so that nothing whatsoever happens haphazardly. From this viewpoint, the thunderbolt is an actual discharge of energy reaching objectivization, not by chance but in accordance with intelligent causation or law -- not by inscrutable fate, but by past actions whose effects in time produce the thunderbolt. The same reasoning applies to other natural phenomena, such as earthquakes, tidal waves, sinkings of continents, volcanoes and, on a smaller scale, such life-giving and fructifying events as rains, sunshine, storms, and those continuous but nondestructive electrical interchanges which are so largely instrumental in producing the varied phenomena of life around us.

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

Ptah, or Pthah (Egypt, Egyptian). The son of Kneph in the Egyptian Pantheon. He is the Principle of Light and Life through which "creation" or rather evolution took place. The Egyptian logos and creator, the Demiurgos.

A very old deity, as, according to Herodotus, he had a temple erected to him by Menes, the first king of Egypt. He is "giver of life" and the self-born, and the father of Apis, the sacred bull, conceived through a ray from the Sun. Ptah is thus the prototype of Osiris, a later deity. Herodotus makes him the father of the Kabiri, the mystery-gods; and the Targum of Jerusalem says: "Egyptians called the wisdom of the First Intellect Ptah"; hence he is Mahat the "divine wisdom"; though from another aspect he is Swabhavat, the self-created substance, as a prayer addressed to him in the Ritual of the Dead says, after calling Ptah "father of fathers and of all gods, generator of all men produced from his substance": "Thou art without father, being. engendered by thy own will; thou art without mother, being born by the renewal of thine own substance from whom proceeds substance".

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

Buddhi

In Theosophy, the Second Cosmic Principle or Aspect. Humanity calls this principle Love, while the Hierarchy calls it "Pure Reason".

Normally, people confuse true Love (the Christian agape) with emotions that have their source in the Astral Plane, which (due to their origin) are subject to fluctuations, and are not truly universal .

True Love emanates from the Buddhic Plane, and begins to "flow through" after certain developments of the mind are present. At the same time, the state of being immersed in Buddhi (Love, or Pure Reason) will somehow reflect in the emotional ,or astral, vehicle of the spiritual aspirant (the source of all emotions), expressing itself as tranquility, peace, intimate joy and an equal disposition to every fellow humans and other forms of life.

Humanity is currently beginning to tune in and express this principle. The principle of Manas was developed in a previous solar system, while in this one Manas will perfected and the Buddhic principle will be developed to a high degree. This is the goal of the Solar Logos, and when the majority of all human (or similar) forms in this system has achieved an evolutionary stage analogous to that of the Fifth Initiation, the task of the Logos will be completed, and systemic pralaya will begin.

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

Chenresi spyan ras gzigs (chen-re-zi, or chen-re-si) (Tibetan) (short for spyan ras gzigs dbang phyug (chen-re-zi-wang-chung) from spyan ras penetrating vision (cf Sanskrit avalokita) + gzigs forms (cf Sanskrit rupa) + dbang phyug lord (cf Sanskrit isvara))

The Lord who sees forms with his penetrating vision; translation of Sanskrit Avalokitesvara. Exoterically Chenresi is the greatest protector of Asia in general and Tibet in particular, mystically considered to have eleven heads and a thousand arms, each with an eye in the palm of the hand, these arms radiating from his body like a forest of rays: the thousand eyes representing him as on the outlook to discover distress and to succor the troubled. In this form his name is Chantong (he of the thousand eyes) and Jigtengonpo (protector and savior against evil).

"Even the exoteric appearance of Dhyani Chenresi is suggestive of the esoteric teaching. He is evidently, like Daksha, the synthesis of all the preceding Races and the progenitor of all the human Races after the Third, the first complete one, and thus is represented as the culmination of the four primeval races in his eleven-faced form. It is a column built in four rows, each series having three faces or heads of different complexions: the three faces for each race being typical of its three fundamental physiological transformations. The first is white (moon-coloured); the second is yellow, the third, red-brown; the fourth, in which are only two faces -- the third face being left a blank -- (a reference to the untimely end of the Atlanteans) is brown-black. Padmapani (Daksha) is seated on the column, and forms the apex" (SD 2:178).

Exoterically the Dalai Lama is often regarded as an incarnation of Chenresi, as a popular legend says that whenever faith begins to die out in the world, Padmapani-Chenresi emits a brilliant ray of light, and forthwith incarnates himself in one of the two great Lamas -- the Dalai and Tashi Lamas. Esoterically he is called Bodhisattva Chenresi Vanchug (the powerful and all-seeing). Chenresi or Avalokitesvara "is the great Logos in its higher aspect and in the divine regions. But in the manifested planes, he is, like Daksha, the progenitor (in a spiritual sense) of men" (ibid.). In China, Chenresi becomes the great goddess of mercy, Kwan-yin, represented by a female figure bearing a child in her arms.

The true significance of Chenresi is the Third Logos of our solar system and the buddhi-manas of the individual human being, the active aspect of the human spiritual monad. The efflux or influence emanating from Chenresi and permeating the lower parts of the human constitution is Padmapani (the lotus-handed); Padmapani therefore is the bodhisattva of Avalokitesvara or Chenresi, and whether cosmically or psychologically the equivalent of the manifested potency of Brahma.

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

Buddhi:

Intelligence; that which flows from Buddha or the planet Mercury, the controller and significator of our finer thinking capacity or intelligence, which is known as Buddhi. This word is used throughout Sanskrit philosophical literature, such as in the verse in the Bhagavad-Gita spoken by Lord Krishna, which begins: "vyavasayatmika buddhi ekeha kuru nandana", which refers to the one-pointed intelligence of those who are devoted to Krishna.

 Depending on the context, Buddhi can carry the following connotations :

1. The intellect,

 2. The ascertaining intelligence, or the intuitive aspect of consciousness by which the Self awakens to truth.

(See also: Buddhi , Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)