A Dictionary of Spiritual Terms. From Acupuncture to Zoroaster.

Please note that all words in grey, like "yoga", "enlightenment" or "kundalini" are hyperlinked to archives further explaining the term. At the corresponding archive you will also find articles related to the term.

For more dictionary entries, see » Dictionary Of Spiritual Terms Dictionary

Aditi-Gea. A compound term, Sanskrit and Latin, meaning dual, nature in theosophical writings - spiritual and physical, as Gea is the goddess of the earth and of objective nature.

(See also: Aditi-Gea, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Dondam-pai-den-pa (Tibet, Tibetan). The same as the Sanskrit term Paramarthasatya or "absolute truth", the highest spiritual self-consciousness and perception, divine self-consciousness, a very mystical term.

(See also: Dondam-pai-den-pa, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

kundalini (ahamkara, kundalini shakti): elemental, feminine energy that is ordinarily asleep and coiled at the human coccyx and whose activation can purify the activator. The word kundalini stems from a Sanskrit term meaning circular, coiled.

kundalini yoga (Shakti Yoga, tantra yoga): A means of activating kundalini. , when kundalini is awake, it enriches human lives emotionally, intellectually, physically, and spiritually. Moreover, its arousal contributes to the cure of many intractable diseases. Kundalini yoga includes bhuta shuddhi.

(See also: Kundalini shakti, Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

A term that is sometimes used to refer to going on a shamanic journey or journeying, though is is most commonly used by groups with a particular religious or spiritual orientation; it is no a s common as the other terms: shamanic journey or journeying.

(See also: soul travel, Magic, Shamanism, Pagan Dictionary)

Daimonion Photi (Greek) Neoplatonic term for spiritual illumination {BCW 2:92}.

(See also: Daimonion Photi, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Sadhu: Seeker for truth (sat); and person who is practicing spiritual disciplines. Usually this term is applied only to monastics.

(See also: Sadhu, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Ishqh - an Islamic term for love (spiritual or mundane).

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

Behesht - an Islamic term for the Lord’s spiritual abode, paradise, or heaven.

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

Tapas:

Tapas means devoting oneself single mindedly to spiritual practice and it is often translated as spiritual austerity or penance. When Shri Swamiji uses the term tapas, he usually refers to meditation in samadhi for at least twelve hours every day. He explains that such tapas is necessary if one wishes to attain God realization.

(See also: Tapas, Psychic, Psychic Dictionary, Parapsychology, Parapsychology Dictionary)

Alam al-mashal - an Islamic term for the spiritual world.

(See also: Alam al-mashal, Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Artificial Elementals:

Term used by some Western occultists to refer to spiritual entities “created” by magicians, usually to perform specific tasks.

(See also: Artificial Elementals, Pagan, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Bhagwan: One endowed with spiritual power, righteousness, knowledge, and renunciation. A term and title of great honor.

(See also: Bhagwan, Yoga, Yoga Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Dharmakaya :

Dharmakaya

(Sanskrit) This is a compound of two words meaning the "continuance body," sometimes translated equally well (or ill) the "body of the Law"  - both very inadequate expressions, for the difficulty in translating these extremely mystical terms is very great. A mere correct dictionary-translation often misses the esoteric meaning entirely, and just here is where Occidental scholars make such ludicrous errors at times.

The first word comes from the root dhri, meaning "to support," "to sustain," "to carry," "to bear," hence "to continue"; also human laws are the agencies supposed to carry, support, sustain, civilization; the second element, kaya, means "body." The noun thus formed may be rendered the "body of the Law," but this phrase does not give the idea at all. It is that spiritual body or state of a high spiritual being in which the restricted sense of soulship and egoity has vanished into a universal (hierarchical) sense, and remains only in the seed, latent  - if even so much. It is pure consciousness, pure bliss, pure intelligence, freed from all personalizing thought.

In the Buddhism of Central Asia, the dharmakaya is the third and highest of the trikaya. The trikaya consists of (1) nirmanakaya, (2) sambhogakaya, and (3) dharmakaya. We may look upon these three states, all of them lofty and sublime, as being three vestures in which the consciousness of the entity clothes itself. In the dharmakaya vesture the initiate is already on the threshold of nirvana, if not indeed already in the nirvanic state. (See also Nirmanakaya, Sambhogakaya)

See also: Dharmakaya, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

Gnosis (Ancient Greek) Lit., "knowledge". The technical term used by the schools of religious philosophy, both before and during the first centuries of so-called Christianity, to denote the object of their enquiry. This Spiritual and Sacred Knowledge, the Gupta Vidya of the Hindus, could only be obtained by Initiation into Spiritual Mysteries of which the ceremonial "Mysteries" were a type.

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

Pitri-devatas pitr-devatas (Sanskrit) [from pitri father + devatas spiritual beings]

The paternal spiritual beings; a class of divine beings who were the progenitors of mankind -- generalized under the term pitris. More particularly, the lunar ancestors of mankind, in all their various classes.

(See also: Pitri-devatas, pitr-devatas, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

ALFREKA: A term that describes land that has been physically and spiritually desecrated and been ridden of the Anima Loci whether from maleficent acts of a mundane, human nature or from deliberate magical on-lays.

(See also: ALFREKA, Witch, Witchcraft, Paganism, Pagan Dictionary)

Clairvoyance. The faculty of seeing with the inner eye or spiritual sight. As now used it is a loose and flippant term, embracing under its meaning a happy guess due to natural shrewdness or intuition, and also that faculty which was so remarkably exercised by Jacob Boehme and Swedenborg.

Real clairvoyance means the faculty of seeing through the densest matter (the latter disappearing at the will and before the spiritual eye of the Seer), and irrespective of time (past, present and future) or distance.

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

Feruer or Ferouer (Persian) (from fravashi or farvarshi)

A highly mystical term in ancient Persian theology, signifying generally a spiritual veil, lining, or vehicle of a still more spiritual and higher original. Consequently in mystical thought, the feruer or fravashi need not necessarily always be of the higher spiritual type or class; if the original divinity is not high, its feruer, lining or darker side, will also not be of a high spiritual character.

(See also: Feruer, Ferouer, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

pati-guru

lit., “husband-spiritual master.” A term of respect addressed to a man by his wife.

(See also: pati-guru, Bhakti, Bhakti Yoga, Bhakti Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)