Introduction and links to related topics Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.
Samskaras Of Childhood - From naming to education.
namakarana: "Name-giving" and formal entry into one or another sect of Hinduism, performed 11 to 41 days after birth. The name is chosen according to astrology, preferably the name of a God or Goddess. At this time, guardian devas are assigned to see the child through life. One who converts to or adopts Hinduism later in life would receive this same sacrament.
annaprashana: (Sanskrit) "Feeding." The ceremony marking the first taking of solid food, held at about six months. (Breastfeeding generally continues).
karnavedha: "Earpiercing." The piercing of both ears, for boys and girls, and the inserting of gold earrings, held during the first, third or fifth year.
See: earrings.
chudakarana: (Sanskrit) "Head-shaving." The shaving of the head, for boys and girls, between the 31st day and the fourth year.
vidyarambha: (Sanskrit) Marks the beginning of formal education. The boy or girl ceremoniously writes his/her first letter of the alphabet in a tray of uncooked rice.
upanayana: Given to boys at about 12 years of age, marks the beginning of the period of brahmacharya and formal study of scripture and sacred lore, usually with an acharya or guru.
samavartana: Marks the end of formal religious study.
See: samskara, samskaras.
God-parents - God-parents Christian law, strong in the Greek Orthodox Church, weaker in the Roman Catholic, and forgotten in the Protestant, based in the fact that once a spiritual teacher begins to teach the disciple, he takes on the student''s karma in connection with the occult sciences until the student becomes in turn a master.
The god-parents "tacitly take upon themselves all the sins of the newly baptised child -- (anointed, as at the initiation, a mystery truly!) -- until the day when the child becomes a responsible unit, knowing good and evil" (BCW 9:156, cf 9:285-6).
Sambandar - (Tamil) Child saint of the 7th-century Saivite renaissance. Composed many Devaram hymns in praise of Siva, reconverted at least one Tamil king who had embraced Jainism, and vehemently sought to counter the incursion of Buddhism, bringing the Tamil people back to Saivism.
See: Nalvar, Nayanar, Tirumurai.
Pyramid Power - (Also cone headgear). In mimetic magic the pyramid serves as a parallel funnel or horn to draw down the powers of the heavens onto all that which lies inside or under it. Its base is a perfect square, representing the earth and its four corners - or a circle, deriving from infinity, the point.
The cone is nearly as effective as the pyramid, so a hat in the shape of a cone also has beneficial effects on the wearer, curing headaches, stress and even slow-healing head-wounds. The effects of a cone device, as far as I know, have not been compared to those produced by Reich''s Orgone box.
In contemporary "pyramid power" theory, the convection of the cosmic energy derives from its inversion and the subsequent compression (like laser) of the lines of force - as images are similarly inverted by a lens. Think of an hourglass or how the sun''s rays stream out like a cone through a small opening in the clouds. It has been observed that concentration is increased and a sense of well-being occurs amongst subjects placed under a tent pyramid or cone device for the head. Even 10 or 15 minutes under the pyramid can increase energy, intelligence, concentration, self-confidence, optimism, sense of well-being, etc.
The tent pyramid is an attempt to realign imbalanced centers, just as in olden days the dunce or "thinking cap" was administered by impatient teachers in an effort to quieten children and heighten their attentionality. It was intended to help the child regain control of his center. For the same reason the conical hat or hood was forced upon criminals and heretics in a final stab at restoring them before their punishment or sacrifice. We think of wizards, warlocks and alchemists wearing these conical devices chiefly as physical enhancers (to make them appear taller than normal people), but obviously, their actual purpose was to increase not their stature but their powers of concentration. Witches'' hats are defective, because they have brims that deflect the celestial currents. In very ancient times priests and kings wore head dresses bearing legends and symbols of their rank. These legends could serve as mantras as well, to further enhance the restorative powers of such devices.
The materials (metal, stone, glass, wood) seem much less important than the shape itself, although reason would suggest that the desired effects would also be assisted by the proper material: metal for sealing, stone for durability, glass for transparency, wood for organic purposes. But it seems that the power lines move in the desired directions regardless of the material. The results of experiments involving keeping meat fresh or razor blades sharp under pyramids seem rather suspect, but it must be borne in mind that experimental data need not invariably lead us to random or impractical conclusions in order to honor their authenticity. Indeed, anyone can say anything about reality, including that it is random or meaningless.
Birth Time - The exact moment when the whole body of the child gets separated from the mother.
Heredity - Heredity The theosophical philosophy explains heredity as being the attraction of reimbodying monads to the respective families with which they have affinities of various kinds; and thus it is the reimbodying egos carrying such individual characteristics or attributes which perpetuate them in the family life-stream. It is the sutratman (life thread) which runs through successive generations.
The life-atoms of the lower human principles are drawn again to us when we reimbody so that both the soul and the life-atoms of its bodies are essentially the same from life to life. The cause of heredity is a certain class of dhyani-chohans spoken of as the fourth order of angelic beings. They "are the field wherein lies concealed in its privation the germ that will fall into generation. That germ will become the spiritual potency in the physical cell that guides the development of the embryo, and which is the cause of the hereditary transmission of faculties and all the inherent qualities in man. . . . This inner soul of the physical cell -- this ''spiritual plasm'' that dominates the germinal plasm -- is the key that must open one day the gates of the terra incognita of the Biologist, now called the dark mystery of Embryology" (SD 2:219).
That the child carries on or transmits many features from his parents cannot be denied, but it is of no greater significance than the fact that he also derives features from a variety of other sources, all which contribute materials and subordinate agents by which the karma of the individual is fulfilled. That karma is the innate character of the individual, as imbodied in the various spiritual, manasic, psychological, or astral vehicles which contribute to the composite human being. Without taking into account these acquired characteristics on the inner planes, what determines the extent or manner in which the character of the offspring will be modified by the modicum of new physical influence derived from the parents cannot be explained. For, "it is . . . unquestionable that in the case of human incarnations the law of Karma, racial or individual, overrides the subordinate tendencies of ''Heredity,'' its servant" (SD 2:178).
Further, nothing in nature is static, and energy always flows into the physical system from within. Heredity cannot be understood on the presumption that inorganic particles exist; it is necessary to bear in mind that all the results are due to the cooperation and interaction of living beings of many kinds and degrees.
To summarize: what modern usage calls heredity, the transmission of characteristics from parents to children, is not a merely physiologic or biologic mechanism acting automatically or fortuitously; but actually is brought about because of the attraction to certain families, or certain parents, of reimbodying egos possessing in greater or larger degree the same characteristics which the parents themselves have. On identic lines is to be explained the reason why races and even nations continue with their respective characteristics; egos are drawn to similar fields for incarnation. Thus it is that the transmission of type and characteristics continues both racially and individually from generation to generation, always modified by the individualities of the reimbodying egos.
See also GERM-CELL
Parables Of The Ayatollah Hakima - The following are presented without comment:
A certain Bedouin went into the desert without water. When thirst overcame him he prayed for the miracle of rain and it did not come. Finally, remembering that water always moves downward, he fell to digging feverishly until at last he reached a well. As he bent over gratefully to drink, a few drops of rain began to fall upon his head.
The angel Gabriel, hearing the prayers of a mortal, sought to manifest and award his supplicant the joy of beholding seraphic splendor in the flesh. But no matter what he did, the mortal still saw the angel only in his mind''s eye. Finally, Gabriel puckered up his lips and, in imitation of the evening breeze, riffled the pages of a bible that lay on the mortal''s table and the holy book fell open at a lovely picture of the angel. This proves that everything in the universe is material.
Once there were two philosophers. The pessimist preached that all human life is miserable and on his door hung the word, "Repent!" The optimist taught that human life should be devoted to pleasure. On his wall he hung the word "Rejoice!" The pessimist inherited a good deal of money and lived to a ripe old age. The optimist died at an early age from a painful disease.
Two souls appeared at St. Peter''s Gate. One was the innocent soul of a 3 year old child who had died in an accident. The other was the soul of a 99 year old man who died of tertiary syphilis. Why did St. Peter let in the old man first?
An old native came to the missionary doctor with a baffling fever. The doctor was unable to diagnose the case and none of his medicines worked. Finally, the old man went to the tribal witch doctor for advice. The witch doctor looked at him for a long time and asked, "Is there anything that you can eat?" And the old man shook his head and said, "I can keep nothing down."
"Can you keep pawa berries down?" the witch doctor asked. "Perhaps I could keep pawa berries down," the old man admitted.
"Then eat nothing but pawa berries for the next two weeks," suggested the witch doctor.
At the end of two weeks, the old man was still sick. So he got up, turned around thirteen times, made the sign of the cross at the sun, spat on the ground and then sat back down again. In that instant, the fever broke and the old man was well.
Amniomancy - A divinatory practice in which the coloration of the subtle membrane surrounding the head of a newborn infant is interpreted to forecast the general fortunes of the child in later life.
Apamnapat - Apamnapat (Sanskrit) (from apam of waters from ap water + napat child, son, offspring)
Son of the waters; in the Vedas one name of Agni (cosmic and terrestrial fire), as having issued as lightning from the firmament or cosmic spaces, so frequently called waters in ancient scriptures. This connects Apamnapat with fohat: just as fohat is cosmic vitality manifest in one of its forms as fire (agni) or as electricity and magnetism in their manifold appearances, so is fohat or apamnapat the child or offspring of cosmic space or the cosmic waters. But these waters "are not the liquid we know, but Ether -- the fiery waters of space" (SD 2:400n). Fohat likewise is called the son of ether in the latter''s highest aspect, akasa.
Apamnapat is also an Avestan name which means "Son of the Waters" and, like his Vedic counterpart, is closely linked with the fire of lightning as well as the spring or source of the waters (Sirozah 1:8, T in Yasht 2:4; ZA II, 6, 94, SBE 23).
Ialdabaoth - Ialdabaoth (Gnostic) (from Shem ilda + baoth)
Child from the egg (of Chaos); the spirit of matter, the chief of the lower ''elohim and father of the six dark stellar spirits or terrestrial angels, and thus one of the lower group of the Qabbalistic Sephiroth, the shadow or reflection on the lower four cosmic planes of the arupa or formless higher Sephirothic range. These emanations from the stellar spirits become darker and more material as they recede in descent from their sources, and are thus properly represented as the seven planetary (and global) genii or rectors.
Ialdabaoth''s mother, Sophia Achamoth (wisdom of the lower four of the cosmic planes) is the daughter or manifested reflection of the Heavenly Sophia -- divine wisdom, or the mahat-side of akasa. Therefore Ialdabaoth is equivalent to the Nazarene Demiourgos of the Codex Nazaraeus, which makes him identical with the Hebrew Jehovah, the creator of the physical earth and the material side of the rector of the planet Saturn. He is also identical with Tsebaoth-Adamas, "the Pthahil of the Codex Nazaraeus, the Demiurge of the Valentinian system, the Proarchose of the Barbelitae, the Great Archon of Basilides and the Elohim of Justinus, etc. Ialdabaoth (the Child of Chaos) was . . . the Chief of the Creative Forces and the representative of one of the classes of Pitris" (BCW 13:43n). In the Ophite scheme he is the first of the superior septenate.
As a creative spirit, Ialdabaoth generates six sons (the lower terrestrial angels or stellar spirits) without assistance of any female, and when these sons strive with him he creates Ophiomorphos, the serpent-shaped spirit of all that is basest in matter. When Ialdabaoth proclaims that he is Father and God, and that none is above him, Sophia tells him that the first and second Anthropos (heavenly man) are above him. So Ialdabaoth''s sons create a man, Adam, to whom Ialdabaoth gives the breath of life, emptying himself of creative power. Having rebelled against his mother, his production is mindless and has to be endowed with mind by Sophia Achamoth -- a reference to the descent of the manasaputras. The man, thus informed, aspires away from his producer, who thereupon becomes his adversary, produces the three lower kingdoms of beings, and imprisons man in a house of clay (flesh). Ialdabaoth also makes Eve (Lilith) to deprive the man of his light powers. Sophia sends the serpent or intelligence to make Adam and Eve transgress the commands of Ialdabaoth, who casts them from Paradise into the world along with the serpent. Sophia deprives Adam and Eve of their light power, but eventually restores this power so that they awoke mentally. Here there is much the same confusion that surrounds the various meanings of Satan and the serpent.
Ialdabaoth, who is lion-headed or in the form of a lion, represents the kama principle, the false light that draws the soul into matter and struggles against its rise again to spirit. Some Gnostics held that Sophia sent Christos to help humankind when Ialdabaoth and his forces were shutting out the divine light, and Ialdabaoth, "discovering that Christos was bringing to an end his kingdom of Matter, stirred up the Jews, his own people, against Him, and Jesus was put to death" (BCW 14:161).
See also JEHOVAH
Summerland - Summerland. The name given by the American Spiritualists and Phenomenalists to the land or region inhabited after death by their "Spirits". It is situated, says Andrew Jackson Davis, either within or beyond the Milky Way. It is described as having cities and beautiful buildings, a Congress Hall, museums and libraries for the instruction of the growing generations of young " Spirits ".
We are not told whether the latter are subject to disease, decay and death; but unless they are, the claim that the disembodied "Spirit" of a child and even still-born babe grows and develops as an adult is hardly consistent with logic. But that which we are distinctly told is, that in the Summerland Spirits are given in marriage, beget spiritual (?) children, and are even concerned with politics.
All this is no satire or exaggeration of ours, since the numerous works by Mr. A. Jackson Davis are there to prove it, e.g., the International Congress of Spirits by that author, as well as we remember the title. It is this grossly materialistic way of viewing a disembodied spirit that has turned many of the present Theosophists away from Spiritualism and its "philosophy". The majesty of death is thus desecrated, and its awful and solemn mystery becomes no better than a farce.
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