Conception Dictionary

Space Usually the universe as perceived by our physical senses. It is disputed whether space exists apart from objects or is a property of objects, and also whether it is objective or subjective. Such difficulties arise from our attempt to abstract extension from the reality of which it is an aspect, just as we attempt to abstract matter and energy. The physical basis of our universe appears under these three aspects, and the attempt to conceive each of the three as separate existences and to construct the universe out of them is to court contradiction and to proceed in the inverse order.

In most arguments about the nature of space, space is unconsciously assumed at the outset of the inquiry, so that the reasoning becomes viciously circular. Is space the ultimate residue left after we have removed everything conceivable? In that case how can we define it in terms of anything which is supposed to be derived from it? We must either leave it undefined, as a primary postulate, or else define it in terms of something which lies beyond the physical plane altogether.

Again, the question whether the dimensions belong to space or to material objects arises from a false separation between these two, so that we speak of objects being in space, just as we speak of life as being in matter. We think of space as an absence of matter, as we think of darkness as an absence of light, and silence as absence of sound; and having thus created vacuums we proceed to fill them. In the view of occultism it would be nearer the truth to say that light is the absence of darkness, sound the absence of silence, and matter a form of the presence of space; and this is true in the sense that those things which appear to us most real are derived from those which seem to us most unreal, because not immediately physically perceivable. In theosophy, space is the infinite, eternal background of Being, Being itself, the ever-lasting substratum of, as well as the presence of, the universe; its apparent vacuity is due only to its lack of physical qualities to which our senses respond, and also to its perfect unity and uniformity. Space is living, incomprehensibly conscious, and hence a divinity; it is the only real world, while our manifested world born from and in it is a mayavi (illusory) one.

Theosophy, regarding the physical universe as merely one of many planes of kosmos, applies the term space to a much larger range. Yet it has the same characteristic meaning in all its applications: it figures, for instance, as one aspect of the trinity of space, energy, matter which is equivalent to the primordial unity. The fundamental hypostases are all derivative from ever-enduring, frontierless space, and Be-ness is symbolized by space, which no mind can either exclude nor conceive, and motion. In this conception are combined abstract space, motion, and duration.

Space is symbolized by the circle; a central point denotes spiritual monadic activity arising within abstract space. It is equivalent to akasa or aether, water or the waters; Chaos as the spatial deeps. Sometimes space in its manifestation is represented as a serpent with seven heads or as the great sea or deep. Occasionally called aupapaduka (parentless), because it is primary and the source of all, it is spoken of both as mulaprakriti and as parabrahman. In its manifested aspect it is bright space, son of dark space, the former being the ray dropped into cosmic depths. Parent space is the eternal ever-present cause of all -- the incomprehensible divinity, whose invisible robes are the mystic root of all matter and of the universe. Space is called Mother before its cosmic activity, and Father-Mother at the first stage of reawakening of manifestation.

In this connection a very clear distinction is drawn between abstract space, the limitless, frontierless, beginningless, and endless encompasser, container of all the various manifested spaces, which as individuals appear from and in its fathomless womb; and these latter spaces which are its offspring and which are collectively and individually the spatial ranges comprised within the boundaries of any manifested universe, such as a galaxy or solar system. Thus, we have the boundless spatial All or abstract space, and the innumerable universe or limited spaces arising within it. The former is absolute infinity and eternity; the later are the innumerable, relative spaces or universe scattered over the fields of the Boundless, called the spawn of the Great Mother.

Physical space is said to have six directions, the four cardinal points plus the zenith and nadir; or eight directions given by the axes joining the opposite corners of a cube. The six and the eight combine in the cube and octahedron. Nothing in the definition of geometrical space excludes the possibility of other spatial constructions, coexistent with our space and interblended with it and with each other. This helps in understanding such matters as chains of globes -- which, when we attempt to represent them by drawn diagrams, seem so confusing and contradictory -- and the manner in which other planes of consciousness and of objectivity may be related to the physical.

(See also: Space , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Telepathy [from Greek tele far off, at a distance + pathos feeling]

The transference of thought or feeling from mind to mind independently of ordinary modes of communication. This very interesting and common fact may be noted as not only existing between human beings, and humans and animals, but likewise between animals and insects -- the last being one of the commonest phenomena of natural history -- and in the plant kingdom. People have always known that they talk to each other through the air, or through air vibrations, and that these strike the ear and are conveyed to the brain. The notion of transference from one mind to another across a distance is a physical conception, and its applicability to minds is questionable. Mind can hardly be regarded as physical, and though our brains are physical and separated by distances, the mind is not synonymous with the brain, for if it were telepathy would be impossible because brain does not physically touch brain in the transference of thought, therefore it is not brains which send and receive except as instruments, but it is minds which touch or interpenetrate along the inner planes.

We live in a common mental atmosphere, taking in and giving out thoughts and feelings, which must often pass from mind to mind, though we may not be aware of the fact. The undoubted fact of our having separate minds does not mean that these minds are closed systems, and not mutually penetrable. The experiments which are made to prove thought transference defeat their object to a great extent, because the mind of the transmitter is not concentrated on the idea to be transmitted, so much as on the idea that he is trying to transfer it. The most conclusive proofs, and curiously enough the most common, are unpremeditated, and actually are daily occurrences.

A thought entertained by one person may pass inwardly through planes of consciousness until it reaches a point where minds are no longer separate, and from thence it may travel outwardly to the brain of another person. It may even be said that what we require is not so much an explanation of thought transference as an explanation of why thoughts are so seldom transferred -- why our minds are so separate; and the explanation is the concentration of each individual's normal daily consciousness upon affairs immediately concerning himself. This clothes the individual in a mental shell of interests, around which rush the radiatory influences emanating from the thinker. Universality of sympathy therefore is the key to successful telepathic communication.

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

Abhimana - egoism; the self-conception with which one identifies.

(See also: Abhimana , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Advaita-jnana - knowledge of non-duality. Although in the true sense this refers to the Supreme Absolute Personality of Godhead who is devoid of all duality, the Mayavada conception of advaitajnana is that the ultimate substance, brahma, is devoid of form, qualities, personality, and variegatedness.

(See also: Advaita-jnana , Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Ahankara (Sanskrit). The conception of "I", Self-consciousness or Self- identity; the "I", the egotistical and mayavic principle in man, due to our ignorance which separates our "I" from the Universal ONE-SELF Personality, Egoism.

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

Sakta (Sanskrit) [from sakti power]

Also sakteya, saktya. Relating to sakti; a worshiper of Sakti, especially in her aspect of Druga, the cosmic consort of Siva. The Saktas are a Hindu sect which base their doctrines largely upon the Tantras, their ritual being of two kinds: the more impure called vamachara (left-hand path), and the purer, dakshinachara (right-hand path). But present-day worshipers have strayed far from the original, quaintly philosophical teachings and consequently have degraded the conception throughout as well as its symbols.

(See also: Sakta , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Physical Body [cf Sanskrit sthula-sarira, annamaya-kosa]

The most material sheath or instrument used by the forces manifesting as the human composite nature. This body is the evolutionary product of the inner man's experience during vast ages of time in and through all the kingdoms of nature. Thus the reimbodying ego, having acquired knowledge of the earth's manifesting forms and forces, combines or correlates the principles and products of the mineral and vegetal life-atoms in its animal body, while evolving through its human incarnations. The atoms of a person's body which are dispersed on earth at death, are karmically drawn to him again in the next life. As the quality of his own thought and feeling has been impressed upon these atoms, their automatic magnetic return to him insures the justice of his self-made physical heredity.

The continuous interchange of the physical material of the earth itself and that of everything upon it, provides for the body's nutrition, endurance, and renewal. The similarity of material, chemically and otherwise, in the earth and in man has prevailed from the time when the filmy presentments of early root-races appeared on the then condensing globe. When the earth reached its depth of materiality during the middle of the Atlantean or fourth root-race, the physical bodies of the Atlanteans were the grossest and coarsest of any before or after this long period. Since then, everything having begun the turn on the upward or luminous arc, matter and man are slowly radiating finer qualities of substance and of force. This progressive refinement of matter reflecting humanity's mental and spiritual evolution, will continue until, in the far distant future, the human encasement will be "relatively transparent, or diaphanous and luminous -- an ethereal body of actually condensed light" (ET 65).

The human body has "Manasic as well as Kamic organs," so that the cells answer to physical, mental, and spiritual impulses. The higher ego cannot act directly on the body, as its consciousness belongs to another plane of ideation; it has to act through its alter ego -- the personal self (BCW 12:368-9; or St in Oc 90-1). The inert physical body is built, cell for cell, upon the invisible substance of the astral model-body or linga-sarira. The latter contains the real organs of the senses and sensations, and it transmits the mental, emotional, and instinctual impulses to which the physical body reacts.

The lower mind acts upon the physical organs and their cells; but only the higher mind can influence the atoms in these cells, and arouse the brain to a mental conception of spiritual ideas. That is to say, ideal, mental, and physiological wholeness depend upon the dominance of the atomic, spiritual impulses over the desires of the selfish kama-manasic nature. The personal nature is limited in action to the material, molecular cell. This subtle but practical interplay of his physical and superphysical nature points to the natural unity of purpose in the trend of ethics and physiology.

With power to know good and evil, and free will to choose, man is responsible for refining and perfecting his material, personal nature into becoming a responsive and powerful medium for manifesting his spiritual and higher intellectual individuality. The inner man is ever acting with the cosmic evolutionary urge toward perfection of type. It is this reincarnating ego which directs the atomic life of the fertilized germ-cells in upbuilding the body according to pattern; this is the mysterious organizer which eludes all analyses of biological researchers. Likewise, the morally and intellectually irresponsible entities evolving in the lower kingdoms are impulsed, in addition to the urge of each individual entity's monad, by the instinctual phase of the universal mind which is directed by celestial beings acting with the so-called laws of nature.

The universe being a living organism functioning throughout consciously, has its analogy in the physiological operation of the human body. Hence, biological scientists who tamper with the natural arrangements of chromosomes or artificially combine different embryonic elements, instead of solving the problem of life, are only dealing with the matter which is manifesting the conscious creative powers of ideation.

(See also: Physical Body , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

evolution of the soul: Adhyatma prasara.

In Saiva Siddhanta, the soul's evolution is a progressive unfoldment, growth and maturing toward its inherent, divine destiny, which is complete merger with Siva. In its essence, each soul is ever perfect. But as an individual soul body emanated by God Siva, it is like a small seed yet to develop. As an acorn needs to be planted in the dark underground to grow into a mighty oak tree, so must the soul unfold out of the darkness of the malas to full maturity and realization of its innate oneness with God.

The soul is not created at the moment of conception of a physical body. Rather, it is created in the Sivaloka. It evolves by taking on denser and denser sheaths-cognitive, instinctive-intellectual and pranic-until finally it takes birth in physical form in the Bhuloka. Then it experiences many lives, maturing through the reincarnation process. Thus, from birth to birth, souls learn and mature. Evolution is the result of experience and the lessons derived from it. There are young souls just beginning to evolve, and old souls nearing the end of their earthly sojourn. In Saiva Siddhanta, evolution is understood as the removal of fetters which comes as a natural unfoldment, realization and expression of one's true, self-effulgent nature. This ripening or dropping away of the soul's bonds (mala) is called malaparipaka.

The realization of the soul nature is termed svanubhuti (experience of the Self). Self Realization leads to moksha, liberation from the three malas and the reincarnation cycles. Then evolution continues in the celestial worlds until the soul finally merges fully and indistinguishably into Supreme God Siva, the Primal Soul, Parameshvara. In his Tirumantiram, Rishi Tirumular calls this merger vishvagrasa, "total absorption. The evolution of the soul is not a linear progression, but an intricate, circular, many-faceted mystery. Nor is it at all encompassed in the Darwinian theory of evolution, which explains the origins of the human form as descended from earlier primates.

See: Darwin's theory, mala, moksha, reincarnation, samsara, vishvagrasa.

(See also: Evolution of the soul , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Rooks

• To dream of rooks, denotes that while your friends are true, they will not afford you the pleasure and contentment for which you long, as your thoughts and tastes will outstrip their humble conception of life.
• A dead rook, denotes sickness or death in your immediate future.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

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

Senses In general, gateways of communication between the perceiving function of the ego and the corresponding elements of the plane where it is functioning. The physical senses appeared in serial evolution in the order of hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell. These senses were not developed out of nothing but are expressions or reflection on the physical plane of previous latent, inner causal functions residing in the structure of the inner person.

The five physiological senses are modifications or specializations of a general perceptiveness which has different modifications in different animal species where the organs are different, especially in the insects. Sensitives and clairvoyants may be able to receive visual, auditory, or other impressions without the use of the physical organ, or the usual functions of a sense organ may be transferred to another part of the body.

The human senses are actually seven including, besides the usual five already developed, the organ or function of manas (mind) and of buddhi (understanding). These latter two are not senses in the physical significance pertaining to the bodily senses, but the emphasis is laid on organic and functional activities, both being inner and spiritual-intellectual. At the present stage of evolution man has not developed the power of manifesting the sixth and seventh sense functions and organs, but in the fifth round the development of ether will bring forth into relatively full evolution the manasic sense organ with the beginnings of the buddhic.

In exoteric mythologies the bodily senses and functions are said to have their presiding deities, so that there are two septenary sets: the causal spiritual, and their material reflections as effects. The cycles of septenary evolution bring forth the spiritual or divine; intellectual and higher psychological; the lower psychological, including the passional, and the instinctual; and the semi-corporeal and purely physical natures. The senses belong to the last two groups. The astral-vital-physical nature furnishes sensory organs, through which the inner senses can act, thus causing the functioning of the physical senses. These physiological senses develop pari passu with the physicalization of humanity.

In the first human protoplasts, the senses were nonexistent in the sense of being non-functional although latent; as evolution unfolded innate capacity and attribute, the functions and organs followed suit, and appeared in the evolving physical vehicle.

The senses belong to the third of seven creations mentioned in the Puranas, the first three constituting a group known as the prakrita creations:

1)    mahat-tattva creation;

2)    bhuta or bhutasarga; and

3)    indriya or aindriyaka.

These three are not so much senses as the three first or elemental prakrita creations of the cosmos, representing the first three stages of the development of manifestation after a solar pralaya. Nevertheless, as analogy is nature's rule throughout, these creations are equally applicable to the human senses, applying to the generalized development of sense function and sense apparatus more than to the sense organs themselves. The last of the three is, in its human application, a modified form of ahankara, the conception of the egoistic and mayavi "I" in man, the reflection of the spiritual ego or monad; and this third creation is also termed the organic creation or creation of the senses.

(See also: Senses , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Deity or God. Intelligence and will superior to the human, forming the intelligent and vital governing essence of the universe, whether this universe be large or small.

The principal views as to the nature of deity may be classed as

1)    pantheistic,

2)    polytheistic,

3)    henotheistic, and

4)    monotheistic.

Pantheism, which views the divine as immanent in all nature and yet transcendent in its higher parts, is characteristic of certain Occidental philosophical systems and of all Oriental systems.

Polytheism implies the recognition of an indefinite number of deific powers in the universe, the plural manifestations of the ever immanent, ever perduring, and manifest-unmanifest One. Polytheism is thus a logical development of pantheism.

Henotheism is the belief in one god, but not the exclusion of others, such as is found in the Jewish scriptures, where the ancient Hebrews frankly worshiped a tribal deity and fully recognized the existence of other tribal deities.

Monotheism is the belief in only one god, as is found in Christianity and Islam. These religions, in inheriting the Jewish tradition, have confounded this merely personal and local conception with the First Cause of the universe, which in theosophy would be called the formative cosmic Third Logos, thus producing an inconsistent idea of a God who is both infinite, delimited, and personal in character, with an intuition, however, of the necessarily impersonal cosmic intelligent root of all.

In theosophical philosophy, the cosmic divine in the hierarchical sense is both transcendent and immanent, during manifestation breaking as it were into innumerable rays which produce the various deific powers in inner and outer nature; each such immanent divinity, however, itself emanating from the all-encompassing and forever unmanifest Rootless Root or parabrahman.

The various universes, sometimes referred to as sparks of eternity, spring from parabrahman at periodic intervals called manvantaras, and then resolve back into the pre-manvantaric condition or pralaya, only to issue forth again when the pralaya of whatever magnitude has run its course. Therefore, at one and the same time divinity is transcendent and immanent, eternal and unmanifest, while its rays or cosmic sparks of whatever magnitude are periodic and manifested. Hence from each such manifested One or cosmic hierarch proceed the multiple rays, to which in various theogonies are given names and attributes of superior deities. Thus the words god and deity become generic, and the general definition may be applied to the core of the core of any being, great or small, cosmic or human, for all are sparks of the cosmic flame of life.

The word deity, in the sense of beings which are more spiritual than the human being of today, may be applied to the divine rulers of human races before the times of the demigods and heroes; or more generally to an indefinite range of nonphysical beings, spiritual or ethereal in character, including among the latter the so-called "spirits of the elements."

See also GOD; GOD(S)

(See also: Deity, God , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Herbs The very large number of plants used as remedial agents in medicine are the natural remedies in treating disease, divine instructors having revealed to early humanity the great boon of agriculture and the medical use of plants. Echoes of the archaic wisdom appear in Vedic writings, but few can interpret the philosophy of the one Life which functions in the elements and forces of the human body, and their related action in the plants and minerals of the body of the earth.

The Sanskrit word for medicine in general is aushadha (consisting of herbs), and the ancient Hindu materia medica was the source from which subsequent systems of practice in many other countries drew their remedies, when a broad conception of the sacred art of healing marked their highest periods of national attainment. Originally the medical practitioners were as familiar with the mystical and occult properties of plants and minerals as magicians themselves were. Both understood the analogy and interrelations between the principles of the composite human being and all the various elements throughout the realm of nature.

That some plants are attracted by the sun and others by the moon, etc., was explained by a profound knowledge of astronomy and of the occult influences of solar, lunar, and planetary time periods and sidereal forces. This gave the key for the best time, place, and conditions for gathering the herbs, and for the special pharmacy required for bringing out the vital remedial action which, by working with nature, left no unfavorable aftereffects. There is no record of medical laboratory work producing artificial synthetic products which, even when duplicating nature's substances chemically, are not different vitally. Nor was organotherapy resorted to when and where the healing art held a worthy place in high civilizations.

One of the earliest physicians in Europe to bring herbs into medical practice was Paracelsus, who taught that every plant on earth belonged to, or had its origin in, a star. Following him there were many who allocated the herbs and plants as pertaining to the seven sacred planets of the ancients. The Hermetists of old also had the plants so listed.

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

Abhimana (Sanskrit) (from abhi towards + the verbal root man to think)

Thinking towards oneself; pride, arrogance, hence delusion. Covetousness manifesting in acquisitiveness, bringing about longing for what is thought about, in its turn inducing conceit. In Sankhya philosophy, a high or egotistic conception of oneself (usually therefore erroneous). It springs into action in the human constitution when awakened by the propulsive or impulsive energy of kama. Ahamkara, the human ego-function, is the prime motivator of abhimana.

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

Supernatural Beyond or above nature; but, as nature in its esse is space, the Boundless both inner and outer, the term is meaningless. Supernormal fits better the common usage for phenomena beyond the customary range of our experiences or not explainable by what we know of the laws of nature. In theology supernatural implies a separation between divine beings, spiritual beings, or human saints on the one hand, and nature on the other hand, in virtue of which the normal procedure of nature supposedly can be interfered with -- a conception which is an absurdity from the standpoint of theosophy. Physical nature surrounding us is actually the least part of universal nature, as it is the invisible inner universes and spheres of being which are causal, and our physical universe merely the garment or effect of the invisible superior parts of universal nature.

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

Samvriti (Sanskrit) False conception {SD 1:44&n, 48&n}

(See also: Samvriti , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Atom :

Atom

This word comes to us from the ancient Greek philosophers Democritus, Leucippus, and Epicurus, and the hundreds of great men who followed their lead in this respect and who were therefore also atomists  - such, for instance, as the two Latin poets Ennius and Lucretius. This school taught that atoms were the foundation-bricks of the universe, for atom in the original etymological sense of the word means something that cannot be cut or divided, and therefore as being equivalent to particles of what theosophists call homogeneous substance. But modern scientists do not use the word atom in that sense any longer. Some time ago the orthodox scientific doctrine concerning the atom was basically that enunciated by Dalton, to the general effect that physical atoms were hard little particles of matter, ultimate particles of matter, and therefore indivisible and indestructible.

But modern science [1933] has a totally new view of the physical atom, for it knows now that the atom is not such, but is composite, builded of particles still more minute, called electrons or charges of negative electricity, and of other particles called protons or charges of positive electricity, which protons are supposed to form the nucleus or core of the atomic structure. A frequent picture of atomic structure is that of an atomic solar system, the protons being the atomic sun and the electrons being its planets, the latter in extremely rapid revolution around the central sun. This conception is purely theosophical in idea, and adumbrates what occultism teaches, though occultism goes much farther than does modern science.

One of the fundamental postulates of the teachings of theosophy is that the ultimates of nature are atoms on the material side and monads on the energy side. These two are respectively material and spiritual primates or ultimates, the spiritual ones or monads being indivisibles, and the atoms being divisibles  - things that can be divided into composite parts.

It becomes obvious from what precedes that the philosophical idea which formed the core of the teaching of the ancient initiated atomists was that their atoms or "indivisibles" are pretty close to what theosophical occultism calls monads; and this is what Democritus and Leucippus and others of their school had in mind.

These monads, as is obvious, are therefore divine-spiritual life-atoms, and are actually beings living and evolving on their own planes. Rays from them are the highest parts of the constitution of beings in the material realms.

See also: Atom , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

conscience: The inner sense of right and wrong, sometimes called "the knowing voice of the soul." However, the conscience is affected by the individual's training and belief patterns, and is therefore not necessarily a perfect reflection of dharma.

In Sanskrit the conscience is known as

-       antaryamin, "inner guide," or

-       dharmabuddhi, "moral wisdom."

Other terms are

-       sadasadvichara shakti "good-bad reflective power" and

-       samjnana, "right conception."

It is the subconscious of the person -  the sum total of past impressions and training -  that defines the creedal structure and colors the conscience and either clearly reflects or distorts superconscious wisdom.

If the subconscious has been impressed with Western beliefs, for example, of Christianity, Judaism, existentialism or materialism, the conscience will be different than when schooled in the Vedic dharma of Shaktism, Smartism, Saivism or Vaishnavism. This psychological law has to do with the superconscious mind working through the subconscious (an interface known as the subsuperconscious) and explains why the dharma of one's sampradaya must be fully learned as a young child for the conscience to be free of conflict.

The Sanatana Dharma, fully and correctly understood provides the purest possible educational creedal structure, building a subconscious that is a clear, unobstructing channel for superconscious wisdom, the soul's innate intelligence, to be expressed through the conscience. Conscience is thus the sum of two things: the superconscious knowing (which is the same in all people) and the creedal belief structure through which the superconscious flows. This explains why people in different cultures have different consciences.

See: antaryamim, creed, dharma, mind (individual mind).

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

Samvriti (Sanskrit). False conception - the origin of illusion.

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

TRINITY, CHRISTIAN

The Trinity derives from the Neoplatonic, Gnostic understandings of ancient philosophy in which 3 basic facts prevail:

a) There is one Immutable, Ineffable, Pre-manifestational Reality.

b)  Everything is periodic or cyclic.

c) The cosmos is a hologram in which each  part is a reflection of the whole.

These 3 facts are symbolized in Hinduism by Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva; in Egypt by the Uas, the Ank and the Djed and in Xtianity by "Father, Son and Holy Ghost." In my own system, I sometimes refer to them symbolically as Abraxas, Khronos and Isis.

Spiritus Sanctus est Spiritus in Materia. Id Est Aqua Hydor Theon Hypostatis Metres. The sanctified spirit is that which has been made into matter, that is put into water. Mary impregnated by the Holy Ghost is just another way of saying that many are conceived naturally. To be baptized is to be born into the body, i.e., to manifest.

Speaking out of the "Holy Ghost," which is apparently what all masses, communions, oblations and sacrifices refer to, any sexual act itself joins or reaffirms the "hologram" to the Unity. In the embrace of another, the Holy Ghost re-connects, in a physical way, its separations. The two, formerly separate and opposed, have created a third thing, which is their union. (What happens on the physical level is simple reproduction and is of no metaphysical concern, except insofar as it paralyzes spiritual "reproduction"). The Xtians prefer to do all this symbolically, what with their "brides of Christ" and all. Moreover, when we speak of Mary as "conceived by the Holy Ghost," we simply mean metaphorically that she has conceived "naturally." The Satanists, therefore, assume (incorrectly) that overt, gross public copulation or multiple orgies constitute a defilement of Christ, when in fact, the Son is hardly involved with sex at any level and the Holy Ghost, actually, is exalted by "publicity." The true "sin against the Holy Ghost" is not blasphemy per se, but commercial advertising (including Church propaganda) or special interest exploitation which seeks to use, abuse, pollute, destroy, subvert or pervert the unity, ecology or collective holo-mind/body/spirit of the world for the sake of personal, private gain.

The "sacrifice of the child" -- that is, not the actual, living child, but merely the protoplasm of conception --which is what takes place in redirected or deferred heterosexual orgasm (can we refer to this as "tantric" sex?) should be especially appealing to us in today's crisis of pathological Mega-Birth. That is, it has much needed Neo-Catharist overtones. But the creation of a Moonchild (described by Crowley, Grant, Parsons, et al.) would apparently be the opposite goal, resulting in the "psychic foetus" of an astral entity.

We mustn't overlook the meaning of homosexuality and masturbation, however, since these lead to culminations without any question of issue from outset, and so, constitute refinements on sex magick. Grant, in his Nightside of Eden says that the "qliphotic" version of Arcanum XIII, "Death," is sodomy. In other words, sex which avoids the production of life is absolutely restricted to physical re-union of Self with Other. And the only other "physical" way we can "reunite" is to pass through the gates of Death. Thus heterosexual "tantric" sex and homosexuality are exactly the same thing so far as the physical plane goes. The union of homosexuality, however, extends beyond Eros into brotherhood and thus is closer to the "spirit" of the "Holy Ghost."

Since the union of self with other is specifically what we're concerned with, masturbation would seem to be pointless until we recall that the purpose of union is not orgasm. Orgasm merely affirms the authenticity of the union. Whether the "other" is another person (or thing!) or one's own body, scarcely matters. Mind and body are reunited in all cases. The physical is simply the mirror of the spiritual. For the solitary union of self with other, the orgasm is not just the ultimate and most subtle link, its the only link between the physical and spiritual planes. As a device for astral impregnation, moonchildren aside, masturbation obviously ought to be considerably more effective than sex with a physical partner (provided it doesn't degenerate into sense-gratification). But as a substitute for "transcendental sodomy" it is much less satisfactory.

Finally, I'm bound to say that those who have closed and forever locked the sexual door may still be able to unite self and other in a number of asexual, exotic and abstract ways, some of which may have a certain limited but unique value.

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

Mulaprakriti mulaprakrti (Sanskrit) [from mula root + prakriti nature]

Root-nature; undifferentiated cosmic substance in its highest form, the abstract substance or essence of what later through various differentiations become the prakritis, the various forms of matter, concrete or sublimate. It is precosmic root-substance, the root-principle of the world stuff and all in the world; that aspect of parabrahman or space which underlies all the ethereally or materially objective planes or space of universal nature.

It is again unmanifested primordial stuff or substance, divine-spiritual, undifferentiated, and therefore indestructible, eternal, parentless, and abstractly the Mother -- space itself, and the vehicle, lining, or alter ego of parabrahman. It is "the noumenon of undifferentiated Cosmic Matter. It is not matter as we know it, but the spiritual essence of matter, and is co-eternal and even one with Space in its abstract sense. Root-nature is also the source of the subtile invisible properties in visible matter. It is the Soul, so to say, of the one infinite Spirit. The Hindus call it Mulaprakriti, and say that it is the primordial substance, which is the basis of the Upadhi or vehicle of every phenomenon, whether physical, mental or psychic. It is the source from which Akasa radiates" (SD 1:35).

Mulaprakriti along with parabrahman are the two aspects of the one universal principle which is unconditioned to any human conception, and similarly eternal. Parabrahman is unconditioned and undifferentiated reality, and mulaprakriti is its veil or inseparable vehicle. To the First Logos or cosmic ego emerging in parabrahman, "once this ego starts into existence as a conscious being having objective consciousness of its own, we shall have to see what the result of this objective consciousness will be with reference to the one absolute and unconditioned existence from which its starts into manifested existence.

From its objective standpoint, Parabrahmam appears to it as Mulaprakriti. . . . Parabrahmam by itself cannot be seen as it is. It is seen by the Logos with a veil thrown over it, and that veil is the mighty expanse of cosmic matter" (N on BG 20-1). Mulaprakriti stands in the same relation to parabrahman as the Qabbalistic Life of Space does to 'Eyn Soph; similarly on lower planes, it is what pradhana is to Brahman, or what prakriti is to Brahma.

(See also: Mulaprakriti, mulaprakrti , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Mirror. The Luminous Mirror, Aspaqularia nera, a Kabbalistic term, means the power of foresight and farsight, prophecy such as Moses had. Ordinary mortals have only the Aspaqularia della nera or Non Luminous Mirror, they see only in a glass darkly: a parallel symbolism is that of the conception of the Tree of Life, and that only of the Tree of Knowledge.

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

Trikaya (Sanskrit) Lit., three bodies, or forms. This is a most abstruse teaching which, however, once understood, explains the mystery of every triad or trinity, and is a true key to every three-fold metaphysical symbol. In its most simple and comprehensive form it is found in the human Entity in its triple division into spirit, soul, and body, and in the universe, regarded pantheistically, as a unity composed of a Deific, purely spiritual Principle, Supernal Beings - its direct rays  -  and Humanity.

The origin of this is found in the teachings of the pre historic Wisdom Religion, or Esoteric Philosophy. The grand Pantheistic ideal, of the unknown and unknowable Essence being transformed first into subjective, and then into objective matter, is at the root of all these triads and triplets.

Thus we find in philosophical Northern Buddhism

(1)  Adi-Buddha (or Primordial Universal Wisdom) ;

(2)  the Dhyani-Buddhas (or Bodhisattvas);

(3)  the Manushi (Human) Buddhas.

In European conceptions we find the same: God, Angels and Humanity symbolized theologically by the God-Man. The Brahmanical Trimurti and also the three-fold body of Shiva, in Shaivism, have both been conceived on the same basis, if not altogether running on the lines of Esoteric teachings. Hence, no wonder if one finds this conception of the triple body - or the vestures of Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya and Dharmakaya, the grandest of the doctrines of Esoteric Philosophy -  accepted in a more or less disfigured form by every religious sect, and explained quite incorrectly by the Orientalists.

Thus, in its general application, the three-fold body symbolizes Buddha’s statue, his teachings and his stupas ; in the priestly conceptions it applies to the Buddhist profession of faith called the Triratna, which is the formula of taking "refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha". Popular fancy makes Buddha ubiquitous, placing him thereby on a par with an anthropomorphic god, and lowering him to the level of a tribal deity; and, as a result, it falls into flat contradictions, as in Tibet and China.

Thus the exoteric doctrine seems to teach that while in his Nirma kaya body (which passed through 100,000 kotis of transformations on earth), he, Buddha, is at the same time a Lochana (a heavenly Dhyani-Bodhisattva), in his Sambhogakaya "robe of absolute completeness", and in Dhyana, or a state which must cut him off from the world and all its connections; and finally and lastly he is, besides being a Nirmanakaya and a Sambhogakaya, also a Dharmakaya "of absolute purity", a Vairotchana or Dhyani-Buddha in full Nirvana! (See Eitel’s Sanskrit-Chinese Dictionary.)

This is the jumble of contradictions, impossible to reconcile, which is given out by missionaries and certain Orientalists as the philosophical dogmas of Northern Buddhism. If not an intentional confusion of a philosophy dreaded by the upholders of a religion based on inextricable contradictions and guarded "mysteries", then it is the product of ignorance. As the Trailokya, the Trikaya, and the Triratna are the three aspects of the same conceptions, and have to be, so to say, blended in one, the subject is further explained under each of these terms. (See also in this relation the term " Trisharana".)

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