Bound Dictionary

Second Death Adopted from its use by the ancients, such as the Greeks and Romans who wrote and taught of the second death even publicly (cf Key 98-9).

When a person dies the three lower of his seven principles (sthula-sarira, linga-sarira, prana) are immediately cast off, and the four higher principles (kama, manas, buddhi, atman) enter kama-loka, there to await the second death. The length of time that this fourfold entity remains in kama-loka is determined by the general characteristics of the life just ended on earth: if there has been during life but small attachment in the intermediate nature (kama-manas) to things of earth, there will perforce by little or nothing to hold the entity in kama-loka, which it will traverse relatively rapidly; and the preparation for the entry into the next state of consciousness or devachan proceeds normally and smoothly.

The sojourn in kama-loka will be longer if the deceased has strong and active attractions earthward, for in such cases the defunct is earth-bound, and the time before the second death occurs, after which follows the entry into devachan, is in all cases proportionate to the strength of the attraction towards earth and its affairs.

The second death takes place when the two highest human principles, atman and buddhi, free themselves from the fourfold entity, but such separation of the monad takes place only after it has assimilated all the higher intellectual and truly spiritual attributes which the manas principle has stored up during the last life on earth. The ego then is freed from all low attractions and enters into devachanic bliss for a period according to its richness in human spiritual qualities.

After the monad in the second death has abandoned the lower part of manas joined to kama, there remains the shell or spook (kama-rupa) which under normal conditions immediately begins to disintegrate in kama-loka. Thus after the second death the immortal triad -- atman, buddhi, and all the spiritual and intellectual aroma of the manas -- is freed, and the reimbodying ego or higher manas enters the devachanic state, and sleeps blissfully there till beginning its new cycle of descent towards reincarnation.

(See also: Second Death , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

SYLPHS

The air elementals, capable of changing their sizes and shapes fantastically, who have the power of moving easily from dimension to dimension. They are lovely, ethereal entities whose purpose is to inspire and instruct us. We attract them by being clever and quick-witted and repel them by being shallow or capricious. They must always be allowed their freedom. The nature of sylphs is such that although they can easily be caught and pinned down -- indeed they appear eager to be bound by us mortals -- once so captured their beauty instantly fades and they very quickly die. They are as fragile as snowflakes and the other elements quickly annihilate or absorb them. The word has been traced to Greek silphe, used by Aristotle to mean a kind of dubious beetle, but its origin is likely to be Arabic salafa "to boil away," or salifat, "a natural trait." The ballet, La Sylphide demonstrates all of thisperfectly (Les Sylphides is merely a choreography without a story.) The Donning encyclopedia describes sylphs as being highly developed, feminine Intelligences. A sylph may associate herself with an individual at birth and help him to grow in non-materialistic ways, to develop his individual freedom and to provide energy in emergencies. Perhaps the best way to think of a sylph is as a person's "genius."

(See also: SYLPHS , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Holy of Holies. The Assyriologists, Egyptologists, and Orientalists, in general, show that such a place existed in every temple of antiquity.

The great temple of Bel-Merodach whose sides faced the four cardinal points, had in its extreme end a "Holy of Holies" hidden from the profane by a veil: here, "at the beginning of the year ‘the divine king of heaven and earth, the lord of the heavens, seats himself’."

According to Herodotus, here was the golden image of the god with a golden table in front like the Hebrew table for the shew bread, and upon this, food appears to have been placed. in some temples there also was "a little coffer or ark with two engraved stone tablets on it". (Myer’s Qabbalah.) In short, it is now pretty well proven, that the "chosen people" had nothing original of their own, but that every detail of their ritualism and religion was borrowed from older nations. The Hibbert Lectures by Prof. Sayce and others show this abundantly.

The story of the birth of Moses is that of Sargon, the Babylonian, who preceded Moses by a couple of thousand years; and no wonder, as Dr. Sayce tells us that the name of Moses, Mosheh, has a connection with the name of the Babylonian sun-god as the "hero" or "leader". (Hib. Lect., p. 46 et seq.)

Says Mr. J. Myer, "The orders of the priests were divided into high priests, those attached or bound to certain deities, like the Hebrew Levites; anointers or cleaners ; the Kali, ‘illustrious’ or ‘elders’; the soothsayers, and the Makhkhu or ‘great one’, in which Prof. Delitzsch sees the Rab-mag of the Old Testament. . . The Akkadians and Chaldeans kept a Sabbath day of rest every seven days, they also had thanksgiving days, and days for humiliation and prayer. There were sacrifices of vegetables and animals, of meats and wine. . . . The number seven was especially sacred. . . . The great temple of Babylon existed long before 2,250 B.c. Its ‘Holy of Holies’ was with in the shrine of Nebo, the prophet god of wisdom." It is from the Akkadians that the god Mardak passed to the Assyrians, and he had been before Merodach, "the merciful", of the Babylonians, the only son and interpreter of the will of Ea or Hea, the great Deity of Wisdom. The Assyriologists have, in short, unveiled the whole scheme of the "chosen people".

(See also: Holy of Holies , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Blood Rites Ceremonies, covenants, and observances in which blood is used as part of the rites or performances.

"The arcane doctrine teaches that the 'blood' rites are as old as the Third-Root race, being established in their final form by the Fourth Parent race in commemoration of the separation of androgynous mankind, their forefathers, into males and females" (BCW 8:251).

Whatever sacred meaning may have entered into this primary memorial of the ethereal forms and forces of androgynous humanity becoming separate, physicalized, warm-blooded bodies, has been forgotten, misunderstood, or perverted in the exoteric rites which have come down to us.

In the ancient Mysteries and in esoteric teachings of the great religions, references to partaking of flesh and blood are purely symbolic figures of speech, the mystical idea being that of partaking of wisdom and gaining understanding through union with the divinity whose name was used, such union being achieved during initiation, the communicant thereby acquiring spiritual strength and nobler life in common with the initiator.

The antithesis of these lofty ideas underlies the widespread prevalence of blood rites. In fact, the many blood ceremonials which mark and mar the records of so many peoples are often gross, cruel, and perverted, violating the sacredness of life by offering animal and human sacrifices. Several groups regard blood as one of the essential elements used in their numerous forms of initiations, oblations, invocations to ancestors and to spirits of various kinds.

Their fixed belief that the demons or spirits invoked by these ceremonies are harmful if not propitiated, but will be gratified and nourished by the immaterial essence, savor, or fumes of the foods, alcohols, and blood offerings is not without some basis of fact; for the earth-bound kama-rupic entities and astral elementaries are attracted by, and do abstract the impalpable kama-pranic life-force from, the fumes and emanations of such offerings.

These beliefs are consistent with much in the tribal customs and rites which attracts and revivifies evil entities in their own astral atmosphere. Customs like poison ordeals for so-called witches, and evil use of nature forces for injuring or destroying personal enemies, added to frequent evocations, make a vicious circle of cause and effect.

(See also: Blood Rites , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Pretaloka: (Sanskrit) "World of the departed."

The realm of the earth-bound souls. This lower region of Bhuvarloka is an astral duplicate of the physical world.

See: loka.

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

Karma (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root kri to do, make, denoting action)

Action, the causes and consequences of action; that which produces change. One of the primary postulates of every comprehensive system of philosophy, described as a universal law, unceasingly active throughout universal nature and rooted in cosmic harmony, in its operations existing from eternity, inevitable, inherent in the very nature of things. It is action, absolute harmony, the adjuster; it preserves equilibrium by compensating and adjusting all actions, excessive or defective.

Hence it is called the law of retribution, implying neither reward nor punishment, based on nature's own urge of harmonious equilibrium. As such it has been personalized as Nemesis and by many other names, a practice which lends itself to popular imagining of avenging deities, such as God or Gods, Furies, Fates, Destiny, etc. As there are no such things as inanimate beings in the universe, it is not surprising to hear of karmic agents and of scribes or lipika who record karma. Karma must necessarily be transmitted by living beings of one grade or another, because there is no other means possible, and universal nature is but a vast, virtually frontierless being whose entire structure, laws, and operations are the innumerable hierarchies of beings in all-various grades, which thus not only condition nature, but are in fact universal nature itself. By our acts we create living beings which act upon other people and ultimately react upon ourselves. These beings, then, are agents of karma on one plane; on higher planes other orders of beings are such agents.

"An Occultist or a philosopher will not speak of the goodness or cruelty of Providence; but, identifying it with Karma-Nemesis, he will teach that nevertheless it guards the good and watches over them in this, as in future lives; and that it punishes the evil-doer -- aye, even to his seventh rebirth. So long, in short, as the effect of his having thrown into perturbation even the smallest atom in the Infinite World of harmony, has not been finally readjusted. For the only decree of Karma -- an eternal and immutable decree -- is absolute Harmony in the world of matter as it is in the world of Spirit. It is not, therefore, Karma that rewards or punishes, but it is we, who reward or punish ourselves according to whether we work with, through and along with nature, abiding by the laws on which that Harmony depends, or -- break them.

"Nor would the ways of Karma be inscrutable were men to work in union and harmony, instead of disunion and strife. For our ignorance of those ways -- which one portion of mankind calls the ways of Providence, dark and intricate; while another sees in them the action of blind Fatalism; and a third, simple chance, with neither gods nor devils to guide them -- would surely disappear, if we would but attribute all these to their correct cause. With right knowledge, or at any rate with a confident conviction that our neighbours will no more work to hurt us than we would think of harming them, the two-thirds of the World's evil would vanish into thin air. Were no man to hurt his brother, Karma-Nemesis would have neither cause to work for, nor weapons to act through. . . . We stand bewildered before the mystery of our own making, and the riddles of life that we will not solve, and then accuse the great Sphinx of devouring us. But verily there is not an accident in our lives, not a misshapen day, or a misfortune, that could not be traced back to our own doings in this or in another life" (SD 1:643-4).

The effect of karma on human beings is merely the natural reaction from their actions, which may be described as only half-actions, for they are not completed until the reaction has ensued. Since the consequences of acts do not necessarily ensue immediately, it follows that at any stage of our career we may experience the results of actions performed a long time in the past.

Karma does not obviate free will or imply fatalism or mechanistic determinism. It is not merely a mechanical or mechanistic chain of linked cause and effect, by which every act is predetermined by some previous act and by no other cause. Man is a divine spark expressing itself through a series of vehicles, forming by means of these vehicles a series of egos, each conscious and operative on its own plane. Through his contract with higher planes, he has the power of bringing new forces into operation, so he is not inexorably bound in a mechanistic sense by his karma. On the other hand, to speak of an absolutely free will is meaningless; the will becomes more and more emancipated from conditions as we penetrate deeper into the recesses of our nature; but it must always be actuated by motive of some kind, and hence, being conditioned by motive, it comes under the operation of the universal law of karma.

There are many types of karma, such as human, racial, national, family, individual, etc. A chain of causation, stretched out in time, will be intersected by any given present moment; so that in speaking of a person, we may say he sums up in himself both his past and his future, he is his own karma. Since the whole universe and all the beings which compose it are linked and blended together, it follows that no person can have exclusive interests and that the karma of all beings is linked and, in a profound sense, identical. Karma in its moral aspect is cosmic justice. It should not interfere in any way with helping others, nor does it render futile the exercise of compassion, for we incur as much responsibility by refraining from action as by acting.

"Sow kindly acts and thou shalt reap their fruition. Inaction in a deed of mercy becomes an action in a deadly sin" (VS 31).

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

Purgatory [from Latin purgare to purify]

The place whither, according to the doctrine of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches, the souls of those who have died in grace, but with sins yet unexpiated, pass for purificatory suffering before entering heavenly bliss. They are supposed, somewhat superstitiously, to be helped by the prayers of the living and especially by religious ceremonials such as the celebration of the Mass.

The doctrine of purgatory is one of the immemorial beliefs of the human race found the world over, although expressed in different fashions; it is frequently referred to in various passages in the Greek and Latin literatures.

In theosophical teachings the defunct entity must pass through the various spheres of kama-loka, in the norm rising steadily upwards, in order to be purified from its gross and earth-bound attributes and elements, before entering into the state of devachan. These post-mortem purgatorial or cleansing processes are not of the nature of punishment, but are natural processes of purification escapable by none.

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

WORD MAGIC (or MAGICAL SENTENCES.)

Magical words or phrases are social techniques that double as talismans or ritualistic paraphernalia and serve as short-cuts to reality alteration. They take many forms, some of which are the following:

Setting-Up Exercises -- Suggest that something of moment is afoot:  "I swear by the Bolts of Besqul..." or "I externalize thee..."

Magical Formulae -- Serve as exhortations in the guise of threats:  "Those who do not follow will be left behind!" or "Who stabbeth me, bleedeth  himself!"

Special Effects -- Used to induce the cooperation of the social  environment: "Burn, Fire Perpetua!"

Consensus Modifiers -- Rework consensus through overt assault on the  status quo or through the introduction of novelty: "For it is written but no  longer true..." Also open (and unconventional) evangelism eventually has an  impact: "May Thantifaxath grant!"

Power Implementation -- Such formulae are positive, reinforcing and  tied in creatively to reality because once uttered, they immediately achieve  their ends: "You are herewith ordered to report to ..." In magic, power  implementations are generally surreptitious and operate in the world with  infinite subtlety. Statements such as, "Be thou clean O leper!" are extremely  bold (and rare). However, the most irresistible overt usage is the curse. A  curse propels the victim's ego into a horrible locale or state of being that  he already secretly fears ("May your body house maggots in Hell!" or "You are  a Toad!"). The ego is bound to languish in the wake of the curse, if it is  successful. And when the self desiccates, the body quickly follows. That's why  insults generate violence. The injured psyche needs to re-establish its loss  of position.

(See also: WORD MAGIC , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Larva (Latin) A ghost, phantom; used by certain Latin writers, such as Apuleius (2nd century), for the animal souls or astral-vital shells of deceased persons.

Those shells which were more or less earth-bound and of grossly material character, and therefore baneful in their influence on living humans, were commonly called larvae, as distinguished from the lares, which were inoffensive or even friendly to the living. Larvae, therefore, are the astral and kamic remnants cast off by the disembodied ego in kama-loka, the shades or spooks, also including elementaries, all to be shunned by imbodied people, as they are without intelligence and conscience and invariably vampirize astrally and vitally those who give them the opportunity of doing so.

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

Lamiae (Latin from Greek) According to classical popular ideas, monsters with the head and breast of a woman and the body of a serpent, alluring and destructive to men; astral vampires haunting human beings of negative and sympathetic character. Also an elementary, and earth-bound astral sorcerer of either sex; in some cases the lamiae are the astral shells.

Such hybrid symbols may, like the Siren and the Lorelei, likewise signify the astral light and the temptations of the Hall of Delusion, or the incubi and succubi, originating in the Near East and distorted as entities by the monkish imagination of the Middle Ages.

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

Celestial Soul Clearing: Theistic means of removing Earth-Bound Spirits. These are transitioned souls that can draw energy from one's life force. The method's theory posits ArchAngels and Spirit Guides and Guardians.

(See also: Celestial Soul Clearing , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Ghoul (from Arabic ghul, ghuwal)

In popular Arabic lore a class of evil beings, haunting the mountains and woods and preying upon mankind and animals. More specifically, the astral or astral-physical entities haunting cemeteries or burial grounds, with an eye upon the danger to humans or animals who come into contact with them. These Arabic ghouls are earth-bound kama-rupas of the most debased and material type, and parallel the Hindu preta of the lowest type, or even the pisachas, etc.

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

Soma (Sanskrit) In Hinduism, the moon astronomically; mystically, a sacred beverage of initiates, "made from a rare mountain plant by initiated Brahmans" (TG 304).

As the moon, Soma is an occult mystery, for the moon as a symbol stands for both good and evil, yet more often a symbol of evil than of good. Astrologically, Soma is the regent of the invisible or occult moon, while Indu represents the physical moon. "Soma is the mystery god and presides over the mystic and occult nature in man and the Universe" (SD 2:45). Soma or lunar worship was once purely occult and its rites were based upon a minute and profound knowledge of nature.

According to Hindu tradition, Soma as a sacred juice gave mystic visions and trance-revelations, the result of which union was Budha (esoteric wisdom). This sacred beverage was drunk by Brahmins and initiates during their mysteries and sacrificial rites.

"The 'Soma' plant is the asclepias acida, which yields a juice from which that mystic beverage, the Soma drink, is made. Alone the descendants of the Rishis, the Agnihotri (the fire priests) of the great mysteries knew all its powers. But the real property of the true Soma was (and is) to make a new man of the Initiate, after he is reborn, namely once that he begins to live in his astral body . . .; for, his spiritual nature overcoming the physical, he would soon snap it off and part even from that etherealized form. . . .

"The partaker of Soma finds himself both linked to his external body, and yet away from it in his spiritual form. The latter, freed from the former, soars for the time being in the ethereal higher regions, becoming virtually 'as one of the gods,' and yet preserving in his physical brain the memory of what he sees and learns. Plainly speaking, Soma is the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge forbidden by the jealous Elohim to Adam and Eve or Yah-ve, 'lest Man should become as one of us' " (SD 2:498-9&n).

"A 'soma-drinker' attains the power of placing himself in direct rapport with the bright side of the moon, thus deriving inspiration from the concentrated intellectual energy of the blessed ancestors. . . .

"This which seems one stream (to the ignorant) is of a dual nature -- one giving life and wisdom, the other being lethal. He who can separate the former from the latter, as Kalahamsa separated the milk from the water, which was mixed with it, thus showing great wisdom -- will have his reward" (BCW 12:203-4).

"This Hindu sacred beverage answers to the Greek Ambrosia or nectar, drunk by the gods of Olympus. A cup of kykeon was also quaffed by the mysta at the Eleusinian initiation. He who drinks it easily reaches Brahma, or the place of splendor (Heaven). The soma-drink known to Europeans is not the genuine beverage, but its substitute; for the initiated priests alone can taste of the real soma; and even kings and rajas, when sacrificing, receive the substitute. . . . We were positively informed that the majority of the sacrificial priests of the Dekkan have lost the secret of the true soma. It can be found neither in the ritual books nor through oral information. The true followers of the primitive Vedic religion are very few; these are the alleged descendants from the Rishis, the real Agnihotris, the initiates of the great Mysteries. The soma-drink is also commemorated in the Hindu Pantheon, for it is called King-Soma. He who drinks of it is made to participate in the heavenly king, because he becomes filled with it, as the Christian apostles and their converts became filled with the Holy Ghost, and purified of their sins. The soma makes a new man of the initiate; he is reborn and transformed, and his spiritual nature overcomes the physical; it gives the divine power of inspiration, and develops the clairvoyant faculty to the utmost. According to the exoteric explanation the soma is a plant, but, at the same time it is an angel. It forcibly connects the inner, highest 'spirit' of man, which spirit is an angel like the mystical soma, with his 'irrational soul,' or astral body, and thus united by the power of the magic drink, they soar together above physical nature and participate during life in the beatitude and ineffable glories of Heaven.

"Thus the Hindu soma is mystically, and in all respects the same that the Eucharist supper is to the Christian. The idea is similar. By means of the sacrificial prayers -- the mantras -- this liquor is supposed to be transformed on the spot into real soma -- or the angel, and even into Brahma himself" (IU 1:xl-xli).

The mystical drink has been known in all ages and among all peoples. The ancient Teutonic tribes, whether of the Germanic or Anglo-Saxons, spoke of their divine mead, the drink of the gods. The Hindus spoke of Soma, the direct distillation from the moon and from the overseeing and guiding eye of the sun; the Greeks of the Homeric age spoke of ambrosia or nectar, a drink of the gods which renewed their understanding and gave them inspiration as well. Another branch of the Greeks belonging to the Dionysian and Orphic branches of mystical thought, spoke equally mystically of the mystic wine, and also of the mystic cereal, partaken of during the Mysteries, and it is from this last that the mystical wine and cereal or bread of the Christians was taken over almost completely from the Dionysian Eucharist, only among Christians even from quite early times it became degraded into actual blood and flesh of Jesus.

The evident meaning must be connected with the old occult thought that wine, or the mead of the northern peoples where the grape and soma were unknown or uncultivated, all had the meaning of the inspiration of initiation, a kind of ecstasy of vision and knowledge brought about through initiation, of which the physical intoxication of wine, mead, or the soma juice has all the lower and materialized aspect, every spiritual thing having its material counterpart, every right-hand thought or rule in occultism having its left-hand or sorcerer perversion or counterpart. Thus in the highest initiation, even today and from immemorial time, the holy drink or potation was entirely mystical, and had a dozen of these significances, all bound up together; yet despite this fact, for some of the lower initiations where a student found difficulty in throwing off the physical and astral influences, a harmless -- when administered rightly -- drug or drink was given which temporarily stupefied the lower quaternary; but it is to be noted that this substitute of the physical drink came about when neophytes began to find it very difficult to do what their more spiritual forerunners had done: raising themselves solely by inner aspiration up to inspiration, by inner insight up to the epopteia or vision.

Thus the question whether the mystical drink was an actual drink, or merely a mystical one, cannot be answered by a simple yes or no. Originally it was entirely mystical, later it remained as mystical as ever, but the body with its grossness, and the astral influences with their terrible power over the men and women of the time, were temporarily reduced to quiescence by a preparation known to initiates to have the power of bringing about the condition required, without any permanent or even long after-effect, very much as a sedative will be given by a physician today. It is of course true that if this drink, however relatively innocent in a single instance, were to be constantly repeated, it would have developed into a drug habit.

Some of the later peoples in their initiations actually did use a kind of physical soma which had the effect of bringing about a dulling of the restless brain-mind for the time being, so that the inner powers were temporarily freed from the clogging influences of the astral light and the body.

The use of drugs in initiatory ceremonies of any kind, however, is a relatively late and degenerate practice, and has never at any time been, nor will it ever be, introduced by the Mother-Lodge coming down to us even from the middle of the third root-race. With it the old tradition burns more brightly than ever that the true soma, the true mead of the gods or wine of the spirit, is the raising of the human into the spiritual by aspiration, training, and strict following of the traditional laws of discipleship, so that finally the neophyte feels the sunlight from above stealing through the moon of his mind.

So strongly is this the case, that even today in theosophical occult studies, drug taking of any kind is strictly forbidden, including alcohol, for alcohol is a drug, a product of natural decay and decomposition, and while less spectacular and violent as a rule than drugs such as opium and its derivatives, it is far more easily procurable and is therefore more specifically pointed to as objectionable. The idea of the occult student is to have the body absolutely normal, healthy, clean, and functioning in the smoothness of health, so that even overeating is seen to be a harmful thing, because it clogs the body, dulls the mind, and could even actually lead to physical disability.

There is and has been a great deal of confusion, not only at present but throughout the ages, about these matters, and several mystical schools have even chosen the language of the tavern and drinking house as the cloak for conveying occult or semi-occult teaching. A noted example is the Sufi school with its poems lauding the flowing bowl and the joys of the tavern and the bosom friends therein, and the beloved's breast. Here the tavern was the universe, the flowing cup or wine was the wine of the spirit bringing inner ecstasy, the bosom of the beloved was the raising oneself into inner communion with the god within, of which the Jewish bosom of Abraham is a feeble correspondence. The friends of the tavern are those perfect human relations brought about by a community of spiritual and intellectual interests, and the associations of the tavern are the mysteries of the world around us with their marvels and arcana. Nevertheless in various countries as the fourth root-race ran toward its evil culmination, the mystic became translated into the material, the spiritual degenerated into the teaching of matter, so that indeed in later Atlantean times the drugging of initiates was common, and the results always disastrous, this being one of the sorceries for which the Atlanteans in occult history have remained infamous. Yet even in the fifth root-race, due to the heavy Atlantean karma still weighing on us, many nations as late as historic times employed more or less harmless potations to bring about a temporary dulling or stupefying of the brain and nervous system -- a procedure always vigorously opposed by the theosophic occult school which has never at any time allowed it.

(See also: Soma , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Omnipresence

An attribute of God alone. It is the quality of being present in all places at all times God is not bound by time and space because he is external to them.

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

Premillennialism

This is a teaching concerning the end times (eschatology). It says that there is a future millennium (1000 years) where Jesus will rule and reign over the earth. At the beginning of the millennium Satan and his angels will be bound and peace will exist on the entire earth. At the end of the 1000 years Satan will be released in order to raise an army against Jesus. Jesus will destroy them and then the final judgment will take place with the new heavens and the new earth being made.

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

World Serpent or Snake Ideas connected with the world snake are not those associated with the legend of a hero slaying a serpent but with a more profound concept. In the Hindu system, there is Ananta-Sesha, the serpent of infinity; in the ancient Scandinavian cosmogony, the world serpent Nidhogg, is represented as encircling the globe with its tail in its mouth. The same representation is found in the Egyptian teachings:

"In the oldest Egyptian imagery, as in the cosmogonic allegories of Kneph, the mundane snake, when typifying matter, is usually represented as contained within a circle; he lies straight across its equator, thus indicating that the universe of astral light, out of which the physical world evolved, while bounding the latter, is itself bound by Emepht, or the Supreme First Cause. . . . When the serpent represents eternity and immortality, it encircles the world, biting its tail, and thus offering no solution of continuity. It then becomes the astral light" (IU 157).

Another interpretation of the snake in the circle is that "The active is attracted by the passive principle and the Great Nag [Ananta-Sesha], the serpent emblem of the eternity, attracts its tail to its mouth forming thereby a circle (cycles in the eternity) in that incessant pursuit of the negative by the positive" (ML 71).

A sublime conception has also its human analog: the world serpent as the cosmic naga or grand universal 'Adam Qadmom, the sublime cosmic initiate, the cosmic wisdom which lives from manifesting universe to manifesting universe as its Purusha or spirit. It is the source of cosmic laws, wisdom, and life which infill the universe of which each such world serpent is the divine originating cause. The same thought in its human application refers to the great adept or master of wisdom and love.

(See also: World Serpent, Snake , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

blood crystallization (diagnostic blood crystallization): Mode of ostensible diagnosis that involves introduction of a blood sample to a copper chloride solution. Crystal signs of illness in the resultant blood-crystal picture express the guidance of a higher functional plane coming to expression. Organ-signs, for example, indicate dysfunction of an organ or a bodily system. , each so-called organ-sign reflects a multi-layered organ principle (which includes the organ-bound 'soul organ') and, on the psychic plane, is the foundation for related soul qualities.

(See also: Blood crystallization , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

sankalpa: (Sanskrit) "Will; purpose; determination."

A solemn vow or declaration of purpose to perform any ritual observance. Most commonly, sankalpa names the mental and verbal preparation made by a temple priest as he begins rites of worship.

During the sankalpa, he informs all three worlds what he is about to do. He recites the name of the Deity, and the present time and place according to precise astrological notations and announces the type of ritual he is about to perform. Once the sankalpa is made, he is bound to complete the ceremony.

See: puja.

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

ZPG

"Zero Population Growth" is an idea whose time has come. What has that to do with M/magic(k)? Nothing more than that any practitioner who ignores the state of the world and attempts to avoid controversy out of cowardice, is a charlatan and an ass. The population of the earth will have reached 10 billion within another decade. The beautiful forests and magnificent animals that our grandparents knew are gone forever. Human life grows cheaper with each mewling, puking infant that is born. Anti-abortionists and anti- homosexuals are doing the world a monstrous disservice by pushing their arrogant self-interest propaganda. Those who think that restricting birth is "inhuman" or draconian should be warned that ZPG and family Planning are conservative organizations by any standard. There are far more radical forces on the hell-horizon, growing rapidly in imminence every day: Radical Population Reduction ("Reaper," for short), to mention one on the edge of appearance.

To those who point out that had my mother felt as I do, I'd not have been born I'm bound to say that when I was born there were not yet quite two billion human souls on this planet and the dead still outnumbered the living. Moreover, my genetic material ends with me. I have always practiced that essentially ontological humility which is preached in Isaiah 54: "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear..." If I have not the pride to perpetuate my own flesh, why should I condone the arrogance of others?

As for those, finally, who believe that natural patenting should be the divine right of every moronic pimp and cheap tart, rather than an earned and rare privilege, and who argue that anyone who tries to "play God" and set hirself up as a population damper can only be a "Fascist," such fools should be reminded that it hardly matters whether a Fascist, a Saint, a Yuppie or Zippy the Pinhead takes the job at this late date. If everyone's genes are to be sacrificed to the common good and if the said "God-Player" is himself free of issue, it matters little who rules. In any case, any form of birth control, no matter how unjust or extreme, is preferable to that tyranny exercised so criminally now by those who, in their filth, stupidity, rut and obnoxious lust, blindly and selfishly birth endlessly forth their disgusting progeny in chaotic, cancerous growth, shoving and forcing the guilty in with the innocent in this already over-stuffed planetary ratbox of accelerating madness and asphyxiation.

(See also: ZPG , Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul,)

Mt Kazbek. or Elbruz. A mountain in the Caucasian range, 15,000-16,000 feet high, "where Prometheus was bound" (TG 176; IU 1:298, Caves & Jungles 62).

(See also: Mt Kazbek, Elbruz , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Hamadryad (from Greek `ama together with + dryad tree-soul)

Nearly the same as dryad, but indicating that the life of the tree elemental was bound up with that of the tree. With dryad, the mind dwells upon the fact that the physical tree is but an expression of an indwelling life or tree-soul, an elemental being expressing itself as a tree.

With hamadryad, the emphasis lies in the thought that not only is a tree the expression of a tree-soul, but that this tree-soul and the tree are essentially, and even physically, one; and that the dryad or tree-soul itself is but again the expression of a still higher monadic essence.

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

Premillennialism

This is a teaching concerning the end times (eschatology). It says that there is a future millennium (1000 years) where Jesus will rule and reign over the earth. At the beginning of the millennium Satan and his angels will be bound and peace will exist on the entire earth. At the end of the 1000 years Satan will be released in order to raise an army against Jesus. Jesus will destroy them and then the final judgment will take place with the new heavens and the new earth being made.

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