BESOM (BEE-sum) - the witch’s broomstick. European folklore, has witches riding their brooms through the sky, which many feel is an uninformed explanation of astral projection. As a tool, the broom is used to sweep a sacred cross, ground a circle, or to brush away negative influences. Besoms were often mounted and “ridden” over crops in fertility rites - though this word is Old English. Gaelic speakers sometimes pronounced it in a Gaelic-ized manner, BAYSH-um. (CMM) SEE BROOMSTICK

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

Doppelganger (German) Double-goer; usually, a species of real phantom, seen before, after, or at the time of the death of an individual, and serving as a notification or warning of the death. In some cases the double seen is that of the seer himself, though this is not the true doppelgänger.

The doppelganger is most often the mayavi-rupa which can be seen at even immense distances from the individual whose presentation it is, yet the term doppelganger can likewise incorrectly be applied to the very occasional projections of the astral body which, however, can at no time wander far from its physical frame.

The true doppelganger or mayavi-rupa, whether seen or unseen, falls into two classes, without counting the rare cases involving the linga-sarira mentioned above: the mayavi-rupa projected by hpho-wa, by will and with the consciousness of the ego; and the occasional automatic or involuntary projections of the mayavi-rupa due to intense concentration of the mind upon something or someone.

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

Barhishad barhisad (Sanskrit) (from barhish sacred kusa grass, fire + the verbal root sad to sit)

Mystically, those who attend to or who are engrossed in domestic affairs, material or merely pragmatical concerns; those pitris (fathers, ancestors) who evolved the human astral-physical form. These lunar ancestors -- seven or ten classes -- evolved forth their astral bodies or chhayas (shadows), thus forming the first astral-physical races of humanity in which the higher classes of pitris, the agnishvattas, incarnated, thus making out of a relatively intellectually senseless mankind, true thinking human beings.

"It thus becomes clear why the Agnishwatta, devoid of the grosser creative fire, hence unable to create physical man, having no double, or astral body, to project, since they were without any form, are shown in exoteric allegories as Yogis, Kumaras (chaste youths), who became 'rebels,' Asuras, fighting and opposing gods . . . Yet it is they alone who could complete man, i.e., make of him a self-conscious, almost a divine being -- a god on Earth.

The Barhishad, though possessed of creative fire, were devoid of the higher mahat-mic element. Being on a level with the lower principles -- those which precede gross objective matter -- they could only give birth to the outer man, or rather to the model of the physical, the astral man" (SD 2:78-9).

The barhishads "could only create, or rather clothe, the human Monads with their own astral Selves, but they could not make man in their image and likeness. 'Man must not be like one of us,' say the creative gods, entrusted with the fabrication of the lower animal but higher; . . . Their creating the semblance of men out of their own divine Essence means, esoterically, that it is they who became the first Race, and thus shared its destiny and further evolution. They would not, simply because they could not, give to man that sacred spark which burns and expands into the flower of human reason and self-consciousness, for they had it not to give" (SD 2:94-5).

(See also: Barhishad, barhisad, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Upasruti (Sanskrit). According to Orientahists a "supernatural voice which is heard at night revealing the secrets of the future ". According to the explanation of Occultism, the voice of any person at a distance -  -  generally one versed in the mysteries of esoteric teachings or an adept -  -  endowed with the gift of projecting both his voice and astral image to any person whatsoever, regardless of distance. The upasruti may "reveal the secrets of the future ", or may only inform the person it addresses of some prosaic fact of the present; yet it will still be an upasruti - the "double" or the echo of the voice of a living man or woman.

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

Iddhi (Pali) (from the verbal root sidh to succeed, attain an objective, reach accomplishment)

Equivalent to the Sanskrit siddhi, used to signify the powers or attributes of perfection: powers of various kinds, spiritual and intellectual as well as astral and physical, acquired through training, discipline, initiation, and individual holiness. In Buddhism it is generally rendered "occult power." There are two classes of iddhis, the higher of which, according to the Digha-Nikaya and other Buddhist works, are eight in number: 1) the power to project mind-made images of oneself; 2) to become invisible; 3) to pass through solid things, such as a wall; 4) to penetrate solid ground as if it were water; 5) to walk on water; 6) to fly through the air; 7) to touch sun and moon; and 8) to ascend into the highest heavens. The same work represents the Buddha as saying:

"It is because I see danger in the practice of these mystic wonders that I loathe and abhor and am ashamed thereof" (1:213) -- a true statement although iddhis are powers of the most desirable kind when pertaining to the higher nature, for they are of spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychical character. It is only when iddhis or siddhis are limited to the meaning of the gross astral psychic attributes that the Buddha properly condemns them as being dangerous always, and to the ambitious and selfish person extremely perilous. Further, it was an offense against the regulations of the Brotherhood (Samgha) for any member to display any powers before the laity.

The bases for the acquirement of the iddhis rested upon four completed steps in training (iddhipada): determination in respect of concentration on purpose, on will, on thoughts, and on investigation.

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

Materializations The taking on of an objective form or body by something of a subjective nature; used in modern spiritualism for appearances which the latter calls spirits of the dead. "Theosophists accept the phenomenon of 'materialization'; but they reject the theory that it is produced by 'Spirits,' i.e., the immortal principles of the disembodied persons" (TG 209).

The post-mortem separation of man's seven principles frees the higher triad, atma-buddhi-manas, for return to, and experience in, the arupa (formless) planes of existence. Then the human-animal soul -- kama-manas -- composed of the dregs of the selfish personal emotions, desires, and impulses, becomes for a shorter or longer time a coherent astral form, finding its natural level in kama-loka. These shells of the dead, as well as the various nature spirits and other astral entities, are normally invisible to us as we are to them. However, certain conditions attract them and help them to appear. Actual materializations, though rare, are possible, as are various similar phenomenal appearances; yet none are the spirits they are supposed to be by spiritualists.

As a rule they all fall into three general classes:

1) the astral body of the living medium detaches itself and assumes the appearance of the so-called spirit by reflecting some invisible image already in the astral light, or in the mind of one or more of the sitters;

2) the astral shell of a deceased person, devoid of all spirit, intellect, and conscience, can become visible and even partially tangible when the condition of the air and ether is such as to alter the molecular vibration of the shell so that it can be seen; and

3) an unseen mass of chemical, magnetic, and electrical material is collected from the atmosphere, the passive medium, and the circle.

With this material, the astral entities automatically make a form, which invariably reflects as pictures or portraits the shape or appearance of any desired person, either dead or alive. The astral entities, which are of various kinds, use the mind-pictures or images which crowd the thoughts and auras of those present, as the astral light receives, preserves, and reflects when conditions are right, pictures or portraits of both dead and living, and indeed of all events. The confusion and illusion of it all may able increased by scenes related to the multiple personality of someone present whose aura presents pictured records of past lives.

An apparition of another kind which, though rare, is genuine and authentic, is due to a dying person's intense thought of another, making him for a brief moment objective to the latter. It may be due to an intense will to

See or to appear to the other person, or it may be a more automatic projection of the mayavi-rupa of the dying one. These last cases, however, must be distinguished in quality from the adept's consciously exercised power to project his higher astral-mental form to any distance in his mayavi-rupa. "The rays of thought have the same potentiality for producing forms in the astral atmosphere as the sunrays have with regard to a lens. Every thought so evolved with energy from the brain creates nolens volens a shape" (BCW 10:224).

"As Kamaloka is on the earth plane and differs from its degree of materiality only in the degree of its plane of consciousness, for which reason it is concealed from our normal sight, the occasional apparition of such shells is as natural as that of electric balls and other atmospheric phenomena. Electricity as a fluid, or atomic matter (for Theosophists hold with Maxwell that it is atomic), though invisible, is ever present in the air, and manifests under various shapes, but only when certain conditions are there to 'materialize' the fluid, when it passes from its own on to our plane and makes itself objective. Similarly with the eidola of the dead. They are present, around us, but being on another plane do not See us any more than we See them. But whenever the strong desires of living men and the conditions furnished by the abnormal constitutions of mediums are combined together, these eidola are drawn -- nay, pulled down from their plane on to ours and made objective. This is Necromancy; it does no good to the dead, and great harm to the living, in addition to the fact that it interferes with a law of nature. The occasional materialization of the 'astral bodies' or doubles of living persons is quite another matter. These 'astrals' are often mistaken for the apparitions of the dead, since, chameleon-like, our own 'Elementaries,' along with those of the disembodied and cosmic Elementals, will often assume the appearance of those images which are strongest in our thoughts. In short, at the so-called 'materialization' séances it is those present and the medium, who create the peculiar likeness of the apparitions. Independent 'apparitions' belong to another kind of psychic phenomena. Materializations are also called 'form-manifestations' and 'portrait statues.' To call them materialized spirits is inadmissible, for they are not spirits but animated portrait-statues, indeed" (TG 210).

(See also: Materializations, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Flames Largely interchangeable with fire, both being borrowed from the Fire-philosophers in an attempt to render the ancient teachings. Often the same distinction is made as in ordinary usage: that flame is a portion of fire, or that fire is a more abstract and general term and flame a more concrete and particular. Thus, the intellectual and guiding cosmic spirits, as well as the astrally and physically creative builders, are spoken of as being a hierarchy of flames.

The Lords of the Flame are the agnishvatta-pitris, or the intelligent architects cosmically; as the givers of mind to humanity they are alluded to as those whose fire is too pure for the production of physical mortal mankind.

The Asiatic Qabbalists or Shemitic initiates meant by Holy Flame what is called the anima mundi or world-soul, and this is why adepts were called sons of the holy flame. Flame is also a projection of fire, as when a flame of the divine fire descends into matter, or flames of fire descend upon one inspired by the Holy Spirit or encircle the head of an initiate.

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

Pitri, Pitris pitr (Sanskrit) Fathers; referring to the merely human deceased father and grandparents; also to the progenitors of the human race. The pitris (progenitors) are of seven classes: three classes of arupa-pitris or higher dhyanis, which in our own solar system we call the solar pitris or agnishvattas; and the four lower classes known as barhishads or lunar pitris. The lunar pitris came from the moon-chain, while the solar pitris are those dhyan-chohans which have all the spiritual-intellectual fires, although they are too spiritual to have the physical creative fire. In preceding manvantaras they had finished their physical and astral evolution, but by cyclic necessity, enlightened the lunar pitris which had only the physical creative fire.

The pitris "are called 'Fathers' because they are more particularly the actual progenitors of our lower principles; whereas the Dhyani-Chohans are actually, in one most important sense, our own selves. We were born from them; we were the monads, we were the atoms, the souls, projected, sent forth, emanated, by the Dhyanis.

". . . the Lunar Pitris may briefly be said to be those consciousness-centers in the human constitution which feel humanly, which feel instinctually, and which possess the brain-mind mentality. The Agnishwatta-Pitris are those monadic centers of the human constitution which are of a purely spiritual type" (OG 125-6). These pitris were not forefathers of present humanity, but of our distantly remote ancestors named formerly by some writers the Adamic races.

The evolution of the first root-race of mankind from the astral bodies of the pitris took place on seven distinctly separated regions of the earth existing then at the arctic pole (cf SD 2:329). Of the succession of the root-races the Stanzas of Dzyan say: "First come the SELF-EXISTENT on this Earth. They are the 'Spiritual Lives' projected by the absolute WILL and LAW, at the dawn of every rebirth of the worlds. These LIVES are the divine 'Sishta,' (the seed-Manus, or the Prajapati and the Pitris)" (SD 2:164). As progenitors of the various human root-races, pitris refer pointedly to the life-waves, manus, prajapatis, and sishtas.

Brahma occasionally, as the generalized Progenitor, stands in Hindu literature for the pitris collectively, and is thus called Father.

(See also: Pitri, Pitris, pitr, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Psychic Powers Powers pertaining to the lower intermediate human nature -- i.e, between the mental-emotional and the physical -- including powers of perception such as astral vision, the lower clairvoyance and clairaudience, the lower psychometry and seership, etc.; and lower biases or tendencies such as hypnotism, the power to produce minor occult phenomena of many kinds, and in connection with the power of automatic astral projection.

In their nature they are morally neutral, being susceptible of use or misuse just as are physical powers. If used with an evil or selfish purpose, the action is black magic; and even if used without such motive or with good intention, they may prove confusing and therefore misleading for one who ventures to use them.

The existence of such powers should be recognized and we should hope some day to be able to avail ourselves properly of them, but a prime requisite in discipleship is equal and harmonious development. We may attain psychic powers by observing the conditions under which they may safely and profitably be allowed to develop.

The presence of vanity, ambition, self-assertion, egoism, and similar qualities prove a bar, and the aspirant who is sincerely desirous of eliminating these defects will not willingly adopt a course likely to enhance them. There is no hard-and-fast division of powers into psychic, physical, mental, etc.: we may contemplate the gradual development of our mental faculties without defining a point where we have stepped out of the ordinary into the occult; and our perceptions may become refined by gradual stages without any sudden jump from one plane to another.

Theosophy enjoins students to let psychic powers alone, until they develop normally and naturally in the progress of the student along the path of wisdom and self-mastery. The craze for psychic powers and attempts in their cultivation arise almost invariably out of ignorance of the existence in ourselves of far higher and more powerful forces which can always be employed with safety, and even profit, to the individual.

These greater powers are those classed as spiritual and intellectual-aspirational -- powers which ennoble and dignify man, containing in themselves capacities for amazing effects. Their use is always safe once they are understood and studied. By their side the psychic powers, attributes, and faculties are like the puny efforts of children to copy adults.

(See also: Psychic Powers, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Wraith, Wraie The fleeting apparition of a person, about the moment of death, to another person in kinship or psychomagnetic sympathy. Though wraith may cover different cases, in general it is due to the mayavi-rupa of the person who is dying. It is produced by his thought, though he is unaware of the effect he is producing. An intense and anxious thought about the person he wishes to

See becomes objective to the seer, and the apparition wears the aspect and commonly the ordinary clothing of the dying person. In some cases the apparition may not be due to any thought on the part of the dying person, but to abnormal sensitiveness or clairvoyance on the part of the seer. Being in close sympathy with the dying one, he bears the image of that one in his latent memory; and when the event occurs, his higher senses, being aware of it, cause the objectivization of this memory as a visual apparition.

The thought itself is objective to a mind capable of perception on that plane; but to become objective to the physical senses, it must clothe itself in matter of a lower grade; and this objectivization may vary from a picture in the mind's eye to an apparition seen by the physical vision. In any case the organism of the seer can provide the necessary vehicle for such an objectivization. Distance plays no part in the phenomenon, and there is no projection of a physically substantial body through space from one place to another. The above case should be distinguished from an appearance of the astral double seen near the graves of the recently deceased.

See also EIDOLON; PHANTOM; SPECTER

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

Shadows Everything on earth is the shadow or reflection of its prototype in superior and inner spheres; more generally, matter is the shadow of spirit; our sun is the central sun's shadow. The human linga-sarira (model-body) is called the shadow-body, and similarly the astral light is called the shadow of cosmic substance, both representing the nether pole of their respective higher counterparts.

The Gnostics, speaking of good and evil, said that shadow is what enables light to manifest itself by giving to light objective reality; it is the necessary corollary which completes light or good -- their creator on earth. Every deity has its accompanying dark aspect of shadow, frequently called its veil, sheath, of vehicle.

In the plural, used of the first root-race, a chhaya (shadow), reflection, or vehicle of the as yet latent indwelling monad, and hence this race is called amanasa (mindless), and sons of the self-born; they were the shadows in the sense that their spiritual progenitors, the first dhyanis whose evolutionary duty it was to form mankind in their own image, emanated forth or evolved their "shadows" for nature spirits to work upon. These shadows were later endowed with mind by dhyanis of a more highly evolved grade, manasaputras or intelligences.

Also used for the bodhisattvas of the celestial realms who are the shadows or spiritual living and self-conscious projections emanated by the dhyani-buddhas.

(See also: Shadows, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Out-of-body Experience

The out-of-body experience can be a dramatic one. Clinically, this falls into a phenomenon called "dissociative experience or disorder."

Often the experiences that create this feeling are powerfully ecstatic or traumatic. In either case, the feeling is similar to watching oneself in a film. Basically, whatever is going on in the dream is so powerful that the dreamer is separating herself from experiencing it directly. The result is a self watching the self in a moment of life. Dreams of this nature can be very revealing about the self at work in the world (see Medard Boss). Lucid dreaming can also create this feeling. In lucid dreaming, the dreamer is conscious of dreaming and may be watching herself in the dream.

Dreams of this nature may create a feeling that the dreamer has projected herself into another sphere of reality, creating a sense of astral projection. This idea has been popularised by certain paranormal studies on perceptions of reality.

Native American cultures view the out-of-body experience as a fuller unity of the soul with nature. As such, it is not surprising that they hold such experiences in high regard. It is in this sense that you can consider the out-of-body experience a brush with great power-in a world of physical limitations you suddenly have the ability to go wherever you wish to go. You have complete control regarding your place in the universe.

Conversely, another possible out-of-body experience involves a complete loss of power: seeing yourself lying on an operating table in a hospital.

Does your out-of-body experience empower or frighten you?

Do you choose your travel destination or do you simply appear somewhere through no choice of your own?

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Out-of-body Experience, Meaning of Dreams about Out-of-body Experience, Dream Interpretation Out-of-body Experience)

Out-of-body Experience

The out-of-body experience can be a dramatic one. Clinically, this falls into a phenomenon called "dissociative experience or disorder."

Often the experiences that create this feeling are powerfully ecstatic or traumatic. In either case, the feeling is similar to watching oneself in a film. Basically, whatever is going on in the dream is so powerful that the dreamer is separating herself from experiencing it directly. The result is a self watching the self in a moment of life. Dreams of this nature can be very revealing about the self at work in the world (see Medard Boss). Lucid dreaming can also create this feeling. In lucid dreaming, the dreamer is conscious of dreaming and may be watching herself in the dream.

Dreams of this nature may create a feeling that the dreamer has projected herself into another sphere of reality, creating a sense of astral projection. This idea has been popularised by certain paranormal studies on perceptions of reality.

Native American cultures view the out-of-body experience as a fuller unity of the soul with nature. As such, it is not surprising that they hold such experiences in high regard. It is in this sense that you can consider the out-of-body experience a brush with great power-in a world of physical limitations you suddenly have the ability to go wherever you wish to go. You have complete control regarding your place in the universe.

Conversely, another possible out-of-body experience involves a complete loss of power: seeing yourself lying on an operating table in a hospital.

Does your out-of-body experience empower or frighten you?

Do you choose your travel destination or do you simply appear somewhere through no choice of your own?

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

(See also: Dream Archives, Meaning of Dreams, Dream Interpretation, Dream Dictionary, Dream Dictionary - Out-of-body Experience, Meaning of Dreams about Out-of-body Experience, Dream Interpretation Out-of-body Experience)

Agnidagdha (Sanskrit) (from agni fire + dagdha burnt from the verbal root dah to burn)

Consumed by fire; a class of pitris (fathers, ancestors) who maintained the household fires and offered oblations with fire. Those who refrained form doing so were called anagnidagdhas (not consumed by fire).

The agnidagdhas, corresponding to the lunar pitris of The Secret Doctrine, are as mysterious as the higher or arupa classes of kumaras or agnishvattas. The agnidagdhas are the vehicles of the arupa classes and, because of their grosser or more materialized essences, are able to coalesce with the forces and substances of nature on more material planes of the solar system. Known also as barhishads, they "kept up the household flame," and thus were conversant with and living with flames of the material or quasimaterial realms. Such "material" flames are the fiery or magneto-electric forces and substances of the lower worlds, which include the flame of desire and passion as well as the electric fire of the physical universe. They not only equipped man with the lower parts of his constitution, but likewise projected their chhayas (shadows or astral vehicles), thus furnishing the astral-physical vehicle of early humanity.

The anagnidagdhas are the more spiritual and intellectual classes of pitris who provided nascent humanity with its spiritual, intellectual, and higher psychic principles. Blavatsky writes: "The first or primordial Pitris, the 'Seven Sons of Fire' or of the Flame, are distinguished or divided into seven classes . . . (VP 3:14; Manu 3:199)

three of which classes are Arupa, formless, 'composed of intellectual not elementary substance,' and four are corporeal. The first are pure Agni (fire) or Sapta-jiva ('seven lives,' now become Sapta-jihva, seven-tongued, as Agni is represented with seven tongues and seven winds as the wheels of his car). As a formless, purely spiritual essence, in the first degree of evolution, they could not create that, the prototypical form of which was not in their minds, as this is the first requisite. They could only give birth to 'mind-born' beings, their 'Sons,' the second class of Pitris (or Prajapati, or Rishis, etc.), one degree more material; these, to the third -- the last of the Arupa class. It is only this last class that was enabled with the help of the Fourth principle of the Universal Soul (Aditi, Akasha) to produce beings that became objective and having a form. But when these came to existence, they were found to possess such a small proportion of the divine immortal Soul or Fire in them, that they were considered failures. . . . The three orders of Beings, the Pitri-Rishis, the Sons of Flame, had to merge and blend together their three higher principles with the Fourth (the Circle), and the Fifth (the microcosmic) principle before the necessary union could be obtained and result therefrom achieved" (BCW 6:191-3).

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

Birds Birds are regarded as originating from certain families of reptiles: "They of the long necks in the water, became the progenitors of the fowls of the air. . . . This is a point on which the teachings and modern biological speculation are in perfect accord. The missing links representing this transition process between reptile and bird are apparent to the veriest bigot, .

"So far as our present Fourth Round terrestrial period is concerned, the mammalian fauna are alone to be regarded as traceable to prototypes shed by Man. The amphibia, birds, reptiles, fishes, etc., are the resultants of the Third Round, astral fossil forms stored up in the auric envelope of the Earth and projected into physical objectivity subsequent to the deposition of the first Laurentian rocks" (SD 2:183, 684).

Birds have always had a prominent place in symbology, associated, for instance, with the deities of the ancient pantheons, generally as celestial messengers; and with the human and spiritual souls (buddhi and manas). Sometimes the bird in symbolism represented the atman. The ancient Persians at times also symbolized the human mind-soul as a bird, Karshipta.

There are a number of reasons, mainly derivative from the life habits and characteristics of birds, which account for their selection as symbols of spiritual things, chief perhaps among these the fact that birds lay eggs, the source of new lives, whence sprang the idea of the cosmic egg appearing in and from the womb of cosmic spirit. For instance, in the Finnish Kalevala, a bird lays six golden eggs and one iron egg -- the last becoming our earth -- a clear reference to the seven globes of the planetary chain; and there was the cosmic egg of the Orphics in Greece and the hiranyagarbhas of Hindustan, etc.

Virtually all ancient religions comprised references to birds, sacred and otherwise -- for example, the phoenix, the simorgh of the ancient Persians, the ancient Egyptian ibis, golden hawk, and bennu, and Garuda and the kalahansa of ancient India. This last is the white swan of eternity, born in and from the Eternity or the Timeless: "The Nest of the eternal Bird, the flutter of whose wings produces life, is boundless space. . ." (SD 2:293).

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

Flying

Without assistance

Flying in a dream is a fairly common, but very powerful event. Flying events seem to be divided among those who fly spontaneously in their dreams and those who have a lucid dreaming event and choose to fly. In either case, the dreamers report powerful feelings of freedom during the flight.

Flying as a spontaneous event often includes some special effort, like flapping one's arms, to get going. However, many people experience flight as soaring by a mysterious, jet-like power. These events are precipitated by a strong desire to travel or an imminent danger that requires escape.

Flying as a lucid dreaming choice is often of the levitation variety. These dreamers simply choose to fly because, in the reality of their dream, they know they may. This may be related to astral projection or an out-of-body experience that some people undergo.

These flights allow dreamers to transcend circumstances and acquire a more favourable or safer perspective. What prompted the will to fly ? was it danger or euphoria - and where did the flight lead?

Nonsensical means

In addition to flying independently, dreamers may fly on bikes, cars, boats, or other non-airborne equipment. These flights are generally brought about by circumstances where the current means of travel suddenly became inadequate or endangers the dreamer. A good example of this type of flight would be a bicycle that becomes airborne rather than be struck by a car. This dream may reveal a dreamer that sees dangers as inconsequential. It may also be a hero dream.

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

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

Flying

Without assistance

Flying in a dream is a fairly common, but very powerful event. Flying events seem to be divided among those who fly spontaneously in their dreams and those who have a lucid dreaming event and choose to fly. In either case, the dreamers report powerful feelings of freedom during the flight.

Flying as a spontaneous event often includes some special effort, like flapping one's arms, to get going. However, many people experience flight as soaring by a mysterious, jet-like power. These events are precipitated by a strong desire to travel or an imminent danger that requires escape.

Flying as a lucid dreaming choice is often of the levitation variety. These dreamers simply choose to fly because, in the reality of their dream, they know they may. This may be related to astral projection or an out-of-body experience that some people undergo.

These flights allow dreamers to transcend circumstances and acquire a more favourable or safer perspective. What prompted the will to fly ? was it danger or euphoria - and where did the flight lead?

Nonsensical means

In addition to flying independently, dreamers may fly on bikes, cars, boats, or other non-airborne equipment. These flights are generally brought about by circumstances where the current means of travel suddenly became inadequate or endangers the dreamer. A good example of this type of flight would be a bicycle that becomes airborne rather than be struck by a car. This dream may reveal a dreamer that sees dangers as inconsequential. It may also be a hero dream.

Source: iVillage, http://www.ivillage.co.uk

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

Lipika (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root lip to write)

A scribe; divine beings connected with karma, recorders who impress on the astral light a record of every act and thought, great or small, in the phenomenal universe. The lipika are active cosmic karmic intelligences, the highest class of architects, which lay down from manvantara to manvantara the tracks of karmic evolution to be followed by all evolving entities within the manvantara about to begin; and these tracks are rigidly begun, and their direction controlled, by the endpoint of the paths of karmic achievement in the preceding manvantara.

They "project into objectivity from the passive Universal Mind the ideal plan of the universe, upon which the 'Builders' reconstruct the Kosmos after every Pralaya, . . . it is they who are the direct amanuenses of the Eternal Ideation -- or, as called by Plato, the 'Divine Thought' " (SD 1:104). The lipika thus are in every sense the agents of karmic destiny, for they are both the vehicles of divine ideation in their work, and yet the expressions of karmic law arising in the past and projected on the background of the future. Their intelligence and vitality permeate their particular universe and all the beings in it, so that the lipikas are stamped with whatever takes place.

The lipikas are among the very highest classes of dhyani-chohans or cosmic spirits in the universe; as entities, they may be thought of as acting from the highest plane of our chain of globes. In a sense they connect, karmically, the planes of pure spirit with those of matter, the cosmically vast with the manifested. These recorders of and in the karmic ledger of the solar system mark the distinctive barrier between the personal ego and the impersonal self, which latter is the noumenon and parent-source of the former. Hence the allegory that they circumscribe the manifested world of matter within the Ring-pass-not -- a mystical way of saying that they karmically circumscribe the limits of manifestation of the worlds of matter within the limits of karmic achievement for the evolving beings, and these limits form the Ring-pass-not.

Because of their lofty position, they are identified with the universal intelligence, as its immediate vehicles or channels. Thus they are not only the channels but the imbodiments of karma, and therefore not only the interpreters or agents of karma, but the recorders or scribes upwards into cosmic ideation of whatever takes place on lower planes. Their function is thus dual: imbodiments, channels, or interpreters of karma to be worked out in the universe in which the lipikas function, and thus agents of cosmic ideation; and second, as the scribes or recorders of the innumerably multitudinous karmic records of the beings below themselves.

The lipikas correspond to the Egyptian forty Assessors of Amenti, to the four Recording Angels of the Qabbalah, the Hindu four Maharajas and chitra-gupta, the Christian seven Angels of the Presence, and to the Book of Life of Revelations. They are directly connected with karma, with the Day of Judgment, or the Day-Be-With-Us, when everything becomes one, all individualities becoming one, yet each knowing itself.

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

Germ Cell The early physical vehicle or carrier of the ' "spiritual plasm' that dominates the germinal plasm" in the development of the embryo (SD 1:219):

"every germ-cell, human or other, is the physical expression of inner, ethereal, and psycho-magnetic activities, and is a compact or bundle or sheaf of inner forces and substances ranging from the divine through intermediate degrees down to the astral and the physical, just as man, but on a much larger scale, himself is" (ET 899).

Each germ-cell is the precipitation or projection on and into the physical plane of an inner, psycho-ethereal radiation, an incarnation of a ray point originating in the inner worlds and contacting physical matter by psychomagnetic affinity, and thus arousing a proper particle or molecular aggregate of living physical substance into becoming a reproductive cell.

This ray point or tip of the imbodying ray or radiance, is not the reincarnating ego itself, but the tip of the projected ray issuing from the reimbodying ego. When this ego -- itself a ray from the spiritual monad -- reaches its own intermediate sphere, after leaving its parent-monad, it descends no farther into matter from that plane. But its radiated influence, its psychomagnetic ray, having stronger affinities for material worlds than itself, goes deeper into matter and there awakens into activity the life-atoms in each of the various planes between that of the reimbodying ego and the grossest matter of physical earth.

When this psycho-vital-electric or -magnetic ray awakens some particular life-atom in gross physical matter on earth, that life-atom so chosen belonged to the same reimbodying ego before, and therefore responds to its own "parent." It may even be regarded as the tip of the reimbodying ray from which it is precipitated into matter, "which physical matter, as atoms, is thus attracted around this tip, building first the material imbodiment of the said life-atom and by progressive accretion finally becoming the living germ-cell" (ET 900).

This descent of the ray tip into, and selection of, suitable earth of matter, has been the basis of all the various methods of procreation. The process began in the huge avoid form of the ethereal first root-race by simple division of this human cell, as the embryo today repeats in beginning its rapid review of racial records.

"One infinitesimal cell, out of millions of others at work in the formation of an organism, determining alone and unaided, by means of constant segmentation and multiplication, the correct image of the future man (or animal) in its physical, mental, and psychic characteristics. . . . those germinal cells do not have their genesis at all in the body of the individual, but proceed directly from the ancestral germinal cell passed from father to son through long generations" (SD 1:223n).

See also HEREDITY; PROCREATION; REPRODUCTION

(See also: Germ Cell, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Upadhi (Sanskrit) Limitation, peculiarity, disguise, vehicle; in theosophy, " 'that which stands forth following a model or pattern,' as a canvas, so to say, upon which the light from a projecting lantern plays. An 'upadhi' therefore, mystically speaking, is like a play of shadow and form, when compared with the ultimate Reality, which is the cause of this play of shadow and form. Man may be considered as being composed of three (or even four) essential upadhis or bases" (OG 178).

According to the classification of the Taraka-Raja-Yoga philosophy, man is divided into three upadhis which are synthesized by, and are the vehicle of, the highest principle or atman. These three upadhis are: karanopadhi, the upadhi of the causal or spiritual mind; sukshmopadhi, the upadhi of the higher and lower manas plus the astral vehicle and the life-essence combined with kama; and the sthulopadhi, the physical body, which thus is the general vehicle or upadhi of the six principles composing the human constitution.

Mulaprakriti (primordial physical matter) in Hindu philosophy is the upadhi or vehicle of every phenomenon, whether physical, mental, or psychic. "Matter is Eternal. It is the Upadhi (the physical basis) for the One infinite Universal Mind to build thereon its ideations" (SD 1:280). An upadhi, then, is the vehicle, carrier, or means by which a higher or superior energy of whatever plane is enabled to manifest its characteristics and qualities on the lower plane, out of the substance of which lower plane the upadhi is built.

Sometimes upadhi is interchangeable with vahana (vehicle); thus manas is spoken of as the upadhi or vahana of buddhi. But the more frequent use of upadhi is as a foundation or base. For instance, Blavatsky speaks of hydrogen as the upadhi of both air and water; and of akasa as the upadhi of divine thought. "Cosmic Ideation focussed in a principle or upadhi (basis) results as the consciousness of the individual Ego. Its manifestation varies with the degree of upadhi, e.g., through that known as Manas it wells up as Mind-Consciousness; through the more finely differentiated fabric (sixth state of matter) of the Buddhi resting on the experience of Manas as its basis -- as a stream of spiritual intuition" (SD 1:329n).

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

Third Root-race A period when human evolution passed through a stage analogous to that of the third round, but qualified by the fact that it belonged to the fourth round. The date of the beginning of this third root-race is set at some 22 or 23 million years ago; and 18,000,000 years ago is given in theosophical writings as the date of the awakening of mind and the separation of the sexes at or somewhat after the midpoint of the third root-race. The latter date is collated, according to the geology of Blavatsky's time, with the later Triassic and earlier Jurassic periods.

The geographical area was the enormous continent known as Lemuria and outlying islands, some even of semi-continental size; and, like the other odd-numbered races, in this geographical distribution the water-area predominated over the land-area, and its destruction finally came about through fire.

The filamentoid and boneless structure of the semi-astral human bodies at the end of the second root-race now thickened and condensed, separating itself upon a rapidly developing skeletal form into nervous, muscular, and other systems, combined with the appearance of definite organs, with specific functions, thus constituting the first truly physical human beings. The mode of reproduction at the beginning of the root-race was by the exudation from the surface of the body of vital "sweat" or cells, but with the hardening and specialization of the body itself, the production of the reproductive cells became localized in special organs and the mode of generation became oviparous; later these human eggs were no longer extruded as is the case with fowls today, but shrank greatly in size and were developed and fertilized within the body: first in a virginal manner, and then before true sex appeared there ensued a fairly long period of androgynous reproduction in which androgynous humans occasionally gave birth to individuals in whom one or the other sex predominated; and these occasional appearances, as time passed, became ever more frequent with the recession of androgyny, and the final appearance of true sex as it is understood today. This process extended over hundreds of thousands, and even a number of millions, of years.

More important, however, than these biological facts was the awakening of mind, of self-conscious thinking, inaugurated by the descent of the manasaputras who not only at first projected sparks of their own full self-consciousness into the innocent and unthinking humanity of that early time, but who likewise so stimulated the appearance of mind that the latter finally became common in differing degrees to the entire human stock.

See also LEMURIA

(See also: Third Root-race, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Third Round During the third cycling of the monadic hosts or life-waves around the globes of a planetary chain, the same general trend is pursued as in the second round, but with the added development of a third factor in the evolutionary pilgrimage. Globe D of the earth-chain had not yet attained its present coarse consistency, for the third element-principle (water) was in process of evolutionary development; thus the globe was characteristically of a watery nature.

At that period even the more evolved monads of the lunar chain, representing and leading the human kingdom, had but reached the state of "presentments of men," having huge ape-like forms; yet they were not apes in any sense of the word, for what we know now as monkeys and apes were of far later development as partial offsprings from the human stock, which took place during the present fourth round. These third round men were "no fit rupa for the Brothers of the Fifth" (SD 2:57) -- referring to the fifth class of monads or manasaputras.

At the end of the third round, there were forerunning monads who were already human in nature and characteristic, and who were leading the way towards the true humanity of the fourth round, and therefore were the guides of the less progressed human monads when it became the latter's turn to incarnate during the fourth round. These advance-guard monads are sometimes termed the Sons of Yoga. As intellectual and moral responsibility appears in the evolving human monads only when mind enters the picture -- which occurred for the majority of the human monads only during the third root-race of the fourth round -- during the third round few monads had reached the stage of true intellectual and moral responsibility; and during the second round even these forerunners were themselves unfolding the powers and responsibilities of mind and of choice.

During the third round: "He had now a perfectly concrete or compacted body; at first the form of a giant ape, and more intelligent (or rather cunning) than spiritual. For in the downward arc he has now reached the point where his primordial spirituality is eclipsed or over-shadowed by nascent mentality. In the last half of this third round his gigantic stature decreases, his body improves in texture . . . and he becomes a more rational being -- through still more an ape than a Deva man" (ML 87-8) -- that is, manas (mind) was not yet functioning. Thus while the third-round forerunners may be considered truly human, the great bulk of the human kingdom was still but in the elemental stages of intellectual and moral responsibility. Mind was only just beginning to show itself, and hence the humans were rather cunning than intellectual, instinctual rather than spiritual.

Another phase of evolution of the life-waves during the third round was the great outflow of differing animal forms which took place, due to the immense pressure of the inner urge of the various life-centers to express themselves in their respective phases of evolutionary unfolding. However, what we now call the mammalian stocks were a much later development, for these appeared during the fourth round; though there were forerunners even of the mammalia during the last part of the third round. Furthermore, all of these various stocks or groups of evolving beings originated in astral types thrown off by third round man. The present "amphibia, birds, reptiles, fishes, etc., are the resultants of the Third Round, astral fossil forms stored up in the auric envelope of the Earth and projected into physical objectivity subsequent to the deposition of the first Laurentian rocks" (SD 2:684) when this took place during the fourth round.

(See also: Third Round, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)