Inspiration to persist

Using in part the life of Joseph in the Bible as an example of one who persisted and found fulfillment despite severe obstacles, "Inspiration to persist" presents how the author has found that inspiration enables him to persist even when the going gets rough.

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Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was one of the most remarkable Indian saints of recent history (1836 -1886). He is chiefly known for his high attainments in approaching God along many different paths. Most saints have one path, one line of attainment in reaching the goal. Ramakrishna, however, explored each in its turn. He was a lively and likeable human, and made a deep impression on all that came into his sphere. He left behind innumerable devotees and helped many to follow the ultimate goal in his footsteps.

Read more here: » Ramakrishna Paramahamsa: An introduction to Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Many different schools of thought exist on the usage of channeling boards, aka "Ouija boards." Some believe them to be a tool of the devil, while others believe them to be a sham. Still, the notion persists that they are useful tools for contacting beings from another realm. Exactly what are these "Ouija boards," where did they come from, and how do they work?

Read more here: » Channeling Board: Modern Use of the Channeling Board or Ouija boards

What makes the Good Book so good?

Article explores how the Bible has impacted the authorÕs life, including how what it taught her about God's goodness helped her when she faced financial struggles.

What makes the Good Book so good? Elements of adventure, history, biography, and poetry fill its pages. But that's true of countless books whose impact has faded over time. To me, the Bible isn't just a good book - it's a book about goodness. A record and celebration of how God makes His good nature known and felt in ordinary and extraordinary situations.

Read more here: » Christian Science: What makes the Good Book so good?

In this articles, famous Astrologer Dr Turi expose his beliefs and vision from an astrological point of view regarding the release of Mel Gibson's new movie, "The Passion." As expected when religions are involved, controversial news will be hitting fast and furious causing emotional turmoil. Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" is unleashing this conflict according to Dr Turi.

Read more here: » Astrology: Astrological perspective on Mel Gibson's movie Passion

Prayer for children in need

ÒPrayer for children in needÓ tells of Oprah Winfrey's Christmas gift giving to children in Africa, and the author's own life of helping children through foster care and adoption

Wondering how to celebrate the holidays with meaning, Oprah recalled her most remembered Christmas. When she was 12, her family had no money to buy gifts for her and her two younger siblings, so she went to bed thinking there would be no Christmas that year. After she was in bed, she recalled hearing a knock at the door. Some nuns surprised the family with gifts and food.

Read more here: » Christian Science: Prayer for children in need

Sanskrit literature can be classified under six orthodox heads and four secular heads. The six orthodox sections form the authoritative scriptures of the Hindus. The four secular sections embody the later developments in classical Sanskrit literature.

The six scriptures are: Srutis, Smritis, Itihasas, Puranas, Agamas and Darsanas.

The four secular writings are: Subhashitas, Kavyas, Natakas and Alankaras.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Hindu Scriptures: A full overview of the Hindu and Vedic Scriptures

Meaning of Dreams in Islam

Few Western dream researchers have any familiarity with the rich dream traditions of Islam. The Muslim faith first emerged in seventh century B.C.E. Arabia as a profound revisioning of early Jewish and Christian beliefs and practices. One theme the Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) drew from the scriptures of those two religions was a reverence for dreaming. In the Quran, as in the Jewish Torah and the Christian New Testament, dreams serve as a vital medium by which God communicates with humans. Dreams offer divine guidance and comfort, warn people of impending danger, and offer prophetic glimpses of the future. Although the three religions drastically differ on many other topics, they find substantial agreement on this particular point: dreaming is a valuable source of wisdom, understanding, and inspiration. Indeed, as I will propose in this brief essay, Islam has historically shown greater interest in dreams than either of the other two traditions, and has done more to weave dreaming into the daily lives of its members. From the first revelatory visions of Muhammed to the myriad dream practices of present-day Muslims, Islam has developed and sustained a complex, multifaceted tradition of active engagement with the dreaming imagination.

Read more here: » Meaning of Dreams in Islam: Reflections on the Dream Traditions of Islam

It is important to remember spiritual teachings regarding prosperity. What we focus on we make real. To develop prosperity consciousness, first remember that prosperity adores a prosperous attitude. Instead of complaining about writing checks for monthly bills, start by giving thanks that you have the funds to cover them.

Read more here: » Prosperity Consciousness: Living the Metaphysical Life - Enhance your Prosperity Consciousness

The symbolic images on the Tarot cards activate and speak to a deep intuitive part of ourselves which the logical, conscious mind cannot understand or control. This part of ourselves is known as the subconscious. This subconscious aspect of being represents our inner self, those deep, highly personal feelings and qualities which provide the foundation for our entire being and give us the motivation behind our behavior, thoughts, emotions, etc. This is the realm of instinct, gut reactions, innate knowing, and personal potential. It is the home of our psyche.

Read more here: » Tarot Cards: Tarot and the Conscious and Subconscious Mind

About four out of ten reported psychic experiences involve some seeming awareness of the future. The term premonition is in general use, and the more clinical word precognition, ('before knowing'), tends to be used by parapsychologists. In descending order of frequency, premonitions come in the form of dreams, waking thoughts, waking imagery and sleep-onset, (hypnagogic), imagery.

Read more here: » Meaning of dreams: Precognitive dreams and premonitions

Nowadays, my mailbag produces an ever increasing number of dreams which, when analysed, are spiritual or contain elements of spirituality - but why, and do these same dreams provide clues? Much can be learned from dreams, and I believe that they are screaming out at us some answers to these questions. Interestingly, this increase coincides with the general trend pervading modern society of the population apparently splitting into categories, which are becoming ever more entrenched in their own respective beliefs.Perhaps the interactive virtual reality programmes of this life have begun to run their course. Could it be that the increasing numbers of these dreams are just the early signs which do precede a new dawning of an age of spiritual awareness?

Read more here: » Spiritual dreams: Spiritual dreams - The sign of a new dawning?

The New Age movement is hardly novel! Its philosophy is rooted in ancient traditions, often based on mystical experiences, each within a different context.

Part II of II, written by Michael Rogge

Read more here: » The roots of the New Age Movement Ð Part II

The belief in angelic beings is of course ancient, and spans many cultures. In the West, many associate angels with Christianity, Judaism and the Bible, but references to angelic beings can be found in Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam. Even some Native American teachings include angels, and other shamanistic spiritual belief systems include interaction with birds or other winged creatures who bring guidance. Created prior to these more "recent" religions, depictions of angelic beings can be found in ancient Egyptian art, and Isis is traditionally depicted with angel wings. In all of these religious cultures, angels are believed to be messengers of God, aiding and guiding humans through life.

Read more here: » Angels: Angels Abound! - About Angels

We're evolving. Our perspective is changing. When events come into our reality, we're looking at them with more loving hearts. Understanding and compassion are replacing judgment and condemnation. Yet, there are still souls on this Earth who see things very narrowly and demand punishment for anyone who steps outside the prescribed mold.

Read more here: » Conscious Creation: The Greatest Show In The Universe

The peace of Christmas - today and every day

The saving Christ-GodÕs message of peace-is with you right now.

Imagine looking in your e-mail inbox to find this message: ÒPeace is awaiting you at this very moment. A peace that will answer all your needs. A peace thatÕs available to everybody.Ó

Read more here: » Christian Science: The peace of Christmas - today and every day

Eden (Hebrew, Jewish). "Delight", pleasure. In Genesis the "Garden of Delight" built by God ; in the Kabbala the

"Garden of Delight", a place of Initiation into the mysteries. Orientalists identify it with a place which was situated in Babylonia in the district of Karduniyas, called also Gan-dunu, which is almost like the Gan-eden of the Jews. (See the works of Sir H. Rawlinson, and G. Smith.)

That district has four rivers, Euphrates, Tigris, Surappi, Ukni. The two first have been adopted without any change by the Jews; the other two they have probably transformed into " Gihon and Pison", so as to have something original. The following are some of the reasons for the identification of Eden, given by Assyriologists. The cities of Babylon, Larancha and Sippara, were founded before the flood, according to the chronology of the Jews.

"Surippak was the city of the ark, the mountain east of the Tigris was the resting place of the ark, Babylon was the site of the tower, and Ur of the Chaldees the birthplace of Abraham." And, as Abraham,

"the first leader of the Hebrew race, migrated from Ur to Harran in Syria and from thence to Palestine", the best Assyriologists think that it is "so much evidence in favour of the hypothesis that Chaldea was the original home of these stories (in the Bible) and that the Jews received them originally from the Babylonians".

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

Pentateuch [from Greek pente five + teuchos books]

A work in five books; the first five books of the Bible, containing stories of creation, of a flood, of the wanderings and settlement of the Hebrews, and the so-called Law of Moses. To these is sometimes added Joshua, sometimes also Judges and Ruth.

Jewish belief in the authorship of Moses was adopted by the Christian Church, but internal evidence has now caused this to be rejected; and the form in which we have the present Pentateuch is usually attributed to Ezra, who reestablished the Jewish religion after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian captivity. If he did not write it, he certainly rewrote it. For Christians, the literal acceptance of this work as being divinely inspired has thrown a dark cloud over their faith.

The Pentateuch forms part of one of the world's sacred scriptures, being preceded by the Hindu, Mazdean, Egyptian, and Chaldean, counting only some of those well known to modern scholarship; so that we find the ancient teachings as they have reached us in a very confused and altered form.

The Pentateuch is, exoterically, a collection of allegorical legends; but, in the light of the Zohar, the main book of the modern Jewish Qabbalah, the first four chapters at least of Genesis are a fragment of a highly philosophical page in archaic cosmogony. "Left in their symbolical disguise, they are a nursery tale, an ugly thorn in the side of science and logic, an evident effect of Karma. To have let them serve as a prologue to Christianity was a cruel revenge on the part of the Rabbis, who knew better what their Pentateuch meant" (SD 1:11).

If the Jehovistic portions are eliminated, the Mosaic books are found full of occult and priceless knowledge, especially in the first six chapters, even changed as they are and often veiled with thick garmentings of allegory. The Elohistic texts were written, according to the ideas of some Biblical scholars, 500 years after the date of Moses, and the Jehovistic 800 years. But these dates seem to be wholly arbitrary and repose upon modern Biblical speculation. Archeological excavations on the Biblical sites may or may not support to some extent the Bible narratives, but such narratives, at least those of the early part of Genesis, are merely the raw material for the later allegory constructed around them.

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

Babel babah (Hebrew) The inner meaning of the Tower of Babel, by which it was hoped that divinity might be reached or attained, is a house of initiation, a gate, portal, opening, or entrance to the divine.

The physical tower was both the building set aside to house and protect the initiation chambers, together with the ceremonies that take place in them, and an architectural emblem to signify a raising up towards heaven.

The tower may have either a divine or evil significance, either haughty pride and self-sufficiency or spiritual aspiration. Similar is the lightning-struck tower of the Tarot cards, and the Arabian Nights story of the man who built a palace completely except only for a roc's egg to hang in the dome, and when the egg is thus hung, the whole palace collapses. The work of the black magician, building from below upwards, is impermanent and, when it strikes the sky, is blasted. If such a tower and system be followed by adepts of the left-hand path for ultimate and foredestined confusion, it is one thing; but if the tower and its inner mysteries be in the charge of adepts of the right-hand path, it is another. The concentration of the narrator in the Bible concerning the Tower of Babel seems to have been entirely upon its aspect of left-hand magic.

The later Atlanteans were noted for their magic powers, wickedness, and defiance of the gods, and this tradition is preserved in many legends, such as the Biblical Tower of Babel, which derived from still older Chaldean scriptures. The legendary stories of wicked antediluvian giants warring against heaven are common in every mythology. The defeat of the giants, in some at least of these legends, results in the confusion of tongues -- the break-up and dispersal of a great racial division of mankind.

(See also: Babel, babah , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Paradise [from Greek paradeisos from Old Persian pairidaeza from Sanskrit paradesa region beyond]

Applied in Persian and Greek to a pleasure park or royal domain. A Hebrew version (pardes) is found in the Bible, translated "orchard" (Eccl 2:5, Cant 4:3) and "forest" (Neh 2:8). An equivalent is the Hebrew eden (delight). Stories of a Paradise or Eden are universal; and while the general idea is simple, its applications are complex. It is the state of innocence and bliss from which there is departure, and to which there is eventual return. This may apply to the human race as a whole, to particular races, to the lands they inhabit, or to the pilgrimage of the individual human soul.

Persian tradition places a Garden of Delight far to the north of Caucasus in the Arctic regions, where was the Imperishable Sacred Land whence issued a stream from the earth's fount of life. Adi-varsha was the Eden of the first races and specifically of the primeval third root-race; the Eden of the fifth root-race is but its faint reminiscence. The Garden of Eden or of God (Ezek 31:3-9) was a home of initiates of Atlantis, now submerged.

The Eden in Genesis is a marvelous fusion of many meanings into one narrative, where the Adams of the various root-races are made into one. Eden was an ancient name for Mesopotamia and adjacent regions; and under that one name are comprised the meanings of an abode of initiates, a sacred land from which races emerged, and a goal of bliss in the future. The Eden of the Hebrew books, which Judaism, Christianity, and Islam alike have located in Mesopotamia and in the now sandy lands of Persia and Afghanistan, refers also to what was in prehistoric times a great and highly developed center of culture and the civilization which there had its seat, including a number of Mystery schools. When the changing cycles brought about a degeneration and final breakup of this seat of archaic wisdom, it was represented as the loss by the then human Adam -- the then race -- of the Paradise in which he had dwelt. Edens and Paradises always contain trees; and these, by one interpretation, signify the initiates in the sacred land, and by another they are the Tree of Life and the Tree of Wisdom for man himself. In the Qabbalah, Eden is a place of initiation.

In later times, the symbol of Paradise has come to mean a bliss of sensual pleasure, like the Moslem Paradise of the Houris, the Olympus of the Greeks, or Indra's Heaven (svarga).

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