Divine Dictionary

Divine Thought. See IDEATION; LOGOS

(See also: Divine Thought , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Divine Soul The vehicle or garment of the divine ego, which in its turn is the field or vehicle of the divine monad -- terms referring to the human monadic centers. As the inner god corresponds to the divine monad and the inner buddha to the divine ego, so the divine soul may be said to be the expression of the buddha in manifestation on earth.

(See also: Divine Soul , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

cosmic cycle: One of the infinitely recurring periods of the universe, comprising its creation, preservation and dissolution. These cycles are measured in periods of progressive ages, called yugas. Satya (or Krita), Treta, Dvapara and Kali are the names of these four divisions, and they repeat themselves in that order, with the Satya Yuga being the longest and the Kali Yuga the shortest. The comparison is often made of these ages with the cycles of the day: Satya Yuga being morning until noon, the period of greatest light or enlightenment, Treta Yuga afternoon, Dvapara evening, and Kali Yuga the darkest part of the night. Four yugas equal one mahayuga.

Theories vary, but by traditional astronomical calculation, a mahayuga equals 4,320,000 solar years (or 12,000 "divine years;" one divine year is 360 solar years) -  with the

• Satya Yuga lasting 1,728,000 years,
• Treta Yuga 1,296,000 years,
• Dvapara Yuga 864,000 years, and
• Kali Yuga 432,000 years.

Mankind is now experiencing the Kali Yuga, which began at midnight, February 18, 3102 bce (year one on the Hindu calendar [see Hindu Timeline]) and will end in approximately 427,000 years. (By another reckoning, one mahayuga equals approximately two million solar years.) A dissolution called laya occurs at the end of each mahayuga, when the physical world is destroyed by flood and fire. Each destructive period is followed by the succession of creation (srishti), evolution or preservation (sthiti) and dissolution (laya).

A summary of the periods in the cosmic cycles:

• 1 mahayuga = 4,320,000 years (four yugas)
• 71 mahayugas = 1 manvantara or manu (we are in the 28th mahayuga)
• 14 manvantaras = 1 kalpa or day of Brahma (we are in the 7th manvantara)
• 2 kalpas = 1 ahoratra or day and night of Brahma 360 ahoratras = 1 year of Brahma
• 100 Brahma years = 309,173,760,000,000 years (one "lifetime" of Brahma, or the universe).

We are in Brahma Year 51 of the current cycle. At the end of every kalpa or day of Brahma a greater dissolution, called pralaya (or kalpanta, "end of an eon"), occurs when both the physical and subtle worlds are absorbed into the causal world, where souls rest until the next kalpa begins. This state of withdrawal or "night of Brahma," continues for the length of an entire kalpa until creation again issues forth.

After 36,000 of these dissolutions and creations there is a total, universal annihilation, mahapralaya, when all three worlds, all time, form and space, are withdrawn into God Siva. After a period of total withdrawal a new universe or lifespan of Brahma begins. This entire cycle repeats infinitely. This view of cosmic time is recorded in the Puranas and the Dharma Shastras.

See: mahapralaya.

(See also: Cosmic cycle , Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Ramayana

"The most ancient Sanskrit epic poem, written by the sage Valmiki. It is estimated to have been composed about 500 B.C., and contains approximately 50,000 lines. The Ramayana describes the life of Sri Rama: his banishment from Ayodhya; life in the forest with his faithful wife Sita; Sita's abduction by Ravana; the war of Rama and his allies against Ravana; defeat of Ravana and rescue of Sita; Rama's return to Ayodhya as ruler; slander of Sita by the people of Ayodhya and her banishment from the kingdom; her subsequent exoneration and final ascent to heaven, where she is joined by Rama."

-- Ramakrishna-Vedanta Wordbook

"The Ramayana is a work of the same essential kind as the Mahabharata; it differs only by a greater simplicity of plan, a more delicate ideal temperament and a finer glow of poetic warmth and colour. The main bulk of the poem in spite of much accretion is evidently by a single hand and has a less complex and more obvious unity of structure. There is less of the philosophic, more of the purely poetic mind, more of the artist, less of the builder. The whole story is from beginning to end of one piece and there is no deviation from the stream of the narrative. At the same time there is a like vastness of vision, an even more wide-winged flight of epic sublimity in the conception and sustained richness of minute execution in the detail.

...The eopic poet has taken here also as his subject an Itihasa, an ancient tale or legend associated with an old Indian dynasty and filled it in with detail from myth and folklore, but has exalted all into a scale of grandiose epic figure that it may bear more worthily the high intention and significance. The subject is the same as in the Mahabharata,, the strife of the divine with the titanic forces in the life of the earth, but in more purely ideal forms, in frankly supernatural dimensions and an imaginative heightening of both the good and the evil in human character. On one side is portrayed an ideal manhood, a divine beauty of virtue and ethical order, a civilization founded on the Dharma and realising an exaltation of the moral ideal which is presented with a singularly strong appeal of aesthetic grace and harmony and sweetness; on the other are wild and anarchic and almost amorphous forces of superhuman egoism and self-will and exultant violence, and the two ideas and powers of mental nature living and embodied are brought into conflict and led to a decisive issue of the victory of the divine man over the Rakshasa. All shade and complexity are omitted which would diminish the single urity of the idea, the representative force in the outline of the figures, the significance of the temperamental colour and only so much admitte as is sufficient to humanise the appeal and the significance.

The poet makes us conscious of the immense forces that are behind our life and sets his action in a magnificent epic scenery, the great imperial city, the mountains and ocean, the forest and wilderness, described with such a largeness as to make us feel as if the whole world were the scene of his poem and its subject the whole divine and titanic possibility of man imaged in a few great or monstrous figures. The ethical and the aesthetic mind of India have here fused themselves into a harmonious unity and reached an unexampled pure wideness and beauty of self-expression. The Ramayana embodied for the Indian imagination its highest and tenderest human ideals of character, made strength and courage and gentleness and purity and fidelity and self-sacrifice familiar to it in the suavest and most harmonious forms..."

-- Sri Aurobindo, The Foundations of Indian Culture,

SABCL Vol 14 pp. 289-90

(See also: Ramayana , Hinduism, Vedic Scriptures, Yoga, Body Mind and Soul)

Amesha-Spentas (Avestan) (from a not + mesha, mara mortal, mutable + spenta benefactor, holy, soul-healing; cf Sanskrit svanta)

Immortal benefactors; six in number: Vohu-Manah, Asha-Vahishta, Khshathra-Vayria, Spenta-Armaiti (love), Haurvatat (perfection), and Ameretat (immortality). The first three are attributes of Ahura Mazda, abstractions without form. These male positive creative forces leave their impressions in the mental world and give birth to the second trinity, who lead man to freedom. "The Amshaspends, (are)

our Dhyan-Chohans or the 'Serpents of Wisdom.' They are identical with, and yet separate from Ormazd (Ahura-Mazda). They are also the Angels of the Stars of the Christians -- the Star-yazatas of the Zoroastrians -- or again the seven planets (including the sun) of every religion. The epithet -- 'the shining having efficacious eyes' -- proves it. This on the physical and sidereal planes. On the spiritual, they are the divine powers of Ahura-Mazda; but on the astral or psychic plane again, they are the 'Builders,' the 'watchers,' the Pitar (fathers), and the first Preceptors of mankind" (SD 2:358).

"Zarathushtra is the Divine Universal Force that directs everything within the universe towards perfection. This force is known as Amesha-Spenta" (Shahrestani, Al-Melal Va Al-Nehal). This force is equivalent to the Gnostic primeval ruler or governor, the closest being to the creator; the active mind or intellect which is the source of divine bliss and providence, with the Manichaen pure or holy spirits; the Hebrew elohim, the Arabic Malaeka (angels); the Koranic soul within the angels; and the theosophic dhyani-chohans or dhyani-buddhas. They are the rulers of the seven globes of the earth-chain.

A verse in the Ormazd Yasht (prayer to Ahura Mazda) hints at another aspect of the Amesha-Spentas connected with the afterdeath state. Each one is named, and the verse ends: these "are the reward of the holy ones, when freed from their bodies, my creatures" (v 25).

Some consider Ahura Mazda as the chief of the six Amesha-Spentas, but this is valid only when Ahura Mazda is taken for the pure, unmanifested light and not as the father of all creation.

See also AMSHASPANDS

(See also: Amesha-Spentas , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Communion

The Lord's Supper The central rite of Christian worship, called variously the Eucharist, Holy Communion, Divine Mysteries (Eastern Orthodox), and the Mass (Roman Catholic)

This ritual is said to have developed out of the Last Supper of Jesus and his Apostles just before the crucifixion. Some Christians believe that the wine and bread actually transmutate into the actual flesh and blood of Jesus (see transubstantiation), others do it in memory of Jesus' passion.

The practice is believed by Christians to have evolved from the Jewish Passover. Many scholars claim that communion, also with the word Mass, is derived from the practice of the Zoroastrians. New Agers celebrate a similar ritual which is called Communion with All Life.

(See also: Communion , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

A Theosophical definition of Avalokitesvara :

Avalokitesvara

(Sanskrit) A compound word: avalokita, "perceived," "seen"; Isvara, "lord"; hence "the Lord who is perceived or cognized," i.e., the spiritual entity, whether in the kosmos or in the human being, whose influence is perceived and felt; the higher self.

This is a term commonly employed in Buddhism, and concerning which a number of intricate and not easily understood teachings exist. The esoteric or occult interpretation, however, sees in Avalokitesvara what Occidental philosophy calls the Third Logos, both celestial and human. In the solar system it is the Third Logos thereof; and in the human being it is the higher self, a direct and active ray of the divine monad.

Technically Avalokitesvara is the dhyani-bodhisattva of Amitabha-Buddha  - Amitabha-Buddha is the kosmic divine monad of which the dhyani-bodhisattva is the individualized spiritual ray, and of this latter again the manushya-buddha or human buddha is a ray or offspring.

See also: Avalokitesvara , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

A Theosophical definition of Daiviprakriti :

Daiviprakriti

(Sanskrit) A compound signifying "divine" or "original evolver," or "original source," of the universe or of any self-contained or hierarchical portion of such universe, such as a solar system. Briefly, therefore, daiviprakriti may be called "divine matter," matter here being used in its original sense of "divine mother-evolver" or "divine original substance."

Now, as original substance manifests itself in the kosmic spaces as primordial kosmic light  - light in occult esoteric theosophical philosophy being a form of original matter or substance  - many mystics have referred to daiviprakriti under the phrase "the Light of the Logos." Daiviprakriti is, in fact, the first veil or sheath or ethereal body surrounding the Logos, as pradhana or prakriti surrounds Purusha or Brahman in the Sankhya philosophy, and as, on a scale incomparably more vast, mulaprakriti surrounds parabrahman. As daiviprakriti, therefore, is elemental matter, or matter in its sixth and seventh stages counting from physical matter upwards or, what comes to the same thing, matter in its first and second stages of its evolution from above, we may accurately enough speak of those filmy ethereal wisps of light seen in the midnight skies as a physical manifestation of daiviprakriti, because when they are not actually resolvable nebulae, they are worlds, or rather systems of worlds, in the making.

When daiviprakriti has reached a certain state or condition of evolutionary manifestation, we may properly speak of it under the term fohat. Fohat, in H. P. Blavatsky's words, is

"The essence of cosmic electricity. An occult Tibetan term for Daivi-prakriti, primordial light: and in the universe of manifestation the ever-present electrical energy and ceaseless destructive and formative power. Esoterically, it is the same, Fohat being the universal propelling Vital Force, at once the propeller and the resultant."  - Theosophical Glossary, p. 121

All this is extremely well put, but it must be remembered that although fohat is the energizing power working in and upon manifested daiviprakriti, or primordial substance, as the rider rides the steed, it is the kosmic intelligence, or kosmic monad as Pythagoras would say, working through both daiviprakriti and its differentiated energy called fohat, which is the guiding and controlling principle, not only in the kosmos but in every one of the subordinate elements and beings of the hosts of multitudes of them infilling the kosmos. The heart or essence of the sun is daiviprakriti working as itself, and also in its manifestation called fohat, but through the daiviprakriti and the fohatic aspect of it runs the all-permeant and directive intelligence of the solar divinity. The student should never make the mistake, however, of divorcing this guiding solar intelligence from its veils or vehicles, one of the highest of which is daiviprakriti-fohat.

See also: Daiviprakriti , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Emotional Energetic Healing (E.E.H., E.E.H. Healing methodology): Mode of holistic healing founded by Mari Angelique Raphael. It includes hands-on energy work and spiritual counseling. , E.E.H. utilizes the divine healing energy of the Angelic Realm, activates the client's Lightbody, and clears past, present, and future lifetimes.

(See also: Emotional Energetic Healing , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

incarnation: From incarnate, "to be made flesh." The soul's taking on a human body.

• divine incarnation: The concept of avatara. The Supreme Being's (or other Mahadeva's) taking of human birth, generally to reestablish dharma. This doctrine is important to several Hindu sects, notably Vaishnavism, but not held by most Saivites.

See: avatara, avatar, Vaishnavism.

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

Shakti: (Sanskrit) "Power, energy," from the root shak, "to be able."

The active power or manifest energy of Siva that pervades all of existence. Its most refined aspect is Parashakti, or Satchidananda, the pure consciousness and primal substratum of all form.

This pristine, divine energy unfolds as ic�ha shakti (the power of desire, will, love), kriya shakti (the power of action) and jnana shakti (the power of wisdom, knowing), represented as the three prongs of Siva's trishula, or trident. From these arise the five powers of revealment, concealment, dissolution, preservation and creation.

In Saiva Siddhanta, Siva is All, and His divine energy, Shakti, is inseparable from Him. This unity is symbolized in the image of Ardhanarishvara, "half-female God." In popular, village Hinduism, the unity of Siva and Shakti is replaced with the concept of Siva and Shakti as separate entities. Shakti is represented as female, and Siva as male. In Hindu temples, art and mythology, they are everywhere seen as the divine couple. This depiction has its source in the folk-narrative sections of the Puranas, where it is given elaborate expression. Shakti is personified in many forms as the consorts of the Gods. For example, the Goddesses Parvati, Lakshmi and Sarasvati are the respective mythological consorts of Siva, Vishnu and Brahma. Philosophically, however, the caution is always made that God and God's energy are One, and the metaphor of the inseparable divine couple serves only to illustrate this Oneness.

Within the Shakta religion, the worship of the Goddess is paramount, in Her many fierce and benign forms. Shakti is the Divine Mother of manifest creation, visualized as a female form, and Siva is specifically the Unmanifest Absolute. The fierce or black (asita) forms of the Goddess include Kali, Durga, Chandi, Chamundi, Bhadrakali and Bhairavi. The benign or white (sita) forms include Uma, Gauri, Ambika, Parvati, Maheshvari, Lalita and Annapurna. As Rajarajeshvari ("divine queen of kings"). She is the presiding Deity of the Sri Chakra yantra. She is also worshiped as the ten Mahavidyas, manifestations of the highest knowledge - Kali, Tara, Shodashi, Bhuvaneshvari, Chinnamasta, Bhairavi, Dhumavati, Bagata, Matangi and Kamala. While some Shaktas view these as individual beings, most revere them as manifestations of the singular Devi. There are also numerous minor Goddess forms, in the category of gramadevata ("village Deity"). These include Pitari, "snake-catcher" (usually represented by a simple stone), and Mariyamman, "smallpox Goddess."

In the yoga mysticism of all traditions, divine energy, shakti, is experienced within the human body in three aspects:

1)    the feminine force, ida shakti,

2)    the masculine force, pingala shakti, and

3)    the pure androgynous force, kundalini shakti, that flows through the sushumna nadi.

Shakti is most easily experienced by devotees as the sublime, bliss-inspiring energy that emanates from a holy person or sanctified Hindu temple.

See: Amman, Ardhanarishvara, Goddess, Parashakti, Shaktism.

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

A Theosophical definition of Monad :

Monad

A spiritual entity which to us humans is indivisible; it is a divine-spiritual life-atom, but indivisible because its essential characteristic, as we humans conceive it, is homogeneity; while that of the physical atom, above which our consciousness soars, is divisible, is a composite heterogeneous particle.

Monads are eternal, unitary, individual life-centers, conscious-ness-centers, deathless during any solar manvantara, therefore ageless, unborn, undying. Consequently, each one such  - and their number is infinite  - is the center of the All, for the divine or the All is THAT which has its center everywhere, and its circumference or limiting boundary nowhere.

Monads are spiritual-substantial entities, self-motivated, self-impelled, self-conscious, in infinitely varying degrees, the ultimate elements of the universe. These monads engender other monads as one seed will produce multitudes of other seeds; so up from each such monad springs a host of living entities in the course of illimitable time, each such monad being the fountainhead or parent, in which all others are involved, and from which they spring.

Every monad is a seed, wherein the sum total of powers appertaining to its divine origin are latent, that is to say unmanifested; and evolution consists in the growth and development of all these seeds or children monads, whereby the universal life expresses itself in innumerable beings.

As the monad descends into matter, or rather as its ray  - one of other innumerable rays proceeding from it  - is propelled into matter, it secretes from itself and then excretes on each one of the seven planes through which it passes, its various vehicles, all overshadowed by the self, the same self in you and in me, in plants and in animals, in fact in all that is and belongs to that hierarchy. This is the one self, the supreme self or paramatman of the hierarchy. It illumines and follows each individual monad and all the latter's hosts of rays  - or children monads. Each such monad is a spiritual seed from the previous manvantara, which manifests as a monad in this manvantara; and this monad through its rays throws out from itself by secretion and then excretion all its vehicles. These vehicles are, first, the spiritual ego, the reflection or copy in miniature of the monad itself, but individualized through the manvantaric evolution, "bearing" or "carrying" as a vehicle the monadic ray. The latter cannot directly contact the lower planes, because it is of the monadic essence itself, the latter a still higher ray of the infinite Boundless composed of infinite multiplicity in unity. (See also Individuality)

See also: Monad , Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul

Sandhi, Samdhi (Sanskrit) [from sam together + the verbal root dha to place]

That which combines or unites; the interval between day and night, twilight; also the period at the expiration of each yuga (age), or between two manvantaras or kalpas. Equivalent to 1/10 the duration of the yuga and lasts until the commencement of the next yuga.

Such is the way the time periods of the yugas are calculated, whether according to divine years or solar years. However, when attention is concentrated solely on the dawns and twilights (there being a dawn and a twilight for each such time period in a yuga), every dawn and twilight conjoined is 1/6 of the length of each such time period: in other words, a dawn or twilight is 1/12 of the length of such period.

As an example, a mahayuga of 4,320,000 solar years (or 12,000 Divine Years, 360 solar years making one Divine Year) consists of four minor yugas -- the krita, treta, dvapara, and kali, decreasing in length by the Pythagorean scale of 4, 3, 2, 1 respectively. Thus counting in Divine Years, the krita is 4800 such years long, the treta 3600 such years, the dvapara 2400 such years, and the kali 1200 such years. Otherwise phrased, the krita is 4000 years long plus 1/10 thereof -- 400 years for its dawn and 400 years for its twilight. The treta is 3000 years long plus 1/10 that period or 300 years for its dawn and 300 years for its twilight.

The dvapara and the kali are calculated by the same rule. With solar years, the system can be illustrated by stating that the kali yuga is 360,000 solar years long, 1/10 of that period or 36,000 years each for its dawn and its twilight, the total comprising the full duration of 432,000 years. Thus the 2/10 when added are 72,000, which is 1.6 of the total duration; and either the dawn or twilight is 1/12 of the total or 36,000.

Another form of the term is sandhya; whereas sandhyansa is often specifically used for the period ending or closing a yuga and is 1/10 of the length of the age that it closes.

(See also: Sandhi, Samdhi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Eucharist

The principal act of worship of the Christian religion, otherwise known as the Divine Liturgy, Holy Communion, Lord's Supper, or Mass.

This name has been used from at least the second century, and comes from the thanksgiving prayer that constitutes a principal element in the rite.

Christian myths tells the story of the last supper eaten by Jesus with his disciples on the night before he died, when he performed a Jewish grace-ritual before the meal (taking bread into his hands, saying a short blessing of God for it, breaking the bread, and sharing it with those present) and the customary festal thanksgiving prayer over a shared cup of wine at the end of the meal . The myth relates that these actions signified his imminent death, interpreting the bread as his body "given for you" and the wine as his blood, and as having instructed his disciples to perform them in future in remembrance of him.

The eucharistic observances of the earliest Christians were more than a memorial meal: in some traditions believers claimed to experience the living presence of the resurrected Christ in these communal gatherings. Historically, the rite of Mass (Mazd) was adopted by the Catholic Church from the religion of Sol Invictus in which is was a reinactment of a sacramental meal performed by Mithras.

(See also: Eucharist , New Age Spirituality, Body Mind and Soul)

THEO

Greek root meaning "god" combines to generate many creative ideas:

THEOCRASY -- Mixed worship of the gods; intimacy with the  gods.

THEOMACHY -- Opposition to divine will; Fighting with the  gods.

THEOMORPHOSIS -- Transformation into a divine shape.

THEOPANAX --  The all-healing god.

THEOPHANY -- The showing of divinity in mankind.  However, the Neoplatonists meant man recognizing his own divinity showing in  himself.

THEOPNEUSY -- Divine Inspiration. Another Neoplatonic idea. The  inspiration, though divine, is one's own Higher Self.

THEOPOEIA --  Godmaking.

THEOSIS -- God impulse. Theos is the god's personality or  character as opposed to Daimon, a divine power or entity.

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

Trinity The divine powers at the head of every theogony. In the Christian Trinity, the original idea of a triune divinity is preserved but has become confused and adapted to theological speculation. If the Holy Ghost is regarded as feminine, as it was in primitive Christianity, we have the trinity of Father-Mother-Son.

The present manner of the procession of the Holy Ghost in the Occident is due to the early theological quarrels which was one of the main causes of the final rupture between the Greek Orthodox and the Roman Catholic Churches -- the filioque ("and from the son") controversy. The Orthodox held with the original procession of Father, Holy Ghost, and Son, while in the West the Holy Ghost or Spirit has become a kind of emanation from the Father or Son, or both of them, and is scarcely distinguishable in its attributes from the Son; while the place of Mother has been filled in the Roman Catholic Church by Mary who, though the mother of Jesus, nevertheless is not a member of the Trinity.

But there is another trinity besides that of Father-Mother-Son, that of the one divine root and its dual aspects -- a conception altogether lost in Christianity. The Christian God is at best but a Demiourgos or inferior creative power, and his necessary attributes clash irreconcilably with those pertaining to the supreme hierarch of our universe; but in many of the sayings of Jesus and in the Epistles of Paul is clear evidence of the true teachings as to the Trinity and the relation of the Father and the Son.

In the orthodox Christian view of its theological Trinity the three persons of the Godhead are not three gods but one God, and yet three Persons or individuals. So that we have one Godhead who is three-in-one, and yet one-in-three, which is not three gods, nor yet one God, but both. Moslems aver that the Christian Trinity is not one God in three aspects, but actually three gods manifesting as one, and the strict monotheism of Islam refuses to admit the logical monstrosity. The Christian Churches lost sight of the mystical origin of its own trinity out of the neo-Pythagorean and Neoplatonic mysticism.

All the great religious and philosophical systems of antiquity contained a divine or spiritual triadic unity as the cosmic source and focus of all beings and things, out of which emanate the universe and all that is in it. Examples are the Osiris-Isis-Horus of Egypt or the Brahma-Vishnu-Siva of India; yet these triads of gods are emanated reflections or representatives on lower planes of the still more sublime and ineffable triadic mystery above and beyond them.

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

Grape Cure (grape diet): Mono-diet advanced by Johanna Brandt, N.D., Ph.N., author of The Grape Cure ((c) 1928). The front matter of the 1967 edition, a paperback published by Benedict Lust Publications, quotes the author: My discovery of the Grape diet is the direct result of Divine Illumination.

The grape diet consists of grapes or grape juice. Brandt held that the mind operated through magnetism and that the Grape Cure contributed to the purification and buildup of magnetism. She recommended it for appendicitis, cancer, diabetes, gout, pyorrhea, rheumatism, scurvy, sex problems, tuberculosis, unnatural cravings (as for alcoholic beverages, coffee, tea, and tobacco), and other conditions. Under the heading Sex Problems, she stated: By the magical purification of the blood the nerves are stabilized, self-control is established and our God-given heritage of sense and desire is transmitted into divine creative power.

(See also: Grape Cure , Body Mind and Soul, Alternative Health, Alternative Health Dictionary)

Augoeides (from Greek auge bright light, radiance + eidos form, shape)

Bulwer-Lytton in Zanoni adopted the term from Marcus Aurelius (who says that the sphere of the soul is augoeides), using it to denote the radiant spiritual-divine human soul-ego. In Isis Unveiled it denotes the spiritual monad, atma-buddhi, and is collated with the Persian ferouer or feruer, the Platonic nous, etc. In a high degree of initiation the initiant comes face to face with this radiant presence, the luminous radiation streaming from the divine ego at the heart of the monad. When the Augoeides touches with its rays the inferior monads in the human constitution and awakens them to activity, these then becomes the various lower egos or manifested children of the divine ego.

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

sound: Shabda. As the darshana, or "seeing," of the Divine is a central article of faith for Hindus, similarly, hearing the Divine is spiritually indispensable. The ears are a center of many nadis connected to inner organs of perception. Gurus may when imparting initiation whisper in the ear of disciples to stimulate these centers and give a greater effect to their instructions.

During temple puja, bells ring loudly, drums resound, conches and woodwinds blare to awaken worshipers from routine states of consciousness.

Meditation on inner sound, called nada-anusandhana, is an essential yoga practice. Listening to the Vedas or other scripture is a mystical process. Traditional music is revered as the nectar of the Divine.

See: Aum, nada, Siva consciousness.

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

Anima Mundi (Latin) World-soul, world-mother; the divine-spiritual-astral-physical source of emanations, the cosmic generative and animating principle of all beings, the creative Third Logos in its female aspect. In its highest and intermediate portions, it corresponds to the alaya of Northern Buddhism and hence to akasa.

Identified variously with Isis, Sephira, Sophia, the Holy Ghost, mahat, mulaprakriti, etc., but used in a hazy and often materializing sense, so that it cannot be accurately regarded as a synonym for any one of these. "It is in a sense the 'seven-skinned mother' of the stanzas in the Secret Doctrine, the essence of seven planes of sentience, consciousness and differentiation, moral and physical. In its highest aspect it is Nirvana, in its lowest Astral Light. It was feminine with the Gnostics, the early Christians and the Nazarenes; bisexual with other sects, who considered it only in its four lower planes.

Of igneous, ethereal nature in the objective world of form (and then ether), and divine and spiritual in its three higher planes. When it is said that every human soul was born by detaching itself form the Anima Mundi, it means, esoterically, that our higher Egos are of an essence identical with It, which is a radiation of the ever unknown Universal Absolute" (TG 22-3).

Theosophically, anima mundi may be regarded as a synonym of different other words, rather than as indicative of any definite entity or principle apart from others. The higher human egos or manasaputras are essentially identical with the higher portions of anima mundi; and similarly the various life-atoms in the lower spheres may be considered as in essence identical with the lower portions of the anima mundi. It is in short the life-consciousness-essence of the universe from the divine to the physical.

(See also: Anima Mundi , Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Theosophy [from Greek theosophia from theos god, divinity + sophia wisdom]

Divine wisdom, the knowledge of things divine; often described as attainable by direct experience, by becoming conscious of the essential, divine part of our nature, self-identification with the inner god, leading to communion with other similar divine beings. Theosophy actually is the "substratum and basis of all the world-religions and philosophies, taught and practised by a few elect ever since man became a thinking being" (TG 328). Also called by such names as the secret doctrine and the esoteric tradition, its teachings have been preserved, checked and rechecked with every new generation of its guardians and adepts.

The word became familiar to Greeks in the 3rd century with Ammonius Saccas and the Alexandrian Neoplatonists or Theurgists, who taught of divine emanations, whereby the entire universe as well as humans and all other beings are shown to be descendants of the highest gods. Theosophist is also applied to mystics in later times such as Eckhart, Boehme, and Paracelsus. It was adopted in 1875 by H. P. Blavatsky and others associated with her at the founding of the Theosophical Society as the name for the modern form of the archaic wisdom-religion which she promulgated. This wisdom-religion "was ever one and being the last word of possible human knowledge, was, therefore, carefully preserved. It preceded by long ages the Alexandrian Theosophists, reached the modern, and will survive every other religion and philosophy" (Key 7-8).

"The Secret Doctrine is the accumulated Wisdom of the Ages, and its cosmogony alone is the most stupendous and elaborate system: e.g., even in the exotericism of the Puranas. But such is the mysterious power of Occult symbolism, that the facts which have actually occupied countless generations of initiated seers and prophets to marshal, to set down and explain; in the bewildering series of evolutionary progress, are all recorded on a few pages of geometrical sign and glyphs. The flashing gaze of those seers has penetrated into the very kernel of matter, and recorded the soul of things there, where an ordinary profane, however learned, would have perceived but the external work of form. But modern science believes not in the 'soul of things,' and hence will reject the whole system of ancient cosmogony. It is useless to say that the system in question is no fancy of one or several isolated individuals. That it is the uninterrupted record covering thousands of generations of Seers whose respective experiences were made to test and to verify the traditions passed orally by one early race to another, of the teachings of higher and exalted beings, who watched over the childhood of Humanity. That for long ages, the 'Wise Men' of the Fifth Race, of the stock saved and rescued from the last cataclysm and shifting of continents, had passed their lives in learning, not teaching. How did they do so? It is answered: by checking, testing, and verifying in every department of nature the traditions of old by the independent visions of great adepts; i.e., men who have developed and perfected their physical, mental, psychic, and spiritual organisations to the utmost possible degree. No vision of one adept was accepted till it was checked and confirmed by the visions -- so obtained as to stand as independent evidence -- of other adepts, and by centuries of experiences" (SD 1:272-3).

G. de Purucker wrote: "There has existed in the world for almost innumerable ages, a completely coherent and fully comprehensive system of religious philosophy, or of philosophical, scientific religion, which from time to time has been given out to man when the world needed a fuller revealing of spiritual truth than it then at such time had. Further, this wonderful system has been for all those past ages in the safe guardianship of the relatively perfected men . . . [the mahatmas]; and, still further, the present Theosophical Movement is, in our age, one of such fuller revelations or renewals of that wonderful System" (ET 33-4).

One of the mahatmas referring to the guardianship of the divine wisdom, wrote: "For countless generations hath the adept builded a fane of imperishable rocks, a giant's Tower of Infinite Thought, wherein the Titan dwelt, and will yet, if need be, dwell alone, emerging from it but at the end of every cycle, to invite the elect of mankind to co-operate with him and help in his turn enlighten superstitious man. And we will go on in that periodical work of ours; we will not allow ourselves to be baffled in our philanthropic attempts until that day when the foundations of a new continent of thought are so firmly built that no amount of opposition and ignorant malice guided by the Brethren of the Shadow will be found to prevail" (ML 51).

See also THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY

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