Introduction and links to related topics Below are some short introductions. Click on the blue hyperlinked word to get more related articles.
Deva - The literal translation is God or godly. The devas or demigods, although mortal live a very long time. They rule various aspects of the material creation. For example, Agnideva means ''fire-god''. It is also a name for the fifth house, which has some bearing on the gods that we worship.
Deva - Deva (Sanskrit) (from the verbal root div to shine)
A divinity, a resplendent deity. "A Deva is a celestial being -- whether good, bad, or indifferent. Devas inhabit ''the three worlds,'' which are the three planes above us. There are 33 groups or 330 millions of them" enumerated in the exoteric sacred scriptures of Hindustan, although these numbers should not be taken literally (TG 98).
Deva is a very general term for various classes of celestial beings. There are classes of ethereal or spiritual beings that are behind mankind in their evolution, unself-conscious god-sparks who have yet to go through the human stage in order to bring forth more fully the glory within them. Then there are the celestial beings who have passed through the human stage and are thus evolutionally higher than we; and beings higher than these, who have developed the most divine parts of their constitution. Considered as inhabitants of the three worlds or planes above us, devas is a generalized term for those evolving life-waves or hierarchies of sentient beings evolving on the six superior globes of earth''s planetary chain.
See also ASURA
Jnana-devas - Jnana-devas (Sanskrit) (from jnana knowledge, wisdom + deva god)
Gods of knowledge or wisdom; the higher classes of gods or devas including the manasaputras, agnishvattas, and kumaras. In one sense these jnana-devas are our reincarnating egos; in another, the term is applied to high sages such as the mahatmas, with the implication that they have been successful in attaining, or are in training for attaining, self-conscious union with the god within.
Deva - Deva (Sanskrit). A god, a "resplendent" deity. Deva-Deus, from the root div "to shine". A Deva is a celestial being - whether good, bad, or indifferent. Devas inhabit "the three worlds", which are the three planes above us. There are 33 groups or 330 millions of them.
Rishi-prajapati - Rishi-Prajapati (Sanskrit). Lit., "revealers", holy sages in the religious history of Aryavarta. Esoterically the highest of them are the Hierarchies of "Builders" and Architects of the Universe and of living things on earth; they are generally called Dhyan Chohans, Devas and gods.
Anumati - Anumati (Sanskrit) (from anu-man to approve, grant)
Assent, permission, approbation; personified frequently as a goddess. The fifteenth day of the moon''s age "when one digit is deficient" (VP 2:8), a time said to be propitious for the offering of oblations to devas and pitris.
It is therefore the moon at full: "when from a god -- Soma -- she becomes a goddess" (TG 25). Mythologically the first fortnight of the moon or waxing period is often regarded as being masculine, and its second fortnight or waning period as feminine. The moon in some cultures is looked upon as masculine, in others as feminine. In Latin the moon was both lunus (masculine) and luna (feminine), but in most other languages the moon is almost consistently either masculine or feminine.
Tarakajit - Tarakajit (Sanskrit) Conqueror of Taraka, name given to the Hindu god of war, Karttikeya, because he conquered Taraka, a daitya whose austerities had made him formidable to the gods -- the daityas being those early beings or races who, because of their developing intellectual powers, were found to be identical with the asuras, who were opposed to the more or less passive spiritual forces -- devas or suras. In another sense, because of this developing intellectuality, the daityas, somewhat like the Greek titans or giants, were the opponents of the gods of mere ritualistic or scholastic theory, and hence the enemies of puja (ritualistic sacrifices).
Eight Divisions Of Gods And Dragons - Devas (gods), Nagas (Dragons) and others of eight divisions (classes): deva, nagas, yakas, ganharvas, asuras, gaudas, kinaras, mahoragas.
Senzar - Senzar The name given to the ancient mystery-language unknown to modern philologists, that was known to all initiates of the inhabited and civilized world; the secret sacerdotal language or mystery-speech of the adepts of whatever class belonging to or owing allegiance to the chief esoteric brotherhood, "still used and studied unto this day in the secret communities of the Eastern adepts, and called by them -- according to the locality -- Zend-zar and Brahma or Deva-Bashya" (BCW 4:518n).
In this language, besides its common use as a universal means of intercommunication, were written the secret works preserving the history of the archaic continents and races, as well as prophecies of the future. It was used in the secret commentaries and stanzas forming the basis for The Secret Doctrine, wherein they are called the Stanzas of Dzyan or the Book of Dzyan.
"Tradition says, that it was taken down in Senzar, the secret sacerdotal tongue, from the words of the Divine Beings, who dictated it to the sons of Light, in Central Asia, at the very beginning of the 5th (our) race; for there was a time when its language (the Sen-zar) was known to the Initiates of every nation, when the forefathers of the Toltec understood it as easily as the inhabitants of lost Atlantis, who inherited it, in their turn, from the sages of the 3rd Race, the Manushis, who learnt it direct from the Devas of the 2nd and 1st Races" (SD 1:xliii).
As to the mode of writing this mystery-speech, "The sacerdotal language (Senzar), besides an alphabet of its own, may be rendered in several modes of writing in cypher characters, which partake more of the nature of ideographs than of syllables" (VS vii).
Book Of Dzyan - Book of Dzyan (probably from Sanskrit dhyana intense spiritual meditation, wisdom, divine knowledge)
An archaic work of enormous antiquity upon which Blavatsky based her Secret Doctrine. Dzyan has been variously spelled or transliterated, and under this form is a derivative of the Tibetan. Dzyan, dzen, or ch''an is the general term for the esoteric schools and their literature.
Blavatsky describes the Book of Dzyan, saying: "An Archaic Manuscript -- a collection of palm leaves made impermeable to water, fire, and air, by some specific unknown process -- is before the writer''s eye. On the first page is an immaculate white disk within a dull black ground. On the following page, the same disk, but with a central point" (SD 1:1).
"The ''very old Book'' is the original work from which the many volumes of Kiu-ti were complied. Not only this latter and the Siphrah Dzeniouta but even the Sepher Jezirah, the work attributed by the Hebrew Kabbalists to their Patriarch Abraham (!), the book of Shu-king, China''s primitive Bible, the sacred volumes of the Egyptian Thoth-Hermes, the Puranas in India, and the Chaldean Book of Numbers and the Pentateuch itself, are all derived from that one small parent volume.
Tradition says, that it was taken down in Senzar, the secret sacerdotal tongue, from the words of the Divine Beings, who dictated it to the sons of Light, in Central Asia, at the very beginning of the 5th (our) race; for there was a time when its language (the Sen-zar) was known to the Initiates of every nation, when the forefathers of the Toltec understood it as easily as the inhabitants of the lost Atlantis, who inherited it, in their turn, from the sages of the 3rd Race, the Manushis, who learnt it direct from the Devas of the 2nd and 1st Races. . . . The old book, having described Cosmic Evolution and explained the origin of everything on earth, including physical man, after giving the true history of the races from the First down to the Fifth (our) race, goes no further" (SD 1:xliii).
See also STANZAS OF DZYAN.
Asura - A race of beings who, like the Titans of Greek mythology, fought the devas for sovereignty over the heavens and lost.
See apaya-bhumi.
Popol Vuh - Popol Vuh (Quiche) An ancient scripture of the Mayas. The manuscript which has come down to our day was discovered by Ximenez, a Dominican missionary in the 17th century, near Guatemala City, and translated by him into Spanish. Later, Brasseur de Bourbourg translated the manuscript from the original Quiche into French. But this manuscript was written or dictated by a native in the Quiche tongue and is not the original, for as the writer himself says in his preface: "This is the beginning of the ancient history of the country here called Quiche . . . We will publish it in the world of Christendom, because this National Book, the Popol Vuh, is seen no more, . . . This is the first book written in times of old, but it is hidden from the sight of him who sees and thinks."
In addition to a historical account of the Quiche nation, the first portion of the scripture deals with cosmogony and the birth of humanity. The opening lines are similar in conception to the book of Genesis: "Here is the narrative of how all was in suspense, all was calm, all silent, all was motionless, all was peaceful, and empty was the immensity of the heavens. . . . The face of the Earth was not yet visible. Only the sea was, and all the space of the heavens."
The first race of men mentioned in the Popol Vuh are described as "a race ''whose sight was unlimited, and who knew all things at once'': thus showing the divine knowledge of Gods, not mortals" (SD 2:96). "In other words, they were the Lemuro-Atlanteans, the first who had a dynasty of Spirit-Kings, . . . actual living Devas (or demi-gods or Angels, again) who had assumed bodies to rule over them, and who, in their turn, instructed them in arts and sciences" (SD 2:221-2). And referring to the Lemurian or third root-race, the Popol Vuh describes their race as being fashioned out of the Tzite tree -- very similar in this regard to the ancient Scandinavian mythology, where Odin fashions man out of the ash tree. The early race of mankind mentioned in the Popol Vuh as able to live with equal ease under ground and water as upon the earth answers to the second and early third root-races (SD 2:160).
Gnan Devas - Gnan Devas (Sanskrit) Lit., "the gods of knowledge". The higher classes of gods or devas; the "mind-born" sons of Brahma, and others including the Manasa-putras (the Sons of Intellect). Esoterically, our reincarnating Egos.
Deva-lokas - Deva-lokas (Sanskrit). The abodes of the Gods or Devas in superior spheres. The seven celestial worlds above Meru.
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