There is so much to say about Venus Transits, June 8 2004 and its impact upon mankind. This phenomenon has its direct connection since 1945 with the Planet Neptune (poseidon and Uranus (God of the sky) supporting and promoting the future itself and with it, the progress of man's mental exploration and cosmic consciousness. Life is a constant process of changes and because of Uranus "electrifying" impact those changes are taking place "at the speed of light". Many people will have to realize their own limitation as religious doctrines are replaced with a more advanced education "imposed" by the planet of changes and universality, (Uranus is also called the awakener in Greek Mythology).

Read more here: » Venus Transit: Venus Transits, June 8 2004 and Uranus 1945

In my work with in-person and distant healing, I've noticed a huge distinction between ordinary chi, ki, or prana, and that which is governed by the soul and kundalini energies. The universe isn't simply composed of a roiling ocean of prana-there are differing frequencies. From the relative prana to that prana which exists nearest the absolute, the energy is more refined on evolved levels of existence.

Read more here: » Healing: Distant Healing

Bach flower therapy (Bach flower essence method, Bach flower essence system):

 Homeopathic system of diagnosis and treatment developed in the 1930s by British physician Edward Bach (1886-1936). Bach put forth his philosophy in Heal Thyself: An Explanation of the Real Cause and Cure of Disease, first published in 1931. Therein he described five fundamental truths, in sum:

(1)           Souls, invincible and immortal sparks of the Almighty, are the real, Higher selves of humans.

(2)           Humanity's purpose is to develop virtues and wipe out all intrapersonal wrongs. Souls know what circumstances conduce to the perfection of human nature.

(3)           One's lifetime is a minuscule part of one's evolution.

(4)           When one's Soul and personality are in harmony, one is healthy and happy. The straying of the personality from the dictates of the Soul is the root cause of disease and unhappiness.

(5)           The Creator of all things is Love, and everything of which humans are conscious manifests the Creator.

Bach held that disease was essentially beneficial and that its design was to subject the personality to the Divine will of the Soul. He psychically discovered the specific healing effects of 38 wildflowers. The life force (soul quality or energy wavelength) of each of these flowers is transferable to water and thence to humans. Each of the so-called Bach flower remedies is a liquid that contains a soul quality with an affinity to a human soul quality; and each vegetable soul quality harmonizes its human counterpart with the Soul. The bases of classical diagnosis are conversation and intuition. Administration of the remedies is usually oral but may be external.

(See also: Bach flower therapy , Alternative Health, Body Mind and Soul)

For more dictionary entries, see » Creator Dictionary

The word - Sankhya - means - number -. The system gives an enumeration of the principles of the universe, twenty-five in number. Hence the name is quite appropriate. The term - Sankhya - is used in the sense of - Vichara - or - philosophical reflection - also.

In the Sankhya system, there is no analytical enquiry into the universe as actually existing, arranged under topics and categories. There is a synthetical system, starting from an original primordial Tattva or Principle, called Prakriti, that which evolves or produces or brings forth (Prakaroti) everything else.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Sankhya: Hindu Philosophy . The Sankhya

Non-acceptance of Isvara or God: The Sankhya system is called Nir-Isvara (Godless) Sankhya. It is atheistical. The Sankhyas do not believe in Isvara. They do not accept Isvara (God). The creation produced by Prakriti has an existence of its own, independent of all connection with the particular Purusha to which it is united. So the Sankhyas say that there is no need for an intelligent Creator of the world, or even of any superintending power.

Excerpt from All About Hinduism by Sri Swami Sivananda

Read more here: » Isvara: Vedic Philosophy - Non-acceptance of Isvara or God

Siva: (Sanskrit) "The auspicious, gracious or kindly one."

Supreme Being of the Saivite religion. God Siva is All and in all, simultaneously the creator and the creation, both immanent and transcendent. As personal Deity, He is creator, preserver and destroyer. He is a one being, perhaps best understood in three perfections: Parameshvara (Primal Soul), Parashakti (pure consciousness) and Parasiva (Absolute Reality).

See: Ishta Devata, Parameshvara, Parashakti, Parasiva, Nataraja, Sadasiva, Saivism, Satchidananda.

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Creator Dictionary

Animal Rights: God of All Things

All creatures, big and small, are beautiful creations of God. Very often, however, we tend to either ignore the "small" or exploit them for selfish reasons. This is where religion and spirituality can help - to restore to us a holistic perspective so that all of God's creations are given due respect.

Religious thought and spirituality serve a larger purpose only when they find positive expression in action. Theory without implementation is of no use. I fear that the concepts of religion and spirituality are being hijacked by humans for their own selfish purposes, leaving out all the other, equally if not more valid forms of life.

Read more here: » Animal Rights: God of All Things

The Jain philosophy of Anekantavada (multitude beliefs) tells us that there are no absolute theories or formulae that can describe reality in absolute terms. Rather, our belief of Anekantavada tells us that we do not know the complete truth. We can learn from others as well. Let truth prevail, say Jains . Truth in its final analysis is wholesome and one, which leads us to love and understanding. And that is the very necessary essence of all religions.

Read more here: » Jainism: Let Truth Prevail

In most religious scriptures, Shabd or the Word is referred to as the creator of the universe. It is a current from the ocean of pure consciousness that is characterised by ethereal and sublime sound vibration.

It is the all-pervading manifestation of God, the radiant sound current, and it is the connecting link between God and His creation. All the powers of nature depend on and work through Shabd.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Peace of Mind: The Wavelength Of Celestial Sound

Ain Soph (Hebrew, Jewish). The "Boundless" or Limitless; Deity emanating and extending.

Ain Soph is also written En Soph and Ain Suph, no one, not even Rabbis, being sure of their vowels. In the religious metaphysics of the old Hebrew philosophers, the ONE Principle was an abstraction, like Parabrahmam, though modern Kabbalists have succeeded now, by dint of mere sophistry and paradoxes, in making a "Supreme God" of it and nothing higher. But with the early Chaldean Kabbalists Ain Soph is "without form or being", having "no likeness with anything else" (Franck, Die Kabbala, p. 126).

That Ain Soph has never been considered as the "Creator" is proved by even such an orthodox Jew as Philo calling the "Creator" the Logos, who stands next the "Limitless One", and the "Second God". "The Second God is its (Ain Soph’s) wisdom", says Philo (Quaest. et Solut.). Deity is NO-THING; it is nameless, and therefore called Ain Soph; the word Ain meaning NOTHING. (See Franck’s Kabbala, p. 153 ff.)

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Creator Dictionary

Ahura (Avestan) (from the verbal root ahu conscious life; cf Sanskrit asura)

The lord of life, the one life from whom all proceed; as daevas who were originally gods of the Aryans changed to demons among the Iranian branch of the Aryans, asura also changed to demons among the Indians. In the earlier Vedas, asura is especially used for Varuna, the ruler of the heavenly sphere. "The Mazdean Scriptures of the Zend Avesta, the Vendidad and others correct and expose the later cunning shuffling of the gods in the Hindu Pantheon, and restore through Ahura the Asuras to their legitimate place in Theogony. . ." (SD 2:60-1).

Blavatsky gives a human interpretation of Ahura: "The Magian knew not of any Supreme 'personal' individuality. He recognized but Ahura -- the 'lord' -- the 7th Principle in man, -- and 'prayed', i.e. made efforts during the hours of meditation, to assimilate with, and merge his other principles -- that are dependent on the physical body and ever under the sway of Angra-Mainya (or matter) -- into the only pure, holy and eternal principle in him, his divine monad. To whom else could he pray? Who was 'Ormuzd' if not the chief Spent-Mainyu, the monad, our own god-principle in us? . . .

"And wisely does it (the occult doctrine)

explain to us that Ahura is our own inner, truly personal God and that he is our Spiritual light and the 'Creator of the material world' -- i.e., the architect and shaper of the Microcosm -- Man, when the latter knows how to resist Angra-Mainyu, or Kama -- lust or material desires -- by relying on him who overshadows him, the Ahura-Mazda or Spiritual Essence. . . . Ahura-Mazda is also the Father of Tistrya, the rain-bestowing god (the 6th principle) that fructifies the parched soil of the 5th and 4th, and helps them to bear good fruit through their own exertions, i.e., by tasting of Haoma, the tree of eternal life, through spiritual enlightenment" (BCW 4:520-23).

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Creator Dictionary

Organic Gardening

What has organic gardening to do with spiritual healing? Allow me a few moments of your time and I shall tell you. A centre such as we are developing will be a place of tranquillity, comfort and revival, both spiritual and physical. I suppose this could be achieved without the benefit of nature on the doorstep but nature itself is a healer, and can offer so much to the troubled spirit. Let us take a stroll through a year in the garden of our healing centre, where visitors will be encouraged to enjoy their surroundings as much, or as little, as they so desire.

Read more here: » Organic Gardening: What has organic gardening to do with spiritual healing?

Woman In philosophy, symbolizes the mother aspect of nature or feminine characteristic of the universe always found in the triads of Father-Mother-Son (changed in the Christian scheme to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost -- the Holy Spirit in primitive Christianity always being considered feminine). From time immemorial it has been customary to associate primordial spirit-substance, later becoming matter, with the cosmic feminine principle represented symbolically by a horizontal line); and spirit has always been associated with the masculine principle (represented by a vertical line); but the words feminine and masculine are merely borrowed from human beings, and the characteristics of originating cosmic principles were far better expressed by pairs of opposites such as negative and positive.

In cosmogenesis, the feminine principle is represented by the waters of space or great deep, often called the womb of nature. From this figure of speech was born the conception found in some ancient cosmogonies, such as the Hebrew, of the ark, containing all the germs of lives of a universe and pictured as resting or moving on the cosmic waters. Another symbol for the feminine principle was that of the lotus, which likewise rests upon the water, finally rising above it when it blossoms. One symbol of the universe in germ before any aspect of manifestation occurs is the matripadma or closed "mother lotus," before the cosmic blossom has been quickened by spirit into expanding into becoming the universe. It is also referred to as devamatri (the divine mother), the matrix from which all the suns and planets were born.

In the cosmogony of the Hebrew Qabbalah, the first Sephirah which emanates from latent divinity is at times represented as feminine; yet when this feminine emanation becomes creative it is then represented as conjoining masculine traits with its own, so that at this stage it is envisaged as masculine-feminine. This first spiritual emanation, emanating from itself the next phase of cosmogonical production, is termed the Shechinah, the mother of all the successively emanated Sephiroth. Thus the Shechinah is an echo of archaic Hindu cosmogonic speculation, corresponding to pradhana or prakriti.

In theosophic cosmogony space is often called the Great Mother before cosmic activity commences and, at the opening of manvantara, Father-Mother with space becomes emanative and is called svabhavat or mother-space. Svabhavat is the emanation from cosmic space or darkness -- so called because its utter and undiluted essential spirit is virtually beyond the reach of the light of mind as manifested in humanity.

Metaphors such as woman and mother are always symbolical when referring to motherhood, and have no associations with physical sex, for "esotericism ignores both sexes. Its highest Deity is sexless as it is formless, neither Father nor Mother; and its first manifested beings, celestial and terrestrial alike, become only gradually androgynous and finally separate into distinct sexes" (SD 1:136n). This was clearly understood originally, so that there was no degrading or misinterpreting of these figures of speech. With descending cycles, however, humanity's religious conceptions equally materialized: the key ideas having been forgotten or lost, abstractions became concreted into materializations, a masculine Creator or feminine Creatrix were then placed at the summit of the various pantheons, and early religious philosophy -- which was as scientific as it was religious and philosophical -- cast upon the background of the spatial universe images of human surroundings and way of life; so that the deities in the mythologies finally became human images, more powerful but equally swayed by passion, driven by impulse, and restricted by these even as human beings are. Such projection of human attributes into the cosmic spaces led to a still more materialized visioning of the divinities, so that the feminine or productive characteristics of nature in the popular religious mythologies finally gave way before the masculine, and the earlier, essentially beautiful idea of the mother of nature was swallowed up in the purely masculine traits of national divinities, many of them distinctly male and evil, such as the Jewish Jehovah, who waxed wroth and smelt the sweet savor of burnt sacrifices, or again the Greek Zeus swayed by ignoble passions.

"No exoteric religious system has ever adopted a female Creator, and thus woman was regarded and treated, from the first dawn of popular religions, as inferior to man. It is only in China and Egypt that Kwan-yin and Isis were placed on a par with the male gods" (SD 1:136n). The aspects of Isis, for instance, are familiar enough: as the mother with her child, and as the faithful spiritual consort of Osiris -- these were for easier understanding by the populace; but in the sanctuary Isis remained universal cosmic nature, the cosmic producing mother, the goddess whose veil of nature no mere human had ever raised. Plutarch recorded an inscription addressed to Isis: "I am everything which has been, and which is, and which shall be, and no one has ever drawn my veil" (De Iside at Osiride); to which were added "the fruit of my womb became the Sun" (Proclus, Commentary on the Timaeus, 1:82).

In China, however, the ideal cosmic feminine was named Kwan-yin, the mother of mercy and knowledge, what in Hindustan is called mahat or cosmic buddhi; she is called the triple of Kwan-shai-yin "because in her correlations, metaphysical and cosmical, she is the 'Mother, the Wife and the Daughter,' of the Logos, just as in the later theological translations she became 'the Father Son and (the female) Holy Ghost' -- the Sakti or Energy -- the Essence of the three" (SD 1:136).

With the Gnostics truth itself was portrayed as a disrobed divinity, every part of her cosmic form being numbered and lettered. This divine wisdom they called Sophia, virtually the same as the Qabbalistic Shechinah. Even in the modern Occident, instinct has determined that justice shall be pictured as feminine, as also liberty and peace. "The Gnostic Sophia, 'Wisdom' who is 'the Mother' of the Ogdoad . . . is the Holy Ghost and the Creator of all, as in the ancient systems. The 'father' is a far later invention. The earliest manifested Logos was female everywhere -- the mother of the seven planetary powers" (SD 1:72n).

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Creator Dictionary

Gayatri Japa Day:

The Gayatri Japa Day is one such very holy and glorious day intended to remind all of the greatest and most glorious of all Mantras, the sacred Gayatri Mantra.

From Hindu Fasts & Festivals by Sri Swami Sivananda.

Read more here: » Gayatri Japa Day: Hindu Rituals - Gayatri Japa Day

Siva, Shiva (Sanskrit) The third god of the Hindu Trimurti (trinity): Brahma the evolver; Vishnu the preserver; and Siva the regenerator or destroyer.

Siva is one of the three loftiest divinities of our solar system, and in his character of destroyer stands higher than Vishnu for he is "the destroying deity, evolution and PROGRESS personified, who is the regenerator at the same time; who destroys things under one form but to recall them to life under another more perfect type" (SD 2:182). As the destroyer of outward forms he is called Vamadeva. Endowed with so many powers and attributes, Siva possesses a great number of names, and is represented under a corresponding variety of forms. He corresponds to the Palestinian Ba`al or Moloch, Saturn, the Phoenician El, the Egyptian Seth, and the Biblical Chiun of Amos, and Greek Typhon.

"In the Rig Veda the name Siva is unknown, but the god is called Rudra, which is a word used for Agni, the fire god . . ."; "In the Vedas he is the divine Ego aspiring to return to its pure, deific state, and at the same time that divine ego imprisoned in earthly form, whose fierce passions make of him the 'roarer,' the 'terrible' " (SD 2:613, 548).

Siva is often spoken of as the patron deity of esotericists, occultists, and ascetics; he is called the Mahayogin (the great ascetic), from whom the highest spiritual knowledge is acquired, and union with the great spirit of the universe is eventually gained. Here he is "the howling and terrific destroyer of human passions and physical senses, which are ever in the way of the development of the higher spiritual perceptions and the growth of the inner eternal man -- mystically . . . Siva-Rudra is the Destroyer, as Vishnu is the preserver; and both are the regenerators of spiritual as well as of physical nature. To live as a plant, the seed must die. To live as a conscious entity in the Eternity, the passions and senses of man must first die before his body does. 'To live is to die and to die is to live,' has been too little understood in the West. Siva, the destroyer, is the creator and the Saviour of Spiritual man, as he is the good gardener of nature. He weeds out the plants, human and cosmic, and kills the passions of the physical, to call to life the perceptions of the spiritual, man" (SD 1:459&n).

Though Siva is often called Maha-kala (great time) which, while being the great formative factor in manvantara is also the great dissolving power, to the Hindu mind destruction implies reproduction; so Siva is also called Sankara (the auspicious), for he is the reproductive power which is perpetually restoring that which has been dissolved, and hence is also called Mahadeva (the great god). Under this character of restorer he was often represented by the symbol of the linga or phallus: "the Lingham and Yoni of Siva-worship stand too high philosophically, its modern degeneration notwithstanding, to be called a simple phallic worship" (SD 2:588). It is under the form of the linga, either alone or combined with the yoni (female organ, the representative of his sakti or female energy), that Siva is so often worshiped today in India.

In the Linga-Purana, Siva is said to take repeated births, in one kalpa possessing a white complexion, in another that of a black color, in still another that of a red color, after which he becomes four youths of a yellow color. This allegory is an ethnological account of the different races of mankind and their varying types and colors (cf SD 1:324).

Siva is known under more than a thousand names or titles and is represented under many different forms in Hindu writings. As the god of generation and of justice, he is represented riding a white bull; his own color, as well as that of the bull, is generally white, referring probably to the unsullied purity of abstract justice. He is sometimes seen with two hands, sometimes with four, eight, or ten; and with five faces, representing among other things his power over the five elements.

He has three eyes, one placed in the centre of his forehead, and shaped as a vertical oval. These three eyes are said to denote his view of the three divisions of time: past, present, and future. He holds a trident in his hand to denote his three great attributes of emanator, destroyer, and regenerator, thus combining all the usual qualities or functions attributed to the Trimurti. In his character of time, he not only presides over its beginning and its extinction, but also over its present functioning as represented in astronomical and astrological calculations.

A crescent or half-moon on his forehead indicates time measured by the phases of the moon; a serpent forms one of his necklaces to denote the measure of time by cycles, and a second necklace of human skulls signifies the extinction and succession of the races of mankind. He is often pictures as entirely covered with serpents, which are at once emblems of spiritual immortality and his standing as the patron of the nagas or initiates. He is often mystically personated by Mount Meru, which esoterically is both the cosmic and terrestrial axis with their respective poles.

According to the belief of most Advaita-Vedantists, Sankaracharya, the great Indian philosopher and sage, is held to be an avatara of Siva.

See also Shiva, Siva

(See also: Siva, Shiva , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

For more dictionary entries, see » Creator Dictionary

Id-ul-Azha is the second most important festival of Muslims across the world. Today's celebration comes almost two months after Eid-ul-Fitr, the culmination of the holy month of Ramadan. The spirit of Eid- ul-Azha is incorporated in Hajj, the pilgrimage to Makkah. The underlying flavour is the spirit of sacrifice or qurbani, commemorating Abraham's great act of faith many centuries ago.

Eid-ul-Azha, also known as Eid-e-Qurban, is a time for Muslims to learn the value of self-denial by making a sacrifice of something living to God.

(See also: Id-ul-Azha , Indian Festivals, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Id-ul-Azha: Faith And Qurbani - Spirit of Eid  

The Eternal Rules Of Dharma

If this world were advaitic or monistic, there would be only one reality. But since it is not so, there is a need to discuss independence and dependence.

Change is intrinsic to reality; so every aspect of reality is changeable. Change occurs at every instant of time, which, in itself, is changeable. That which is bound by a certain cause and effect relationship, where change is inevitable, cannot be independent.

Read more here: » Dharma: The Eternal Rules Of Dharma

Suffering seems to be one of those fundamental human experiences that we all have in common, and is perhaps the one we would all gladly give up. We often feel oppressed and frustrated by suffering because we do not understand it. It can pierce the heart of our being and our identity, and shake every assumption we hold about ourselves and the world. It often seems to destroy our will-power and overthrow our commitments, to our dismay.

Read more here: » Personal Growth: Understanding Suffering

Definitions Can Be Misleading

The Bible says: "The fool has said in his heart, there is no God". Having first convinced himself, he then proceeds to broadcast it to the world. Nietzsche the philosopher announced that God is dead.

Later, mortal that he was, Nietzsche died. Had God the Creator sent an obituary notice to the newspapers, it would have read thus: "Nietzsche is dead! Signed: GOD".

Read more here: » Ignorance: Definitions Can Be Misleading

MYSTICISM -

1. communication that God makes of his or her spiritual light of the depths of the human heart. (Dhu’n-Nun Misri)

2. absolute (Evelyn Underhill)

3. states characterized by ineffability, that of knowledge (William James)

4. feeling of union with all life.

5. awareness of a dazzling light that fills the mind and heart.

6. experience of being bathed in emotions of joy, awe, wonder.

7 intuitive flashes of awareness and understanding of the universe.

8. merging with the creation, creator, nature.

9. feeling of transcendental love and compassion for all living things.

10. renewed sense of energy and vitality and health.

11. sudden vanishing of suffering and fear of death.

12. enhanced appreciation of art and beauty and less attachment to material things.

13. appearance of ESP and enhanced intellect, gifts and powers.

14. renewed sense of purpose and mission in life.

15. Change in personality and inner radiance. (NAD)

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Creator Dictionary

creation: The act of creating, especially bringing the world into ordered existence. Also, all of created existence, the cosmos. Creation, according to the monistic-theistic view, is an emanation or extension of God, the Creator. It is Himself in another form, and not inherently something other than Him.

See: cause, tattva.

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

For more dictionary entries, see » Creator Dictionary

The philosophy of Prophet Zarathushtra accorded sanctity to nature as much as to rectitude in human existence. The Sun became the celestial emblem of the Fire which was kept burning within the homes and fire-temples on earth as an undying and unremitting tribute to the spirit of the Creator, Ahura Mazda.

Haptan Yasht says: "We revere the Earth and the Sky, we revere the strong Wind created by Mazda, we revere all good land." The unflinching reverence of the living world as also an abiding involvement with the advancement of our own Self were propounded through Zoroastrianism, a religion in consonance with environmental perceptions. Physical purity became a step towards purity of the mind, the soul and the spirit.

(See also: Jamshedi Navroz , Indian Festivals, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Read more here: » Jamshedi Navroz: Celebration of Life - Jamshedi Navroz