DEMONOLOGY:

Magick involving work with malevolent spirits;

 The study of demons and beliefs about them and extended by some to include the study of any supernatural beings other than acknowledged deities;

 A treatise on demons.

(See also: DEMONOLOGY , Magickal Traditions, Magickal Paths, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Demonology:

Medieval science of studying demons.

(See also: Demonology , Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

demonology

The study of the function, life style, levels of existence, laws, relationship to earth beings and nature spirits of low intelligent life beings or spirit in the etheric world

(See also: Demonology , Body Mind and Soul)

Beelzebub, Beelzebul ba`al zebub (Hebrew) (from ba`al lord + zebub fly)

Lord of the flies; a god of the Philistines, popularly worshiped as the destroyer of flies, to whom was erected a temple at Ekron. The mythical zoology of the ancients points directly to an inner and mystical significance: "flies" is used not in the sense of the insect, but for a certain class of elementals whose "flying" around and through the earth is governed directly by lunar influences. Thus Beelzebub is in this connection a lunar divinity.

Ba`al-zebul, a form in the Old and New Testaments, is translated as Lord of the High House or Lord of the Habitation, the reference here being to the moon as the habitation or receptacle of these elemental souls at a certain time of their existence.

In Christian demonology, Beelzebub is one of the gubernatores of the infernal kingdom under Lucifer: thus in Milton's Paradise Lost he is second to Satan. In Matthew 12:24, Beelzebub is referred to as the prince of the devils.

(See also: Beelzebub, Beelzebul, ba`al zebub , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

ayurveda: (Sanskrit) "Science of life." A holistic system of medicine and health native to ancient India. This sacred Vedic science is an Upaveda of the Atharva Veda. Three early giants in this field who left voluminous texts are Charaka, Sushruta and Vagbhata.

Ayurveda covers many areas, including:

1)    chikitsa, general medicine,

2)    shalya, surgery,

3)    dehavritti, physiology,

4)    nidana, diagnosis,

5)    dravyavidya, medicine and pharmacology,

6)    agada tantra, antidote method,

7)    stritantra, gynecology,

8)    pashu vidya, veterinary science,

9)    kaumara bhritya, pediatrics, 1

10) urdhvanga, diseases of the organs of the head,

11) bhuta vidya, demonology, 1

12) rasayana, tonics, rejuvenating,

13) vajikarana, sexual rejuvenation.

Among the first known surgeons was Sushruta (ca 600 bce), whose Sushruta Samhita is studied to this day. (Hippocrates, Greek father of medicine, lived two centuries later.) The aims of ayurveda are ayus, "long life," and arogya, "diseaselessness," which facilitate progress toward ultimate spiritual goals. Health is achieved by balancing energies (especially the doshas, bodily humors) at all levels of being, subtle and gross, through innumerable methods, selected according to the individual's constitution, lifestyle and nature. Similar holistic medical systems are prevalent among many communities, including the Chinese, American Indians, Africans and South Americans. See: doshas.

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

The ten Sepheroth

(emanations)

• Kether. Crown - Top of Head
• Hochma. . wisdom -Right Brain
• Binah. . Understanding - Left of Brain
• Hesed. . March - Right Arm
• Pechad. . Strength- Left Arm
• Tefereth. . Beauty-Heart
• Nezah. . Victory-Right of Pelvis
• Hod. . Glory-Left of Pelvis
• Yesod. . Foundation-Genitals
•  

The sephiroth form the central image of Kabbalistic meditation, the Sephirothic Tree of Life, which describes the path of descent from the divine to the material realm, and the path of ascent to the highest level of spirituality.

Each sephirath is a level of attainment in knowledge, corresponding to energy centers in the body, and is also divided into four interlocking sections or 'Worlds', which constitute the cosmos:

• emanation (Atziluth),
• creation (Briah),
• formation (Yetzirah), and
• action or making (Assiyah).

Through contemplation and meditation, similar to Eastern yogic disciplines, the Kabbalist ascends the tree of life.

The sephirot also comprise the sacred, unknowable, and unspeakable personal name of God: YHVH (Yahweh), the Tetragrammaton. So sacred is the Tetragrammaton that other names, such as Elohim and Jehovah, are substituted in its place in scripture.

A more systematic presentation of the basic doctrine is contained in Moses Cordovero's Pardes rimmonim (Garden of Pomegranates, 1548). Kabbalah was a major influence in the development of Hasidism and still has adherents among Hasidic Jews.

The Kabbalah, with its amulets, incantations, demonology, seals, and letter and number mysticism, had a profound influence on Western magical tradition. The Tetragrammaton especially was held in great awe for its power over all things in the universe, including demons.

(See also: The ten Sepheroth , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

Jewish shamanism: A philosophy taught by Rabbi Gershon Winkler. It stems from the cabala, the Talmud (a rabbinic code), the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible), and other Jewish writings, and it includes demonology, lunar astrology, and reincarnation.

(See also: Jewish shamanism , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Incubus (Latin). Something more real and dangerous than the ordinary meaning given to the word, viz., that of "nightmare ". An Incubus is the male Elemental, and Succuba the female, and these are undeniably the spooks of medieval demonology, called forth from the invisible regions by human passion and lust. They are now called "Spirit brides" and "Spirit husbands" among some benighted Spiritists and spiritual mediums. But these poetical names do not prevent them in the least being that which they are - Ghools, Vampires and soulless Elementals; formless centres of Life, devoid of sense; in short, subjective protoplasms when left alone, but called into a definite being and form by the creative and diseased imagination of certain mortals. They were known under every clime as in every age, and the Hindus can tell more than one terrible tale of the dramas enacted in the life of young students and mystics by the Pisachas, their name in India.

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

Bhuta-vidya or Bhuta-vijnana (Sanskrit) (from bhuta has been, kama-lokic spooks + vidya, vijnana knowledge)

The knowledge of evil beings, demonology; hence, the art of exorcising, treating, and curing demoniac possession -- one of the branches of ancient medicine. Bhuta in ancient usage, while including what medieval Europeans called demons, refers to what in theosophy is called elementaries and other denizens of the astral realms -- commonly of human origination, but sometimes astral rejects of the animal kingdom.

See also AYUR-VEDA

(See also: Bhuta-vidya, Bhuta-vijnana , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Lil-in (Hebrew, Jewish). The children of Lilith, and their descendants. "Lilith is the Mother of the Shedim and the Muquishim (the ensnarers)". Every class of the Lil-ins, therefore, are devils in the demonology of the Jews. (See Zohar ii. 268a.)

(See also: Lil-in , Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary,)

Zohar, Sepher haz-Zohar (Hebrew) [from zohar light, splendor]

Book of the light; the principal work or compendium of the Qabbalists, forming with the Book of Creation (Sepher Yetsirah) the main canon of the Qabbalah. It is written largely in Chaldean interspersed with Hebrew, and is in the main a running commentary on the Pentateuch. Interwoven are a number of highly significant sections or books scattered apparently at random through the volumes: sometimes incorporated as parallel columns to the text, at other times as separate portions.

These auxiliary books, so casually appended to the text as we now have it, are considered by Qabbalists to be the chief contribution of the Zohar. The following form the bulk of the Zoharic writings outside of the commentary itself, as found in present editions, though in one or two editions a few additional fragments of minor importance are included:

1. Tosephta' (Additions or supplements);

2. Heichaloth (Mansions, Abodes) usually enumerated as seven, describing the structure of the upper and lower realms;

3. Sithrei Torah (Mysteries or Secrets of the Law [Pentateuch]) describing the evolution of the Sephiroth;

4. Midrash Han-Ne`elam (The Hidden Interpretation), deducing esoteric doctrine from the narratives in the Pentateuch;

5. Ra`ya' Meheimna' (The Faithful Shepherd), recording discussions between Moses the faithful shepherd, the prophet Elijah, and Rabbi Shim`on ben Yohai (the reputed compiler of the Zohar);

6. Razei deRazin (Secrets of Secrets), a treatise on physiognomy and higher psychology;

7. Saba' deMishpatim (The Aged in Decisions, Judgments), the Aged One or Scholar is Elijah who discourses with Yohai on the doctrine of metempsychosis;

8. Siphra' di-Tseni`utha' (The Book of the Mysteries), discourses on cosmogony and demonology;

9. Ha-'Idra' Rabba' Qaddisha' (The Great Holy Assembly), discourses of Rabbi Yohai to his disciples on the form of the deity and on pneumatology;

10. Yenoqa' (The Youth), discourses on the mysteries of ablutions by a young man of such high talent that he was thought to be of superhuman origin;

11. Ha-'Irda' Zuta' Qaddisha' (The Lesser Holy Assembly), discourses on the Sephiroth to six disciples.

The Zohar was compiled by Rabbi Simeon Ben-Iochai, and completed by his son Rabbi Eleazar, and his secretary Rabbi Abba. "But voluminous as is the work, and containing as it does the main points of the secret and oral tradition, it still does not embrace it all. It is well known that this venerable kabalist [Simeon] never imparted the most important points of his doctrine otherwise than orally, and to a very limited number of friends and disciples, including his only son. Therefore, without the final initiation into the Mercaba the study of the Kabala will be ever incomplete, . . . Since the death of Simeon Ben-Iochai this hidden doctrine has remained an inviolate secret for the outside worlds" (IU 2:348-9).

The Zohar contains the universal wisdom or theosophy of the ages. Nevertheless it "teaches practical occultism more than any other work on that subject; not as it is translated though, and commented upon by its various critics, but with the secret signs on its margins. These signs contain the hidden instructions, apart form the metaphysical interpretations and apparent absurdities . . ." (IU 2:350). The present "approximation of the Zohar was written by Moses de Leon in the 13th century. "Mistaken is he who accepts the Kabalistic works of to-day, and the interpretations of the Zohar by the Rabbis, for the genuine Kabalistic lore of old! For no more to-day than in the day of Frederick von Schelling does the Kabala accessible to Europe and America, contain much more than 'ruins and fragments, much distorted remnants still of that primitive system which is the key to all religious systems' . . . The oldest system and the Chaldean Kabala were identical. The latest renderings of the Zohar are those of the Synagogue in the early centuries -- i.e., the Thorah, dogmatic and uncompromising" (SD 2:461-2).

The Zohar has been widely studied by European mystical and other scholars for centuries past, and many speculations have been made by these scholars as to its age, some affirming with perfect truth that the roots or origins of the Qabbalah go back into the very night of time and are probably to be traced to now unknown originals in ancient Chaldea, while others points out that in several places the Zohar mentions facts of history that have taken place in Europe after the beginning of the Christian era, such as the Crusades, and the mentioning of the Massoretic vowel points which came into use at the time of the Rabbi Mocha, 570 AD, the mention of a comet which can be proved by the context to have appeared in 1264, etc. Moses de Leon was probably the first to edit or give to the world the volume of the Zohar as we now have it considered as a whole. We thus have a work of progressive compilation, the form in which it has reached our hands showing the labor of several, if not many, minds since the beginning of the Christian era, but which nevertheless in its typically Chaldean thought and manner of envisioning religious and philosophical principles prove it to have come down from an unknown time in Chaldean history.

(See also: Zohar, Sepher haz-Zohar , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body mind and Soul)

PAZUZU

 Demon of recklessness. In Babylonian demonology, the son of Hanpa, brother or father of Humwawa. King of the evil spirits of the air, fearful of countenance and bearing rotting genitalia: "Lord of the wind demons," spreading fever and cold and horrible diseases. Loosely, one might designate him as "Bringer of Plague." The following Exhortion to Pazuzu derives from personal meditation:

O nimble God of Pestilence and Woe

of bogs from which pollutions blow

Snuff not this my hope to  turn

Thy demon winds all loose to burn

(no help to martyrs, but to makers)

Those original Red Night  Shapers

Who mixed the sacred rivers, Milk & Blood

With  thanatic-knotting, wicked-plotting Club

And made of Life its Death and  Menstr'al Flood

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

Hinduism Lexicon on A

From aadheenam to axis.

Read more here: » Hinduism: Hinduism Lexicon on A